Thanks for a really interesting course. I learned all kinds of new things and really enjoyed all of the activities and discussions, as well as perusing people’s pitches! I wish I had money to invest, because I think some of you have come up with some really great ideas!

I’ve just handed in the final version of my eportfolio for 590, so it seems that this is it for me! Three years of hard work and I must admit that I’m feeling a little adrift – it’ll be weird not to start each day by logging on to Vista or some other course platform! For those who haven’t yet taken 590 and are curious, feel free to have a look at my eportfolio. I used a platform called wix.com (another great tech business!) that offers free flash web sites.

For those who are not finishing up, best of luck on future courses and have a great holiday break!

Cari

I think this is it! I think this our official last day! It has been an informative and educational journey.

Indeed, you and this course have provided me with a wealth of knowledge for which I am grateful.

Indeed, I wish the best for everyone. Perhaps I will ‘see’ some of you in January 2010 when our next courses ‘kick off’.

In closing, this course has been a great learning experience for me.

Cheers,

Barrie

I must say this pitcher had access to more technology/money for his setup which makes the mishmash of technology a lot easier to understand, nevertheless his downfall maybe that he doesn’t apply the technology to a market like the classroom, the boardroom or a video games.  In this video it is hard not to get caught up with the “wow” factor but it is certainly an interesting concept which will find some use in the marketplace.

Anyone have any thoughts on uses for this technology or the impact of the pitch?

Skip to 2:35 to see the hardware behind the pitch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is my fictional pitch for an online teacher training program.

To provide individuals interested in the teaching field but not able to commit to a full teaching degree, the fully online teacher training course (with a serious game component and various multimedia) will allow individuals to “test run” being a teacher while getting a TEFL certificate upon successful completion of a 1-2 month program.

The online program allows participants to contribute any time, anywhere.

Both pitches are available in the media gallery.  (on top, click Media, and then Library, and it will be there).

EYu – Assignment 3 – Elevator Pitch

EYu – Assignment 3 – Venture Pitch

If you want, contact me at evelineyu@hotmail.com, and I can email them to you as well.

Thanks!

Eveline

Just a reminder that if your full pitch isn’t immediately available/linked within your elevator pitch in the Venture Forum, please make it easy for those wanting to do a thorough review to get a copy of it.  For example, I’ve suggested people can email me for my full pitch.

If you haven’t provided such information already, please respond to or edit your own elevator pitch with a note explaining the best way for your peers to obtain your full pitch for review.

Thanks!

DavidV

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sean

http://delmundo.ca/2009/11/522pitches/

Good luck!

http://sites.google.com/site/incidentknowledgesystems/

I have added my version of the elevator pitch below.  I thought this version might be a little more exciting than listening to me talk like in my full pitch.  I created my full pitch using Zentation and after spending alot of time trying to figure out why I was having problems uploading my video I just purchased the business version (and they still couldn’t support my full video as you will notice it has been split into 2 parts, You tube couldn’t host the whole video either) so I am still trying to get it uploaded to the public version of zentation because I would like to remove it from their private area before the end of the trial period so I am not charged the $160 (yep thats right, for each part to boot). 

You will also find a link to  a google site where I will have the you tube versions of video and slideshare versions of power point available to look at in case I need to shut down zentation.  Hopefully everything works out as I created the presentation specifically for zenatation. 

I suggest trying to increase the video screen size when viewing the zentation site as the resolution is less than impressive (check out the you tube postings if you prefer a clearer view).

My fictional creation is LM Academy, a private institution that offers online secondary courses in an experiential leaning taking place in summers at relevant learning locations.  The LCMS I chose to use is Odijoo.  I hope you all find it interesting enough to get through the 12 minutes!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 1 of the full pitch:

http://www.zentation.com/viewer/index.php?passcode=j5ptMvcNpT

Part 2 of the full pitch:

http://www.zentation.com/viewer/index.php?passcode=qm2Tk7Xgfd

If you find it necessary (the presentation was meant to be viewed with the zentation links provided above) you can find links to the videos and slideshare presentation at the google site here:

http://sites.google.com/site/lmacademysite/

Enjoy!

