AnetaEd

Early education skills serve as the bedrock for future economic prosperity, with evidence highlighting their profound impact on lifelong achievements. However, across the US and globally, educational outcomes of preK - elementary aged children fall short due to various factors; limited access to quality education, especially in underserved communities, shortages of trained teachers proficient in effective early childhood teaching methods, and barriers hindering parental involvement such as time constraints and lack of awareness. 

The internet holds humanity’s knowledge. It offers a wealth of educational and edutainment resources that can increase the equity in exposure to education and improve educational outcomes for all children. Yet, it is the norm for PreK to elementary students worldwide to miss out on the benefit of education via the internet due to the practical burdens it takes for adults to provision content to kids.

Classroom teachers, tutors, early childhood educators, interventionists, and parents all face these practical challenges that hinder their ability to utilize the wealth of free internet resources. These challenges include resource discovery, curating content to meet needs and interests, guiding children to relevant links in real-time, managing logins with appropriate credentials, setting time limits on activities, and assisting with transitions between tasks. These tasks are prohibitive for most and the result is that much of kids’ time on screens is often wasted time.

In the US, children aged 2 to 12 spend an average of 4 hours and 44 minutes per day on screens. Notably, kids from marginalized communities often exceed this average screen time. We miss that opportunity to keep kids engaged, personalize their learning and support them in and out of the classroom with educational content that they would WANT to engage with and which would improve their early education skills.

Aneta is a SaaS platform that creates a scheduling capability for educators to give access to resources on the internet to  PreK - elementary kids either in a directed journey or, to a set of curated links that the kids can explore all on their own. Educators/caregivers don't have to be present in real time to direct the kids. Kids hand have full agency in accessing the curated links. 

For directed journeys across internet locations, Aneta uses intuitive images presented on a map to empower kids to independently get to the right link at the right time. The links are depicted as images along a path. The relevant image blinks at the scheduled time and clicking it takes the child straight to the url. At the end of the scheduled time, there is a pop up on the screen that prompts the child to click it.  Clicking the pop up takes the child back to the Aneta map where they can be directed to another location on the internet. This facility allows kids to move across internet resources simply by clicking pictures. Literacy is no longer required to navigate across digital locations.

Aneta organizes digital resources in a graphical space called a Homeroom where curated links are made available with intuitive visuals, the favicon of the website. Favicons are distinctive symbols associated with the site and so kids can use them to identify links. The Favicons are further organized on ‘islands’ identified by intuitive images related to the subject e.g. =,+ for math island. This graphical book marking space offers a child one-click anytime access 'free choice' within the curated options. 

Aneta facilitates content discovery for educators/caregivers.  Anetapacks, curated shareable ‘playlists’ of links and urls bring the knowledge and curation skills of specialists and educators and spares users the work of finding and putting together the relevant educational content. Educators have access to prebuilt content in shareable ‘playlists’ of links, websites and apps called Anetapacks or choose to build custom paths through the digital locations. These pre-created digital journeys bring the benefit of others’ expertise and content knowledge and spares educators the work of online content discovery and curation of relevant appropriate content. The Anetapacks also eliminate the tedious process typical of cutting and pasting approved links.  

Currently, Anetapacks are available in a library and shareable using email addresses. The goal is to have an Anetapack marketplace where an educator can search for curations from any curator whether they are a personal connection or not.  Anetapacks allow educators who have expertise to curate content that can be replayed and used by others. For example, a math interventionist can curate an Anetapack for teaching fractions to a 4th grader who loves cars using games and videos from across the internet.

Aneta creates a way for educators to extend their impact beyond school grounds and time and make available quality screen time options for every child at home. 

Here is a video of Aneta: 

Aneta: Transforms educational user experiences on the internet from available to accessible in practice for preK - 5th grade students by eliminating the burdens of real-time navigation support and content curation required from educators.

In doing this, Aneta serves 3 groups. 

1. Educators

2. PreK - Elementary Children (ages 2 to 10 years old)

3, Caregivers/Parents at home.

For educators, Aneta closes the last mile between availability and accessibility of effective educational resources. Aneta removes the burden of navigation support from Educators making them more inclined to use helpful digital tools. Aneta removes the work of curation from Educators and can make expertly curated content available to their students regardless of their own capability.  Aneta enables differentiated learning paths enabling educators to give kids more personalized support. Aneta enables Educators to drive high quality screen time for kids at home so that there is effectively longer time in which to instruct children. 

