Classbento CTO

PROFILE

I'm the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at Classbento, and a proud resident of Sydney, Australia. I'm hugely passionate about teaching, learning, and how technology can help us to achieve things here that were previously impossible, and to connect people and and the arts like never before.

I believe that recreational learning can become a hugely popular entertainment option. Instead of just passively watching others having the fun on screen or on stage, recreational learning puts the freedom to express, to shape our worlds, in our hands. The rockstars of the future won't just be performers; they'll be teachers too.

I'm always open to feedback, whether it's something boring like a website problem, or a radical new idea. Please get in touch!

ARTICLES

How Teachers Earn More and Students Pay Less, Via Tiered Pricing

What’s the best way to maximise a teacher’s hourly rates, without imposing minimum class sizes, while at the same time automatically offering discounts to students for bringing their friends? We think the answer is ‘tiered pricing’. Before I delve into the details, let me shareWhat’s the best way to maximise a teacher’s hourly rates, without imposing minimum class sizes, while at the same time automatically offering discounts to students for bringing their friends? We think the answer is ‘tiered pricing’. Before I delve into the details, let me share my personal teaching story with you, to set the scene. I was a teacher, and a manger of teachers, for the last decade. Three things left an impression on me. First: Time is precious, especially for teachers. By definition, teachers are talented people who love knowledge and learning, and so they tend to have lots of other opportunities, things that they could be doing; for example, learning and developing their skills further, researching to expand the world’s knowledge in their domain, practicing their skill for profit or to help others (e.g. performing as part of an orchestra), maybe working their separate day jobs (which utilise their other skills) and of course all the other parts of their lives that aren’t specific to teaching, like spending time with family and unwinding. For teachers to want to teach, having a high hourly wage certainly helps. Second: Teaching often offers great ‘economies of scale’. That is, teaching two or more students at once is often not much harder than teaching a single student. This isn’t always the case (e.g. when you’re teaching a dance class and the students are all at different skill levels), but it certainly happens pretty often, basically whenever your students can all follow at the same pace. From the teacher’s point of view, the effort and cost required to teach 2 students at once are usually not 2 times greater the effort to teach 1 student, maybe it is more like 10% greater; maybe 50% if you need to provide supplies per student that won’t be re-used (like in a cooking class). Combined with the first observation, time-poor teachers would prefer to teach 3 students in a single hour and earn say $100, than teach 3 students separately over 3 hours to earn say $120 - the extra 2 hours saved might be worth more than $20 to them. Then why does it make sense to charge a class of 1 student say $100, and a class of 2 $100 each? Wouldn’t it make sense to reflect the ‘true’ (lower) cost for the teacher and incentivise more students to book into fewer classes? Teachers in the past have often solved this problem by having minimum class sizes, which leads me to the third observation… Third: Minimum class sizes can be a tough sell. Students don’t like the idea that the class they’ve booked (and often paid for in advance) could be cancelled, at no fault of their own. In fact, sometimes teachers don’t even tell the students upfront that they need a minimum class size – they’ll just accept enrolments and cancel last minute if the number of students is insufficient. Teachers also lose out on students who don’t mind paying a bit extra for the class (who can then make it worthwhile for the teacher to teacher a smaller class). But teachers sometimes do need to charge a relatively high cost per class; for example, to cover the cost of booking out a venue (like a commercial kitchen). Putting these 3 observations together, it made sense to provide discounts for groups of students. For example, a teacher could offer a class at $100 per person for a single-student class, $80 per person for a 2-student class, etc. True, this had already been done in the ‘offline’ world, but for some reason (maybe the technical and operational complexity), we’ve never seen this done properly on a website or app. We thought the complexity was worth it. So on ClassBento, there are no minimum class sizes. Instead, for group classes, teachers can choose between private pricing (I'll write a post about this soon), simple pricing (where the price per student never changes), and tiered pricing (which provides discounts for larger classes). For the example above, if Tony is the first to sign up, he’ll pay $100. If Ben then signs up, Tony gets refunded $20 ($100 minus $80). If Tony calls up Ben and they sign up together as part of one booking, they pay $160 altogether and don’t have to wait for that refund. It’s great for both students and teachers. For teachers: Teachers can achieve a fantastic hourly wage Teachers get more new students, as tiered pricing is great for word of mouth – nothing quite like a discount to get students referring other students No messy admin required – ClassBento takes care of all the refunds, price adjustments and communications automatically For students: Students have more choice. If they really want to attend the class and don’t mind paying a higher price, they can do so Students pay less in general Students don’t have to worry about how or if the teacher will process price changes (since these can be quite ad-hoc usually) – everyone gets the standard ClassBento experience There’s certainly more we can do with this concept, so watch this space. What do you think? Click through to my profile and send me a message; I’m always happy to hear from our community. Maybe your idea can be the next one that we build! ...