The full version is available at http://gallery.me.com/bknutsonshaw#100000
* This could be slow to load – please be patient. If it doesn’t load the first time- try again.

This pitch is intended specifically for CIDA- Canadian International Development Association, UNICEF, and Nokia. CIDA will fund projects such as this if it’s focus is on any of the millenium goals- which this one is- up to $500,000. The millenium goals are UNICEF’s thing- They are funding projects that focus on achieving the goals. Finally- Africa is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world and Nokia is the biggest player there. They have funded many development projects in both health and educational fields. It is in their best interest to be good corporate citizens and of course to develop customer loyalty. There will be no direct return to them funding development projects- but in the long run they should benefit in big ways. As you view this pitch, please think of yourself as EVA’er from one of these organizations.

Here is a link to my wiki where you will find my full venture pitch and executive summary and elevator pitch.

Live Teacher is a fictional course management platform which creates ONE integrated course management system that is connected to all four levels in education; 1.Administration 2.Teachers 3.Students 4.Parents –No Overlap and easier for teachers to setup online content on.

Full Pitch & Elevator Pitch can be viewed at;

http://liveteacher.wikispaces.com

Enjoy,

Dawinder

Check out the elevator pitch and the full venture pitch, both render in the exciting new presentation tool, Prezi.com.

Thanks everyone!

–
Len Pelletier

My real-life company CrowdTrust Technologies is in the process of launching a real-life product called “Gleanr” that I humbly believe will be the best learning technology ever invented(!). The marketing launch is December 7, but I’m keen to provide the world-class EVA’s of ETEC522 a very special sneak peek.

Gleanr (tagline “Sow what you know”) in educational terms is a next-generation hybrid of eportfolios and personal learning environments.   In web terms it is hyper-personalization, an emergence of “personal networking” that converges social networking, vertical search engines, and personal clouds (Twitter meets Google Reader meets Evernote meets LinkedIn).

I welcome your response to my elevator pitch (Gleanr Pitch).  Anyone who wants to review the full, confidential prospectus should email me directly.

Finally, I’m hoping that everyone will try Gleanr out sometime over the holidays.  Here’s an interim How To (Gleanr How To) until we get the onboarding/orientation materials into the product.   I will convey special charter membership and privileges to any ETEC522 students who provide me with good critical feedback.

Enjoy!

Computerized health records and order entry can alleviate many of these issues, which is the focus of Calgary-based Patient Care Information Systems. But don’t get too comfortable with the idea of e-records. Errors still occur as e-record applications are operated by humans and regardless of how well an application functions, the application is only as good as the person operating it.

There is a solution! An online simulation game environment that permits clinical staff to practise using the applications in a safe environment that will increase efficiency and skills once users have access to real patient records.

Join the initiative to make healthcare safer and more accountable.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Please note that the audio is set quite high, so you might want to adjust the volume. As well, I acknowledge that this video is longer than 30 minutes. However, this is only because I could not add my own audio and I had to use AT&T’s text to speech demo. I was able to read it much quicker that the computerized voice can, plus I sounded better. Unfortunately, I have learned not to leave my mic where my kids can access it. Lesson learned.)

Here is the full pitch:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbLOluLP0-hUZGY5NTY5NV8yYzl4MnA3Z24&hl=en

Hi Everyone,

This business focuses on second life and moodle.

Thanks,

Adam

To view my venture presentation in PowerPoint format, please click on the link:

http://web.me.com/mycourses/Site_2/ETEC_522_Venture_Pitch.html

If there are any uploading issues, please let me know.  Thank-you!

Cheers,

Barrie

30Sec_ElevatorPitch (1)

For a copy of my full pitch, please click here to download:  http://blogs.ubc.ca/etec522sept09/files/2009/11/Full_Pitch.pps

Cheers

Cindy Plunkett

Please view my report here

Click here to view the embedded video.

