The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.
After 7 years as a schoolteacher, Ana Lorena Fabrega left her position to join Synthesis, an experimental school that was born at Space X at the request of Elon Musk.
Since then, she has dedicated herself to studying the shortcomings of the school education system and to looking for innovative solutions to improve the learning experience.
Today, Ana Lorena is a founder, author of the book titled “The Learning Game,” and Chief Evangelist Officer of Synthesis.
In this episode, we talk about:
- The existing gaps between traditional education and how we actually learn
- And what changes can be made both inside and outside the education system to improve children’s learning
In addition, Ana Lorena shared with us:
- The origin of Synthesis and what they are doing to solve the educational shortcomings she has identified in her career
- And how Synthesis has taken inspiration from the video game industry to develop its educational products
Synthesis has created one of the most disruptive educational experiences on the market, more like a game than a class. Now, I’ll leave you with my conversation with Ana Lorena Fabrega.
Youtube Timestamps*
[01:30] - Intro to Education and Its Problems
- How did Ana Lorena get into the fascinating world of startups and of technology?
Sometimes, from the technology and business industry, people tend to criticize the education system with little empathy, without knowing what educators and school administrators go through in their day to day.
- Ana Lorena tells us a bit more about that day to day of an educator and what problems in the system keep them from doing things differently.
Eventually, she decides to leave her job as a schoolteacher.
- What led her to make that decision? Was there some particular episode that triggered her decision?
Schools are not going to disappear.
- In her view, what can be changed from inside the school?
The phrase “better an old acquaintance than a new one you have yet to meet” applies perfectly to education.
Parents can be in total agreement with what Ana Lorena says, but nobody wants to experiment with their children.
That is why, in Edtech, it is hard to see stories of rapid disruption the way you do see them in sectors such as fintech or e-commerce.
- How does she think the adoption of educational models like Synthesis is going to evolve?
[29:13] - About Synthesis
The idea of Synthesis is born as an experimental school built for Elon Musk on the SpaceX campus.
- Ana Lorena tells us the origin of Synthesis and how it connects with the shortcomings of the schools she had identified.
The video game industry is the most innovative in user research and in how to get you addicted to a product.
- What ideas have they brought from the creation of video games to the Synthesis product?
In video games there is the factor of the difficulty level. The best video games calibrate the difficulty level very well, because if it is too hard people get frustrated, and if it is too easy, they get bored.
- How do they think about personalizing the difficulty in Synthesis when they have groups, not a single player?
Even though it is online, Synthesis has facilitators and live sessions. From a product and business perspective:
- How scalable is Synthesis?
In the world of artificial intelligence tutors like that of Synthesis.
- How does Ana Lorena think the role of the teacher is going to evolve?
The price of 100 USD a month is not cheap for the great majority, but beyond that families are not used to paying, given that public school is free and, in any case, people pay for tutoring for exams.
- To what extent are they serving an existing need, versus creating and educating the market? How does she think about the mass scaling of Synthesis?
- Traveling 20 years into the future, what does the most extraordinary version of the Synthesis product look like?
Episode Mentions
You can find Ana Lorena on LinkedIn
Recommended book: The Learning Game by Ana Lorena Fabrega
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