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Edtech Insiders
Edtech Insiders
From Clunky Systems to Seamless Schools: How Sisi is Changing the Game
SiSi (SiSi pronounced “See-See”) is a transformative all-in-one platform that brings together everything schools need—student records, learning tools, financials, admissions, communication, and more—into one simple, seamless system. Designed for educators, SiSi replaces the chaos of juggling multiple platforms with an intuitive solution that saves time, reduces complexity, and strengthens school communities.
With features like AI-powered insights and automated processes, SiSi empowers teachers, administrators, and families to focus on what matters most: helping students thrive. It’s the ultimate partner for modern schools looking to work smarter and embrace the future of education.
Joined by Rico Chow the Chief Product Officer, Jett Wolper the Founder and CEO of Sisi and Brandon Porterfield, Co-Principal of Hope International Academy Okinawa.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How Sisi’s design simplifies school management for all stakeholders.
- Challenges and opportunities in the international school market.
- The role of AI in improving efficiency and engagement.
- Real-world examples of Sisi streamlining school workflows.
- How Sisi envisions leveling the playing field in education technology.
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:00] The challenge of building an all-in-one platform: “We do this not because it’s easy, but because it’s difficult.”
[00:03:25] Designing for global, culturally diverse school contexts.
[00:06:45] How Sisi reduces time-consuming tasks for schools.
[00:11:15] The pitfalls of fragmented systems and the power of true integration.
[00:18:30] Importance of user feedback and community engagement in product development.
[00:25:40] AI’s role in reducing teacher burnout and improving student outcomes.
[00:32:55] The impact of user-friendly design in international schools.
[00:40:30] Vision for supporting under-resourced schools with streamlined tools.
If you'd like to see SiSi in action, they’ll be partnering with IFIP at BETT ExCeL London 2025!
IFIP—the International Forums of Inclusion Practitioners—is an incredible organization leading the charge for inclusion on a global scale. Just this year, they co-hosted the Global Inclusive Schools’ Forum at UNESCO in Paris. Definitely check them out.
If you’re attending BETT, stop by the London Suite on January 23rd and 24th to connect with SiSi. They’d love to meet you and share more about their work!
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🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for EdTech companies. Run by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work as hard as you do.
[00:00:00] Jett Wolper: As the great quote goes, we do this thing not because it's easy, but because it is difficult. And we saw from the beginning, this is going to be a very complex thing. It can't just work for one school. It can't just work for 10 schools. It has to work for every different type of school in an international format.
And so when we look at all these different pieces, you know, the first, it's a little overwhelming. There's so much going on, but when you really break it down, there's some core components that are really similar and really easy to create a very general, very customizable platform.
[00:00:25] Rico Chow: When we have such a diverse range of users, diverse range of cultural context and whatnot, we get so many valuable feedback like, oh, that's interesting.
In Asia, they prefer this. Oh, in Western Europe, they prefer this. Oh, in the States, they prefer this. So just having that and then really going back and thinking about it as a design. So how can we make this very easy, user centric, powerful, but flexible and adaptable enough for the multitude of contexts around the world.
So that's been like a really, really big highlight for us in international education.
[00:00:57] Brandon Porterfield: It's really designed to be as simple and user friendly for every Person on the team, in admin, in the office, for the teachers, for the parents. Each one is specifically so like, it's just extremely user friendly and it's so easy to get in there and do what you need to do rather than hopping around and digging through menus and where's the emergency contact?
How do I contact these families? All that stuff is just right there. It is easy to find and it is extremely like design centered. So you can feel it when you're in it and you don't have to think about it. You just do what you need to do.
[00:01:41] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry, from funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood, K 12, higher ed, and work. You'll find it all here at EdTech Insiders. Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event calendar.
And to go deeper, check out EdTech Insiders Plus, where you can get premium. Access to our WhatsApp channel, early access to events and back channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoyed today's pod.
We have a special interview today. We are joined by Jet Wolper, founder and CEO of Sisi, along with Rico Chow, the chief product officer of Sisi, as well as Brandon Porterfield, who is the co principal of Hope International Academy. Okinawa. Sisi is a transformative all in one platform that brings together everything schools need into one simple, seamless system that's records, financials, admissions, communications, learning tools, and more.
Designed for educators, Sisi replaces the chaos of juggling multiple platforms with an intuitive solution that saves time, you. Produces complexity and strengthening school communities with the help of AI. Rico Chow is a former teacher, coordinator, principal, and school evaluator who has supported schools in Canada, the Middle East, and Europe.
He transitioned out of the classroom to Sisi as he was frustrated with the fragmented management systems at his school, as well as with schools around the world. Brandon Porterfield is the co principal of HOPE International Academy, Okinawa, where he's played a key role in growing the school from a startup to a thriving international institution offering education from kindergarten through high school.
He has a background in IT from his service in the United States Marines, and Brandon has successfully integrated ICT into education across Okinawa, combining technical expertise, With educational leadership to drive innovation and growth. And finally, Jet Walper is the co founder and CEO of Sisi. Coming from a family of educators and having attended several international schools himself, Jet combines his background in enterprise software with his passion for education, his mission to bring the same powerful tools used in big business to the education space, simplifying school management, and enhancing the learning experience.
Rico Chao, Jet Wolper, Brandon Porterfield, all of you, welcome to EdTech Insiders.
[00:04:13] Jett Wolper: Alex, thank you so much for having us. We're all such fans of what you do and very excited to be on here with you.
[00:04:17] Alex Sarlin: Ah, well, I'm really excited to this conversation as well. Yeah, we've been talking for a little while. I'm, I'm glad we're finally getting to sit down and really talk about Sisi's work.
It's really an exciting. time for you all. So, Jed, let's start with you. You know, tell us about, for people who haven't yet heard of Sisi, you're building a sort of all in one system for schools, working with schools all around the world. Tell us a little bit about your background and what inspired you to start
[00:04:41] Jett Wolper: the program.
