StudyBlue.com is built entirely with a product known as the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). Without boring everyone with the nerdy details, GWT basically allows for the construction of massive scale web applications using the very popular, well documented coding language known as Java.  If you’ve been a user of StudyBlue for more than a few minutes, you’ve probably (hopefully) discovered some features that feel a lot like a desktop application as opposed to a web application. The easiest one to notice is the use of dragable popup-windows that are embedded directly into the site.

A lot of “Web 2.0″ sites like to make use of this dynamic, fast-acting responsiveness (known as AJAX).  You’ve probably noticed AJAX on Facebook (send a message) or Netflix (hover over a movie). Speaking from experience, I can tell you it takes an impressive team of talented programmers and designers to pull off this sleak feel.  Thanks to Google and GWT, we’ve been able to enhance the user experience with functionality and features that used to require a small army of developers.  We think that the GWT platform should provide us with the cutting-edge tools necessary to keep delivering smart study features for years to come.

So, if you’ll be in San Francisco at the end of May, stop by and check us out at the Google I/O Conference.  We’ll be hanging around the Developer Sandbox.

World E-Learning Conference

There are some really cool classes and schools out there are now that are experimenting with this very idea ( http://openhighschool.org/ or Free Online College).  However, as you can imagine many schools and administrators have issues with these sorts of learning environments because it is difficult to monitor the ciriculm and even more so, it is difficult to monitise this sort of adventure.

Chris

Hicham

This is where Academic Networks like StudyBlue.com come into play.  Here are pictures of Chris Klundt and Hicham Bouabdallah our President and CTO, both hard at work at StudyBlue.com. 

StudyBlue.com offers students a place that they can openly express their ideas, share their information, and learn from one another.  We have created a forum for students and educators to work together to share knowledge…not to mention a great place to study for finals…thats right folks, finals are right around the corner…better start studying today.

I digress, all in all, the conference was very productive.  I met a lot of informed and interesting people, heard some exhilarating discussions, was able to present and give some people some insight into StudyBlue.com.  The thing that was very promising was that we are certainly on the right track.  Education is headed in a more open direction and StudyBlue will continue to help students study utilizing the tools that need to study smarter not harder.

So, I finally left Vegas -

Jumped on a plane back to Madison, with a stop in Minneapolis -

Leaving Madison

Vegas baby!

Governor Jim Doyle

Oh, and on my way back from Minneapolis, the Governor of Wisconsin, Governor Jim Doyle was on my flight, sitting a couple of rows behind me,in COACH!!!

All in all, it was a very productive trip, lost a bunch of money, met some very interesting and people, and learned a great deal about the future of open education.

Thanks-

Ben

I am pleased and excited to announce the launch of StudyBlue.com today.  I believe that you will find the new look and feel refreshing and professional.  Furthermore, some of the additions mentioned in the below posts (i.e. flashcard keyboard controls, bookmarks across university’s and hotlinks in the search) should certainly make studying a little easier.

As I have said many times, the Academic Network is the wave of the future.  Students are looking for tools to help them study more efficiently.  While there are competitors in this marketplace that are simple “note” sites with wacky gimics and a lot of fluff.  I believe StudyBlue.com has a couple of key advantages over our competitors.

First, we sincerely care about our users.  We take user feedback seriously and try to update based on your needs.  Heck, I’m a fairly recent college graduate (we all are at StudyBlue) and I know what is going to help you get better grades and save you time.  Not to mention, help you learn the material. If you’re not happy, we’re not doing our job.

Second, we’re not simply a “notes” website. There are a lot of sites on the web today offering students class notes…and if you upload your notes you can earn…name your prize.  These sites give Academic Networks a bad name.  The goal of an Academic Network isn’t to be a shortcut or cheating for students;  absolutely not, in fact the goal is to help students study and efficiently learn material.  While notes are great.  They do not cut it alone.  That is why we offer flashcards, study groups, notes, chat boards, tutors, book outlines, calendars, and much more.  I believe that the Internet can and will revolutionize education, but to do so, we need to provide students with the tools that will help them study, interact, and learn.

