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Skritter

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Skritter helps students of Chinese and Japanese better learn and remember their characters. The handwriting recognition system that powers Skritter was written by Nick Winter from scratch over the course of two years and allows learners to actually draw characters in their browsers and receive instant stroke-level feedback.

The problem that Skritter addresses is one of long term retention. The belief underlying the product is that active recall on every prompt, paired with a spaced repetition system, will be able to increase the ability of learners to master a language more quickly.

Skritter publicly launched its beta version in fall of 2008 and the paid product in May 2009. In January 2010 Skritter launched it’s Japanese character learning version.

Milestones

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• 
  Skritter added Nicholas Winter as CTO. (6/1/08)
  Posted 3/8/10 at 1:06pm
• 
  Skritter added Scott Erickson as CFO. (6/1/08)
  Posted 3/8/10 at 1:06pm
• 
  Skritter added George Saines as CEO. (6/1/08)
  Posted 3/8/10 at 1:06pm
• 
  Skritter received in Seed funding. (12/15/08)
  Posted 3/8/10 at 1:06pm via akronarchangels.com
• 
  Skritter received in Seed funding. (5/1/08)
  Posted 3/8/10 at 1:06pm via oberlin.edu
• 
  Skritter — Appoints Douglas Sibley as VP of Marketing (6/7/10)
  Posted 6/7/10 at 1:47pm via pr.com

Videos

Screenshots

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Above: Practicing a character
Uploaded: 3/8/10

Above: Learning Progress
Uploaded: 3/8/10

Above: Vocabulary Sources
Uploaded: 3/8/10

Sources

1. 2008 Oberlin Creativity & Leadership Fellows Receive $25,000 Award (new.oberlin.edu) [edit]
2. Elyria Company Gets $100K Grant (akronarchangels.com) [edit]
Japanese and Chinese Character Learning Site Skritter.com Appoints Doug Sibley Vice President Sales and Marketing (pr.com) [edit]