Absolutely. So, I actually used to work in big enterprise software across the U. S. We do sales and hotels and other big with my partner. And I come from actually a family of educators. So my father's the head of the international school. And you know, I'd always hear him complaining about the software he's using.
Oh, I can't make this work or this isn't integrating. And, you know, I kind of brushed them off. Yeah. Okay, dad, you're probably doing something wrong. Right. Never really gave But one day I went out and I visited the school and I looked at what he had and I was blown away to see it was a kind of a jumbled mess.
He had six different pieces and even the pieces he did have didn't quite work right. And he kind of had to make it work somewhat right for what he was doing, but nothing was kind of great. So I kind of did a bit of market research and I found, which was shocking to me, That is all there is. There really wasn't anything really powerful, really all in one and really fully integrated for education for schools.
And I came into this thinking, you know, education would be on the forefront, the cutting edge of technology. I thought it was going to be like the medical field. So when I saw this, I was really, really surprised. I mean, I had a conversation with my co founder, Henry Woody, who comes from an education background as well.
And we talked about it and we decided this is something we're both really passionate about. We see we could have a huge impact. And so we decided to make the transition over to EdTech.
[00:05:52] Alex Sarlin: So, Brandon, let me jump in and ask you this issue of integrations, of having multiple systems that don't talk to each other, don't share data, or, you know, sort of the need for an all in one platform.
Is that something that you have experienced in your career working in schools?
[00:06:07] Brandon Porterfield: Absolutely. But I would say in a different way, I come from international schools, so it's usually smaller establishments. My previous school, we were always looking at managed back, but it always felt a little bit like it was designed for leadership, not so much the teachers hands on day to day issues.
And then when I became principal of the school that I'm at now, we were a startup, we are still only eight years old, so we're very young. We're an NPO, we haven't had a massive budget to be able to buy in to these big companies. So all the systems that I have within my school, I built. I built my webpage, we've done through Google Documents and all the Google Suite.
And a lot of it is extremely time consuming. As a very quick example, you know, when you have a new enrollment, they do a, do a Google form. It's like a 30 page Google form with all the information. Then I have to go through and parse each of those off into various documents. So teachers have access to the emergency contact list.
Admin has access to the fees that each family needs to pay. All these different documents that I have to parse apart. And that is so much time for me. And so far already with Sisi, it has streamlined a lot of that and it has been a very positive change in terms of time management, collaborating with the office and other teachers and the teacher's capability to be able to smoothly just do what needs to be done without thinking about it.
[00:07:37] Alex Sarlin: And I think that the way you talked about it, you had to build some of it yourself. You had to use, you know, off the shelf tooling, like the Google suite, you sort of had to do all sorts of patchworking to make the systems work together. I think that is a very common experience. I'm sure the educators and administrators listening to this are familiar with that.
Oh, I, we used forms for this and we use docs for this and sheets. And then we tried to integrate different vendors in it, but it couldn't, it didn't work. pull it all together. You know, Rico, let me pass it to you because you have a lot of experience as an educator and an administrator. Tell us about the gaps that you've noticed in the past with integrations with this sort of need to patchwork and sort of Frankenstein together systems.
And as Judd mentions, you know, why hasn't education been as sophisticated as other systems like health?
[00:08:22] Rico Chow: Great question. Yeah, I guess from my experience as an educator and administrator, I've spent so much money every year maintaining multiple systems that were fragmented that didn't talk to each other.
The data were all over the place. Attendances here, report card here, my scope and sequence, my unit plans, all over the place. And when I'm trying to think of how do I drive school improvement, how do I drive student learning outcomes? And it all starts with student engagement, teacher engagement. Great.
When we have systems that are fragmented, disjointed, it creates disengagement and that equates to poor learning outcomes, more teacher burnout. That extra few clicks teachers have to do, we've all been there as teachers. It's been a long day. We had middle schoolers or high schoolers or primary, whatever it is, we're burnt out.
And that extra few clicks of things not working, that's the last row. And the rest is history, right? So really, really. Yeah. And I think the other issue is also with fragmentation of the system, it doesn't really lead to inclusive environments, especially for our neurodivergent kids. Those kids who have poor executive functions, who need something streamlined, we want kids to use the platform, we want them to keep up to date with their homework, yet, hey, I'm going to email you an assignment here, then you're going to go somewhere else to upload it, then you also go here to look at your grades and whatnot, and for parents with kids in elementary, middle school, high school, high school.
They're juggling multiple logins more than maybe I am as an administrator. And that experience is just not conducive and not fair, I think, to educators. And I think this is where I'll kind of add in how I met Jet. Basically, in my previous school, I was trying to look for an all in one. I got so frustrated with paying such high cost for these multiple systems for elementary, middle school, and high school that didn't talk to each other.
Moreover, my IT system head is always getting bombarded with, what's my login? Wait, I thought this platform was for high school. Oh, that one's for elementary actually. So those parents were all over the place. How do I solve this? I've met through a lot of companies who came to me and demoed and whatnot.
And what I've noticed is that a lot of these companies, when they're emphasizing that they're an all in one, It's usually through, hey, we started as a student information system, and we acquired a learning management system. And that's integrated just through an API. That's fine, but it's not a seamless experience.
It wasn't designed with the all in one at the start. So Jet reached out to me, and of course, All my principals out there, you know it, we're bombarded with emails of products. Everyone wants to sell to us. Everyone wants to come showcase. But Jet claimed that, hey, we have an all in one, it's modernly designed, it's user friendly, all your data is in one place, and it's a fraction of the cost.
They flew into the school where I was working at the international school in Bucharest, Romania. They demoed it for my senior leadership team, and basically, I switched immediately. Just by switching immediately, I think I cut off two systems already. And then a couple months down the line, we cut off a few more.
