Grazpp Edtech has set about to banish the urban legend surrounding knowledge and its inability to be interesting and fun
Text: Rochelle D’Souza Photos: Grazpp
Fourteen year old Suraj is a whizz when it comes to all things technology. His mother says that he knew how to work a phone at the tender age of 3. By the time he was 5 he was opening YouTube and watching his favourite cartoons and playing on both his parents’ mobile phones (he was proficient with the working of both android and iOS) and even knew how to work a tablet and take pictures. Today his best friend is his Play Station 4 and most of his free time is spent surfing the internet and documenting every moment of his life on social media where he’s a minor celebrity.
Suraj is the perfect example of the typical millennial teenager. Flash back to a generation before him, and books were a child’s best friends who took them on imaginary adventures to enchanting new lands with pirates, smoking caterpillars and fire breathing dragons. Reading was once a thriving hobby but for Suraj and ’Generation Z’, who were born in the era of instant news and information and the world wide web, books and knowledge have taken a back seat with millennial’s who are under the impression that the Brexit is the newest British boy band and Panneerselvam is a savoury dish best served hot.
Abdul Ghafoor’s millennial brother-inlaw is a lot like young Suraj. Constantly turned into technology, spending most of his free time watching videos and playing games. It was while observing his brother-in-law’s constant use of the digital space that Ghafoor, a technology and bootstrap enthusiast with startups in education, engineering services and healthcare came up with the concept for grazpp.com. A technology app and portal that makes gaining knowledge fun, Grazpp provides daily news adapted to gen Z tastes and preferences, trivia and quizzes. The platform is unique in terms of its look and feel having an immersive experience with an easy swipe environment. Each piece of content is curated and adapted to cater to Gen Z’s tastes and preferences.
1. How did you come up with the concept for Grazpp?
“When the idea for Grazpp came to mind our first intention was to incorporate technology with education.” At first, Ghafoor and co-founder Asif thought about creating Grazpp as a fun newsletter for kids but then they realized that newsletters were something of the past, and if they were to appeal to millennials they would have to do something that is out of the ordinary which is how the Grazpp portal and the app came to be.
Launched officially by MP Dr ShashiTharoor in Thiruvananthapuram on February 21, Grazpp stands head and shoulders above existing portals and applications that are meant to impart knowledge by very simply being a vibrant and catchy, providing graspable snippets of information and facts. No-frills, no fuss. With specially created iconography to denote the various subjects dealt with like money, science, sport and tech to ensure that the content is easily accessible.
“When Asif and I were ideating Grazpp, we started off with a checklist of what we wanted from it. Relevance of the content and relevance in terms of the nature of our services, novelty in terms of our approach and presentation, safety in terms of the kind of content that we make available to our various age groups of children as they are highly impressionable and we didn’t want to put out anything that doesn’t add to their knowledge and lastly the element of graspability – the nature of the content which allows it to adhere in the minds of our users.” founders say.
Why Grazpp?
Conventional channels thrive on sensationalism as they are tailored to meet the reading patterns of adult readers. Selected articles are then curated applying interactive tools and applications that make them appealing to young readers.
2. What was the main intention or aim behind creating such a portal and app?
What GrazppEdtech intended to do was not to merely create and run a portal or an app that provides information to the younger generation but also to encourage and rekindle reading habits by making the content more visual and appealing as well as to use Grazpp as a platform to inform and keep them aware of current affairs and general knowledge through an interactive medium. “Our first challenge was to figure out what our target age group (9-19years) want to know and how to create something that rewards reading and knowledge assimilation. We have incorporated a point system for our young users by scoring them based on the number of articles that they read (as per the articles that they search and view) as well as keeping a track of their knowledge consumption via tests and quizzes. The more they read the more points and badges they win. This opens up new levels on the portal. They also stand a chance to gain small rewards like eBooks and such. As for keeping them up to date on current affairs and general knowledge, we believe that Grazpp is a current affairs supplement on steroids, thanks to our use of colour and gamification of content and our approach to educate by using mediums like short videos.”
3. So does Grazpp wish to enter the school yard and take a shot at being a tool that can be utilized within the classroom?
Gafoor says that they have no intention in doing so. “We never started this with the intention of entering the classroom. The portal and the application will make significant contributions to a child’s grasp and knowledge of subjects like science and social sciences but there will always be a gap between what is in a textbook or curriculum and our content. Like suppose a new element has been discovered; we’ll be up to date on the change, but for that information to be introduced into a curriculum it would take months, if not an entire academic year for the very least. Also we do not intend to get into subjects like Math.” The application and the portal is specially designed to generate user specific content. Depending on the age of the user who has opened up the page, the content is generated. For example, a 10 year old has no interest in the Demonetization and new financial policies but would rather be interested in basic science experiments and such, meanwhile a 17 year old would be keen to know more on politics and current affairs and more complex ideas and information. The portal and application thus caters to specific needs. The creators have also taken special care in screening the kind of content that is on offer on Grazpp. This new innovation has definitely grasped our attention.
How is Grazpp unique?
Grazpp curates’ news at multiple levels to cater to the reading skills and comprehension of different age groups. Our unique interface gamifies reading through interactive quizzes, polls and custom badges for milestones. Engagement is enhanced through gamification and social media is used to promote healthy competition among young readers. Our multiple delivery modes like web portal, mobile apps and social media channels ensure that our readers are never away from grazpp.com.
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