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Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

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Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#31

Post by vyrotek »

fuzzmeister wrote: post #22
vyrotek wrote: post #11

Looks clean and simple. I definitely see the Facebook/Twitter design influences. I have a sister who who teaches High School Biology who might use such a thing. But, I worry that she wont be interested in the price. As byoung already mentioned, there are a lot of other (free) services out there that facilitate basic communication already. My sister is someone who lives on Facebook and would probably look to use that…

Instructure looks like a very good product. Slightly more college-focused and LMS-like than Eduset, but certainly similar. I'm definitely working on more features to differentiate from generic platforms that could be used (Facebook, Wordpress, etc). As for the price, do you think that it would become justifiable to someone like your sister once more features are added, or do you think that she and other teachers like…

I sent her the link just now and we talked a bit. Turns out the school district currently offers a very basic website for teachers to interact with students online.

This is the site they gave her - http://barnes.myteacher.dvusd.com which was created using http://manila.userland.com.

As you can tell, its nothing fancy really. She mentioned that students can create accounts and interact on her page but that its too confusing and so she just uses the basic features.

To quote her: "I can have the students create accounts on there so they can post stuff too but I haven't played around with any of that stuff. Its really confusing so if he could market it to school districts instead of making us use this stuff then that'd be great. Its really dumb, a lot of teachers just use google sites instead cause its easier. To make my site look like that I had to go through and edit the html code"

It seems like she is definitely looking for something different but expects the school district to purchase it. Otherwise she'd rather use Google or Ning. I hope the feedback helps :)

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#32

Post by fuzzmeister »

zemote wrote: post #28
fuzzmeister wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeff, I have to say, I'm kind of disappointed you chose to say that it is an "exact replica" publicly. As I said in my email to you some time ago, I had the idea for Eduset having never even heard of Edmodo, and only discovered Edmodo about halfway through the process of building Eduset. While I was certainly stunned at how similar the ideas were, I decided that the classroom microblogging space was big enough for mo…

I actually have proof you signed up for Edmodo in October or November of last year, so you new about Edmodo almost a year ago. The classroom micro-blogging space may be big enough for two but we are more motivated than ever to own the educational micro-blogging space which we are already doing a very good job at it. I'm just letting the Hacker News users the similarities between your service and ours and ours is free…

If you want to get into proof, here is proof that I got the inspiration for Eduset exactly a year earlier than I signed up for Edmodo: http://grab.by/5A5

Also, it is painful for me to see you painting me as a villain here. Why are you implying that I'm not "putting my money where my mouth is", that I'm not also trying to make the education community a better place? As I said above, you are planning to launch paid features, so please don't try to make it seem like I am doing teachers a disservice by charging a small amount.

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#33

Post by jibiki »

zemote wrote: post #28
fuzzmeister wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeff, I have to say, I'm kind of disappointed you chose to say that it is an "exact replica" publicly. As I said in my email to you some time ago, I had the idea for Eduset having never even heard of Edmodo, and only discovered Edmodo about halfway through the process of building Eduset. While I was certainly stunned at how similar the ideas were, I decided that the classroom microblogging space was big enough for mo…

I actually have proof you signed up for Edmodo in October or November of last year, so you new about Edmodo almost a year ago. The classroom micro-blogging space may be big enough for two but we are more motivated than ever to own the educational micro-blogging space which we are already doing a very good job at it. I'm just letting the Hacker News users the similarities between your service and ours and ours is free…

I believe you should keep this thread going. It might get you covered on Techcrunch :)

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#34

Post by fatdog789 »

zemote wrote: post #21

This is almost an exact replica of my startup http://edmodo.com which is completely free for multiple groups (eduset charges for more than 1 group), and already has decent traction with 87,000 registered users.

After having tried it, edmodo sucks balls. Huge, bloody, salty, donkey balls.

I guess being first mover/original isn't the best thing.

Stop spamming your lame little startup every time a superior competitor pops up.

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#35

Post by sachinag »

jibiki wrote: post #33
zemote wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have proof you signed up for Edmodo in October or November of last year, so you new about Edmodo almost a year ago. The classroom micro-blogging space may be big enough for two but we are more motivated than ever to own the educational micro-blogging space which we are already doing a very good job at it. I'm just letting the Hacker News users the similarities between your service and ours and ours is free…

I believe you should keep this thread going. It might get you covered on Techcrunch :)

Seriously - this is rather interesting. Looks like proof of the whole "there are no new ideas, only execution" maxim.

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#36

Post by [deleted] »

markbao wrote: post #29
zemote wrote: post #21

This is almost an exact replica of my startup http://edmodo.com which is completely free for multiple groups (eduset charges for more than 1 group), and already has decent traction with 87,000 registered users.

Jeff, Will has already explained to you multiple times in both in public and private that Eduset is not a copy of Edmodo and both products were developed independently of each other. Kindly lay the fuck off and quit advertising your startup at every mention of Eduset. Will and I both developed a teacher classroom web interface independently of each other. The difference is that I didn't lay claim to the idea and beco…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#37

Post by [deleted] »

jibiki wrote: post #33
zemote wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have proof you signed up for Edmodo in October or November of last year, so you new about Edmodo almost a year ago. The classroom micro-blogging space may be big enough for two but we are more motivated than ever to own the educational micro-blogging space which we are already doing a very good job at it. I'm just letting the Hacker News users the similarities between your service and ours and ours is free…

I believe you should keep this thread going. It might get you covered on Techcrunch :)

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#38

Post by fuzzmeister »

yjsoon wrote: post #26
psyklic wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would vote for an institutional subscription model. It might be a hard sell for individual teachers (often likely out of their own pockets), but I bet you could sell the value to institutions which employ teachers.

I agree with the above - in its current form, I think you'd attract early adopters who, even if they love your product, might have trouble convincing others to sign up and fork out for it. With an institutional model, said early adopters (presumably those in charge of educational technology spending) can try and push it out to teachers in their school. Along these lines, perhaps consider some way to allow those who u…

We're working on adding institutional accounts. There are some complexities involved, mainly involving legal issues and various whitepapers that need to be written, but I wholeheartedly agree with your idea: early adopters are a great way to get institutions to adopt a product.

As for your second suggestion, do you think a way for current users to send potential users an invitation to try a demo account (a sandbox) would do the job?

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#39

Post by zemote »

sachinag wrote: post #35
jibiki wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you should keep this thread going. It might get you covered on Techcrunch :)

Seriously - this is rather interesting. Looks like proof of the whole "there are no new ideas, only execution" maxim.

I agree, silly rants like this is absurd and really doesn't do any good and is not productive. Execution is key. I'm little passionate about my startup and that is why I replied. I never said he stole our idea. I said "almost" exact replica. Facebook borrows from twitter, eduset borrows from pownce, we borrow from twitter, facebook, friendfeed.

Re: Ask HN: Review my classroom web tool, Eduset

#40

Post by mattwdelong »

sachinag wrote: post #35
jibiki wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you should keep this thread going. It might get you covered on Techcrunch :)

Seriously - this is rather interesting. Looks like proof of the whole "there are no new ideas, only execution" maxim.

I agree; its not the idea that makes the product (or service) but rather the execution. Jeff should simply concentrate his time on bettering his own venture. Consider a similar venture nothing short of flattery.

I wish both Eduset.com and Edmodo.com the best of luck with their ventures - let the execution begin.

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