Re-imagining Learning - Lessons from Sculpture by the Sea

What do you think of when you see the word ‘learning’? I think of a classroom. I think of an older person, lecturing. One-way communication. I think of rote learning, memorisation, assessments. I think of stress and boredom. Learning as outcome based, and competitive. Learning for advancementWhat do you think of when you see the word ‘learning’? I think of a classroom. I think of an older person, lecturing. One-way communication. I think of rote learning, memorisation, assessments. I think of stress and boredom. Learning as outcome based, and competitive. Learning for advancement in society, without much choice involved. I’ll bet that you thought of some of these too. But can learning have the opposite effects? Can it reinvigorate, inspire, entertain? Can it do this while giving a sense of personal achievement, progress and enlightenment, that many of our modern means of entertainment (which typically have us as passive audiences, like TV) could never hope to achieve? I think so. I think that’s just scratching the surface. It won’t be easy to transform Australian society’s traditional view of learning. But at ClassBento, we’ve made that our mission. We think that Sculpture by the Sea is a great success story of how a team of passionate individuals can quickly put a different lens on something that have been around for millennia. Let’s see what we can learn from them. What would you have thought of ‘sculptures’ 10 years ago? I thought of boring old displays in museums, and high-priced auctions for the ultra rich. Inaccessible and irrelevant. Sculptures were for someone else, not me. Then came Sculpture by the Sea. Sculptures became massively accessible, at least for residents or tourists of Sydney. They were literally placed in the open, 100% free for anyone to see and play with. By being on spread out across the Bondi to Coogee walk, these sculptures inherited characteristics we normally associate with our beaches. Fun, spontaneity, tranquillity, beauty, local, Australian. People discovered that sculptures could be thought provoking, relatable, a social experience. Sculptures could be new, fresh, and relevant, reflecting the times that we live in. Sculptures could stretch our imagination, and give us feelings of awe, sadness, and everything in between. Sculptures could get us to question our place in the world. Sculpture by the Sea transformed how we think and feel about sculptures. There are plenty of other examples. What do you think of when you hear about ‘philosophy’? Abstract concepts preached by aged professors pondering away in ivory towers, like the existence and role of God, metaphysics, debating the definition of ‘knowledge’, ‘art’, ‘morals’; concepts utterly irrelevant to our modern lives? The School of Life is transforming philosophy’s place in our lives, and aims to improve our emotional intelligence. It draws on philosophy (as well as the humanities) to help us approach topics like love, relationships, death, careers, happiness and more. Topics that are often ignored by traditional schooling. Meanwhile, Masterchef has changed our perception of cooking from being a chore, to being cool, inventive, fun. There are lots of other examples, but Shakespeare tells me that ‘brevity is the soul of wit’, and I’d like to be seen as witty. To sum it up, the arts are being re-imagined to fit our modern lives. So what’s the future of recreational learning? We think that learning should still be recognised for its crucial traditional role, in preparing us for the necessary routines, complexities and customs of modern life. But we’d love people to change their perception of learning, from just thinking of learning as both learning for advancement, to also thinking of recreational learning. A few years from now, we’d love Australians to list recreational learning (like the sort offered by ClassBento) as one of their top pastimes, alongside current favourites like sport, etc Granted, it’s not for everyone or for every occasion. Sometimes our brains and bodies just can’t take anymore, and we do want to just veg out in front of a screen and be passively entertained. But there are certainly enough of us, who have enough hours in a week, who would prefer active entertainment, with all of the unique advantages it brings. How role will ClassBento play? Uncover hidden gems: In performance arts, artists don’t need a degree or qualifications to entertain, inspire, to change the world. In fact, going through the dogmas of formal schooling can dampen the creativity and uniqueness that makes art so wonderful. In contrast, we often assume that teachers must have years of formal education, to then be able to educate us. But similar to performers, skilled recreational teachers are everywhere. They just need to see the opportunity, to access a good platform. ClassBento will show them their podium. Make it easy: Education is often administrated by government, and as such it often lags behind in technology adoption, and gets tied up in red tape about what can and can’t be done, by rules and regulations. One result is the 10-page checkouts on community education sites. ClassBento will make it easy. Make offline cool again: Sure, some learning is best done individually, online, by watching demonstration videos, and reading manuals. Boring stuff like programming and statistics are some examples. But this approach isn’t suitable to every subject and every person. Humans are social creatures. Nothing can quite substitute for interacting with others in person, and using all our senses and expressions. And some subjects won’t make the transition to online easily. Imagine how difficult it would be to learn to dance, in your living room, watching a video. Or to learn how to sing, without real-time feedback, inspiration and motivation from a voice coach. ClassBento will bring offline back. Make it known: We’ll spread the word. We’ll celebrate our gifted teachers. We’ll celebrate the pleasure of learning. We’ll let Australians know that they have other options for what they can do on weekends, how they can spend time with loved ones, how they can find like-minded friends in their communities. ClassBento will lead the way. It’s an exciting future, and we can’t wait to get there with you. ...

