No Longer Tethered to the Chalk Board
By Sara Pentz
Deep in his heart, however, Irby was more interested in teaching school mathematics than in calculating construction costs. About ten years later, Irby switched from construction to teaching. He had this inner calling. And, while he liked the teaching process and being a school administration, his friends told him his temperament leaned more toward that of an entrepreneur. “Someone told me that school business was too ‘daily’ for my personality,” he explains. “I was more entrepreneurial than managerial. I felt like I understood what he was saying.”
Irby had always realized that while at the blackboard with chalk in hand he was not able to face his students. It became clear to him that he needed to do both simultaneously and suddenly he had a clear view of how he could do that. “Some wise man once said,” Irby claims, “math is better taught on one knee than two feet–––beside the student giving him assistance rather than at the board working the problem for him.” That saying reinforced his budding business concept.
As the idea germinated he tells the story, “My father put up seed money and brought in a group of investors who were willing to fund it. Our investor team was already interested in making a positive impact on education and making a profit as well. I had a personal relationship with them. They were people that had an interest in education and a trust in me. They saw me as having the business acumen to make my ideas happen.”
In fact, one investor who was very interested in the educational side of the proposition told Irby, “I think we’re going to make some money out of this and that will make it even better.” And, so it did.
In January 2001, Irby founded BestQuest Teaching Systems® with the goal of developing an effective and engaging curriculum for students at a reasonable cost. “I wanted to create the kind of tools for the kind of teacher I would like to have had when I was in the schoolroom,” he confesses.
Joe Irby has a worldview about his company, as well. “We live in an increasingly technological world and to do those kinds of jobs you have to have a foundation in mathematics. Our country is not able to produce enough people to staff our companies. As it is, we have to import engineers.” And, so it was with his idea he believed he could help solve that problem.
The BestQuest Teaching System is based on the premise that today's students live in a multimedia world and find it difficult to become excited and motivated by education presented with traditional blackboards and textbooks. Irby had an epiphany. "If you want to reach students today, you've got to compete with video games and cell phones. I knew we had to create a new form of curriculum that was true to standards, yet just as fun and visually exciting as the items distracting students from their studies."
Irby assembled a team of top educators and a leading Hollywood DVD production company to help develop his idea. He also turned to researchers who knew that students learn better when they are intrinsically motivated and personally engaged in the instructional process.
BestQuest’s Algebra’scool® and Math’scool™ use an entertaining animation-based framework to capture students’ attention and teach basic mathematics and algebraic concepts rooted in real-world contexts. The program Algebra’scool® incorporates the use of two animated teachers and four animated students. Math’scool™ is still on the drawing boards.
Both programs relate to students on an appropriate level and through a medium they enjoy. The technological design affords students every opportunity to become excited about and involved in their own learning. Through the innovative delivery system, Algebra’scool and Math’scool lead students to success in learning basic mathematical concepts that will enhance their conceptual thinking for a lifetime.
The company's first product, a full year of Algebra One instruction on DVD, allows educators to develop their own paths of instruction via easy-to-navigate lessons. "We wanted to create a mathematics tool so easy to use that even non-credentialed teachers could teach a subject like Algebra, and get students interested in learning it," explains Irby. "Algebra can be a painful subject for some students to learn. Our program, Algebra'scool, was built with the goal of engaging students in the learning process and helping to personalize algebra through relevant characters and real-world vignettes."
At first Irby wasn’t convinced that DVD was the solution he wanted in the classroom. “I didn’t know the capacity of DVD initially,” he admits. But after meeting with some experts he soon was convinced that DVD would be the ideal blend of content and state-of-the-art technology he wanted. It would also provide the ultimate in interactive navigation and animation.
The DVD program also had multilingual capabilities eliminating fluency issues. It supported superior image quality and durability over VHS. And best of all DVD had the ability to be played in both DVD-equipped computers and televisions connected to DVD players. “Once I saw these advantages, it just made sense to use a DVD player and a TV set to create a dynamic presentation.”
Whether it is being used for whole-class instruction or one-on-one learning, DVD allows teachers and students to select lessons at the touch of a button, pause to allow discussion time or to work on practice sets and examples of practical application.
For those students who need additional instruction, the teacher can re-teach, clarify, and use the menu to review subtopics within the DVD portion of the lesson when needed––before selecting problems that are suitable for independent practice or homework. Irby knows that some students can fall behind in their learning skills because of personal, emotional, and self-esteem problems. He believes that this stop-and-go, self-paced process of teaching can help address that issue.
Explains Irby: “We synthesize an audiovisual presentation with print material of prepared notes. BestQuest’s primary goal is to support algebra educators with instructional systems for middle and high school students that engage students’ senses and arouse their interest, thereby promoting life-long learning.”
BestQuest 'scool brand services include courses of instruction and course materials for primary and secondary levels. This program is considered the leader in the creation and distribution of DVD based learning for middle and high school students. And they have a long list of awards to attest to that fact.
The teaching systems are designed to improve test scores, to reach all students, even those who are struggling. The program helps improve schools’ and students’ competitive edge and to teach students in a way that engages their senses and arouses their interest. “We want to impress upon students the importance of all subjects and open doors to advanced degrees and rewarding careers,” adds Irby.
“We are unapologetically low tech with our software,” admits Irby. ”The student are working their answers with pencil and paper and drawing their graphs and doing their math. The board work is done on DVD so the teachers spend more time with their students instead of being tethered to the chalkboard.”
As the demand for this groundbreaking new teaching system continues to grow, BestQuest plans to remain a step ahead by creating additional product lines to serve the needs of educators and enhance the intellect of today's students.
Joe Irby recently spent three days in
It was a nice compliment. But Irby gets a lot of those these days. “My biggest pleasure is when a teacher tells me that our system is helping them teach better and that their students are enjoying math and enjoying it more.”
Now that’s definitely the highest grade, and reward, one can achieve from working at the business of schooling.
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