For PreK - 5th grade children: Aneta democratizes access to beneficial resources regardless of a child’s literacy, the availability, knowledge or tech savvy of their educator/caregiver. A child can move through the same digital resources as another child who has someone on hand to help them navigate content that helps them learn. Children have more agency and equity  in their education and a chance to perform better. Aneta gives students differentiated learning experiences, provides self-guided learning and choice, promotes student ownership and self-efficacy in their education. Plus Aneta is colorful and playful and makes learning fun. Engaged students are more likely to learn better and perform better. This has significant implications for economic outcomes in later life. 

Caregivers/Parents can rest assured knowing that their kids are being guided by a thoughtful grown up while online even if not by them. Parents who are not physically near their kids can support the kids learning from afar without having to do it in the moment. Parents can know that once their kids are managed by educators through Aneta, their time on screens at home is supporting their learning

As a mother, I've personally experienced the defeat of trying to make use of educational content scattered across thousands of websites and apps to aid my children’s learning.  Most of my kids’ screen time was wasted opportunity because it was impractical for me to make resources available to them.  I know the problem Aneta solves well.  

The internet serves as a powerful equalizer in providing access to engaging and relatable educational content for all.  I am deeply passionate about education and the profound impact it has on improving the quality of life for future generations. Growing up, my parents shared stories about how our own family's journey from poverty to prosperity was made possible by the education our grandparents received in the Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana) despite the harsh experiences they endured to access it.

For me, the issue of guiding kids to educational yet enjoyable resources predates the pandemic. However, this inconvenience escalated into a life-altering challenge during covid lock downs. I had taken time off work to provide my kids with enriching resources online, and yet I found it nearly impossible to accomplish. At one point, I relied on nine alarms on my phone to monitor them during and after school. Despite my concerted efforts, and my dedication to ensure their online activities were productive, it proved immensely difficult. I heard similar struggles from parents fortunate enough to have flexible work arrangements.  I wondered about the experiences of kids whose caregivers did not have the know-how or available time.  I felt called to create Aneta. 

Aneta has 5 formal equity advisors who collectively have 10 years classroom instruction, 15 years of Edtech, 35 years entrepreneurial experience , 40 years of start up and 42 years of software development. Mark Manners is focused on EdTech and currently in sales at Zoom Education.  He has 15 years education experience with 11 years as a teacher in elementary school. He is on the founding board of a charter school. Fiifi Deku owns a mobile app development agency and has seen the path of countless companies and advises on product management. George Nyako is a customer solutions engineer at Google with nearly 2 decades of experience. Adele Hedden is an early Uber employee focused on customer acquisition and customer service. Ian Mabie is also an early Uber employee with expertise in product management and customer experience.

Aneta the app is built and available to the public as a web app, on android devives in the google play store, on amazon on the amazon store and available for Ipads via Apple test flight.

There child workflow and educator/parent workflow and curator workflow are all built.  I have worked with 10 plus teachers to build out precurated content, Playlists of websites and content from across the internet aka Anetapacks. There are over 100 Anetapacks available in the library and the functionality to create additional Anetapacks is available on any account. 

Who we have served to date

Pilot with GoodProjects a non profit in DC whose mission is “to eliminate the roadblocks to basic needs so families can define success for themselves on their pathway to achieving the American Dream.”  Aneta is used in the after school program for children living in housing projects in SW Washington DC.  The free access to Aneta allows the kids to have the option of fun and educational screen time without burdening the staff who are at times short staffed.

1st charter school pilot - utilized to give students choice during center time which was 45 minutes each day.

2nd charter school pilot - Spanish language class and English language class - quality screen time at home

Paying District school classroom - Aneta is used by a second grade teacher in a bilingual school in DC to provide supplemental material related to classroom content that the children can navigate at home.

Paying Afterschool program in Ghana (International Client) - Aneta is used by an afterschool program, Little Ladies Club to provide reference material and activities for girls ages 6 to 9 on site and at home.

I founded Aneta because I felt called to right the missed opportunity of using widely available internet resources address challenges in enriching learning for any child. Nevertheless, I am in a sector different for where I’ve spent my decades of professional experience. 

I want to be part of MIT Solve first and foremost because I am in need of mentors and coaches expert in the preK - elementary space to help me polish the vision for Aneta and inform our aspirations with their real world experiences. 

I have been baptized by fire into understanding the importance of having expert guidance in the education space specifically.   When I launched the minimum viable app of Aneta in Sept 2021, my original focus was on marketing to parents because as a parent, I thought, of course, you want this for your kids. I had 4 advisors all from the startup and tech world but none with PreK -  elementary knowledge specifically. It took 6 months of me prospecting unsuccessfully to parents only before I got the insight that educators are the way to go.  I was enlightened by a former teacher turned EdTech founder who told me flat out that parents are exhausted and expect educators to do most of the managing and education of their kids. 

