Contextual practice
Feedback explains not only what was wrong, but why the learner's interpretation happened — then schedules the right return instead of an arbitrary repetition.
pedagogy · interaction · spaced reviewVictor Herbst · educator, linguist & developer
I build learning systems that know where the learner gets stuck.
I connect pedagogy, language, AI and product engineering to turn complex learning problems into experiences people can actually use.
14+years inside online communities
1,000+learning objects in production
54/54external production checks
01
flagship product
Céu Canto · English learning platform
A teaching philosophy turned into a production system.
Course, guided reading, curated decks, spaced review, teacher monitoring and live-class experiences — designed as one coherent learning journey rather than a pile of features.
Selected systems inside Céu Canto
One product, four kinds of hard problem.
A living language library
Curated decks, guided reading and a structured grammar path share one vocabulary layer, so content compounds instead of becoming isolated lessons.
content systems · reading · curriculumTeacher visibility
The product treats the teacher as part of the system: learner journeys, classroom practice and intervention points are designed together.
teacher tools · learning data · operationsProduction discipline
Payments, offline review, privacy, migrations, release gates and external smoke checks turn an educational idea into a dependable service.
engineering · quality · launchOriginal product engines
Not a skin. A set of reusable systems.
ENGINE 01 · CHARACTER SYSTEM
Twenty pets with a runtime of their own.
Each character is a semantic 48 × 48 grid with multiple authored states, weighted idle paths and a safe renderer. Motion pauses in hidden tabs and respects reduced-motion preferences.
- 20 original characters
- Discrete, cancellable animation loops
- Palette patches by semantic region
ENGINE 02 · OKLCH COLOR MATH
Seeds become a complete, accessible interface.
One to five colors enter Prisma. A deterministic solver produces 13 semantic roles, derived states and a trace — with gamut mapping, collision rules and WCAG AA contrast judged on the emitted colors.
3 seeds
3 validation passesAtmosphere
#240B05Surface
#32140BPrimary text
#F8E7E2Noun phrase
#945736Adjunct
#31447ATarget
#895F22Accent
#9CB679Identity
#3E5289Positive
#90DAB9Negative
#DE6573ENGINE 03 · ADAPTIVE ATMOSPHERES
Twenty-four skies, paired across day and night.
Every sky is a governed token system for background, surfaces, text, actions, identity and learning heatmaps — not a loose color preset. The product stores allowlisted IDs, never freeform CSS.
Noitenight
Alvoradanight
Sertãonight
Matanight
Vaga-lumenight
Marénight
Algodãoday
Tangerinaday
Girassolday
Lagoaday
Amanhecerday
Lavandaday
12 shown · 24 production skies · 12 paired families
Applied intelligence
AI is useful when it improves a decision.
A better next activity. A clearer teacher intervention. A content workflow the team can trust. A process that stops wasting time. The model is never the product; the improved decision is.
Learner
Personalized paths and feedback grounded in observable behavior.
Teacher
Tools that clarify where attention and human judgment matter most.
Team
AI-assisted content and operations with standards, review and traceability.
Business
Reliable funnels, instrumentation and workflows that improve with use.
How I work
From teaching insight to working software.
- 01
Find the real learning problem
Start with the learner's mistake, the teacher's constraint and the behavior we want to change.
- 02
Model the pedagogy
Translate linguistic judgment into content rules, data structures, interactions and measurable signals.
- 03
Ship a complete slice
Design, implement and connect the smallest experience that can be used by a real person end to end.
- 04
Learn from reality
Use feedback, product evidence and teaching outcomes to make the next iteration more precise.
Teacher mind. Builder hands.
I am most useful where language, people and systems collide.
I have taught language since 2020, built digital products from the ground up and lived inside online communities since 2012. That mix lets me move from a grammar explanation to a product flow, from a content idea to an operational system, without losing the human voice along the way.