The complete presentation can be viewed:

http://cybrarianliz.googlepages.com/etec522a3

Science teachers across the globe are struggling to find ways to effectively integrate technology into their classes.  Rather then reinvent the wheel, Vernier has found a way to replace relatively old analog laboratory equipment with computerized data aquisition equipment.  Despite the introduction of this amazing equipment, there are still some drawbacks to it:

• It can be prohibitively expensive
• It is difficult for students to complete experiments or investigations individually
• The technology can be complicated and difficult for both teachers and students to use

This proposal outlines a remarkable (fictitious) device that will address all these problems.

To view this presentation visit the wiki at: 

www.vernier.pbwiki.com

Enjoy!

For over 100 years, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) has been helping the motoring public. Emergency Road Service or towing has become the corner stone of our organization. Our Online Towing Simulation Tool is unique and addresses the daily scenarios tow truck drivers’ face.

Simulations have been used successfully in a number of fields such as aviation and medicine. Which begs the question, why not for the towing industry which presents equal risks?

Tow truck drivers are exposed to hazards often working in dangerous conditions – on the highway, in ditches and with heavy equipment. Adverse weather conditions further complicate this as rain, snow and fog increase the danger of each tow call. Through the Simulation Tool, such conditions can be explored in a risk free environment eliminating physical injury or property damage. By providing an immersive experience tow truck drivers can practice, hone skills, gain confidence and continuously learn.

My full venture pitch is found on You Tube, see below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

My (fictitious) company is Nucleus e-Learning Solutions, an e-Learning provider specializing in simulation training for Workplace Hazardous Materials training as well as Custom Safety Course Development. Our future offerings will expand into the K-12 Science Education Market.

Please view my elevator pitch here.
I toiled to make it meet the 30 second limit, so once you see what I have to offer in this pitch, I invite you to visit my website to view the entire 11 minute presentation, if you have been given my name for Venture Forum Review.

As the DL school will have the qualified staff and the infrastructure already in place, they could offer various services, including a variety of online courses, with minimal start-up cost. Conservative calculations of the return of investment are high.

Being the first DL school to form such partnerships ensures a piece of a growing market. The offshore schools’ benefit as these DL offerings would aid in increasing student enrollment. The DL school and School District would benefit from the increase in funding generated, ensuring the development of more online courses and the potential to hire more certified teachers.

Please email me at myles_ashley@hotmail.com for the full pitch.  Thank-you!

New Media BC is pleased to announce the top 20 companies selected from 37 digital media companies that attended the Fusion ’09 Entrepreneur Boot Camp held at the BC 2010 Showcase Centre.

New Media BC Fusion Forum Top 20 companies

Notably, A Vancouver company, http://www.ecobuddies.com/ has made the top 20 list for educational gaming sites.

See this story in the North Shore News:
Game showing them the way:
EcoBuddies encouraging kids to take action
“EcoBuddies has also been recognized by their peers, having been awarded best in show at New Media B.C.’s Fusion Venture Forum for Digital Media, held two weeks ago in Vancouver. They were among the entrepreneurs who pitched their companies to investors.
“It’s a really great networking tool, for both investors and for entrepreneurs,” says Ferma.
The title came with $1,000 and a three-month placement at the Plug and Play Tech Centre accelerator in Sunnyvale, Calif.”

This system is designed to give educators and presenters control over their content and supports their endeavours into digital education with a community portal, discussion groups, webinars, content/lesson sharing and an online learning community.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Interested?  Visit lacour.ca/track for more information.

Here is my pitch for my company which will market a serious simulation (not a “game”:).  Hope it makes you want to learn more…and buy the product of course!

Serious Simulations pitch (elevator version)

As per David’s advice, if you are wanting to see the “full pitch”, please visit my very much in progress blog at: http://glewis39.wordpress.com/

Cheers,

Greg

Here’s my elevator pitch:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The pitch is for a new AI system that is more powerful than others in the marketplace. This will be very useful for learning, in industrial processes, and many other fields. My pitch explores its use in teaching surgery. Ansi (A new synthetic intelligence) is a product already tested in pilot and applied in major installations in the field in aeronautics and industry.

