Serinda Swan, Founder and CEO of Blueprint
“Blueprint is a love letter to myself.” That’s what Serinda Swan said in an interview. Swan is often seen as an actress in popular series such as Gripper And Baller. But she spoke of a different kind of storytelling, one with lasting impact.
In addition to her acting career, Swan has spent over a decade building the infrastructure behind Blueprint, an educational technology startup inspired in part by her struggles as a child.
For Swan, classroom learning was always a challenge because she learned differently than other children. But one-on-one learning was a breeze because lessons could be customized to her own needs. She envisioned a world where individualized learning was more the norm.
After spending years building a related startup called Deedly, which helped kids find individual paths to civic engagement, she witnessed the mental health crisis caused by the pandemic and saw an analogy.
“With math skills, you have 30 kids who need to understand an equation to get an answer. But with mental health issues, you have 30 kids with 30 different equations and 30 different answers and only one teacher. So how do you do that?” It seemed like a perfect environment for individualized learning.
Swan developed Blueprint to provide the solution. It builds on Swan’s experience in film storytelling and uses video series to explore common issues. Customization is achieved through the way children interact with the content. For example, if bullying or anxiety is mentioned, the child can tap the screen and see more in-depth content on that topic. The system then records who tapped what and creates individual profiles and relevant content libraries for each person. Content can also be customized to suit different learning styles, such as audio, visual, video, or even a mindfulness exercise.
Blueprint embeds its learning content in interactive stories.
By using AI, predictive analytics can provide insights into learning patterns, allowing teachers and parents to predict which students need more attention in certain areas, improving both learning and social outcomes.
Swan’s inspiration for these approaches was varied. “No kid is going to want to sit down and absorb a bunch of PDFs. But they watch videos of chefs and then they can click to buy the cookware,” she says. On the set of a Marvel production, she met memory coach Jim Kwik, who was able to both teach and inspire students. The different strands came together in Blueprint’s learning model, with interactive technology and key role models as teachers threaded throughout the content.
The company recognizes that educational technology has many users. Swan says, “You don’t want to negatively impact the teacher experience. We have to take care of them. Some teachers want slides that we can integrate. We’re moving from the most modern technology to one of the oldest formats.”
Blueprint is currently considering expanding its model to other content in response to requests from ministries of education. Swan says, “What should you base fentanyl education on? You can’t base it on math or science. You have to base it on life skills like resilience, communication and self-awareness. To give any life goal any value, kids must first understand themselves.”
There are several broader lessons to be learned from Blueprint’s story:
First, technology can open up entirely new ways to connect users with a product. Take inspiration from what people are already doing, such as how the company mimics the way viewers interact with cooking videos.
Second, it enables new ways to tailor products to a person’s exact motivations, styles, and needs. The system can learn from the way people interact, allowing social media to infer users’ interests from the content they engage with. This is a far easier way for people to receive tailored content than forcing them through a diagnostic or configuration process.
Third, consider everyone involved. Incorporating slide content wasn’t part of Blueprint’s plan, but some teachers wanted it. The company accommodated those requests.
The problem of different learning styles is an age-old one that has been exacerbated by the evolution of educational content. In many cases, learning a “right answer” is no longer enough. Learners now need to understand far more complex answers to nuanced issues such as mental health. Technology can reveal new solutions that are as diverse as the challenges we face today.
