Mission
Our mission is to inspire in people the love of learning. We achieve this by helping educators design better programs and products that engage learners fully, where the learning process is fun, meaningful,
deep, and long lasting.
Team
An Experienced Team Leveraging Prior Related Successes
Funderstanding has assembled a team of professionals with expertise in a wide range of key areas. Most of the core team members have worked together for several years in managing the company’s predecessor corporate knowledge management consulting firm. The team, which combines diverse skills in the areas of strategic planning, management, education, psychology, web technology, marketing, and instructional design, is described below:
Eric Cohen, President, is a former educational consultant who has been engaged by numerous Fortune 500 corporations. His educational technology products have won several national and industry awards. He serves on the board of the Software and Information Industry Association’s Content Division and chairs its Distributed Learning Group. He holds an M.A. in Education Technology from Lehigh University and teaches Instructional Design at Columbia University.
Dr. Howard Cohen, COO, has 35 years of experience at Bell Laboratories, where he held various leadership positions in R&D management, project management, corporate strategic planning, and new product development and launch. Dr. Cohen had a long and successful record of innovation and converting development innovations into products that generated millions of dollars in annual revenue. Dr. Cohen earned a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from Penn State University.
Paul Kondo, Chief Project Manager, worked for AT&T for 10 years developing company-wide financial systems (Billing and P/L) driven by large scale databases. He also provided analysis and reporting to senior officers regarding revenue and market share as well as competitive analysis. After AT&T, Paul started his own web consulting firm which included web design and programming. Complex web database systems such as career boards were developed in Perl/CGI which were tied into a simple design framework. Within Funderstanding, he has expanded his knowledge of web database applications, web protocol (object oriented) and networking solutions. Paul’s responsibilities include web programming using Cold Fusion (web database), financial accounting and oversees all operational duties. Paul also continues to serve as producer of internal and client projects. Paul received his B.A. in Economics from Rutgers University in 1986.
Add a Comment No CommentsPhilosophy
Funderstanding creates learning tools for organizations in the business of educating people. This includes schools, corporations, and small businesses. We assess a client’s specific learning needs and design active learning environments that address those needs and empower the learner. These four points sum up our unique philosophy of learning:
- Context is critical to learning.
- People learn best by doing, and while doing, they need the opportunity to learn from their failures.
- Measuring learning effectively requires the right assessment tools.
- Learning should be fun!
Core Values
Core values are critical to any company’s success. Below is our set of core values.
- Build a place where learning is something children love to do
- Commit to excellence
- Combine individual responsibility with teamwork
- Bring integrity to everything we do
- Build to endure
Contact Info
Funderstanding, LLC
651 West Mount Pleasant Ave.
Suite 105
Livingston, NJ 07039
phone: 973.994.7950
fax: 973.994.7951
email: Funderstandinginfo@gmail.com
Driving directions:
Note: Do NOT use Mapquest or Expedia because they are not accurate.
From the East
- Take the Garden State Parkway to Exit 145 (Rt. 280 West) or the NJ Turnpike to Exit 15W (Rt. 280 West).
- Take 280 West to exit 4A, Eisenhower Parkway.
- Take Eisenhower Parkway about 3 miles to the Livingston Traffic Circle. You will see a sign for ‘The Village at Livingston’ shopping center.
- Make a right turn just after the shopping center onto Rt. 10 West.
- Just before your 2nd light, bear right off Rt. 10 following signs for Okner Parkway. Turn left at the end of the ramp and cross over Rt. 10. Do NOT get back onto Rt 10 East.
- After crossing over Rt. 10, make the immediate right turn at the end of the road.
- Our building is about 100 yards on the left. (651 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave)
- Park and come in the door nearest to the road. Go into Eastman Management (second door on the right just after you enter the building) and ask for Funderstanding.
From the West
- Take Rt. 287 to Rt. 10 East
- Take Rt. 10 East approximately 3 miles until you hit the movie theatre on the right.
- Just after the light at the theatre, bear right onto W. Mt. Pleasant Ave. (Follow signs for Okner Parkway).