Best wishes to all and I look forward to reviewing these other pitches! The pitch can be accessed if you email me at cavanaghuofg@gmail.com –I originally thought the instuctor distributed the the pitch with the list for private viewings. My apologies.

After hours and hours of  organizing students, filming, editing, and tech work, here’s my final product!  Enjoy!

A Pitch for Moodle:

Click here to view the embedded video.

For further information, please see my proposal at http://idealminischool.net/wpmu/epao2

Kask - Connected Computer Systems

Click Here for Full Pitch

The Pitch:

Have you ever been in trouble and needed a social worker or a health care worker?

Have you ever wondered how they stay current? What if they are working away from the universities and continuing education providers – how do they keep up with their training then? How is that fair to clients in remote areas?

The solution is online education. At Service Online we are small, well-connected and fast. We provide just-in-time, innovative training, based on current research and best practices.

Our training is cost-effective for individuals and organizations as well as being sophisticated and engaging. We are looking for an investor to expand on our offerings to cover all of Canada, the United States and beyond.We promise part-ownership and profitability from the get-go!

Could this be you?

Contact:

Annette Smith

For more information please view our full Video Pitch :

http://www.screencast.com/t/YTliZjRh

or

http://www.viddler.com/explore/annette/videos/10/

Images not in public domain:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tastatur-deutsch-DSCN1783.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Help-content.svg

Think baby mobile.

Think lcd screen.

Add touch screen technology and interactivity.

Your child is now experiencing the Bab“E” Mobile!

Click here to view the embedded video.

E Mobile Technologies Presents the “Modern Baby Mobile & Monitor”

Every room in a modern home today has components of technology. Many homes now have wireless networks and several computers. One room that has yet to be influence by technology tools is your child’s nursery. Many parents invest a great deal of time and money to make their child’s nursery the most welcoming environment in the home.

 Technology has been embraced and catered to many demographics and market areas over the past twenty years. We have seen a tremendous increase of computers and educational software within K-12 schools. We have also seen an explosion of video and social networking tools. The Bab“E” Mobile is a one of a kind innovation that could have a tremendous impact in the baby and toddler years both socially and educationally.

To learn more contact me now!

Sabine,

Sorry I haven’t emailed you this week.  How was your weekend?  Yesterday, I went to a Chinese wedding where they served shark fin soup.  You know that I’m quite environmentally friendly and so I didn’t want to eat the soup.  As I watched everyone enjoying their soup around the table, I couldn’t help but think about the sharks, polluted oceans, etc.  Each seating at the table had a new label of a snowball shaped bottle of Coca-Cola with polar bears and snowflakes.  I would have to admit, it’s a cute idea as it resembles a Christmas tree ornament.  Sure enough, the polar bears got me thinking about their extinction as well.  We cannot allow these environmental problems to continue; action must take place.  We need to set a global shift into gear and create a Green Network.  I put my ideas into a blog at www.wonkajenn.wordpress.com.  I wondered what you thought of my ideas as we both share concerns on this topic.

Jen

Images from:

http://images.google.ca/images?gbv=2&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&sa=1&q=shark+fin+soup&btnG=Search+images&aq=0&oq=shark+fin+&start=0

http://images.google.ca/images?gbv=2&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=new+christmas+coca+cola+drink+bottle&sa=N&start=63&ndsp=21

http://images.google.ca/images?gbv=2&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=new+christmas+coca+cola+drink+bottle&sa=N&start=105&ndsp=21

http://images.google.ca/images?gbv=2&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&sa=1&q=plastic+bags+in+ocean&btnG=Search+images&aq=0&oq=plastic+bags+in+oc&start=0

Using open software and free applications, we are able to help set up face to face tutors with an online presence that will not only help them help their clients but also allow them to advertise through social networks.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full coverage in e-learning e-vesting    nburdett_etec_522_pitch

or the highlights…..Pitch etec 522 nburdett

Bluetooth Talking-Points Campus Tours would be automated guided tours for prospective students and families. The tours would be available in a variety of languages and can be simply activated by using a mobile phone, bluetooth headset and the embedded Talking-Points on site. For more information, check out my full venture!

