I love the work Ben is doing, the focus on game based learning and experience points ties in lovely with some of my latest projects. I hope to get time to check out curatr this week. First impressions is that it isn’t very primary focused from an interface point of view. Also it is closed source, BAD BAD Ben! When I asked him about this he said that he had to keep his investors happy which makes me slightly sceptical about his understanding of open source and also Curatr’s commitment to providing integration with other platforms and learning objects.
Two videos that explain Curatr for you to enjoy..
Hi John!
Thanks for taking the time to write about us; very flattered!
I’ll be the first to admit that primary and secondary education is not my personal speciality. My core experience is Higher Education and Workplace learning, so I’ll need all the input I can get from those of you focused on the really important stuff in order to point Curatr in the right direction.
Curatr is much more of a presentation layer when it comes to classification in the great mud of educational software systems. I envisage it sitting on top of existing systems and helping to re-purpose and re-frame existing content, be that objects you own or objects in the wider world.
That ambition will live and die on our integration with 3rd party systems; you can be assured that a large part of our on-going development will be dedicated to this area.
Right now we’re working on developing our portfolio of defensible IP that will enable us to take this product to the level we want to. Unfortunately open source isn’t going to be on the table until we finalise our plans here. I also believe that Curatr currently lacks the maturity that is required for software to be effectively developed open source. Maybe both those issues will clear up with time!
I’m very excited to see your work in XP systems and loving the posts; I’m convinced there will be partnerships to be had in this area. Our own system is in its infancy right now, but I’m excited to see someone else on the same track – we can’t all be wrong!
Ben