SILICON VALLEY TEENAGERS LAUNCH PEER TUTORING PLATFORM STOODLE.ORG TO TACKLE ACHIEVEMENT GAP IN EDUCATION


Stoodle.org – Free on Desktop or iPad — Provides an Interactive Virtual Classroom That’s Better for Learning than Skype or Facebook

Palo Alto, Calif – December 11, 2013 — A Silicon Valley high school student tutoring a middle school student in Mississippi for free, all from the comfort of his iPad. This precisely, the ability to teach anyone, anywhere is what education technology startup Stoodle.org is now doing with its free collaborative classroom available on desktop and iPad.

Available for free at http://stoodle.org, Stoodle provides students with a no-charge, ad-free collaborative digital classroom featuring real-time whiteboard with tutoring tools, voice conferencing, and text chat.

Easy to Use
• Just one click launches the Stoodle.org classroom allowing students and tutors to invite others via URL or social media to begin the tutoring experience.
• Built in HTML5, Stoodle.org is compatible with iPad.
• The Stoodle.org whiteboard provides students and tutors with a platform to visually display algebra, geometry and chemistry formulas, equations, graphs and more.
• Real-time communication between tutor and tutees enabled through voice conferencing and text chat
• Support for image uploading
• Design tools enable tutors and students to highlight particular concepts.

“We are passionate about removing the barriers for students to learn from each other online,” says Arjun Mehta, high school senior and Stoodle.org Founder & CEO.

Stoodle.org was created by Arjun Mehta, along with Divyahans Gupta and Simar Mangat, high school students at The Harker School in San Jose, California all determined to provide a collaborative platform for students that’s better than turning to friends on Facebook or Skype to solve homework problems or discuss concepts.

“High school students tend to turn to their friends on Facebook or Skype when they don’t understand how to solve a homework problem or just need help with a particular concept in general. However, these platforms weren’t built for this sort of communication. I felt that if there was a way to create an easily accessible and comprehensive social platform to facilitate peer tutoring online, it would be incredibly powerful,” explains Mehta.

Stoodle.org has been funded and incubated by Neeru Khosla, Executive Director of the CK-12 Foundation.

Khosla says, “I was very impressed with the high-energy and tech skills of Arjun, Divyahans, and Simar. These teenagers have built an incredible product within a very short time span, much like any other venture-backed Silicon Valley startup.”

Not only are students using Stoodle.org to facilitate peer-to-peer tutoring, but also high school educators are taking advantage of the flexible platform to host online open office hours for their students.

Bradley Stoll, a high school AP Calculus BC teacher at Harker says, “Stoodle.org has empowered me to host online review sessions for my students, which is helping me stay connected with my students outside of the classroom.”

Stanford, Harvard, MIT Take Notice
Harvard Innovation Lab Managing Director Gordon Jones says, “Arjun and his team have done a remarkable job building such innovative tech for education. Stoodle.org is a very creative platform to foster collaboration between students worldwide.”

In addition to receiving direct guidance from Khosla, Stoodle has attracted an advisory board consisting of Gordon Jones, Dr. Richard Schmalensee, Dean Emeritus of MIT Sloan School of Management; Dr. Paul Kim, CTO & Assistant Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education; and Karl Mehta, Venture Partner at Menlo Ventures.

Global Tutoring Marketplace to surpass $102.8B by 2018
According to a 2012 study released by market research firm Global Industry Analysts, Inc., the global private tutoring market is expected to surpass $102.8B by 2018. This same study attributes this burgeoning market to the failure of standard education systems to cater to the unique needs of students. The ability of wealthier families to afford private tutors puts the children of parents who cannot afford it at a major disadvantage, thus widening achievement gaps in education.

About Stoodle.org
Run by students, for students, Stoodle.org aims to help bridge the national achievement gap in education through the power of technology. Stoodle.org provides the opportunity for free tutoring for students regardless of socioeconomic status and/or geographic location through a, flexible digital classroom that allows for students to understand academic concepts. Stoodle.org harnesses the power of peers to serve as tutors for students, using the platform. Learn more at http://stoodle.org

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Media Contact:
Peter Brooks
415-425-4225
peterjbrooks@msn.com

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