Isabelle Duston
founder & ceo, education technology for development (et4d)
Vision
Ms. Duston speaks French, English, Spanish, Italian, and German fluently and understands Dutch and Portuguese. Having traveled and learned seven languages, Ms. Duston is familiar with the challenges of learning foreign languages, especially in developing countries where educational resources are limited. Ms. Duston observed, “In the U.S. there are many resources and tools available to learn in your own language. In the rest of the planet there are practically none.” Her dream has always been to provide educational opportunities for learning the mother tongue language, particularly for the world’s poorest people. Innovation With a MBA from Europe and a background in technology, she decided to start a business making i-phone apps to fund her non-profit organization. Following a very successful i-phone cooking app venture, she developed interactive reading stories for the ipad in the U.S. Once the market became saturated, she moved on to the Smart4kids application developing phonics-based reading stories and interactive games in English and then branched out to French and Khmer. In doing so, she achieved her passion of developing literacy programs for developing countries. Her goal is to have a package of educational software products available to offer developing nations that could support children with learning literacy in their mother tongue. Impact The full impact of these new reading tools has not yet been assessed on a large scale. To date, however, iTunes app store ratings in the U.S. have been high. The application has been used for home schooling or as a fun educational game to teach pre-school age kids reading at home. Parents appreciate the phonics-based approach, which allows parents to follow their children’s progress and to use it as an instructional tool by giving them extra practice where practice is needed. Kids between the ages of 4 and 6 find the program fun and enjoyable. One reviewer wrote, “There are so many levels (18) and varied material that my kids are never bored. The boys don’t even realize they are learning because the games are so much fun. Wonderful way to break up our homeschooling day and still know they are learning.” Next, et4d is launching the Smart4Kids application in Cambodia in collaboration with World Education, an international education non-profit organization. By using a template rather than a tailored approach to creating digital literacy tools, the hope is that scalability and sustainability can be achieved in developing countries. The product is sold at an affordable price, so it is accessible to people of all income levels. Skills Ms. Duston exhibits many skills of a successful entrepreneur – willingness to take risks and fail, ability to connect ideas and make associations for developing new products, and capacity for networking and marketing her product. In terms of risk-taking, Ms. Duston invested her own money, which eventually paid off selling over 500,000 apps. In ventures that were not as successful, she viewed the failure as a learning opportunity stating, “entrepreneurs fail 9 times out of 10.” She believes that new ideas come from making connections and applying something you learn in one context to a different environment. For instance, Ms. Duston came up with the idea of creating a template for Smart4kids and adapting it to different languages and curricula through her past experience working with a major software program. Other skills she exhibits and believes are essential for successful entrepreneurs are the capacity to deal with uncertainty, a good anticipation of the future, and the capacity to network. She attends events regularly to present her product and ideas to potential partners. She is also able to identify resource people who can help transform her ideas into application in the field. Ms. Duston believes entrepreneurship is a mindset that anybody can acquire, even if it comes easier for some than others. According to Ms. Duston, “to become an entrepreneur, one needs to take risks and accept challenges.” Environments in which entrepreneurs thrive are ones that accept failure, are flexible, foster creativity and encourage testing of new ideas. |
Bio
A French polyglot currently living in the U.S., Isabelle Duston is a serial entrepreneur with a firm belief in using mobile technology to stimulate educational growth and social change. She has founded several successful companies and has sold over 500,000 apps. Ms. Duston founded her first non-profit organization, iLearn4Fun, in 2010. In 2010, Ms. Duston also received two Stevie Awards for Best New Company of the Year and Technology Innovator of the Year. In 2011, Ms. Duston won Virginia’s Regional Innovator of the Year Award. |