Intimate Learning and Teaching - the Power of Privacy

ClassBento's privacy options allow teachers to use secret venues, and gives students marvellous new ways to experience classes. So what's this all about, how would it be helpful, and how did we apply lessons from psychology research? Let's run through these options one by one and see. WeClassBento's privacy options allow teachers to use secret venues, and gives students marvellous new ways to experience classes. So what's this all about, how would it be helpful, and how did we apply lessons from psychology research? Let's run through these options one by one and see. We allow teachers to mask their teaching venue. In this case, a circle is shown on a map, with the venue’s real location hidden somewhere within the circle. The exact location is only revealed to paying students. This allows teachers to use private venues like their home or private studios for classes, while allowing prospective students to know their rough location without compromising their privacy. These venues tend to be more convenient and cheaper for teachers, since they tend to be owned and used by teachers for other purposes. I’m personally uncomfortable with revealing my home address to strangers (strangers who pay me to be my students are the exception), so I use this option myself (1). There are of course other reasons why teachers may choose this option. For example, photography teachers may want to take students to their secret spots with the best angles, lighting and subject matter, and don’t want to reveal these to the general public. We offer private classes to students for intimate learning. Specifically, students can book some classes privately (where enabled by the teacher), which will immediately make the class unavailable for future bookings by members of the public. Students can book private classes either just for themselves, or also on behalf of others. Teachers can offer their own venues and/or to travel to students. We can imagine some ways that this would benefit students (there are probably more): You want to take a date out to something a bit more interesting than dinner and a movie, and want an intimate experience (you may know the song ‘Tennessee Waltz’; it’s both a great song and a cautionary tale (2)) You don’t want outsiders intruding on your company team or family bonding time You are an introvert and don’t cope well in bigger groups (between a third to a half of us are introverts (3), including me) You are don’t want to be judged for your currently amateurish skills (like me with dancing, singing, painting, skateboarding, Spanish … okay basically everything). After all, if you think that you're being judged negatively, you'll often perform worse, compared to if you were by yourself or with just trusted others (like a patient teacher) (this has been proven by scientific experiments) (4) You want to express your creativity fully, especially in open-ended subjects like the visual arts; you want to minimise the 'peer pressure' to produce conformist output (5) You don't want random other people who aren't quite as advanced as you slowing down your learning Of course, we offer 'public' options as well. Teachers can specify where their venues are to the public if they wish, and students can join public classes and meet new people if they wish (and if the teacher's class allows). Each option has its own advantages. We hope you love our privacy options. Try them out, tell your friends, and as always, let me know what you think by contacting me on my profile page. (1) Yes, I’m actually also a teacher on ClassBento. As to which one … that’s a secret for now (2) Listen to Patti Page’s lovely rendition at: youtube.com/watch?v=_Ek3eCbfqp0 (3) From "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking" by Susan Cain. A great read, highly recommended (4) The technical term from this is 'Evaluation apprehension'. It's a well researched theory in psychology. It's remarkably pervasive; a famous study showed that women perform worse in maths tests when their gender was implicitly brought to their attention, due to the women recalling the stereotype that they should be worse at maths than men (in this specific case, it's referred to as 'Stereotype threat', but now I'm going quite a bit off topic) - see Inzlicht, M.; Ben-Zeev, T. (2000). "A Threatening Intellectual Environment: Why Females Are Susceptible to Experiencing Problem-Solving Deficits in the Presence of Males" (5) This is related to the concept of 'Social desirability bias', which again is well established in psychology. Interestingly, studies suggest that this effect explains why men tend to artifically inflate the number of sexual partners they've had in self-reports, while women under-report theirs, to conform with the participants' view of what is socially acceptable. See Smith, T. W. (1992). "Discrepancies between men and women in reporting number of sexual partners: A summary from four countries", and Tourangeau, R.; Yan, T. (2007). "Sensitive Questions in Surveys" ...