And fast forward a couple months, I think back in October of last year, Jed and I talked again together. And basically I made the scariest decision to basically leave school. So I've been in education and international and in Toronto for about the past decade, doing a lot of different roles. I also visit schools around the world doing evaluation.
And. I made the scary decision to leave the school space to join Sisi because I really feel we could have such a revolutionary and big impact because the conversations I have with leaders around the world and educators, no one's happy. Everyone's content with the systems they have. They don't rave about it, but it's like, we know how schools work.
If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Right? So that's the kind of general sentiment I had. Yeah.
[00:12:15] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, I think I'm hearing sort of this like maelstrom of different issues that, again, I think a lot of our listeners would recognize the idea of juggling multiple logins, the idea of, you know, when you have neurodivergent or special needs, there's a whole other set of stakeholders and systems that need to be added on top to support individualized education plans or various types of supports in different places around the world that the patchworking and frankensteining.
And as you say, you know, educators do a lot with a little that's sort of how they roll. So. Having, you know, as you say, an LMS for exactly the reasons that you're mentioning, that people want systems to talk to each other, but then they have to sort of close them together or make it work, you know, retroactively, it all makes a lot of sense.
That
[00:12:59] Brandon Porterfield: was one of the main points of my buy in when, you know, I first started looking at Sisi and talking to the team was that it's really designed. To be as simple and user friendly for every person on the team in admin, in the office, for the teachers, for the parents, each one is specifically so like, it's just extremely user friendly and it's so easy to get in there and do what you need to do rather than hopping around and digging through menus and where's the emergency contact?
How do I contact these families? All that stuff is just right there. It is easy to find and it is extremely like Design centered so you can feel it when you're in it and you don't have to think about it. You just do what you need to do.
[00:13:46] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, I really appreciate you bringing that up because I think that is also another major issue with a lot of legacy systems is that they've sort of had the LMSs are famous for having to continually add new features over time and then eventually can become very overwhelming and not very user friendly and have like so much going on.
And it's true. I mean, looking at the Sisi interface, it's very modern. It's very clean. It feels like a very new system does not feel legacy at all. So. We're talking about all these needs and how Sisi is trying to address many of them at once, which is really exciting. It sounds complicated. There are reasons why others have struggled to make this kind of all in one system.
So, Jed, let me start with you. You know, how are you tackling the idea of an all in one system that does parents, that does student records, that does financials, communications? You know, we've seen some of that in higher ed. But we really have rarely seen it truly work in K 12. How are you addressing these problems?
How are you putting together the design and the functionality and the integrations to make something that really does hit the bar of satisfying and changing the status quo for schools?
[00:14:49] Jett Wolper: It's a great question, and you're very right. It is a very complicated thing. It is an inherently complex thing, and as the great quote goes, we do this thing not because it's easy, but because it is difficult.
And we saw from the beginning, this is going to be a very complex thing. It can't just work for one school. It can't just work for 10 schools. It has to work for every different type of school in an international format. And so when we look at all these different pieces, you know, the first, it's a little overwhelming.
There's so much going on, but when you really break it down, there's some core components that are really similar and really easy to create a very general, very customizable platform. I think there's a little bit of magic in there as well, which I'll talk about in a moment, but really came back to. When we developed from the foundation with this idea of this will be an all in one platform that give us the really flexibility to kind of scope things out from the very beginning on how can these all interact together?
It didn't start with the all in one, right? We had a baseline that said these are the most fundamental things that all schools will need. And just to, you know, work and that already gets them, you know, 90 percent of the way there, and then over time, we've been able to layer on the critical things on top of that.
So really building from a foundational model, this will be an all in one allows us to build upon it really, you know, structured way. So that's the first piece. The second piece that you've heard us talk about, and you hear us talk about a lot again, is design. We're very, very design focused, and we're so lucky to have our head of design, Bernice Larson, who's incredible systems designer, but also UI UX designer, and really understands.
Kind of the importance of design for a user. So one of our design models is this. We like to think that anything that you need to do from whichever your role is, you should be able to do in the first five minutes of using the platform. So you should be able to figure it out without any training, without any guidance to jump in and be able to figure out those 90, 95 percent of things you need to do in the first five minutes.
So really simplifying that kind of front end design. However, we want to have that backend design really powerful. So all those power users, that last 5%, it's still available and still a Not as straightforward acessible, but one step further, which these power users are more accustomed to anyway. So really design focus on that 90 percent of users that are, you know, just the base users that need to do their simple tasks and then layer in those other things.
So really designing in tiers to make sure that it's accommodating everyone is a really another important thing. And then the final piece, and this is where the magic comes is we have an incredible team. We really have an incredible team. Everyone on our leadership team are former educators in one way or another.
So it's really been incredible having a team. My co founder, Henry Woody, our lead developer, Jesse Jenks, really everyone is so passionate, just obsessed, really as the word to use obsessed with making sure this product is great. And so that coming together is where the magic happens. The last piece of that is we're very, very engaged with our community.
So as Rika might've mentioned, we are an international community, but that is a true international community. So we are constantly engaging. And I mean, constantly multiple times a day with users across the world. On how the product can be improved on how we can improve it for their specific needs and how to make the usage better.
So it's a collaborative experience with our teachers. And we almost feel like we're warriors for our teachers. I think we talked about how these fragmented systems and, you know, some of this legacy software gets here, but it's very obvious how it gets there. Right. What we recognize in the market is oftentimes the buyer.
Of the software is extremely disconnected from who the user is, right? So the person purchasing the software for the school, isn't the end user. You know, oftentimes it's a group of two or three, maybe a board that's purchasing the software based on a checklist. I have this checklist of things I need to hit and I need to cost this much.
Right. But they're not the end users, right? They're not the teachers. They're not the parents. They're not the students. So it's very disconnected from that a lot of the time. And we can see from a business model, how that happens, right? Let's say I have 90 percent of the market. I want that next 5%. Well, let's find what that next 5 percent needs.