Thanks Ernie and Barrie! I think I fixed it now. You can now watch the video. I changed the settings on my Youtube video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

FOR THE FULL VENTURE…. EMAIL me :   msirischanatgmaildotcom   or you can take a look at the Media Gallery as well on our blog. I uploaded the presentation there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

View the full pitch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9nsRROhSv8&fmt=18

Me: “Hello.”

You: “Hi.”

Me: “Have you heard about E-ducativa?”

You: “No. I haven’t.  What is it?”

Me: “Well, let me amaze you! E-ducativa is a provider of learning platforms and open source systems for the Spanish and the South American school market.”

You: “So? What does that have to do with, at least, the Canadian or the North American markets, let alone the global market?”

Me: “Ah, excellent question! In fact, I was hoping that you would ask.  However, for me to REALLY pique your interest, you will have to view my PowerPoint presentation on E-ducativa.”

You: “Oh, I get it! This is an investment pitch! Sort of like ‘bait-n-hook’”.

Me: “Yes, this is an investment pitch.  But, no! This is not ‘bait-n-hook’.  This is bait and invest!”

You: “Well, I’m all about investing and making money.  So, yes, I will check out your PowerPoint presentation.”

Me: “Good! After all, as investors, we are all looking to make a return on investment!”

Jim

Here’s my elevator pitch, I also had a hard time keeping it around 30 seconds- had to re-edit several times.

I’m looking forward to your comments, Ceci

SalaDeMaestros ElevatorPitch (To open file)

SalaDeMaestros.com ElevatorPitch  (To view in YouTube)

You can view the complete Venture Pitch here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I just wrapped up my pitch. You can find it at Screencast.com

http://www.screencast.com/users/jerichardson/folders/Default/media/aa877250-bd2a-4951-9eee-8d9850da3f85

I apologize for the sound quality in advance. At least I kept my mug out of the project!  I think the building has a lot of floors or I had a slow elevator because I couldn’t keep it below 45 secs.

For the full spiel (imbedded in an anotated PowerPoint with Digity and Prezi links) email me at jameseri@interchange.ubc ca or jerichardson@telus.net . I can also copy you on my reflections if you so choose (true confessions?)

Jim

If interested, here is a link to information regarding “new learning technologies and emergent practices in higher education”: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/NewLearningTechnologiesandEmer/156833

Cheers,

Barrie

Similar to the University of Phoenix, there is also CityU: (a) CityUniversity of Seattle at http://www.cityu.edu/ and (b) CityUniversity of Hong Kong at http://www.cityu.edu.hk/

Cheers,

Barrie

The Teen Second Life Culture Project was an exciting and unique learning adventure taught within a 3D online world. Students from two Regina Public Schools used their research skills to study various world cultures through seven common cultural patterns: economic, political, kinship, artistic, religious, educational, and recreation and play. Learners then represented their new knowledge by designing and editing objects and land plots to reflect the cultures’ way of life. Students interacted with one another by using avatars in role-playing activities. Guest presenters with specialized knowledge were invited to the virtual world from distant locations to share their insights with the learners.

Students also used blogs to record and present their research in addition to sharing images from their virtual land plots. Readers commented on the blog entries, sometimes offering advice and new information to the students. At the end of the unit, students were charged with the task of creating a multimedia project depicting what a typical day would be like for their assigned culture. The student work is spectacular!

In addition to the knowledge and content learned through this project, students demonstrated sensitivity toward, and an appreciation for, all cultural groups. These values and attitudes are important due not only to the multicultural nature of Canadian society, but also because we aim for our students to be leaders in global citizenship.

To learn more about the Teen Second Life Culture Project and to discover the pedagogical possibilities of virtual worlds, please visit our comprehensive project website at: http://tinyurl.com/slculture

If you are pressed for time and only have a few minutes to learn about the Teen Second Life Culture Project, we recommend that you visit the following links; however, we are willing to bet that once you’ve had a chance to learn a little, you’ll want to learn more!