Finally, StudyBlue.com prides itself as a premier Academic Network that helps students study more efficiently.  We believe students should study smarter, not harder.  This isn’t just some lame saying, we truly believe that the Internet is the future of education and we are on the forefront. We believe that there are a variety of tools that help students study and while we don’t have them all (yet), we will continue building our site to provide you, our users with the most efficient study gear around.

Today is an exciting day for us, changing to studyblue.com, but this is only the beginning.  Over the next few months we will continually upgrade our site with new and innovative academic technologies.

I can say, I am certainly excited about the future of StudyBlue.

Ben Jedd

Chief Communications Officer

ben@studyblue.com

Education is the act of relaying knowledge. Being able to write down ideas, be it on a clay scribe, spiral notebook, or Macbook Pro has allowed students the ability to save, remember, and share information. Let’s take a look back at how it all began.

Dating back to 10,000 B.C.E., the Hunters and Gatherers passed down their traditions, practices and beliefs through oral traditions. About 7000 years later, ancient civilizations began writing their “history” on a clay stylus. This was one of the greatest revolutions in education. The act of writing down information and historical events changed the way people learned, remembered and taught. This led to the Egyptians writing in hieroglyphics, the Greeks developing an alphabet and civilizations throughout the world developing scripts and keeping records of historical events.

As time went on, world and theological leaders dictated what should and could be learned. Essentially, history was remembered based on what the church and political figures dictated valuable and how “they” wanted to be remembered.

Everything changed again, when the Gutenberg Printing Press was created in 1439. Perhaps the greatest educational technology ever developed, the printing press made it possible to print multiple copies of a text, thus making the most popular book of the time, the Bible, available to everyone…think “Xerox” but really old.

Over the centuries, the printing press improved, allowing for the mass distribution of newspapers, periodicals and other printed media. As the technology grew, so did the amount of available literature. This meant that “history” and “education” did not have to be dictated by just the wealthy and powerful. The printing of textbook became widely adopted as a primary teaching instrument. And by the 1800s, textbooks were standard in education.

Let’s jump a hundred more years to the 20th century, when the computer and Internet were developed. These two technologies have changed the way that today’s students study. Education is no longer defined as sitting in a classroom, because today’s students can study online. Furthermore, classes can take place anywhere. A professor could be in Scranton, PA while a student is studying, researching, and writing all from the comfort of their home in Paris, France. Just as the clay scribe and printing press were revolutionary so too are the computer and Internet.

The computer puts the power of the printing press in the hands of every student. This combined with the Internet allows students distribute their knowledge faster and on a global scale.

Today, practically every college, high school and grade school in the country has computer and Internet access available for student use. In fact, in 2007 about 75% of college students owned laptops. Students owning laptops obviously makes notetaking and studying much easier. They can work on school anywhere.

It goes without saying that today’s students are technologically savvy. Substantially more savvy than their professors and school administrators. However, those school administrators and professors are the one’s choosing the students Learning Management Systems and essentially making an impact on the students future. They are dictating how students can utilize the 21st century “printing press”.

A Learning Management System is a tool that is built to assist professors, educators and trainers with classroom management, tracking of students, and delivering educational messages. Learning Management Systems provide administrators and instructors real-time access to learning content. Some of the largest Learning Management Systems, probably found on your campuses, are BlackBoard, Web CT, Moodle, Angel, Sakai, and Desire2Learn.

While these tools have made a large impact on academia and have helped to unite technology and education, from my perspective they have three main problems. First, they are cost prohibitive. These systems are wicked expensive; between implementation, training, and maintenance these tools cost the institution as well as you the tax/tuition payer a great deal of money.

Second, the technological learning curve; let’s face it, professors are not typically the most technologically savvy consumers (for the most part, I know that there are a lot of professors, especially younger professors out there that are great with technology, I am not talking about you…and you are a small percentage) and it takes them a long time to accept and adapt to new technologies. If a professor isn’t utilizing the Learning Management System for all intensive purposes that tool does not exist. The tool is only as good as the professor who uses it.