We jam in that feature real quick, and then that satisfies their checklists. And then we get that next 5%. But we like to approach this as how do we satisfy the needs of our users? How do we make a really, really powerful piece of software for our users while still satisfying that checklist while still allowing that budgetary concerns to kind of play it.
So by doing these things hand in hand, I think we've really been able to scope out. That really powerful all in one software that really has an impact for all our users. Guilty
[00:18:46] Rico Chow: as charged with the checklist. I just want to add, I've been through there as a principal. I had my checklist on a Google sheet, all the platforms.
I'm like, Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. So it was a, A little slap in the face, like Rico, like you need to do better. So thank you.
[00:19:02] Alex Sarlin: It strikes me as I hear you talking about the development process. This sounds like the same kind of principles you would hear from, you know, Airbnb or eBay or other sort of multi stakeholder commercial platforms that work in spaces when you mentioned, you know, within five minutes, you should be able to do what you need to do.
But. If you need to go deep and you want to really, really expand the functionality, we want to have a lot of optionality there, a lot of modularity. And that is not always how, you know, education technology thinks about its products. I think that's really interesting. You know, Brandon, I want to jump to you because both Rico and Jet are mentioning how close they stay with the users, how they're ex educators and how they really try to create a community, they say, you know, fighting for their customers as one of those customers who obviously is excited about Sisi's work.
What does it look like to have that collaborative environment? How have you engaged with the Sisi team to help evolve the product?
[00:19:52] Brandon Porterfield: Actually, I think that's one of the main reasons I'm here with you guys tonight is because I've had such a direct communication with Their team with Rico, which at, and with Henry, one of their main coders, I have met with them probably about once a week for the last two months to go over different tools and walk through this implementation process.
We're taking a little bit slow. I'm going step by step. We're doing section by section so that it's an easy transition for all of our school stakeholders and community. So there we're looking at all these and throughout each of these, uh, smaller step processes, I'm giving them feedback and not only are they saying, oh, well, this already is in place, or that's a good idea.
They're already implementing some of the suggestions and feedback that I've given. They've made changes to the backend system to help support what we as a school were already doing in ways that we found was effective in time. And communication tools, et cetera. And they've already made those changes, which is, yeah, it's kind of astounding if you think about it.
Like, yeah, I don't think any other company, especially, I mean, they're still building, they're still getting better. They're still making all these improvements. And now is the best time to get in and get this feedback and work with them. And I can't explain how great it's actually been to be able to have this conversation.
My background was also IT, so I can bring some insights into that that is, I hope, valuable to them, but I can absolutely say that it has been a very simple, clear, and community based transition.
[00:21:34] Jett Wolper: Thank you for that, Brandon. You know, right off the bat, I might say, is that scalable? Is that possible to kind of maintain that level of touch with schools?
That's not a choice for us. It has to be scalable. That's something that's so fundamental. What we do, that is one of our core products. Dare I say is that community engagement, that can continue to be work. Like we are a collaborative kind of process across the board here. And so, That is caked into kind of our development now.
And because it's very easy for us to become the legacy software in a matter of couple, right, to be replaced by the next Sisi. So we really want to maintain that community engagement, make that a core principle as it already is.
[00:22:05] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, there's this funny, famous quote in EdTech from Pill Hill about, who's a, you know, EdTech journalist extraordinaire about how, you know, over time every product becomes an LMS because they keep, and the joke is that because they keep adding functionality, they keep sort of heading in that direction that you're hinting at, Jet, where people ask for things, they need a grade book, they need a IEP solution, they need parent communications, and people keep sort of closing on and adding things.
It seems like you've taken a very different approach, which is, From the beginning saying, we know we want to be all in one. We're not going to add things because of this Frankenstein approach. We have the roadmap in place. And as we go, we're going to be agile and stay in touch with all of our customers, even as we grow, which is really admirable.
And that co design process is something that ed tech has really started to embrace more now. It feels like you're doing it in a really interesting way. One thing, you know, it's a little bit of the elephant in the room, I think, because we don't talk to that many companies that are sort of international From the start and especially working with international schools as sort of a core customer.
And it's really interesting. You all have experience in that Rico. Let me start with you on this one. Tell us a little bit about the international school world for listeners who maybe don't realize this, this whole global community of various types of international schools that do all sorts of interesting, innovative things.
Some of them act like startups, like Brandon said, give us a little overview of that world and why Sisi has sort of focused on that group as a great sort of go to market.
[00:23:30] Rico Chow: Yeah, so the international education industry and area, it's very exciting. No two schools are alike internationally, even if they're in the same region, it's so different.
It's so vastly different. I think what's really interesting about international schools is you can have very well established schools that are, you know, 20 students. 30, 40, but you can have very, very young schools that are starting at 2000 kids. So there is no kind of one size fits all in the international market.
And in the international education, what's really exciting about international education is how agile it is. You know, these schools are not as restricted by districts and boards. Now that I'm back in home in Toronto, I talked to some of my friends who are administrators here. They tell me, you know, I'm a principal of my school, but I'm really just a puppet.
I can't really do much besides what the board tells me to do. Right. Whereas in an international market, there's a lot more flexibility. It's a lot more agile. It's also, I feel like a space that because it's agile, it's able to move a lot quicker. It's been able to try new things a lot and also what's very great about international market is cultural context is something I think we don't talk enough about.
Cultural context is so, so, so important in today's education, right? I think something I'm very passionate about is like culturally responsive pedagogy, right? Being understanding and contextualizing each individual student in each unique cultural context. And when we have that kind of international education, that international network, I think we bring a global lens.
I think if we were to just start in North America, we'd be in a slightly more of a silo per se. Yes, it's diverse and whatnot, but it's incomparable. I've worked in Canada, I've worked abroad. I think that's something that's very exciting. And with Sisi in the international market, it's just been great to hear how unique schools are.
