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Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

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Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#41

Post by carapace »

eba7keb wrote: post #40
carapace wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/phantom/fathom/ I assume your computer did that? - - - - I'd say computer programming is different than reading comprehension. Compiling is perfectly appropriate for a machine to give you feedback: the process is mechanical and the machine has good information. > Teaching is a frustrating job... Right: that's the problem to solve. (I'm assuming you're not talking about, er, having hired people to be teachers who do…

Totally hear the concern. We have a few thoughts about this: 1). It's an AND not an OR for us. Ello doesn't replace parents at all. In fact, many parents use Ello WITH their kids and report that Ello has opened the doors to the kid reading more with them. 2). Not all parents have the skills to teach their child to read (or the literacy skills), there are also non-native English speakers who use our product and are gr…

First, thanks for taking the time to respond. Like I said, I do hope I'm wrong.

I will admit, this does seem like a pretty good use for computers.

I just I hope it's not part of the slippery slope to letting machines do our thinking for us. (Then again, what if they do a better job than we do!?)

I'm curious about how you detect and correct problems with the machine material? E.g. the (presumably automatic) error of substituting "phantom" for "fathom"?

Does your machine take a overconfident stance, or does it understand its own limits and help the child to know that it is not infallible?

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#42

Post by tomsayer »

ojame wrote: post #17
tomsayer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Five is definitely insufficient for some children (and too much for kids who really struggle and want to perfect books). We're working on giving parents the ability to get more; either we ship more, or once you have read the physical books you can unlock digital books. Lots of considerations there of course. We also want you to be able to use books from e.g. the school library. Q for you - for the 1 to 2 readers a…

Thanks for the detailed reply! Great answers and fills me with hope that perhaps Ello will work for us when our second or third starts reading. We get the readers either from school or the library. Generally there's 1 reader a day from school, and maybe a little support book too. Then we just hire some from the library each week and use them to fill in the gaps, especially on the weekend. We have a wealth of other bo…

Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#44

Post by ludicast »

tomsayer wrote: post #33
ludicast wrote: post #32

Sounds like a great app, was hoping for something like this & immediately signed up Initial onboarding flow comments - nice product/market fit - I almost missed the promo code but wouldn't have been a barrier to paying - imagine that at 25/mo (+ another 25 for books) it's also kind of expensive for families who are impoverished and might need it more (believe lockdowns were way way worse for their kids). - felt like…

Thanks for signing up but even more, thanks for the wonderful feedback. - We actually find the opposite. Without the promo code people are reluctant to try it. I think because it's new and - to you next point - not cheap. - This is a real concern for us and one of our primary product develop tracks it to change this. Our mission contains the phrase 'regardless of resources' and as a $25 DTC product we are not doing t…

> Without the promo code people are reluctant to try it.

Yeah, I mean I used the promo code, was just complementing that you hit on something I was jumping into regardless. Feels like most subscription kids apps are $9 a month max (I lost track of all we pay for), but I didn't blink at you being way above.

> We kinda have to know the grade level to send the right books... I haven't heard that as a privacy concern.

I might have slightly misphrased this. Basically some parents would be super involved with an app like this (we tend to be) and want to self-serve a little bit more. As a more extreme example - and not your beachhead customer for sure - there are plenty of adults who read at a low level and would feel more comfortable with there being an "other" option in there.

But I get the opposite side too. It is a lot simpler to have it tied to their school grade. I'm just sort of thinking out loud about removing barriers because I think something like this might be super useful for kids

> What do you mean by it feeling like a growth hack?

Might be a silly point of mine. But I mean by adding anticipation/delays into the mix, even though they are enforced by real-world shipping factors. There are plenty of public domain books - many of which families already own (or can print pdfs of) - that can be there to seed the collection. So the blank library on day 1 is silly.

Also, maybe I am projecting my own anticipation of the box arriving.

Another note, it seems that the requested features (privacy levels and interests) are not available for edit after registering.

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#45

Post by danielscrubs »

carapace wrote: post #35
danielscrubs wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the opposite. I can't phantom that I would have learned programming at a young age if I didn't have a compiler telling me (with actionable steps, nowadays the search engine) that I'm wrong. Teaching is a frustrating job where you have to make students repeat things over and over which makes students ashamed and the teachers bored, it's not like the movies where the students remember everything perfectly…

s/phantom/fathom/ I assume your computer did that? - - - - I'd say computer programming is different than reading comprehension. Compiling is perfectly appropriate for a machine to give you feedback: the process is mechanical and the machine has good information. > Teaching is a frustrating job... Right: that's the problem to solve. (I'm assuming you're not talking about, er, having hired people to be teachers who do…

Nah, it was my mistake, and now I'm ashamed. Maybe should add Grammarly to my toolset. ;)

Re: Show HN: Ello (YC W20) – AI-reading tutor for kids that works with real books

#46

Post by xwowsersx »

eba7keb wrote: post #37
xwowsersx wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Sold a Story" looks great, thanks for that. I will give the episodes a listen. Regarding Ello, how does it adapt to a child's reading level? Say my child is in 2nd grade, but is reading at a 1st grade level. Will Ello learn that over time and choose/recommend books that are more appropriate for their level? Appreciate any color you can provide on how that works. Thanks.

Right now we work closely with parents (checking in with them each month before the books ship out) to help guide them in making the decision around book choice. We also have a form parents can send to the teachers. In the future, we will have a tighter feedback loop to support this decision making that comes directly from the way the child interacts with the app (if we have the permission to analyze that data from t…

Got it. Thanks for the reply.
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