Richmond-native Will Jordan-Cooley is using technology to bring the world, and its languages, closer together.
Jordan-Cooley's startup Pangea Chat uses its platform to facilitate conversation-based language learning by using natural language processing and game design. Users choose a target language they want to learn, and then either join a chat room with other users or start a chat with a friend using the platform.
Users type messages in either their language or the language they want to learn; the app translates the message for the chat partner to receive in their target language and breaks down the parts of speech and vocabulary. The app then generates games based on the conversation topic that allows users to practice skills in a real-life conversational context.
Jordan-Cooley said the platform is a cross between a messenger app like WhatsApp and a language learning app like Duolingo, one of Pangea Chat's primary competitors. He said the startup's long-term goal is to integrate into large messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. But a high barrier to entry into these APIs caused him to begin looking into "indie social media": a federated universe of social media platforms that can all communicate with each other.
"Tying into something like this would allow users to use Pangea Chat with a much wider user base so people don't have to be directly on the app, and we don't have to rely on API integration," Jordan-Cooley told Inno. "I think this is the future of Pangea Chat."
In the more immediate future, however, he said they are looking to expand the app's use on a community level. Pangea Chat is participating in the Lighthouse Labs Summer 2020 cohort, and Jordan-Cooley -- who splits his time between Barcelona and Richmond -- will be returning to his hometown of Richmond to participate.
"I've taught myself how to do most these things as I've gone along," he said. "Joining Lighthouse Labs has been an amazing way to start to get some institutional support for the project."
Jordan-Cooley created Pangea Chat in 2017 after moving to Spain. Dropped into a new country with a need to learn the language, he put his instructional game design experience to use and designed the app.
Before creating the platform, Jordan-Cooley went to Columbia University for his Master's in Instructional Technology and Media and worked with industry leaders like BrainPOP and Nickelodeon.
Now, Pangea Chat, which has a small community of independent learners and is starting in-class pilots this fall, is run by Jordan-Cooley and his partner, Brord Van Wierst. Brord is a software developer from the Netherlands and speaks five languages. The two met in a CoworkIdea, a coworking space in a university neighborhood of Barcelona.
The team is also seeking opportunities to use the app in schools by connecting classrooms from around the world with one another. They've launched a pilot program that operates with a teacher in Barcelona and one in New York allowing students in both classes to talk to one another and learn the other's language.
More locally, the team is pursuing the creation of a similar pilot program in Virginia. Jordan-Cooley has been in discussion with the Virginia Public Schools system about using Pangea Chat in their classrooms.
"I'd like to get back to that conversation with similar institutional backing, and being able to go into the conversation with new connections after Lighthouse Labs is very helpful," he said. "The connection to a network of people who are thinking about all these things, like the best way to reach out to people, structure your go-to-market strategy and focus your efforts to have the most impact, is really invaluable."