When we have such a diverse range of users, diverse range of cultural contexts and whatnot, we get so many valuable feedback like, oh, that's interesting. In Asia, they prefer this. Oh, in Western Europe, they prefer this. Oh, in the states that prefer this. So just having that and then really going back and thinking about it as a sign.
So how can we make this very easy, user centric, powerful, but flexible and adaptable enough for the multitude of contexts around the world? So that's been like a really, really big highlight for us in international
[00:25:55] Jett Wolper: education. Yeah, and it's so true, too, right? If you solve the international market, you can pretty much solve any market because it is so diverse.
So you have to make things customizable and flexible, but also kind of contained in a sense that it's not overwhelming. And so if you asked me this question a couple of years ago, I might have had a more So, um, Oh, geez answer. But now that we've kind of made it through and we've really figured out this great middle point, we're informed by our users all the time.
You know, it's so funny when we find someone using a piece that was maybe meant for something else in a different way and like informing, like, Oh, what? That's a great way to use that. Right. Like for example, even Brandon using newsletters that are usually school wide newsletters, but having the teacher send them out now, right.
So finding these new ways to use the platform and kind of shift it to their needs, but within the framework of how it exists, it's really exciting for us. And it's a big one. Like Rico said as well, finding that acessibility. But that global acessibility is finding that a way that what's the baseline that we can do it where it's open for everyone, but also powerful at the same time.
[00:26:48] Alex Sarlin: I want to talk a little bit about AI, but before we do, I just, Brandon, I'd love to hear you weigh in on this as well. As a principal of a international school working in Japan, you mentioned an eight year old school. What do you think is different about the international school market that makes it an interesting and really flexible place for an ed tech company like Sisi that's trying to be very innovative, very agile, very comprehensive to jump in?
[00:27:11] Brandon Porterfield: I think they actually hit all the key points already. Every international school, as I said, is extremely different. Even within my area of Okinawa, Japan, there's about eight different international schools. Everyone is so extremely different, different mission, different vision, different environment, different approach to learning, different curriculums.
Different leadership structures. It is extremely diverse. And I think they were extremely lucky and wise to approach that market and have that as part of their foundational approach first, because it's given them that ability to think adaptively, to be predictive and be informed by all these different schools around the world that have so many different approaches that now.
I have literally been able to see that they can easily adapt to even things that I want to do or approaches that we've had in the school, things that have worked for us. And I'm like, Hey, this is something that we've been doing for a while. Is this something that we could do within Sisi? And they come back, they're like, Oh yeah, this is already done.
Let me try this. Or let me make this change on the back end and you should be able to send it out by tomorrow. Those kinds of things, it is extremely fluid and adaptable. And I don't think any other program that was designed specifically, for example, the public school market would be able to meet our needs.
It wouldn't be feasible on top of that. You know, every curriculum is going to be different. We have the ICA curriculum, IPC, INYC, and a Cambridge high school. That means that even among those two curriculums, there's differences in expectation. So we need that adaptability and flexibility and Sisi has already shown that it can provide us with that.
[00:28:52] Rico Chow: And let's say here's where I wanted just to add in to Brandon, like when I was still a principal, that was primarily the reason why I had to have multiple systems for different divisions. We had one curriculum for middle school and primary, another one for grade nine and 10, and then another one for grade 11, 12, but I couldn't find a system.
That could meet the needs of all of them. So then even for me as an administrator, Oh, I need to check on how the middle schools are doing in math. I go here, then I have to go somewhere else for high school. So it's just all over the place. And which is why, you know, we're so focused on that all in one.
[00:29:30] Alex Sarlin: I mean, these are all fantastic points about the international education market.
I think it's a really fascinating market. I, I have some personal experience of this. My, one of my first, Jobs in education was working in an international school in Shanghai, and it was a fascinating experience. I feel like I learned a huge amount about education, international education. There's one moment that always sticks with me.
You know, I was very young. I was a first or second year teacher. And I remember having parent teacher conferences with some of the parents, and they'd literally say like, tell me where I should send my kid. Next, like get lay out a plan for me, like tell me how I should do it. And, and I was like, I am not qualified to tell you what to do with your child.
These are people who are moving all over the world. But I thought it was so interesting, because it speaks to Rico, your point about cultural context, you know, in, it would never have occured to me for parents to come to me as a young teacher and sort of just sort of cede to me the authority to sort of make plans.
But I'm it's I you guys Different areas have very different relationships between families and teachers. They have very different relationships with, with curricula and international curricula, IB, all the different ones that are out there. So I love your point, Jed, about, you know, if you can crack international schools with all of their, special needs with all of their very specific types of not specific, very generalized, very hard to crack problems.
Then moving to different types of school environments, you know, to use your great word, Brandon fluid in your action. So let's talk about AI. AI is such an exciting moment in education. We've talked about AI, obviously, you know, all the time on the, on the show in ed tech insiders, but AI. You know, people have very different approaches to AI.
Some are sort of clipping it on to existing products. Others are trying to be AI native. Given how many different aspects of education Sisi is, is addressing, I think you have a very specific idea of how AI can, you know, provide insights for educators, how it can use data, and how it can sort of accelerate your process.
Let me start with you, Rico. How are you using AI at Sisi to accelerate your growth, to accelerate the ability to address your consumers, your customers needs?
[00:31:30] Rico Chow: No, absolutely. Great question. Yeah, we can't get away with an educational talk without getting into AI, right? Exactly. You have to talk about it. I remember I was at two conferences, one in Budapest, one in Kuala Lumpur, everything was AI, which was great, by the way.
I'm all here for it. Yeah. So I think, I guess from an educator's point of view, AI has obviously been fantastic with saving teachers with time, helping them with assessments, marking, creating tailored student support, learning support, all these things. That's been fantastic, right? However, for me, that's a quite a, in my opinion, of a surface level use of AI.