- Travel approximately 1 mile and turn right into 651 W. Mt. Pleasant Ave. (The turn is right after a small bridge.)
- Park and come in the door nearest to the road. Go into Eastman Management (second door on the right just after you enter the building) and ask for Funderstanding.
Work Method
Building Value by Creating Value for Our Clients
Funderstanding’s core product offering, which it is just beginning to market to businesses, uses the company’s CRISPTM approach, which stands for “Customizable, Rapid, Iterative, Scalable Prototyping.” Here’s how the typical project will work:
- a business will discuss with Funderstanding opportunities it would like to satisfy in the kids’ market;
- the Funderstanding team will work with the client to effectively define the opportunity, as well as any potential obstacles;
- Funderstanding will pull relevant data from the KidSeek database; because of the way the data has been coded, reports can be mass customized quickly;
- a set of challenging activities for kids to use on zpodz will be designed, with a fast turn-around process facilitated by Gamemaker;
- zpodz members will have the opportunity to interact with these activities, augmented by visits from kids referred to the site through the client’s customer base;
- as kids interact with the activities, Funderstanding’s design experts will extract and analyze information to generate knowledge and insight for the partner.
These last few steps can be applied iteratively to ensure the most valuable information, ideas and insights for our business partner. Because of Funderstanding’s proprietary tools and core expertise, we anticipate rapid turnaround: a key benefit for our partners.
Add a Comment No CommentsPortfolio
Go ahead, check us out! We built this section to demonstrate what Funderstanding does best. We invite you to explore these sample applications:
Have a comment or an opinion about our demos? Go ahead and discuss them with your online peers or tell us what you think by filling out our feedback form.
Add a Comment No CommentsEffective Learning Environment
Traditional schooling is based on an educational paradigm that has been around since the turn of the century. During the Industrial Revolution, the purpose of education was to prepare people for jobs on assembly lines. And so the organized classroom evolved, where students sat and received their training from a skilled teacher.
Passive Learning
Such traditional education is rooted in the stimulus-response method of behavioral psychology. The leader, or teacher, presents the stimulus–a fact perhaps–and then assesses the students to see if they have learned the appropriate information.
- Teacher presenting stimulus: “Whales have blow holes.”
- Teacher providing guidance: “They get their oxygen through these blow holes.”
- Teacher soliciting response: “Do whales breathe through their nose?”
- If a student replies yes, the teacher presents the stimulus again: “No, they do not. Instead of having noses, they have blow holes to take in oxygen.”
- If a student replies no, the teacher moves on: “Yes that is correct, instead of having a nose, they breathe in through their blow hole. Now let’s explore…”
In this scenario, the student is a passive participant in the process. The information learned is impersonal. Clearly, the teacher is in control of the learning process; his or her interests dictate what and how fast the students learn. The teacher keeps the classroom well organized so it can accommodate large amounts of children, and all the students receive identical training.
Today’s workforce has to meet much different challenges than 100 years ago. Technology has taken over assembly line tasks, and active workers need to adapt, react well to change, and think independently. The Japanese have taught us that our workers need to place a new emphasis on teamwork. In order to meet these new challenges, we need to adopt a new educational paradigm.
Active Learning
The new paradigm for active education puts the learner in control of the learning process. Students can pursue topics that interest them. The process of learning becomes as important as the result. The goal of active learning is to give students the ability to explore whales on their own, not to simply spoonfeed them specific facts about whales.
- Teacher: “Let’s all look at this picture of a whale. Do you see any differences between the whale and the people?”
- Student 1: “The whale has that funny looking hole on the top of its head.”
- Student 2: “The whale has no arms or legs.”
- Student 3: “The whale has a huge mouth.”
- Teacher: “That’s great. Now what I would like each of you to do is explore why those differences exist. We have lots of books on whales, some videotapes, and the phone number for a whale expert at the museum. If you get stuck, I’ll help steer you in the right direction. At the end of the week, you will each present what you learned to your classmates. Feel free to work together.”
