David Bleicher wanted to ensure his children had access to a first-class education. While they all initially excelled at school, David began to notice his son—who had been diagnosed with both ADD and dyslexia—seemed to be struggling with tasks related to executive function, such as getting organized for school, completing homework, and handwriting. Studies continue to show that handwriting is the most effective and proven learning tool for comprehension, knowledge retention, and creativity. Even as technology becomes an integral part of most classrooms, a majority of teachers still prefer pen and paper as their go-to teaching tools.

Leaning on his previous experience of founding a startup and his background in AI innovation, David Bleicher began working on a project that eventually evolved into Jotit. “After selling my previous business to Nike and managing their AI center, I wanted to do something impactful that could help kids like my son and young learners around the world,” David says.

Adapting to the modern classroom with traditional and digital learning

Jotit is an education platform helping to streamline learning for students and boost productivity for teachers. The all-in-one learning space blends traditional and digital learning, bringing handwriting back to the forefront of education. Indeed, as technology fast becomes an integral part of most classrooms, a majority of teachers still prefer pen and paper as their go-to teaching tools. Studies continue to show that handwriting is the most effective and proven learning tool for comprehension, knowledge retention, and creativity. “Proven learning methods like handwriting mostly disappeared throughout COVID, so Jotit was conceived in response to the shift to digital learning during the outbreak” said Bleicher.

The pandemic had a huge impact on the education system and led to a boom in edtech when learning suddenly shifted from the classroom to the home and students had to rely on digital learning to get them back on track.

Jotit’s AI-powered technology was developed using Google’s large generative AI models and relies on several Google integrations.

“From sign-on and database to the large language models and Google APIs, Jotit uses the Google Suite end-to-end in almost every category,” says Bleicher.

Jotit brings the power of the LLM right to the tip of the student’s pen. This enables capabilities such as spelling and contextual checks, homework hints, tutoring, content generation, summarization, and question answering. “Let's say you’re studying an unfamiliar topic and you make an error about a historical reference; the AI functionality will conduct fact checking then suggest the correct answer,” Bleicher says.

Benefitting from Google’s expertise in the education sector

Since so many Google products were integral to the startup’s operations, participation in the Growth Academy: AI for Education program was a natural step in Jotit’s growth. Most teachers were already familiar with educational platforms like Google Classroom, whilst many students used Google Chromebook during classes.

“Joining the program enabled us to collaborate with Google on a much closer level, especially since our software was so embedded in the ecosystem. With Google being a leading name in the education sector, we knew we could really leverage this relationship to continue offering a great tool to educators and students,” says Bleicher.

As authenticated Google education partners, Jotit already had extensions and add-ons before joining this program. “Our intention was to foster a deeper connection within the Google ecosystem to ensure exposure to their road map,” Bleicher says of the AI for Education program.

What Jotit gained from the program went well beyond a partnership with Google, the founders also had the opportunity to connect with other like-minded edtech founders. “The peer-to-peer element of these programs is very important because you can consult with founders who may be struggling or even just sympathize with their challenges - especially if you’ve been there yourself,” Bleicher says.

As Jotit enters an exciting new growth phase, The team has plenty to celebrate with the recent announcement of a $10m seed funding round from the world’s leading edtech VC. The financial injection will help the startup expand into new markets and continue to develop their product offering.

Predictions for how AI will continue to transform education

“We expect that AI will continue to have a significant impact on the edtech sector and that doesn’t necessarily mean a complete disruption of teaching, but a gradual evolution towards AI tutors for example,” Bleicher predicts.

He suggests that a teacher’s role will have to shift to reflect advancements in edtech, but Jotit has no intention of replacing educators. Indeed, Bleicher believes the tool can empower them to better support their students. “We are always collaborating closely with teachers to constantly refine our offering and ultimately, we are committed to preserving proven teaching methods whilst leveraging AI and other technologies to streamline the learning experience,” says Bleicher.

He remains steadfast in his mission to help children like his son improve their learning outcomes and he’s already seen the amazing results Jotit has had in schools.

“A great example of unexpected value was a trend we noticed when serving children with special educational needs. Often students with learning disabilities get super frustrated when they make mistakes on paper, even tearing up their assignments in anger. With Jotit, they can make as many mistakes as they want then simply erase it on their Jotit-enabled device,” Bleicher says.

“It might not sound like much, but that simple function of starting an assignment all over again with a ‘digital’ blank page on a tablet makes all the difference to students with varying educational needs.”