Finally, Learning Management Systems are built from the top down (essentially built for the administrators and professors down to the students). While the administrators and professors are the people teaching with the tool, you, the students are the one’s using the tool. You are MUCH more tech-savvy than those implementing the tool for you. They are slowing your learning curve. The roadblocks the teachers face with technology are the same blocks you, the students will face because students are ultimately only going to follow their instructors lead.

You, the students, need a tool built from the student up to the professor. You are the one learning and trying to better your future. Welcome, Academic Network!

The Academic Network is a network for today’s technologically elite students. We are all familiar with a Social Network (i.e. Facebook, MySpace), a place to socialize with friends and let them know your new cell phone number in case you lose your phone at 2am Halloween night…this has happened to me…not pretty. The difference between a Social Network and an Academic Network is that a Social Network is a toy and an Academic Network is a tool. The Academic Network is there to help students study more efficiently. Because today’s student is busy with social, educational, extracurricular, and job related obligations, adding efficiencies to your life is of the utmost importance. The Academic Network is a one-stop shop for students to study with peers (in their class, at their school, or with students across the world). Students can find notes, do research, socialize, and study in groups or individually all in one place. We believe that we have created the most efficient place for students to study smarter, not harder—StudyBlue.com.

We believe that StudyBlue.com is going to revolutionize the way students study online. We know that today’s students learn better utilizing the tools that they are familiar with, and there is no better tool for students than the Internet. Students and teachers alike can take advantage of the academic and organizational support tools on StudyBlue.com, including a database of class notes from top students around the country; flashcards with study reminders; chapter outlines for textbooks; online study groups; class forums; tutor matchmaking, and a shared calendar that helps track classes, deadlines and other academic obligations. All these tools are built on a networking feature that connects students by course, school, major and textbook.

While we are in no way saying we have created the next clay scribe or printing press, we do believe that we have created a tool that is going to be the future of education for students, teachers and administrators.

Ben Jedd
Chief Communications Officer
StudyBlue.com

In 2006, when the idea to “spend a summer” creating a “study group website” was born, did I realize that it would turn into a full-time job requiring the tenacity and research skills of an oncologist? Heck no! But just like my senior design project, I knew a clear definition of the problem combined with some serious perspiration and asking a lot of questions, would lead to a great website for students. Luckily, this time I had 18 years of educational experience to back me up.

So what was the problem? Simple, no one had ever built a piece of software designed from the bottom-up. All the academic software that existed was built top-down: to help teachers better administer a course to students (think Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Angel, etc.) It was not designed to help students better learn the course material and collaborate together. Worse yet, it costs schools hundreds of thousands of dollars to license this software every year.

So why has there been top-down software for so long, but no bottom-up products? I believe the answer here is the laptop. When I was a college freshman, each of my classes had about 2 kids with laptops. When you walk into a classroom today, you may see 30%-50% of the students using laptops. If you enter a classroom in the law building, you might even see 100% of the students using laptops. Students are using computers to study, and not just in their dorm rooms. They take their computers (and the internet) with them everywhere, meaning the opportunity to collaborate online academically is finally a reality.

So what is the solution? An academic network built for students by students. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true. Students are some of the most tech-savvy people around, so it’s only logical that they would benefit from a comprehensive online network that lets them create, organize, share and learn from digital content. It’s not about cheating or cutting class, it’s about collaborating, reducing the duplication of effort, learning more, knowing it longer and applying it better.

Just like my senior design project, we don’t have all the answers – not yet. But we’re working on it. We’re persistent, and we’re constantly asking our users what they need and want. So far, I think the results are fantastic. We’ve developed a unique piece of software that is so much more than just “sharing notes”. We hope to turn education on its head; shake it up a bit. After all, it’s one of the few remaining industries that has yet to be truly revolutionized by the internet. And that’s bound to change sooner than later.

-Christopher Klündt
Founder & President
StudyBlue.com