A second reason I want to be part of MIT Solve is to become immersed in a network of potential collaborators for Aneta.  I have experienced the power of warm introductions since I got an Educator Advisor for Aneta and I can only envision that MIT Solve will multiply that by several fold. I believe the community will have a network of organizations and institutions that will be very well served by Aneta and I want to learn about these orgs and get introductions to key people.  I can imagine that some of my fellow MIT solvers in education will be linked to Charter schools, tutoring orgs and out of school time providers and we will mutually benefit from knowing each other.  

The third reason I want to be part of MIT Solve is to find an edtech Founder community. I used to feel so lonely as a founder before I created a small community of women founders that support each other. I can only imagine that the Solver community of like minded social entrepreneurs will multiply this sense of community.  Further, I am looking to learn from the founder community - what are the types of problems in PreK - elementary space that others are working on, what is happening more broadly in the early childhood space, what opportunities are there for partnership.  

I am looking for a safe place to ask the dumbest questions and get the most honest answers and feedback. I want to talk to people who are there or who have been there and done that. 

We know educational content and edutainment resources on the internet are effective in engaging students, enhancing achievement, and addressing educator shortages. However the problem is that it is prohibitively hard to make use of this content consistently and in a sustainable practical way for preK to elementary kids.  The challenges include discovering available resources, and curating content to align with the child's learning objectives and interests, being present in the moment to guide kids to appropriate links at the right moments, managing login credentials, setting time limits on their activities, assisting with transitions between tasks.

Aneta’s competitive ‘neighborhood’ includes parental blockers (e,g, Bark) , learning apps (e.g. ABCmouse.com), learning management systems (e.g. Seesaw, google classroom), single sign on solutions (e.g. Clever) and lesson path tools (e.g Wakelet). 

However, Aneta stands alone because it is the only integrated solution combining independent kid navigation, digital organization and pre-created digital journeys while giving access to the full breadth of the internet and an unlimited curator pool. Aneta targets all the practical needs to make educational content readily and consistently the core of screen time for preK- elementary kids in school and at home.

Learning apps in part tackle the challenges of discovery and curation, yet they face two significant limitations. First, pre-literate and non-self-managing literate children, need a caregiver present in the moment to guide them through productive journeys across the internet. This dependency restricts opportunities for kids and especially for kids whose caregivers are not available or knowledgeable about the resources. Aneta eliminates this caregiver dependency. 

Second, content within learning apps is inherently limited by the scope of their curators' discovery and curation efforts and represents only a fraction of the vast array of possibilities available across the dynamic internet. 

Aneta's crowd sourced 'playlists', aka Anetapacks, address this limitation. Anetapacks are the first solution making curated digital journeys easy to create and share.  Any resource on the internet—be it games, videos, recordings, virtual tours, literacy tools, podcasts etc —from any digital location can be integrated into curated collections. Playlists revolutionized the way people consume and discover music. Similarly, Anetapacks provide personalized and convenient ways to explore educational content on the internet and create journeys for various learning themes and interests. Additionally, Anetapacks allow educational content creators, often small shops with no budgets to advertise, to reach wider audiences and give rise to new avenues for edutainment promotion.  

In our digital age, screen time is an integral part of children's lives and caregivers struggle to manage it. Aneta is unique in seamlessly integrating a child's digital experience at home and school. Existing solutions like Clever are limited to school management and often are static and exclude relevant educational content on the internet. Aneta fills a crucial gap for home caregivers seeking to contribute to quality educational screen time. With its colorful and playful interface, kids want to engage with Aneta and gamefys educational experiences.

The theory of change behind Aneta is straightforward: by providing preK to elementary educators with easy access to curated educational content from the internet, and  alleviating the burden on caregivers for navigating kids through that content, Aneta  offers dynamic and culturally relevant educational material to children. Educators can seamlessly integrate thoughtfully selected internet resources into their teaching, even without direct expertise in the field. Eliminating the need for educators to curate content and then guide children through content in real-time (or rely on caregivers to do so), expands their utilization of internet resources. This enhances the variety and personalization of learning content for kids and increases engagement and educational outcomes.

Aneta ensures that children receive engaging content that resonates with their classroom learning and is tailored to their individual experiences, ultimately enhancing their overall learning experiences. By making learning enjoyable, Aneta motivates children to engage more actively in their educational journey, both at home and in school, potentially leading to improved educational outcomes with long-lasting economic benefits.

The crucial role of parental and caregiver involvement in children's educational success is well understood. Aneta aims to facilitate this by empowering educators to curate and provide educational content for children's exploration. By bridging the gap between home and school environments, Aneta not only enhances the quality of children's screen time in general but also fosters a love of learning from an early age, setting the stage for a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and personal growth.

Aneta's target audience of children aged 2 to 10 ensures that from a young age, children learn that learning can be enjoyable, setting a positive foundation for their future educational endeavors.

Aneta's mission is to democratize access to learning resources on the internet for every preK to elementary child, regardless of the availability or technological know-how of their educators, parents, and caregivers. By harnessing the abundant enrichment and educational content available online, Aneta aims to increase access, engagement, and ultimately improve learning outcomes for all.

This mission directly aligned with the SDG goal 4 to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”  

The specific targets we seek to drive are the following: 

• Target 4.1: Universal Primary and Secondary Education: Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education.

• Target 4.2: Early Childhood Development and Pre-primary Education: Ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.

• Target 4.5: Eliminate Gender Disparities in Education: Eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations.

Aneta does not have enough users at scale yet to directly measure the related indicators. The indicators we will track are the sections related to preK to primary in Indicators 4.1.1, 4.2.1, 4.5.1 below.  

These indicators are only well measured are medium to long term so we intend to keep track of some leading indicators that are measurable in the short term. What we look for are the following

1. Upward trend on a score that assesses whether the way in which kids learn using Aneta as a tool makes learning more engaging and fun.  “Love for Learning” score (LFL) will be defined and refined over time but anticipated to be initially a quantitative score based on qualitative assessment of the educator(s) who uses Aneta with the kids.
2. Eventually, as we get more users, student reported measure of ‘fun’  learning 
3. Eventually, quantitative outcomes in specific literacy and numeracy tests. This is hard to attribute

Indicators for Aneta impact. At scale, we expect to impact 

4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex 

 4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 24–59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex 

 4.5.1 Parity indices (female/male, rural/urban, bottom/top wealth quintile and others such as disability status, indigenous peoples and conflict-affected, as data become available) for all education indicators on this list that can be disaggregated

The application architecture has the following new components:

Frontend application

The app is built using the React framework. User details information is stored in a relational database (postgres or mysql). The OAuth providers will be used for social sign-in with the following networks: facebook, apple and google. Application itself is deployed in the AWS cloud by using the docker container. REST is used to fetch data from the backend systems. The only direct integration from the frontend will be the integration with stripe for payment subscriptions.

Backend application

Node.js is used as the main framework. Backend only required to provide data to frontend in JSON format through REST endpoints secured with JWT token. This backend application is also used to send email notifications to customers, integration with Messaging API required (twillio). Also when there is a successful payment in stripe, stripe triggers callback api endpoint to notify us about the payment transaction. To secure API endpoints API Gateway should be used.

Involved 3rd party applications

System

Usage

Apple

Social sign-in

Google

Social sign-in

Facebook

Social sign-in

Stripe

Payment provider

Twilio

Communication functions provider

Google Analytics

Web analytics service 

Tools and Frameworks:

• React

• Redux

• Node.js

• Nest.js

• PostgreSQL or MySQL

• Docker

• GitHub\GitLab [TBC]

• AWS API Gateway

• AWS ECS

Full time staff: 1 Founder, CEO

Contractors: 2 (Social media and Software maintenance)

Development team which is not currently active consisted of :14 contractors

I have been working on Aneta since October 2020. Aneta was incoroporated in January 2021.

4 Equity advisors have been in place since February 2021 and a 5th Equity advisor has been in place since Sept 2021.

The contracted development team was Ukraine based and has been working on Aneta since November 2020

I, the founder, am a Black woman and an immigrant of African descent who moved to the United States as a teenager. My experiences as a woman of color in a largely male dominated field  have made recognizing the need to create an inclusive and fair environment my daily lens.  

My mission is for the org Aneta to be one that recognizes the differences amongst all people and vocally and visibly shows how we value those differences.  Right now, Aneta is a small organization and this belief only needs to permeate through me and the few contractors. As Aneta grows, my goal as CEO is to nurture a culture and shared pride in embracing perspectives from the wide range of human experiences in every facet of our operations. We will look at best practices for codifying our beliefs in DEI which will include setting goals and assessing how the organization is meeting them.   