The students are now in charge of their learning. They can each explore the topic that most interests them, customizing their educational experience. They can actively pursue information and learn independent thinking skills. The teacher no longer needs to be a subject expert–an impossible task in this age of so much information. Instead, the teacher now oversees the learning process.
Learning Alternatives
There are an infinite number of other ways students can learn about whales. It is the instructor’s responsibility to shape the specific learning environment. Just as an architect creates a living habitat for homeowners, instructional designers create effective learning environments. And just as you would select an architect to design your house, so should you select an instructional designer who matches the type of educational style you prefer.
Add a Comment No CommentsLearning By Doing
APPLICATIONS AND APPROACHES
This section contains examples of traditional and innovative learning applications. We welcome descriptions and discussions of other innovative applications, including samples of your work.
A passive approach
A bell rings. The professor stands before a podium with a sheaf of lecture notes. Facing her is a roomful of banked seats filled with students, notebooks open, pens poised. An hour-long lecture on photosynthesis begins, during which the instructor delivers reams of facts and the students busily record them. The students learn these bits of information and recall them at exam time. The professor grades students on their ability to do this.
A more active approach
Students gather around a table. The professor begins class with a 5 minute discussion on plants. Then, the professor divides the class into groups of three and gives each group a plant. The students are challenged to design experiments that determine how plants get nutrition. The professor walks around the class, providing guidance to each group.
Our current educational system was developed at a time when assembly line workers were in demand. Today’s workers need to be creative, agile thinkers who understand processes, not just facts. This requires a different set of skills. A number of current learning theories suggest ways to nurture the kinds of creativity and flexibility that enable people to thrive in the rapidly evolving work world.
LEARNING A HOBBY
Consider your favorite hobby. Perhaps you are a Pogo Stick enthusiast. It’s unlikely you were born with the innate ability to jump around on a Pogo Stick. But somewhere along the line you mastered this art. How? By getting on your Pogo Stick and jumping…and falling off…and getting back on…and jumping…and falling off… (you get the picture).
Gradually, during this iterative process, your brain and your body (which are accustomed to negotiating the world on two legs) developed a sense of how to balance while bouncing around on a stick. Although you may not have been aware of it, you increased your Pogo Stick expertise by developing and testing theories about how to stay on the stick. You made countless mistakes. And you used each mistake to examine what made you fall off.
The dialogue in your head may have gone something like this:
Okay, if I wait too long to start jumping after mounting the stick, I fall off. So I’ve gotta start jumping right away.
Okay, now I’ve gotten the hang of jumping as soon as I get on the Pogo Stick. But if I lean too far to the left or the right, I lose my balance. So I need to stay centered.
It seems that if I push off from the ground with the same amount of force each time, I can develop a rhythm and build momentum. Hmmm….How can I do that?
What made this learning situation work?
- You were motivated. Pogo-sticking wasn’t part of an established curriculum, but it was on your list of personal goals.
- You practiced in a safe environment. No one was testing or grading you, and it was okay to fail.
- You constructed your own knowledge about how to use a Pogo Stick.
- You learned how to use a Pogo Stick by pogo-sticking!
Assessment Tools
When a business creates a learning system, it also needs a measurement plan to assess its effectiveness. A company training department, which is accountable to upper management, must prove that its employees have grown proficient in the tasks they’ve learned. Assessment is the tool that enables trainers to evaluate and improve their educational programs.
Our current educational system, both in the academic or professional world, often relies on inappropriate assessment methods–for instance, the multiple choice test. Multiple choice tests are relatively simple to create, administer, and grade.
But these tests (and similar assessment tools that contain true/false and completion items) often try to quantify the unquantifiable. A high score on a multiple choice test doesn’t necessarily indicate a true understanding of the material. Often, it simply proves that the test taker is good at multiple choice tests.
An effective assessment tool models how things work in the real world. Rather than testing random facts, it evaluates how the learner applies information on the job.
For example, a pharmaceutical company wants to evaluate its employees’ knowledge of manufacturing a particular asthma medication. So it examines how skilled each employee is at operating the machine that blends the medication ingredients. Although this method is more complex than simply administering a written test, it paints a more accurate, useful picture of applied knowledge on the job.
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