I feel like there's much more to use for AI. There's enough, there's, there's all these things out there to save teachers time. We know that. So for us at Sisi, Because we're an all in one, because all the data is in one place, we really wanted to focus more on a holistic AI. So, I know this might be dating my age right now, but who remembers Clippy from Microsoft Word, huh?
So those of you who remember, you know what I'm talking Clippy. We want to have a, basically, a holistic AI, kind of like Clippy. But it takes all the data in one place, right? It takes all that data in one place and identifies trend for you. Things that we would not be able to see as teachers. So for instance, if you know, if I'm in grade 12, like AP English teacher, I'm teaching six classes.
I have 200 students. I'm not going to know each individual student's Issues and all their nitty grittiness, all those things down to the T. It's just not feasible when you have that many students. So what we envision is when we have this holistic, this bird's eye view of this AI, it aggregates all the data and gives us trends.
So for instance, Johnny's been late for the past two weeks. Consistently. Oh, why is that? Let's look. Oh, we got a note here from their parents that they, they're going through their divorce papers right now. Okay. We also see that Johnny's submission rates for his assessment has gone down exponentially in comparison to two weeks ago, right?
Oh, we see that he hasn't been posting any comments or responses in the discussion boards required for him. Oh, then we see he's got a change in his IEP. This learning support has updated his IEP. So he's adjusting to a lot of things. If I had Johnny in one class and I only had 15 students, I would probably know that.
But if I have 200 students in a mass of schools, I won't know that. Especially as an administrator, if I'm managing a school of 3, 000, 5, 000 kids, I'm not going to know each individual student's needs in that sense. So having this kind of holistic AI where it aggregates all the data because all the data is in one central place.
We're able to get those important insights that we would have never thought of, or even be able to perhaps connect unless we pulled all the data out, looked at it and analyzed it with a team. So that's kind of our approach. And Jed, I think I might pass it
[00:34:19] Jett Wolper: off to you to add a few few words on. No, I think you're completely right.
I think with that foundational model of centralized data. We really have like a wide breadth of kind of reports and analytics that we can run and kind of create really, really useful insights. I know my answer on AI is going to be the most boring answer, but I think it's going to have a large impact as well.
I really think that the biggest impact, you know, all these learning tools are very powerful and we're going to integrate them and we already started integrating a lot of them and creating some of our own. But at the end of the day, sometimes they can be another tool that you have to use. And I think what something can be really powerful is.
These little type of interactions, right? Take, for example, uploading a large data set, right? If I have to upload a large data set of, let's say, new guardians, my imported in, but the import field only accepts parents as the field, not guardians, right? AI can really have an impact on recognizing that and putting them together.
And this compounded across, you know, the 50 things you do a day that are these really repetitive tasks that really, really has a large impact. So it might not be exciting buzzword, but these little interactions, we can cut those down and really have that impact for teachers. I think that are a tremendous, tremendous.
You know, impact for our educators in admin, you know, from financial to admission, really everywhere. So. That's really what we're aiming to do, or at least I'm pushing for in that realm.
[00:35:34] Alex Sarlin: I'm hearing data driven, decision making, efficiencies, ability to basically help the data talk. I think that, you know, we've had the pleasure of talking to a few different LMS and SIS leaders on this show.
I've talked to. Instructure, we were interviewing the head of PowerSchool soon. I think that the LMS and SIS space is the best position to take advantage of AI because of all the reasons you just said. It is, you have many different types of data in one place. You already have the compliance and privacy in place to be able to collect them and share them back with educators and administrators, as well as.
Parents and children in different, you know, capacities. And that vision that you sort of laid out, Rico, of how do you put different disparate pieces of data from different pieces of the system together to have a holistic view of any individual child or a class or a teacher or a subject? I mean, there's all these ways to cut it.
It makes it incredibly, incredibly exciting data. As we all know, data is sort of the, I've heard it called the electricity, the oil, the coal, whatever you, whatever metaphor you want that sort of fuels AI. So LMSs and student information systems are, you know, right at the heart of that. They're sort of the coal mine.
So, so to speak, this is a terrible metaphor, but yes, that's what they are. So. Let me ask you, Brandon, I want to pass this to you. As a principal, how have you experienced this sort of AI and education revolution? I know that everybody suddenly has AI and all their marketing materials. You're probably getting, you know, emails all the time from different AI solutions.
What stands out to you about Sisi's approach to AI and what makes you most excited about the future from your perspective, you know, as a principal?
[00:37:11] Brandon Porterfield: In all honesty, I'm not super excited about AI. I think there's going to be appropriate uses for it, but I don't think it is a one all solution for anything, especially in education, because I am actually very fortunate compared to what, you know, the analogy, the example Rico gave, I'm extremely fortunate to be in a smaller school.
You have extremely dedicated, caring teachers at every grade level that knows every student in our school. So we have that daily contact with every individual. We have that rapport. We understand our students. So that need for the AI doesn't excite me. However, Jets example of. Saving the time, being able to, you know, type the wrong word and still be able to move forward.
That's extremely valuable to me. And I think that also is the same thing that would help our parents and that we have a extremely diverse community. Teachers and students from 24, 25 different countries. So we have different mother tongues, et cetera, within our schools. So being able to leverage that AI in through translations and interactions with our teachers and community, I feel has a stronger impact than education.
Education should come from teachers, people who understand education, not. AI. However, I think there is very valuable uses within our context that it could still be used.
[00:38:37] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. I really appreciate that perspective and your candor on that. And I think that, you know, it, it feels like the translation use case, the efficiencies, the ability to sort of merge data, as Jed mentioned in, in a way that doesn't stop you cold from being able to generate a report or is such a.
vital and often, you know, unsexy or overlooked aspect of AI. All of us tech optimists like to think about the future. I'm constantly over my skis with this in terms of what AI could do, but I, I appreciate that really straightforward, you know, say, look, teachers teach AI can help with the systems. Makes total sense.
