Top Hat Monocle is a web-based tool that teachers can use in the classroom to engage students using polls, interactive demos, and discussion tools, allowing students to participate with any device they have. It was started in 2009 by engineering grads from the University of Waterloo, aiming to transform the passive classroom environment into an active one without imposing huge costs on schools. Top Hat Monocle is currently used by tens of thousands of students at over 70 universities worldwide and plans to expand its services with tools like note taking, online homework, and tutoring. The platform is built primarily in Python on Django, hosted on EC2, and uses Twilio SMS for its functionality, which has proven to be user-friendly, reliable, and well-documented.