Monarch Teaching Technologies unveils Vizzle autism software
by Chris Seper
Tuesday November 25, 2008, 12:15 PM
Need
help teaching an autistic child struggling to understand emotions like
excited and scared? There's a game for that -- and one that will put
that child's face, voice and favorite colors into the game.
A customizable, online autism library with tools like the emotion game is one of the key offerings in Vizzle, new Web-based software released today by Monarch Teaching Technologies in Shaker Heights.
Vizzle (short for "visual learning") builds customized,
autism-specific flashcards, games and other interactive exercises for
children. All these personalized materials can be placed online for
other Vizzle users to borrow and adapt.
It's among a series of products capitalizing on the need for autism
education. Google, for example, continues to adapt one of its free
programs to help autism educators, and startups from Shaker Heights to
Seattle now promise to cut the cost of teaching an autistic child.
"The key objective of our work is to bring a marriage of what's
effective in treating autism with what's practical," said Terry Murphy,
Monarch's chief executive.
Image of an online board game in Vizzle, new autism-education software made by Monarch Teaching Technologies in Shaker Heights.
Vizzle users store their own lessons and media, create new lessons or search a library for what's already created.Autism
diagnoses have nearly doubled in the last 10 years. About six of every
1,000 children are now diagnosed with some form of autism, according to
statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There
are about 300,000 students with autism in public schools, according to
the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education.
Treatment is expensive for both parents and schools. Rural areas rarely
have enough autism resources, said Dr. James Ball, co-chairman of the
Autism Society of America's panel of professional advisers. Complete
treatment, which includes one-on-one therapy, can cost up to $65,000 a
year, said Dr. Nabil El-Ghoroury, a pediatric psychologist at
MetroHealth Medical Center who has studied autism for 17 years.
Vizzle tries to cut education costs while infusing the latest
research. Its premise is that children with autism learn more through
visual experiences. The software guides users to make books, flashcards
and games that can include a series of images, sounds and videos.
One book already in the online database explains how to act when
going to McDonald's on Tuesdays, and a matching game there teaches
colors in English and Spanish. Another lesson explains that you read
first and then get a cookie: A book slowly disappears to reveal the
chocolate-chip cookie beneath.
Children with autism struggle with generalizations, said Lauren
Stafford, who works at both the Monarch School and Monarch Teaching
Technologies. Changing pictures, sounds and other parts of a lesson
help teachers determine whether a child has mastered the concepts of
the lesson or grasped the task, she said
"It allows the teacher to have control over what you want the child to learn," Stafford added.
Both the Monarch School and Monarch Teaching Technologies are owned
in part by the nonprofit Bellefaire JCB and operate near one another on
Bellefaire's Shaker Heights property. Vizzle is based on work from the
Center for Communications Disorders at Children's Hospital Boston. Last
month, Monarch received a National Institutes of Health grant to
further develop the software.
Vizzle will cost $25 per month for families and $100 per month for
clinicians. School districts could pay $940 per year for each teacher
using the software, although that price varies based on the number of
students.
Despite their lower costs, software companies admit they're
struggling to dent the market share held by the service providers that
do one-on-one interventions with school districts.
Dr. Chris Whalen, president of the Seattle autism software maker TeachTown,
said districts rely on the service providers for recommendations on
autism education. The providers resist suggesting software that could
cut into the lucrative one-on-one approach, Whalen said.
Also, some executives think that most of the software out right now
is good enough. "For me, personally, there's nothing that's not already
out there," said Ball, of the Autism Society of America. "You need to
be an investigator and find it."
Yet applying software in autism education continues to flourish, as
more researchers agree that children with autism learn better with
visuals. Sometimes, the connections are coincidental.
The makers of SketchUp design software were stunned when they received letters about how well it helped autistic children. It started Project Spectrum to promote the software's free version to educators, and Google expanded that project after it purchased SketchUp in 2006.
"SketchUp is something kids were naturally drawn to. What we didn't
understand at the time is that people with autism tend to be visually
and spatially gifted," said Tom Wyman, business development manager for
SketchUp.
"It's taking what these kids' strengths are and using them. So often these kids are reminded of their weaknesses."
SOURCE: http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2008/11/monarch_teaching_technologies.html
Is SketchUp itself profitable?
Probably not. As you said, most of the downloads are the free version. But the program isn't a complete financial loss. I suspect that most of the people who use it professionally have shelled out the cash to purchase the Pro version. Even then, the Pro version is priced so low, I doubt it has a significant margin, even if it pays for development costs.
On the other hand, SketchUp is a fairly mature product by Google standards. It is part of an ecosphere of related products, it provides content for Warehouse and Google Earth. Both of these are much closer to Google's core competencies of search and ad revenue, and all three are extremely well integrated.
I haven't seen a lot of attempts to make a profit off of Warehouse or Earth. The money making methods are either very well hidden or they haven't been explored very deeply. I expect to see much more exploration of possibilities before the SketchUp product is in danger of falling by the wayside.
Will SketchUp survive the downturn?
No doubt, but I'm sure they'll be tightening their belts like the rest of us.
Posted by: Matt Ritzman | Dec 03, 2008 at 17:07
Maybe Autodesk will swoop...
Posted by: Robin Capper | Dec 03, 2008 at 16:46
SOURCE: http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2008/12/will-sketchup-survive-googles-downturn.html