I think, you know, we're all grappling with exactly how to put the pieces together here, but, but I really appreciate that. So let's talk a little bit about the future. You know, Sisi is relatively new. You've been really building quickly. You've been all around the world. I don't even know how many countries you're in.
You're probably in a lot of countries already. How many countries are you in yet? Over 50. That's amazing. Over 50 countries. So yeah, incredible. Where do you see Sisi evolving further? You're staying close to your customers. You're working really carefully to take a sort of holistic approach to evolving.
Five years from now, what do you think Sisi's role is going to be in the world? Will you be a part of that? In the international school market everywhere, will you be beyond international schools, in different, you know, local school systems and ministries of education? What is your vision for where Sisi is going?
[00:40:00] Jett Wolper: Absolutely. You know, our big thing about Sisi is that ease, as we've talked about again, that ease of use, that ease of lifestyle. And what I really think that that can help with is a lot of these developing markets or these kind of under resourced schools that may have a one to 30 teacher to student ratio.
But providing a powerful tool that can actually reduce that workload can bring you down to, let's say, a feeling of 1 to 15 students. And so it can really level the playing field for a lot of these, you know, maybe under resourced education institutions. And I think really that's really where we can have a huge impact.
We'd love to stay in the international market. I think there isn't a K 12 market we wouldn't like to be in. I think really we see it as, We want to save these teachers in a sense, right? There's a joke I always make, and maybe it's a personal thing, but I don't know. The last time you've looked at a teacher's computer, how many tabs they have open.
One of my personal goals, if we can get that down to one to two tabs, I mean, I'll die a happy man, but really that's kind of our goal is kind of really simplifying the workload and level that playing field for our users across the world.
[00:40:56] Alex Sarlin: I love that vision. One tab, that's where we're headed. We're headed to one tab on your browser.
I love that. Rico, let me pass it to you. Where do you see Sisi evolving over the next five years?
[00:41:06] Rico Chow: Yeah. So obviously I think I would look at it from a very educator's point of view. So one of the, I think most excited about with Sisi is that it's going to drive student engagement. And that means everything for me in terms of driving student learning outcomes.
I mean, I know we've hammered and talked so much about design, but I really feel that, you know, there's so much research out there that actually tells you how systems are designed LMS and SIS has an impact on engagement, which impacts your learning outcomes. But when I get into conversation with educators around the world, we compare and talk about different systems as if they were apples to apples.
We talk about them like they were created equals. It's simply, oh, I don't like this, but no one actually thinks about the why. Yeah, it's just, it's just not great, but no one actually breaks down into wheat and say, Oh, it's actually the design philosophy. How much collaborative tools are there here? How similar are the, uh, design philosophy to the application that students are used to?
So I think from that point of view, it's the design aspect that I'm so excited about because I can tell it's going to increase student engagement, which will help them in the long run. And for teachers, like Jet said, by reducing those tabs, If they can just have one login to do everything, that's going to reduce burnout for them.
And 21st century teacher, you know, teachers aren't just teachers now. They're psychologists, they're nurses, they're coaches, you know, they're everything. They're moms, they're dads, they're, they're guardians, they're everything, right? The demands of a 21st seat teacher are so high, which is why burnouts are very high right now.
So anything we can do to reduce that burnout, having that all in one, making it seamless, making it easy for them. Lowering the amount of click, shortening it to one tap, I think that's going to really make happier teachers, reduce teacher burnouts, that means happier classrooms, better student engagement, and better school improvement.
That's kind of my vision for Sisi in the next five
[00:43:00] Alex Sarlin: to ten years. That's really exciting. And Brandon, let me ask you the same question with a slight twist, which is, you know, you've mentioned your IT background, it was mentioned that you're using newsletters, you've mentioned how Sisi is innovative, The user friendliness of it for each of the stakeholders is a really big part of why you love it.
Tell us a little bit about how you're using Sisi now in your operations and then how you would hope to be using it five years from now.
[00:43:24] Brandon Porterfield: Yeah. So officially we've just started implementing it with our parents and community over the last two weeks or so. Jet actually has gotten on with our parents and done orientations twice.
This week, which has been incredibly helpful. We had about 30 parents join each time, which is really exciting. So for the moment, over the last two months, it's been an implementation of teacher tools, simplifying our, particularly attendance was a big thing. They've been mentioning a couple of times, multiple tabs.
I can't tell you how many tabs we have because everything is in a good different Google sheet, a different doc. So they literally have to have. 25 tabs open in our current system. So already we've reduced five, 10 different tabs with, you know, being able to take attendance, being able to check health, send messages to parents.
And, you know, those kinds of things have already streamlined. And so our next step then is to move into the enrollment process to simplify that onboarding as well as re enrollment. The step we're looking at after that would be financials so that, We have one place to pay right now with all of our different community.
People are paying in all these different ways. Sometimes cash, bank transfer, credit card, et cetera. And it all comes through different systems again. So this just puts one, everything in one place. And then the step after that, that I'm super excited for in terms of the future is the LMS is the lesson planning is the, how can the learning be improved?
And that's really the end goal. That's always the goal. Improving learning, improving student engagement, as Rico said. And with this, because they are actually the very first platform that I believe has a direct connection with the IPC and INYC curriculum, they have these learning goals and the vertical alignment that this curriculum has built into the system already.
It is going to be extremely easy to use, fluid, and Easy for both sides, parents, teachers, and students, because this curriculum is so much student driven. It is all about output, student output action, and about skills based development over time, having an LMS that understands that rather than taking tests and looking at scores.
And those, it is a completely different mindset. And. LMSs aren't built for that in mind, and the fact that they've already pre planned and they're working with the ICA, the curriculum development of this curriculum, it is extremely exciting for me.
[00:46:01] Alex Sarlin: It's quite a vision. I love the sort of picturing a roadmap that sort of relates to almost like a hierarchy of needs.
