You’re home, it’s 11 p.m., the library and bookstores
are closed, and the rest of the house is asleep. You haven’t
studied for that make-or-break exam; the test is tomorrow morning
and you are going to fail!
Sound familiar? It did to Sky Woo of Fremont and Andy Madsen
of Livermore, both of whom believe that it’s time for an
“education revolution.”
With that in mind, they created Schoolhub Inc., an Internet-based
company which introduces the unique concept that education can
be presented as a lucrative enterprise for business. People involved
in education make up 80 percent of the marketplace, whether as
students, parents, teachers, relatives of students, or active
community members. This makes it profitable for businesses to
do their Internet advertising on education-based Websites.
Woo and Madsen decided to build a “hub” of Websites
designed to enhance education. The profits from advertising will
allow these sites to be offered free of charge to students, educators,
and parents.
“Teachers often work long hours for very little pay,”
said Madsen, “especially when they are just starting out.
We have designed Gradecenter.com with that in mind.”
Tailored for use by educators, Gradecenter.com (http://www.
gradecenter.com) keeps track of students’ grades and automatically
tabulates the semester score for each student, which can then
be e-mailed to the student with the push of a button. Gradecenter.com
does away with the need for expensive grading software and the
hard-to-decipher “techno-babble” describing its use.
This site is the first center of its kind to be fully functional.
Cramcenter.com, which should be up and running by the end
of this year, will provide resources students need to ace that
exam in the morning — as long as they have access to the
Internet.
Another planned site, Schoolfleamarket.com, will offer items
for sale, much like similar auction sites. However, at Schoolfleamarket.com,
a minimum of ten percent of the purchase price is donated to
the schools.
Two more Websites are currently under construction —
Classroom.com and Peercenter.com — and many more are being
planned. Rather than develop one Website with a labyrinth of
links that would confuse a computer scientist, Schoolhub has
invested in the purchase of easily recognizable domain names
for its sites so that users can easily navigate to what they
want.
“There’s nothing [like this business] out there,
right now,” says Woo, president of Schoolhub. “The
reason you can’t link a brand name to education is because
no one has envisioned something that’s compelling to educators,
parents, and students alike. In two or three years, you’re
going to be able to say ‘Schoolhub is the best and biggest
education network in the world.’”
Schoolhub is convinced that there is no better legacy for
them to leave behind than the improvement in interaction between
students, parents, educators, schools, businesses, and the community.
“For a couple of centuries now, the invisible hand of
capitalism has driven this country to huge success. It can do
the same today in areas where success is most needed, like education,”
says Woo. “At Schoolhub Inc., we believe that you can’t
depend solely on non-profit organizations, volunteers, or the
government to produce outstanding results. You need the power
and the muscle of commerce.”
The philosophy behind Schoolhub is that education belongs
to everyone, and that schools have a responsibility to get on
the Internet bandwagon as soon as they can, because the Internet
offers so many educational resources at so little cost.
Woo and Madsen don’t want this advantage to exclude anyone,
and they are quick to point out that there are alternatives for
people without computers at home. “A library card is free,
and anyone can use the computers at the library and set up a
free, confidential e-mail account there. People who are on the
go can access a free e-mail account from any Kinko’s or
Internet cafe,” says Madsen.