Long a fixture on the local entertainment scene, Jason Brett had a technology idea: Create a social media platform for theater- and arts-loving young people as a safe online place for them to share their work and inspire each other.
Four years and one pivot later, Brett’s MashPlant is poised for a broader national expansion as a tool for not just for teaching the arts but for science learning as well.
MashPlant is an online platform meant to create a virtual “walled garden” where students can create and share class-related content, under the guidance of their teacher, Brett said. The company bills itself as a digital classroom and project workspace where teachers engage students in “collaboration, critical thinking and creative problem solving.”
“Community is the most powerful learning environment, because you feel safe,” he said. “You’re with others like you.”
The move to expand to science curriculum started about two years ago when MashPlant began a partnership with Source For Learning, a Virginia-based non-profit that is pivoting away from broadcast-based curriculum offerings. MashPlant built the organization’s MySciLife platform, which is being piloted in more than 60 classes across the U.S., said Steve Gorski, Source For Learning’s president and CEO.
“We came across MashPlant and felt that what they were doing was very similar to what we wanted to do,” he said. “They were like chocolate, and we were like peanut butter.”
Brett said the partnership showed MashPlant that it could customize its platform to a user’s needs. As MashPlant built MySciLife, Gorski said his team built professional-development curriculum for teachers who would use the platform.
“This platform is a lot more student-driven, and teachers have to be a little more nimble,” he said.
With MySciLife, which Source for Learning offers to schools and students for free, students create identities through interactions, status updates and digital media. “The digital environment has the power to hold their attention and get them excited,” Brett said.
Brett, who co-founded Chicago’s Apollo Theater in 1978 and co-produced the romantic comedy “About Last Night” in 1986, said he started MashPlant in 2011 with a $250,000 “friends and family” round of financing. He described it as a social media site for young people passionate about the arts that would feature student-created content and helpful videos from entertainment professionals.
But Brett said he quickly realized MashPlant’s potential as a tool for teachers and “dimmed the lights” on the original site to focus on building capability for educators. Key to this strategy was certifying that the site met privacy standards of schools and parents, which Brett said it does.
Gorski said the privacy certification allays fears that schools and parents might have about introducing a content-sharing platform.
He said 19 teachers in 15 states are using the MySciLife platform this year, with about 1,300 students in 63 classes participating. He expects that number to grow next year, as the organization expands promotion and teacher training.
Brett said the arts-focused version of MashPlant is being used by more than 100 teachers in 17 states.
MashPlant’s revenue model is based on customization fees and licensing from organizations that want to use it. Ads can also be sold on the site, though Brett said the company is still working on an advertising revenue-sharing formula. He said schools can limit advertising to “mission-aligned sponsors that have a commitment to education that goes beyond infiltration.”
Brett said the company remains bootstrapped but that he might seek a “growth round” of funding in the next year.