You know, it's sort of you're piecing together all the different, So many needs inside any individual school. There's so many different things going on with different kinds of systems and curriculum and payment and teachers and enrollment and, and obviously learning at the heart of, you know, everything we all do.
That is really exciting to hear. And, you know, it's so funny, you know, here, listening to all of you talk about this world, the sort of student information system, all in one platform world. It really feels like there's a sort of page turn. Possibility here where, you know, we've all been people who've been in ed tech for decades, have seen these legacy systems and, you know, nothing against any particular system.
I'm not trying to throw shade in any particular direction, but it's just, it has been surprising at times that, you know, we haven't evolved ed tech as fast as consumer tech, as fast as health tech. It just sometimes feels like there's a calcification of some of the systems. And when I talk to all of you, you know, I don't feel that at all.
It feels like the fluidity, the agility is sort of just baked in and that sort of, you know, customer first approach and the customer can mean, you know, administrator, principal, parent, student. It's really a sort of a breath of fresh air to think of the LMS SIS world through that lens. So I just really appreciate that.
It gives me a lot of sort of a. hope and excitement when I hear you all talk about it this way. So we're getting towards the end of our time and we have three of us to do what we'll do a little round robin here for our final questions. Rico, let's start with you for our final question. What is the most exciting trend you see in the ed tech landscape right now that you think our listeners should keep an eye on?
This is going to go
[00:47:40] Rico Chow: against
[00:47:41] Alex Sarlin: what I talked
[00:47:41] Rico Chow: about with holistic AI, but I am very excited about this AI twin chatbots. I've been so fascinated with You just talk with educators, especially different schools where they're trying to create these AI twin chat that's only trained on the school data, the resources they have produced.
So almost having like a twin teacher assistant to engage students during live lessons or asynchronous or whatever it is. So that's just been so fascinating for me. Just the idea that, oh my gosh, like, because first it was like, okay, well they have to use any LLM out there. Oh, but wait, now they can use. An LLM that's specifically designed for that school.
So, okay, the school's mission and vision is really focused on kindness. The way they speak, the way they interact is all focused on that. Oh, I'm teaching history AP and it's only going to be trained on the resources and the lessons that I have produced. I just found that really fascinating. So I think that's, I'm hearing more and more schools and around the world starting to do that.
And I think this is going to be quite interesting. I think it's going to be quite interesting for those teachers who are able to build very strong relationships with their students to begin with. And those teachers who were Do you struggle more? I think that will be interesting to see how that played a role in their classroom.
So a bit of a dichotomy there.
[00:49:00] Alex Sarlin: No, no, it's so interesting. We just talked to some of the people at Google and they call this grounded. The AI is grounded in your particular data set. And it's a, it's a term that I hadn't heard, but I now I'm totally addicted to. And I think it really helps in the educational context because, you know, LLMs that are trained on the internet.
Well, schools don't want things that are trained on the internet there for a lot of good reasons. So the idea of it being grounded in, in, in a teacher personality, in a curriculum, in a school culture as mission and vision, really exciting and digital twins. Yeah, it's a neat use case. I'm excited about that one too.
Let me pass it to you, Jed. What is the most exciting trend you see in the ed tech landscape?
[00:49:36] Jett Wolper: Well, you know, we talked about it a bit earlier that it felt like education and education technology specifically has been left in the past, but I feel like that's changing. I feel like we're right on the cusp of something where, you know, the interest, the money, the capital, everything's really going into right now.
So it's really exploding. And I think it's an, it's exciting town on the broader realm of ed tech. And so Really, I think the exciting trend is almost everything going on right now. I mean, there's so much different technology and conversation and things going on that I really encourage teachers, educators, and even parents to kind of explore all the different tools out there because there are so many and and it's really an exciting space to be in right now.
So, um, we're excited to be a part of that. And it really is just everything right now. The talk is on ed tech. So really there's a lot out there.
[00:50:16] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Brandon.
[00:50:19] Brandon Porterfield: Actually, he said basically the same thing I was thinking is, I don't think there's any one tool or trend that I see at the moment that's super exciting.
It's just the fact that in general things are moving forward and as long. As the focus is on improving learning and that student engagement, that's going to be different for every school and every principal and every teacher. So looking for something that fits your needs and the abundance of tools that are coming out, I think is the most exciting aspect.
[00:50:49] Jett Wolper: Yes. And to make edtech cool. Let's make it fun. Let's make it the cool thing, right? That's the goal as well. Right? So
[00:50:55] Alex Sarlin: that's our goal. Yeah. It's the edtech should be the coolest kid on the block in the tech world. You know, I have to make a little pitch here. So if you want to find out as much as you can about AI and edtech tooling.
With one tab, we could definitely go to edtechinsiders. ai, our new market map, where we have over 300 AI education companies all around the world, because, you know, the last thing educators need is more tabs. But I totally agree with what everybody said. It is an amazing time for edtech. There's so many inspiring things happening in every corner of the landscape.
This is why I love the show. What I do here. And if you're an educator and somebody who cares about learning outcomes, cares about school management, cares about any aspect that, you know, uh, neurodivergence, there's just stuff happening everywhere. You look, that can be really inspiring. This has been a great conversation.
I want to thank all of you again. We're here with Jed Wolper, founder and CEO of Sisi Rico Chow, chief product officer of Sisi and an ex principal and Brandon Porterfield, who is the principal of hope international academy in. Okinawa, Japan. Thank you all so much for being here with us on EdTech Insiders. Jet, where can they find Sisi online?
[00:52:03] Jett Wolper: Yeah, you can find us on our website, S I S I C C D O T O R G D O T U K. Thank you all for being with us on EdTech Insiders. Thank you so much,
[00:52:11] Alex Sarlin: Alex. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of EdTech Insiders. If you liked the podcast, remember to rate it and share it with others in the EdTech community.
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