Teen Second Life at Regina Public Schools – 3 minute video

“A Day in the Life of” student made videos: http://sites.google.com/a/go.rbe.sk.ca/tsl-grade-8-culture-project-2008/student-work/a-day-in-the-life-of-videos—macneill

I chose to enter the UBC Global Minds Challenge, rather than creating a venture pitch. I have, however, created a short “elevator pitch” to share with all of you, so you know what I’ve done!

Cari’s Elevator Pitch

I shall report next week on how it’s going.  Working with three colleagues in the US on a project to catalog innovative practices of higher education e-learning consortia.

d.

Society for Applied Learning Technology

Specfically, that there is a New Learning Technologies Conference
in Orlando, Florida
March 3-5, 2010

Among the people they suggest should attend are:
School And University Professionals Involved In Technology-Based Instruction Delivery Systems For Education

The topics included in the conference schedule are:
Gaming & Simulation
Compliance
Design
e-Learning
Training
Virtual Worlds
Mobile Learning
Knowledge Management
Social Networks & Web 2.0
Mobile Learning
New Business Technologies

I think that these topics relate to our module themes and team presentations and also to the topics covered in the other MET courses that our classmates might be enrolled in.
The person I spoke to is involved in Gaming and Simulation and Virtual Training, and mentioned the Department of Defence training videos that we were introduced to in the Module 9 presentation on Serious Games.

Hope that this link is interesting / useful for some of you.

Please view the interesting results of our Informal Learning poll and survey.

 Thank-you!

Hello all!
Welcome to this week’s presentation and discussion. Your moderators this week are: Dawinder Mann, Mark Reed, Jim Richardson, Michel Lacoursiere and Cecilia Tagliapietra.
 
To give everyone a “breather”, we’ve decided to work on Drupl- an online platform similar to Ning- to present the material for this Module.  You can access Module 11 through the following URL: http://www.lacour.ca/etec522/
 
We really look forward to reading your comments and participations!
 
Dawinder, Mark, Jim, Michel and Ceci

One reason this is such a hard deadline is that, immediately following, I will be distributing your submission to a few of your peers for their EVA evaluation as part of the M12 Venture Forum.   Please review the outline for M12 to make sure you understand how the Venture Forum works and what is expected of you.  Some points to consider:

1.  If you feel uncomfortable about your submission being distributed for peer evaluation (exposure of intellectual property or other good reason) please let me know soon.

2.  Note that you need to compose and post an “elevator pitch” portion of your A3 assignment in this weblog by the same deadline (meaning, convey your message in 30 seconds or less (150 words max) to entice people to learn more).

Please respond here or email me if you have any questions about A3 or the upcoming Venture Forum.  I will be marking your A3 submissions.

DavidV

http://digitalplay.info/blog/

On behalf of Ian, Sean, Ernie and myself (Jen), I would like to thank ETEC522 for excellent participation in this week’s presentation.  We hope you enjoyed the Moodle format for our discussions and activities and hope that you will also consider using the Moodle platform in your future teaching practices.

We have all learned something from the assigned activities and we definitely appreciated the insightful and reflective discussions towards collaborative technologies.  We are definitely sure that this will be a growing area of life long learning.

Please feel free to email or contact us if you have any questions or concerns about our presentation.  In addition, feel free to continue discussions in the Moddle forums, if you wish.

Enjoy the upcoming week as we are closer to the finish line.

Team 8

It looks like our pool of collaboration technology resources is starting to take form. Thanks!

What’s been interesting is watching how it has been taking form. Some of you are showing your MediaWiki experience, while others are learning on the go.  Some of you are creating new pages for your reviews, while others are writing a review on the main page for collaborative technologies and linking directly to the tool’s web page. As a group we are creating something new (and hopefully useful) publicly. And as a group, I wonder, can we form a resource that is coherent , concise, and consistent both in content and format. Does this technology (and the time and energy that we have) allow for this? We’re about halfway through this module, and it’ll be interesting to see how this new resource will look like at the end.

