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Digital Coast Daily
Day Three: LessonLab Sets Out to Teach the Teachers
July 25, 2001
Through its Web-enabled interactive software, SantaMonica-based LessonLab is helping teachers learn how to perfect their craft, and already counts L.A. Unified School District and Pepperdine's teaching college among its first class of clients.
With LessonLab's software offerings, the old aphorism "learn by example," goes high- tech. The company provides the online platform, and their clients-states, school districts and universities--choose the content. The content usually includes, along with lesson plans and expert information, video clips of teachers demonstrating the teaching methods that LessonLab's clients wish their teachers to learn. Once the software is customized, the client's teachers are given user passwords to access it online.
LessonLab's software platform, which was launched earlier this year, consists of LessonLab Viewer, an interface that allows users to peruse a digital library of video clips from classrooms, as well as to access related information; and LessonLab Builder, which enables users to add content to LessonLab Viewer. Users may also interact with fellow colleagues through the software program.
"Our software really broaches a new level of video integration. It allows you to interact with the video like no other software," said Mitch Gordon, LessonLab's VP of business development.
LessonLab was founded in 1998 by UCLA Psychology Professor James Stigler, who at the time was working on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, a federally funded project that compares teaching methodologies in different countries by examining hundreds of hours of videotaped classroom instruction. Stigler then co-authored a book called The Teaching Gap, where he reported his findings.
"One thing that was learned is that you learn a ton about teaching methods by studying video tapes of teachers, so we thought, 'we should develop a software product that helps facilitate this teacher learning,'" explained Gordon.
The company generally charges each client a start-up fee, with additional charges depending on the extent of the client's use of LessonLab's research, technical and content-development consulting services. It will also charge customers an annual licensing fee for the use of its software.
Although none of its clients are expected to complete the content-development phase before this fall, LessonLab was profitable right away and is in the process of quadrupling its Santa Monica office space, noted Gordon. The company would not disclose its revenue figures.
"We are an Internet-based company, but more importantly we're an education company, and right now there is no bigger topic or focus in our country than education, so we're actually seeing an increase in funding," said Gordon, adding that LessonLab does not like to think of itself as a dot-com.
LessonLab is also using its product to develop a Web-enabled software version of the traditional "teacher mentoring and coaching" system of teacher evaluation and training. In the past, this method required teachers to get substitutes for their own classes, and to sit in on another teacher's class for evaluation purposes. With LessonLab's technology, classroom presentations can be recorded, and viewed later online by multiple teachers.
In February, LessonLab secured an investment deal with Pearson Education, a textbook company based in New Jersey, which took on a minority stake in the company. As a result, Pearson will bundle customized LessonLab software with its textbooks, thereby offering its customers interactive examples of teachers use the textbooks.
"Our goal is to become ubiquitous," Gordon said. "We want to be the standard in case-based learning, so we want to partner with everyone," he added. Simply put, case-based learning refers to learning by example.
In addition to LessonLab's software platform, the company offers consulting services to help clients develop content that is customized for their particular organization. LessonLab also conducts research on teacher learning, as well as providing assessments of the effectiveness of LessonLab's technology.
Although LessonLab's offerings are designed for the Web, the company can also deliver them through a CD-ROM to clients that do not have access to broadband connections and, therefore, cannot receive streaming video.
"Our biggest challenge is getting customers to understand our product, and our philosophy and the benefits of it," Gordon said.
The company currently employs 60 people and Gordon said he is always hiring. Gordon said that LessonLab prides itself on being a research-based firm with several Ph.Ds on staff. It also boasts a unique corporate culture, one that Gordon attributes to the large number of UCLA students on its payroll. It even has a company band that practices in the office after work.
LessonLab is currently working with several teaching colleges, as well as with the L.A. Unified School District, through a contract it has with the state of California. The company is also using its software to help the state of Connecticut develop an online system for sending and receiving the portfolios of student-teachers applying for credentials.
As for the future, the company's goal is obvious, according to Gordon. "In today's economy, you need to be profitable and you need to have substance. We have an education crisis in this country and we're going to help solve it," he summed up.
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