Why high engagement and high value come about when News meet Social Networking and Education? | The Whiz Times | Nelson Wee | Singapore

Place "News" and "Social Networking" side by side and couple that with "Education" for kids, and you would get a online service which could garner high engagement and value in your #dailyhabits amongst its key user segments - parents, kids, educators. Here is one such service - The Whiz Times - a one of its kind News, Enrichment and Entertainment platform for the entire family.

My friend and ex-colleague, Shalabh Pandey, Chief Whiz and founder of "The Whiz Times" tells me this about his platform service ... 

• The Whiz Times brings the real world closer to Kids (Tweens) via parents in a Safe, Simple and Fun environment. 
• Our content engine can 'filter' stories based on various age groups, users can get reward points for using the platform, get access to hundreds of stories, loads of custom produced videos and much more. 
• The idea is to provide a family friendly environment - that is 100% safe, privacy protected, full of custom produced content and tonnes of interactivity including videos, quizzes, games.

Why the engagement? The multimedia contents for worldwide and local news in The Whiz Times have been specially composed and published for kids and at times even published by kids themselves! See the video below.



Why the value? There is a growing trend and market attention on EdTech. Already we are seeing also trending increasing digital publishing and consumption of books and education contents today. And we are seeing in the last 2 years in 2012 and now into 2013 that niche vertical communities are positing themselves in the ecosystems and thriving in the markets around us. Social networks for kids with contents could offer huge and untapped ancillary revenue channels and opportunities as well!

Not to mention, that anecdotally (in online surveys done in Singapore and I am pretty sure is a worldwide phenomenon as parents always want the best for their kids), parents for kids age 7 to 12 years do tend to spend more on their kids (for example education) than on themselves. Well, I as a parent, would attest to this!

In closing, with niche social networks like The Whiz Times, with news content and which have educational value - as a platform for kids and families to participate and learn together on what's happening in the real world in a SIMPLE, SAFE, FUN manner - could help inculcate interest, instil passion in learning and creating contents in kids. This would bode well for the kids' future as digital literacy could well be the new financial literacy of the future.

What are your thoughts on such social networks and how they could play in today's new learning paradigms?


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee, Singapore
See my presentations in Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee
Engage with me in Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nelsonwee

Introducing Edtech Market Opportunities in Education Enrichment

Recently, I had put together the following introduction deck in slideshare on "Edtech Market Opportunities in Education Enrichment".  Edtech appears to be a buzz word these days and also identified as a hot market trend to look out for in 2012.

Edtech market opportunities in Education Enrichment

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

With the pervasiveness in broadband and the next generation of broadband (capable of delivering speeds of up to 1 Gbps) roll out, the learning communities of students, teachers, parents and out of school educators will have in their hands (devices) capable of rich interactions via video, voice, images, text, sharing notes and more.  There will be many more opportunities in not only face to face in-school programs but also online and real-time out of school e-learning sessions and mentorships.

In my presentation deck above, I attempt to:

1. introduce the market trends of how digital publishing, learning and edtech are converging into the education enrichment of students today.
2. put a number on the potential market size in education enrichment - case in Singapore
3. discuss a framework on the education enrichment commerce ecosystem - case in Singapore

I will be writing another post soon to further elaborate on the above topic on edtech and the education enrichment market opportunities.  I look forward to engage with you and hear your views on education enrichment and how edtech could help the pathways of today's new generation of students.


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
also contactable via @nelsonwee
Photo credit: adam.blake88 / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA