Ngajarin: Interactive Education Service in the Form of Online Playgroup

As usual, I was checking out Startuplokal Showcase and this time I found a child learning project which I think has a pretty interesting visual display. It’s called Ngajar.in[a colloquial term for teaching -Ed].

Ngajar.in can be briefly described as a learning media for children aged 2-6 years and provides facilities for parents who want to teach their children things with the help of the internet. On this site, you or your child can do a couple of things like coloring or playing simple educational games. There several types of options/educational games that can be enjoyed. Among others are lingual, social, logic, musical, visual, kinetic, natural, personal and spiritual. Some of the menus have been accessible but there are some that have not been further developed.

Due to my interest in the visual aspect of this site I contacted Ngajar.in’s initiator, Satriyo Niti Atmojo. Satriyo explained that Ngajar.in was originally a casual project but after a month of work, he managed to add people to work on Ngajar.in, among others, Samuel Philips Kawuwung, Iqqi Phoenix and Fly – all of whom are bloggers from Surabaya – to develop the learning media. Satriyo is currently developing a design studio in Surabaya called Vordaya.

Ngajar.in originally appeared as a project aimed to help Satriyo’s children aged 2 and 4. Satriyo then told other parents about the site with the hope of providing additional activities for children and introducing the online world in a positive sense. The intention to introduce the Internet as something positive also underlies the emergence of Ngajar.in.

If you look at the site, there are some events or activities that I found interesting; at least it can cater for my little nephew. For example, the coloring facility which included in the visual learning menu. There are several shape options to choose from, from animals, planes and trains. Although some features are still limited, such as no additional brush and facility to erase coloring mistake but I think the pretty good visual appearance and coloring with the mouse are likely to be further developed. It's entirely possible to add gamification into the site as part of its further development.

When asked about the development of this project, Satriyo explained that it's actually “suspended for the time being” (in quotes, looks like what he meant was that there is no further development yet). There are some technical problems encountered. One of them is visitor’s access from mobile devices because it’s flash-based, Ngajar.in cannot run properly on some devices.

Satriyo admitted that there is a plan to create a startup out of this project but the lack of financial capital is currently a barrier. At the moment, they are trying to look for donations of funds or investments for Ngajar.in.

The idea of the development also has been considered by the development team. That is to develop it into social network dedicated to children around the age of 2 – 12 years old. This idea arose from the activity in a playgroup that is full of interaction not only playing and learning individually. Therefore, Ngajar.in is then called Indonesia online playgroup.

Seeing from the currently available facilities and features, the first thing that appeared on my mind is an application for tablet. Coloring process may be cooler if done on a tablet, let alone it’s explained that user access mostly comes from mobile devices.

Actually, development for the web can be continued, access through website, even though it started to get distracted by tablet, still can be an option through laptop or desktop. But the completeness of the features is to be met such as more interesting gamification, song, effects when doing an activity successfully or various ranges of brushes for coloring facility as I mentioned above.

Services in education segment is actually an opportunity that is still under-developed by startup/project in Indonesia, especially those targeting the retail market or the public, most are related to services targeted to consumer’s lifestyle, game or entertainment. If there’s any educational service, it’s most likely targeting to corporate market or educational institution rather than targeting the general consumer. Investors who I met with are also giving signals of their interest in education services. Apparently, it’s not so hard for Ngajar.in in getting support, it’s just they need to be more focus and seriousness in development should be strengthened.

If you are interested in trying Ngajar.in’s service and features, you can go to this link. As I mentioned, some facilities are not yet complete so do not be disappointed when you try it. :)