I’ve created a collaborative document (tagged as ETEC522) which should be available to anyone who creates an account on AbiCollab, if you want to try it out.

Read the news.

Download AbiWord.

Does A3 have to be done on the same company as A1?

Just wondering.

Jen

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/10/29/1211236/Los-Angeles-Goes-Google-Apps-With-Microsoft-Cash

If you want to follow the changes everyone is making to the Collaboration Technologies Wiki entry you can subscribe to this RSS feed:

http://wiki.ubc.ca/index.php?title=Collaboration_technologies&action=feed&feed=rss

Ian, Sean, Ernie, & Jen

Welcome to this week’s presentation on Collaboration Technologies.

Our group has decided to try a different, perhaps more traditional, presentation style using the OSS learning management system called Moodle.  Many of you may be familiar with this platform or have had some working experience.  If not, that’s ok too!

Our website can be found at http://idealminischool.net/moodleubc/ (ETEC 522: Module 8 – Collaborative Technologies).  To begin, you will need to click on “create new account” and follow the prompts.  I have set the enrollment key as ETEC522.  If you encounter any technical issues, please email Ernie at epao@shaw.ca.

We hope you enjoy our presentation and we look forward to your thoughts and ideas about Collaboration Technologies!

Your Module 8 Presentation Group,

Ian, Sean, Ernie, & Jen

Thanks again.
The Module 7 team.

Bring it on Mods 8-11 teams!

–

We are now at the halfway point in module team activities.  As instructors, we’re beginning to look at participation levels in the activities from all members of the class.  We realize that there is a lot to do in ETEC 522 and some of you may be taking multiple courses.  However, you may be getting a reminder note in your email from us with respect to participation, and the requirement for such in the overall scheme for the course.  In most cases, you will not receive an email from us because you have been active in most or all modules.

We’re now heading into the home stretch with a few module teams yet to provide us with an activity for their module theme.  Most of you will also be focused on your Assignment 3 pitch.  Please let us know if there is any advice we can provide as we head towards the venture forum, Module 12.

Make sure you check out under learning models: in the discussion forum re: the question about what your PLE diagram would look like.

Making your own PLE concept map is a fun way to see how we are already customizing our learning using the new web 2.0 tools available. Visit the Learning models main page to see a link to lots of student PLE samples, then feel free to post your PLE diagram at:

http://1to1tech.ning.com/forum/categories/learning-models/listForCategory  Please join in this interactive activity–we can’t wait to see your “BOOtiful” diagrams-Happy Halloween.

I was thinking through some of the issues with moving towards a 1:1 ratio, many of which are being discussed in the forums and comments, and looking for inexpensive ways of deploying more computers for students to use. I have better than a 1:1 ratio in my class, but my school at large is nowhere near. Here are two technologies that I’ve found, and I’m hoping that together we can find more.

Linux Terminal Server Project (http://www.ltsp.org/)

Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is designed to connect multiple low-cost terminals to a powerful server which does all of the processing and storage for all users. The terminals can be old computers or newer thin clients, as long as they have a basic processor, video card, network card, and keyboard and mouse support. They don’t need any drives, as storage is handled by the server. Input by users is sent over the network, the server does the processing, and the results are resent over the network for the terminal to display. Practically, it’s like having your own machine.

The advantage to this is in costs and maintenance. The server is the only machine that needs to be setup and maintained. All of the terminals are interchangeable, and with the drives removed, the most common failures are gone as well. A single quad-core machine acting as a server (about $700) should run about 30 clients at reasonable speed. If the terminals are powerful enough, some processing can be done on them to reduce the load on the server too. Just about any old computer can be a terminal, so the clients can be old inventory or donated machines. Ubuntu includes a LTSP configuration in the install disk, so setting up a basic lab can be done in just a few hours.

The issue with this setup is that it uses Linux. While the OS and applications are free, it may be difficult getting IT to manage the system. If the IT already supports Linux, it should be an easy implementation.

