Mobylize

Homework Management System: $100K Challenge Finalist

Sunmi Seol had an epiphany while studying with university friends. She found she performed much better on exams when she and her friends created their own questions and quizzed each other in a game show format.

"Making up and sharing questions is a very effective study tool," says Seol. "Plus, it makes studying a lot more fun."

It was this experience that led her to devise the Homework Management System (HMS) app for the Mobylize platform. "I wanted to further develop the concept and take it to the national level," she says. "I'm so honored that Marvell is giving us the opportunity to achieve this goal."

The HMS actually contains two different apps. The first is QuizMaker, which allows students to use a tablet computer to capture photos and videos of what they see in class. For instance, students can shoot a video of an in-class science experiment and then create multiple choice questions about what they just learned.

The second app, ActivityManager, is for teachers. It enables them to collect, filter and assess the questions created by the students. Teachers can evaluate and distribute the questions to other students for quiz-show style gaming or homework assignments. Based on the quality and responses of the questions generated, teachers get a better idea of where students are advancing and where they are falling behind.

Seol developed the HMS app while working at Seeds of Empowerment, a non-profit organization founded by Paul Kim, the chief technology officer at the Stanford University School of Education. Kim, who is also team leader for the HMS app, believes the application addresses several key problems within the public education system.

On the one hand, Kim says, teachers are terribly overworked and don't have the time to develop useful and interesting homework assignments. On the other hand, students are not properly engaged and involved in the learning process. "We need a systematic way for teachers to generate those homework items and for students to be more interactive in the process of their learning," he says. "We developed the HMS app to answer all those questions."

Kim adds that the tablet computer may be one of the most significant learning tools for this generation. The tablet environment, along with apps created for it, better enable students to process what they have learned and become active participants in their own education.

"Students love to touch things, move them around and feel how everything is working, and you just can't get that experience with a dull keyboard and mouse," says Kim. "Touch makes learning more engaging, more visual and more impactful for students. That's the power and the beauty of the tablet computing environment."

With the HMS app, for instance, students can snap a photo of a science experiment they completed in class and use it as a visual aid to develop questions. They can use their fingers to resize, crop and edit the photo, all of which adds a creative dimension to the learning process.

"I have to give kudos to Marvell for the role they are playing in the intersection of technology and education," says Kim. "We need to revolutionize our education system, and it is wonderful that companies like Marvell are taking the lead."