S'Cool Tools of the Week: WordsU, Griti, VidCode, Beeline Reader, PocketLab

S'Cool Tools

S'Cool Tools of the Week: WordsU, Griti, VidCode, Beeline Reader, PocketLab

Dec 6, 2015

INTEL-LIGENT TOOLS: This week’s tools are just hatched from the first cohort of companies to go through Intel’s Accelerator. Privacy flag: WordsU, Griti and VidCode—the first three—are aimed at students above the age of 13 years old: They collect student information that they may share with third parties. Check their privacy policies for exactly what information they collect.

Free!—WordsU“Can you learn vocabulary from texting?” —Co-founder Sam Mendelson

A messenger app that aims to teach users vocabulary by replacing phrases like “super excited” with “ecstatic” to help demonstrate words in context. Also debuting: the WordsU Keyboard, which integrates the functions of WordsU into any messenger app.

Freemium—Griti“Too often, students turn to second-rate tutoring videos on YouTube at 11:30 the night before the exam.” —Founder Steven Broadbent

College students who have already taken a class can record tutoring videos and get paid. For a fee, struggling students can watch these videos.

License—VidCode“Only 0.8% of teenage girls are coding, but almost every one of them is using social media.” —Co-Founder Alexandra Diracles

VidCode provides a coding platform for video creation and editing. The projects are shareable on social media.

$10 per year—Beeline Reader “Reading is an inefficient process,” —Founder Nick Lum

The app transforms the all-black text delivered by, say, an ereader or browser, into alternating lines of color to direct readers’ eyes to the right place: For example, the end of one line and beginning of the next might be bright red while the remainder of that second line might become blue. The goal is to prevent line-skipping, a common problem among readers with learning differences, and to speed up reading.

$98—PocketLab “How many more of your students would rather measure how fast they’re spinning than their angular velocity?” —Founder Clifton Roozeboom

PocketLab is a small, durable sensor that can students can use to measure motion, altitude and magnetic fields. The device beams the data it records wirelessly to devices such as tablets or phones and the real-time results show up as graphs.

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