Boom Cards: Interview with Attorney Mary Oemig
Mary Oemig is an intellectual property attorney who helped Napster, Microsoft, and Apple navigate legal minefields such as problems stemming from distributing user generated content. Extremely knowledgeable as a tech attorney, Mary has since turned her attention to K to 12 education via a platform called Boom (see website here) which is now used by students in 14 of the 15 largest school districts in the country(and by individual teachers in all of the largest 15 districts).
Sharing user generated content for the purpose of education is a passion of Mary’s and she recently discussed her career and more via an exclusive interview.
Meagan Meehan (MM): You started out as a corporate lawyer, so how did you get into the field of law?
Mary Oemig (MO): It always starts with an amazing teacher. I took an Honors course as an undergraduate called “Intellectual Property,” which we all just call IP these days. At the time, I thought I was going to pursue journalism or teaching writing. The course really stuck with me. It made me think.
MM: How did your love for education emerge out of your law career?
MO: My love for education predated my love of law. I was halfway through Masters programs in English and Education, when I could no longer ignore the siren call of Intellectual Property law, and I pivoted to law school. It was the early 1990’s and the web was in its infancy. Everything around me was whispering to me about interesting problems in the IP space that needed solutions but I never stopped thinking about education and how people learn. At my firm and in the corporations I worked in after, I was often the go-to person to deliver education to new lawyers about the areas of law I practiced. At the same time, I was learning a lot of things that would become relevant to my career as an EdTech entrepreneur. For instance, at Berkeley Law, I got to learn from giants in the field, including Pam Samuelson and Mark Lemley. They taught me to think deeply about the evolution of the online world, where it was going and where it could go. As a mere second year lawyer, I became the primary author on the Napster defense briefs due to the training they gave me. And now? I manage integrity for the Boom Store, an open marketplace where teachers post their educational creations! All the learning in different fields has come full circle.
MM: Your husband, Eric, was a senator for many years. How did his love for education influence you and visa-versa?
MO: His mom was a public school teacher. Both of us came from families where it was understood that education was a path to better things. We never had to talk about whether we valued education. He’s a data guy, and I’m all about evidence-based practice. When we talk education, we talk about what does the research say? And it says there are just two things that really matter in determining education outcomes — the quality of the teacher and the quality of the parental engagement. When we built Boom, we wanted a product that would support quality teachers and make it easy for parents to understand and engage with the material.
MM: What gave you the idea for Boom Cards and how long did they take to develop?
MO: My idea was much, much too big to build. We are still chipping away at it. The core of what became Boom was the cross-pollination of my work teaching highly differentiated 3–6-year-olds and talking with curriculum creators. I needed tools to track progress and find the right next thing. The curriculum creators needed an easy toolset to go digital. We did the first version in 2013 and launched the product you see today in 2016.
MM: How big is the catalogue currently and how would you like to see it expand? Specifically, which subjects do you hope to branch out to include?
MO: We have two catalogs now. Our general catalog available to anyone is over 500,000 Boom Cards. Our Premium Publisher catalog, which is only available for schools who purchase our Boom Passport product, is over 60,000 Boom Cards. We developed Boom Passport because schools have very specific requirements. By having two catalogs we can meet the needs of a variety of educators. Tutors, parochial schoolteachers, private school teachers, and homeschoolers, both secular and religious, can find what suits them in our general catalog. Public schools with stricter content requirements who need access to a flexible selection are better served with the Boom Passport catalog.
MM: What’s your favorite Boom Card deck and why?
MO: A lot of my team goes for the flashlight or feed the monster games because they are cute. I’m going to show off just how nerdy I am by picking Melissa Bennett’s decks. She is listed in our store as I heart 4th grade. When my kids were in elementary, I often would volunteer during math and later as a substitute teacher at their school. Her materials are just brilliantly designed for helping elementary students develop advanced math thinking with instant error checking. Those are a favorite for me.
MM: What kinds of feedback have you gotten about the Boom Cards?
MO: Addicted! Love! Love! Love! We get superlatives. And that is a really good feeling. Our philosophy is to design for what teachers need. Remember, teachers are one of the most important components to education success. If we are meeting teachers’ needs, we are meeting students’ needs.
MM: What has been the best thing about working in the education industry so far?
MO: The joy our product brings children. When I substitute, I usually make it through the whole lesson plan and have time left over to do optional items. Our product is approved in the school district where I substitute. There is nothing like seeing a kindergartener’s face light up when I put up a Boom Card with age-appropriate math on the interactive white board at the end of the day. Teachers who are not familiar with my skill set usually don’t include math in their sub plan for kindergarten or first graders. For kinders, I almost always pick Boom Cards that practice finding numbers that add together to make 10. All of us in that room in the mid-afternoon get deep into the work, sharing the delight of a ting of success and pitching in to help a student turn a “whoops” into a “ting”.
MM: What projects are coming up for you soon and is there anything else that you would like to discuss?
MO: We are in the process of rolling out Boom Passport. It is available for schools for the 2024–2025 school year. I am so excited to give the teachers in those schools access to not just 10, 20, to 100 decks — but 60,000 available at their fingertips. With many schools accelerating their inclusion efforts, having an abundant range of materials for all levels will make it easier for every teacher to give each student what they need now.