We are a ways from that level but even now, we show our commitment to DEI in the small ways we have. All the Aneta illustrations are very mindfully created with the idea of broad representation. The robot Aneta is specifically depicted without any gender stereotypes.  Aneta social media posts and materials purposely use diverse images so that everyone may be able to see themselves in some of the materials some times.  

DEI is a foundation in the entire mission of Aneta: to democratize access to beneficial resources on the internet regardless of a child’s literacy, the availability, knowledge or tech savvy of their educator/caregiver.  The available resources on the internet are very unevenly accessible and Aneta seeks to correct that. With Aneta, kids can follow paths through content aggregated by the best minds on a topic despite even with no access to that expert. Aneta has the potential to make up for the shortfall of interventionists and tutors by scaling their impact. 

Our DEI principles also flow into our programs. Aneta currently had a pilot with GoodProjects a non profit in DC whose mission is “to eliminate the roadblocks to basic needs so families can define success for themselves on their pathway to achieving the American Dream.”  Aneta is used in the after school program for children living in housing projects in SW Washington DC.  The free access to Aneta allows the kids to have the option of fun and educational screen time without burdening the staff who are at times short staffed.

Aneta is tooling that democratizes access to the beneficial resources on the internet regardless of a child’s literacy,  the availability, knowledge or technological know-how of a child’s caregiver or teacher - all while removing burden for educators and parents.  Equitable access is embedded in its function.  Kids whose caregivers, be it their parents or teacher are not available, or knowledgeable, can for the first time move through the same digital resources as another child whose parent or teacher may have been on hand to help them navigate content that helps them learn. 

Aneta is cost-effective because it is a software that runs on common devices that most kids already have access to.  Further, it makes use of abundant free educational content on the internet. The cost for Aneta expected at $60 per year per educator or about $3 per year per student is infinitesimal compared to average annual per pupil spend of $13000 per year. Yet Aneta has the potential to make up for the shortfall of interventionists and tutors who cost in the range of $15 - $70+ per hour! For families who don’t get Aneta through school and decide to purchase, Aneta will be priced at $5 per month for up to 5 kids -  a price that is significantly lower than the hourly cost of a babysitter.

Aneta is a SaaS platform that creates a scheduling capability for educators and parents to give access to internet resources to children ages 2 - 10 in a directed journey or to a set of approved links, while enabling the kids to navigate independently. Aneta supports educators with pre-created digital journeys, playlists of websites and links which saves them from having to do content discovery, curation themselves

Aneta has two planned sources of Revenue. 

1) Subscription for the educator and child facing workflow 

2) Marketplace for Anetapacks (playlists of digital resources) and, Premium map themes

1. Subscription revenue

   1. Aneta is primarily a B2B product sold via subscription to educators. That is, Single site Charter schools serving PreK - 5 - (they have less bureaucracy), Multi-site Charter schools , Organizations focused on academic outcomes for low income kids, Tutoring organizations, Out of school time providers who integrate digital and in real life models, Non profits who sponsor innovations in education for early childhood, Early childhood care providers. Educator per seat subscriptions are  $60/year (Educator). Site level subscriptions will be sold at discounted per seat prices for a minimum of 10 seat purchases. 

   2. There is a possibility of B2C sales direct to parents at $5/month but it is not expected to be a primary channel.

   3. Aneta is also exploring B2B2C: Non-profit or other will sponsor and pay for family accounts for several underserved kids. $5 per month per family.

2. Marketplace sales

   1. Anetapack Curator subscriptions are free to encourage a wide range of curators to make Anetapacks for listing in the Anetapack marketplace. However, Curator sales of Anetapacks will be subject to 15% fee with potential tiered fee for high volume Curators.  

   2. Premium map themes produced/sanctioned by Aneta. These are the maps that kids see and the delightful interface through which they access links to take them around the internet.  Anticipating ~ $3 each

Aneta is in the early stages of launch and is actively recruiting individual educators/teachers through gratis pilots across several charter schools and tutoring organizations. The strategy is to get individuals who turn to champions for Aneta and who will evangelize about the value proposition of Aneta. These individuals convert their colleagues in their schools and others to paid subscribers. Pilot partners are sourced through charter school networking and the tutoring organizations are sourced from the lists of organizations that partner with schools to provide tutoring services. Social media messaging, particularly blog articles and posts in arenas where early childhood educators and parents looking for educational material gather, is being used to generate awareness of how Aneta can transform our experiences regarding kids on digital. 

Revenue to date is negligle as pilot partners have been mostly free.

Funding raised: $350,000 from friends and family and founder investment

Grant: $10,000 from JFF Labs accelerator