A team from Colaiste Chiarain in Croom, Co Limerick won the Dragons’ Den pitch competition at the Excite digital learning festival in Dublin Castle for its QuickRevise revision tool.
The competition saw four schools from Limerick, Meath, Donegal and Dublin create and pitch a business idea to a panel of judges.
Initially, the schools held internal competitions to select the best ideas before refining them at a training day with mentors at the Learnovate Centre.
The winning idea, QuickRevise, is a revision tool that uses a deck of cards containing questions on one side and answers on the reverse with a QR code linking to more information on a website. An associated smartphone app scans the QR code to bring students to the exact online resource. Each pack of cards covers an entire subject and could be expanded to cover other topics like first aid. The team expects to make a profit of €20,000 over the coming year.
The other participating schools were Cloughfin NS, Lifford, Co Donegal; Scoil Fhursa, Coolock, Dublin; and St Michael’s, Loreto Secondary School, Navan, Co Meath.
The team from Cloughfin National School pitched GoGrip, a pencil grip to help teach students how to hold a pencil. The grip which can slide over a regular pencil matches, matching the contour for the correct holding of a pencil with special in-built dents. It also has sensors that connect to a mobile device to ensure students are holding it correctly. The device will be used by 4- to 7-year-olds and they are targeting schools and parents. The team expects to make €7,000 in their first year.
Scoil Fhursa, Coolock’s team presented Handband, a digital bracelet replacement worn by students to track their attendance, replacing the traditional roll book. An embedded chip allows it to act as digital wallet, which students can use to buy things from the school shop, removing the need to carry money. The device can be branded with the school logo and can improve student safety by tracking if they leave the school and it is capable of receiving messages from the school.
Finally, Beta (Bringing Education to All) from St Michael’s, Loreto Secondary School, Navan, is a home schooling and virtual tour platform that uses a camera to link absent students to their class, allowing them to participate in lessons as if they were present. The same technology can be used to create virtual tours and exhibitions. The team plans to to raise €5,000 from crowdfunding website Kickstarter to develop the product.
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