My undergraduate studies took place at a large liberal arts college, and consisted of a battery of general education courses that brought many students to hair-pulling frustration, confusion, or boredom. The trouble is that most teachers–and the authors whose writing they assign to students–feel a good deal more passion about their subject (say, Sophocles’ Antigone; or the military-political situation of 20th-century Normandy) than those would-be programmers, engineers, and med students can manage to feel.
When holographic technology was extended to textbooks we thought it might be the magic bullet. And while it did help, my civil engineer buddy still had to put in hours of mindless memorization to pass their Civ tests. Even with the holograms, Sophocles didn’t make any more sense than a ballet (another experience my friend vowed not to repeat). What was needed was more connection to his life and interests.
That’s why we developed the Storymark, a sleek and simple device with an underlying software that will revolutionize education as we know it. Extending the research of Georgia Tech’s Mark Riedl and his lab of narrative engineers, our software can analyze my friend’s textbooks and take his input to weave a new spin on the subjects. This takes advantage of the latest psychology research that shows our brains are hard-wired for stories, especially stories with a dash of the fantastic.
When you start using the Storymark you first let it know what book you are using–you can just scan the bar code on the book, or you can orally specify the title–and it will set the context and ask what sort of story you want. Then you slide the Storymark into your textbook in the section you are studying; it interfaces with the organic circuitry and re-writes the explanation while keeping, and even highlighting, the key facts given in the book.
Students are raving about their results with the Storymark technology.
“It’s like watching my favorite series, and then being tested on it! I can’t tell you how much easier it is.”
“Nothing I did made ‘Renaissance history’ stick until Storymark let me mix it up with James Bond.”
“It turns out all Shakespeare needed was some Italian mafia! Highly recommended.”
