The father-son Naples-based firm offers Internet-accessed instructional management and curriculum for schools

Monday, May 27, 2002

By JOHN HENDERSON, jfhenderson@naplesnews.com

Bob Minor has been a school superintendent and taught from elementary grades on up to graduate programs.

Bob Minor, left, president and CEO of EDU-PLAN, and his son Rob Minor, vice president of operations, have developed a Web-based instructional management and curriculum program. Romain Blanquart/Staff

He was also vice president for a well-known national company that helps students learn through personalized instruction. His son Rob taught English and directed schools in Taiwan, and most recently worked as the director of an international language school in San Francisco.

The father-and-son team are putting their years of experience in educational fields to use in their new Naples-based company.

Their new company, Edu-Plan, offers an "instructional management and curriculum" program that can be accessed through the Internet. They recently began marketing it nationwide to schools and businesses and are seeking out their first client. The Naples residents are in the process of securing a patent on the system.

Edu-Plan's program uses Internet technology to create a customized program for a school. The pages detail specific courses. Access is gained by typing in passwords. The pages can be opened by teachers, administrators, students and parents, depending upon what individuals the school would like to have access.

The program outlines a wide range of information about the course, including content and objectives, textbooks, instructional methods, student evaluation methods and testing, required reading, vocabulary and lesson plans for "intended learning outcomes."

Teachers and administrators at each school determine what language goes on the page.

"The schools would usually take the state standards in Florida and align the learning objectives for the curriculum to those standards," Bob Minor said. "In other words, their task is to make sure the kids are being taught the skills to achieve the standards that the state is looking for."

A person tapped into the course page can also click on a link to other Web sites that could assist with learning the course materials.

"Moms and dads and teachers can be very successful if they have the same focus and are reading from the same page and working on the same objectives in the same manner," Bob Minor said.

The pages are designed to help teachers understand what needs to be taught and how, and for students to get a course overview.

"What this is, essentially, is a lesson plan for a teacher," said Rob Minor.

"Normally, it is up to the teachers at each school to do what they want. It's disconnected. It's not consistent or organized."

He said the program uses Internet technology to give educators the tools to create and locally build "consistent, comprehensive, and connected" learning programs throughout an entire district.

"The information can then be accessed by administrators and instructors via the Internet, 365 days a year, to provide teacher training and support tools to ensure that all schools are teaching the same skills and objectives while assessing students in a consistent fashion," he said.

Bob Minor said in the past, this type of information was either written down on paper or not written down at all.

"What I'm trying to do with Rob is to take and put all the information educators need right at their fingertips on a computer," he said. "They have access to all the information they need, whether it's research materials or whether it's instructional ideas. They don't have to stretch themselves any more."

He said his company charges the school an initial payment of $20 per teacher. After that, there is an ongoing annual fee that adds up to 18 percent of the initial cost of getting into the program.

"For instance, if you pay $100 for the whole program, the school system would pay $18 a year for transmission fees," he said. "We do all the maintenance and upgrading and store all the records. We do everything. Schools and individuals using it have to do nothing."

He said he developed a prototype of the current system in 1983 when he was a school superintendent in Connecticut.

"At that time it was written in DOS language and had to be housed on disks on the computer. It wasn't feasible at the time.

It is such a new concept. Over years its been re-written five times."

Rob Minor said he is confident that their system has the potential to take off.

"We really feel it is something that is going to be necessary for schools and even businesses that are growing and have to train people more and more," he said. "A business can use this centralized training for all employees, and colleges as well.

There has to be a way to get information into training programs and into schools quickly.

This is a way to do it through a Web-based digital system. And everything is centralized and can be updated immediately."

He said that their company does all of the maintenance and upgrading to the system.

"We license it. A lot of schools don't have the funds or the people to install software or servers, all that equipment," he said. "We made it Web-based to cut on costs that schools and businesses need to (pay to) use the program. All of the data is hosted through us."

He said the system can quickly be up and running for a school.

"There is nothing to install," he said. "All they do is get a password from the beginning to build a tree of users underneath.

We sign an agreement with them. In 24 hours they can start to use the program. There is no CD-ROM or software to install.

It is all Web-based."

The Bob-and-Rob duo is working on getting their first client. They currently are in negotiations with different schools throughout the country, and have a verbal commitment to commit to the system from a charter school in Orlando.

"We are only talking to K (Kindergarten) through 12 (th grade) schools," Rob said.

For a decade, Bob Minor was senior vice president for education at Sylvan Learning Systems. He is credited with developing Sylvan Learning programs and designing and implementing the first in-school model. He has also served as a high school administrator and as superintendent of schools in two districts.

Rob spent six years as an "English as a second language" instructor and administrator in international and private schools in Taiwan and China, including the Kaohsiung American School in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He is a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese.