Going from small-town Serbia to the global stage, Sava Opacic and Srdan Perovic, the co-founders of CheckIt Learning, are revolutionizing learning for students worldwide with their transformative EdTech innovations.
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 17, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- It's a 5,000-mile trip from Serbia to the American heartland. These days, libraries full of data travel that distance in a nanosecond. But growing up in their neighboring small rural towns in northern Serbia, Sava Opacic and Srdan Perovic never imagined that their journey would require years, and that along the way, they would become leading tech entrepreneurs in technology innovation with applications in education and mission-critical systems.
From Rural Serbia to EdTech Innovators
Opacic and Perovic grew up just a few miles from each other in rural Serbia near the Romanian border. Even though they didn't know each other then, they followed similar paths. Both men had parents who emphasized the value of education and were pushing their sons toward traditional fields like law or medicine. Yet, as Opacic and Perovic completed secondary school, they both became captivated by the burgeoning technology industry.
Their paths finally crossed when they were both working in similar technology roles for a Fortune 500 company that develops software for electrical and oil and gas utilities across the globe. Opacic and Perovic quickly became experts in the new arena of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS), and Outage Management Systems at Schneider Electric. ADMS allows energy and power operators to monitor and control devices on the electrical grid in real-time, ensuring smooth and efficient operations.
Their operational technology expertise was the foundation for Opacic and Perovic's ability to automate operational processes and became the foundation of their early entrepreneurial success. As sought-after technical experts in the utility industry – united by their shared passion for emerging technologies – the duo decided to take a new entrepreneurial direction. Underlying this decision was another commonality they discovered: the desire to build a robust and inclusive company that drives success through meaningful relationships, collaboration, and high performance – and the well-being of employees and stakeholders.
Their new company quickly earned a reputation as an innovative and effective utility technology company in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Opacic and Perovic had always admired the more streamlined, results-oriented approach of American businesses, and that admiration became a determination to explore their entrepreneurial spirit in the United States. CheckIT Labs, based in Minnesota and Texas, was founded in 2020 to offer high-end technology consulting services to energy companies. CheckIT Labs expanded to include more than 50 employees and 20 contractors, with annual revenues in the millions. Their American client list quickly grew to include major power companies, including Pacific Gas and Electric, Duke Energy, and Xcel Energy.
Despite their entry and growing success in the U.S. market, Opacic and Perovic felt something fundamental was still missing from the CheckIT Labs portfolio.
"We needed a way to contribute positively to the U.S. and global communities in a way that would tangibly improve people's everyday lives now and in the future. It wasn't enough for us to focus solely on the energy industry," Sava Opacic said.
Perovic explains further. "Sava and I often reflected on the importance of our own educational opportunities and the incredible transformative power education has on people's lives. Then, our friend shared an idea on streamlining one part of education for students and integrating a work ethic into their learning process. And this became a catalyst for a eureka moment and a new mission to merge cutting-edge technology and education!"
The Birth of CheckIT Learning: Merging AI, Neuroscience, and Education
With a new mission to accomplish, Opacic and Perovic returned to the drawing board. They brainstormed with educators and technology partners to explore innovative ways to bring their unique technological innovations to education. Out of these discussions, CheckIT Learning was born.
CheckIT Learning is a comprehensive educational platform that blends cutting-edge artificial intelligence, the latest neuroscience on learning – and the needs of teachers, school administrators, students, and parents – to redefine how we teach, learn, and communicate in this new era.
According to Opacic, people unfamiliar with CheckIT Learning assume it's just another digital classroom tool like Google Classroom.
"CheckIT Learning is so much more. Unlike platforms that focus only on administrative functions, like tracking assignments and grading, we are putting the immense power of artificial intelligence and neuroscience in the hands of educators to optimize their efforts," Opacic said.
Perovic said, "CheckIT Learning is not about AI replacing educators' unique knowledge and talent. It's about enhancing it. CheckIT Learning brings intelligent automation to burdensome and time-consuming tasks like grading and lesson planning. This frees up educators to spend more time focusing on their students."
Through intelligent algorithms, the platform can also analyze vast amounts of data from classroom materials, resources, and activities. With this data, CheckIT Learning can develop testing and evaluation tools and use the results to quickly identify the areas where students excel or struggle.
Additionally, the platform provides recommendations for personalized lesson plans based on a student's individual needs, making it easier to address diverse learning styles and abilities within a single classroom.
Perhaps the most remarkable and transformative aspect of CheckIT Learning is its integration of neuroscience. The platform draws on extensive research about how the human brain processes information, learns, retains, and applies knowledge. CheckIT Learning uses this understanding to automatically personalize the learning experience for each student. This personalization ensures that content is delivered in a way that aligns with how an individual brain acquires and masters new information most effectively.
Global Adoption and Positive Reception
With these advancements, CheckIT Learning isn't just enhancing how lessons are delivered. It will transform the entire educational process, turning classrooms into dynamic environments where every decision – from grading to curriculum design – is streamlined, optimized, and backed by science.
One early adopter of CheckIT Learning is Wisconsin teacher Peggy Mischler, who sees its potential to revolutionize education. "As educators, we're facing the nearly impossible task of delivering quality, cost-effective education while coping with drastic budget cuts, larger class sizes, and growing mountains of administrative work," Mischler said. "CheckIT Learning will help our schools and classrooms run more effectively and help students learn more successfully. It frees us up as teachers to do what we love – what drew us to this career in the first place – to teach!"
Today, CheckIT Learning is being piloted and implemented in schools across the United States, Europe, and Asia. The platform is already attracting interest from elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions. As the adoption of AI-powered education technology continues to grow, CheckIT Learning has positioned itself at the forefront of the movement, offering a platform that benefits educators and students alike. Global interest in the platform was also enhanced when CheckIT Learning was recognized as a finalist among the most promising EdTech innovations at the 2024 London EdTech conference.
Opacic and Perovic have assembled a team of international developers and communications professionals with deep connections to educational institutions worldwide. With this team in place, the company aims to scale CheckIT Learning rapidly, bringing its innovative platform to classrooms across the globe.
Opacic and Perovic also recognize that education is a lifelong endeavor, and they are determined to expand the applications of AI and neuroscience in education. They recently entered into a multi-year partnership with a prominent European university to dramatically expand research into the neuroscience of learning. The findings of this research project will not only enrich CheckIT Learning's capabilities but will benefit educators and students across the globe.
The Future of Education with CheckIT Learning
For Opacic and Perovic, the possibilities for CheckIT Learning seem limitless. "As AI continues to evolve, and our understanding of neuroscience deepens, our platform's capabilities will only grow," Perovic said. Opacic added, "We envision a future where CheckIT Learning helps students not just learn but learn how to learn, adapting to their cognitive abilities in real-time and providing a truly personalized educational experience.
The duo believes the platform's impact can extend beyond the classroom. Using CheckIT Learning's data-driven approach, schools, policymakers, and researchers can gain greater insight into systemic issues in education, identifying patterns in student performance that might otherwise go unnoticed. These valuable insights could ultimately lead to broader reforms and improved educational outcomes worldwide.
A New Era in EdTech
From mission-critical systems for utilities to education technology, Sava Opacic and Srdan Perovic have charted an impressive course, blending their technical expertise with their passion for societal impact. CheckIT Learning represents an important milestone on their journey – a platform that leverages AI and neuroscience to transform classrooms, empower teachers, and optimize learning for students in the U.S. and across the globe.
CheckIT Learning exhibited at the Future of Education Technology Conference, FETC 2025, in Orlando, January 13-16, 2025.
Media Contact
Travis Aiken, CheckIt Learning, 1 618-303-1108, [email protected], https://www.checkitlearning.com/
SOURCE CheckIt Learning
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