How just 100 seconds are changing the way students learn | This is 100mentors: Topics

Introducing the 100 sec app

We’re elated about the game-changing feature, “Topics”, we’ve added to our platform, and the launch of our companion mobile application recently featured in Forbes. It’s now available for iOS and Android! Inspired by the needs of 1,000+ real educators and 4,000+ real mentors like you, here’s more about Topics and how they work on 100mentors.

Our mission is the same: more conscious students

Our mission (why we do what we do) never changed – we empower students to take more ownership in their education.

We are enhancing how we do it to:

1) bring mentors from multiple time-zones to the classroom, 2) add the option for off-classroom, mobile use – class time is precious(!), 3) make it even cooler and conversational for students to engage more with their role-models, in a personalized way.

“Topics” make it even easier to bring an internationally-minded dialogue to life between students and mentors – the world’s bright minds who share their stories of success or expertise.

How does it work?

Educators take 1 minute to create a discussion topic on our platform on the subject they are already covering in class. They invite their students to ask questions, typed out or recorded in 20-second videos right from their phone, Snapchat-style. Then, multiple mentors respond with 100-second personalized video answers whenever and wherever they are in the world.

Quick impact for both teachers and mentors

For our educators: you no longer need to set aside precious class time to add engaging activities to your lesson plan. For our mentors: your capacity to inspire is now as easy as uploading content to any social app on your phone.

With topics, students have an educational tool right at their fingertips that helps them learn to set the right questions and use the answers they receive to inform their most important life decisions. Class content is now created for students, by students.

Byte-sized, authentic inspiration

Mentors’ byte-sized answers are fresh and help students feel engaged. Shared between meetings at Google, or during a coffee break from a journalist reporting on world news, these short snippets make class lessons feel conversational, accessible, and connect students to what’s going on in the “real world.” New expertise opens students up to a range of new perspectives, with mentors coming from 300+ universities and 500+ companies globally. They learn that there is more than one answer to any thought-provoking question. Answers from the world’s brightest minds make curiosity rewarding for students.

See it in action

In just 2 minutes chunks, inspiration travels globally to students. See how with some real examples of questions and the personalized answers they received here. First up, Artemis from the American Community School asks “Does language shape thought?” and the Director of the Shakespeare Institute answers while on his morning walk abroad in Norway. We, too, get inspired to hear the insight of our mentors!

Why the new feature?

Our new features and app come from an amazing effort on the part of our developers to help make it faster and fresher for teachers, mentors, and students alike to exchange expertise on a more accessible, and personal educational platform. While our live sessions make the magic of connection possible in real-time, topics mean that whether you’re an educator or mentor generous enough to share your expertise, you need even less time to make an impact on the 22,000+ lucky learners using 100mentors.

Topics brings the excitement and innovative pace of technology to one of the oldest and impactful methods of learning: asking questions. We’re excited to see our schools, mentors, and ultimately, students explore topics.

PS: The feedback of our students users, educators, and the mentors sharing their insight has been key in helping our platform evolve and innovate in the space of education. Share your thoughts on our newest developments below … we’d love your perspective!

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100mentors empowers K-12 students to develop the skills to formulate high-cognitive/”Why” questions by addressing the world’s brightest minds, and receiving personalized 100-second video answers. Every day we connect more than a thousand classes to the world. A physics class in Zimbabwe paired with a NASA engineer, a music assignment group in Berlin with a New Orleans jazz virtuoso, a history class in Hong Kong with a museum director in Rome.

Today more than 22,000 students in 420 international & private/state schools & youth centers across 32 countries use 100mentors to engage their students in designing their own learning journeys through interactive class video. With 100mentors schools enable their students to open up their circles of influence to include mentors from 300+ universities at the department level and 500+ companies & organizations across the world.