Userful (http://www2.userful.com/)

From what I can tell, Userful behaves similarly to an LTSP environment, but instead of dummy boxes connected by network to the server, a keyboard, mouse, and monitor is connected directly  to the server. It also uses Linux as the OS, so the same implications with software as the LTSP apply.

There are some performance advantages to this setup. Since each monitor/desktop has direct access to a video card, video performance is improved. Also, since a server is limited to about 10 user desktops, each user could have a larger slice of the processing power.  The company claims that it costs about $70 per user in hardware costs in addition to the server. Here’s my own cost estimate for a brand new lab of 30 machines. You would need 30 modules ($2100), 3 servers ($2100), 15 video cards ($900), 30 keyboards, mice, and monitors ($6000), which comes to $11100. I imagine that many schools would be able to scrounge the keyboards, mice and monitors, and that would reduce the cost significantly, to just over $5000.

If you know of other options, I’d love to see more solutions for schools looking to expand their computer offerings.

Apparently this version corrects many of the formatting issues with document interoperability that have been the barrier to entry for many, including me.

The blog post about the OO 3.2beta is here:

OpenOffice 3.2beta

I’m currently downloading this version to see whether it addresses my issues.  I would love to walk the “open” talk completely, but document formatting is an issue.  Let’s hope it’s good news.

Handhelds, laptops, tablet PCs…Which is best for your school? Guest columnist Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain offers a simple rubric for administrators, teachers, and parents to use when evaluating their school’s readiness for one-to-one computing. Print this rubric and share it with your entire school community.

Education World ® Technology Center: One-to-One Computing.

Join in the discussion at our Module 7 NING site:

First of all, great work Group 6! I really enjoyed learning about OSS. Since I was in Indonesia, I decided to focus on this country’s use of OSS.

 OSS is starting to becoming popular in Indonesia with more Indonesian people using this free software. The government is looking towards the development of OSS as a way to reduce the billions of dollars being spent on software from foreign vendors and as a major prevention against piracy. The biggest difficulties are that Internet access is limited (only the big cities, some universities don’t have internet), the high cost of computers and the language used in the software.

 The Open Source Contributors Group (OSCG) was founded is maintained by people at the Informatics Engineering Department, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia http://www.itb.ac.id/en/. Anyone can contribute in this open source software development and technology enhancement group by contributing his/her works, ideas, opinions, and/or suggestions.

 The following are some of the institutes’ students early projects: (see this report for more information)  

gx-admin

This is a generic web-based interface for UNIX system administration using any browser that supports tables and forms. gx-admin was designed to be generic and able to configure any kinds of UNIX text-based system files. The configuration for this application itself is on a text file that enables users to add as many configurations as possible. gx-admin consists of a simple web server and a number of CGI programs which directly update system files. The web server and all CGI programs are written in Perl version 5, and only use the standard perl modules.

Pegasus

An indexing web robot that can be used to index some defined urls, a range of IP addresses, or even the whole web. Pegasus can be executed with a web browser (for an interactive interface) or straightly from the shell with valid arguments. It will send a request for a HTML page, parse the HTML page, save some significant information and then follow all the links in that page and repeat the process ‘recursively’. Pegasus will store the information on a database with PostgreSQL as its Database Management System. The database can be used for various purposes, such as search engine’s database for a website, or a private database which can be used to search information offline. Pegasus was written in Perl version 5.

 RTSimula

This is a suite of programs that simulate the behavior of railroad hardware model. The simulator is truly real-time and intended to be used for the course of Real-time Programming. RTSimula currently consists of three different programs: the simulator – runs on Real-time Linux – doing the simulation by calculating some parameters provided by users, a monitor – runs on X-Window – drawing crude visualization of the trains and railways, and a simple controller program. The whole suite of programs (and the documentations) were written using OSS: Linux, Real-time Linux, and GTK+. All programs were written using C language.

 Unicorn

This is a subject guide that has a search engine for its main facility. The search engine was developed to search information on a database as a result from Pegasus’ indexing process. Unicorn uses various techniques to search through the database, such as simple search, exact phrase search, and a wildcard search. Users can also define the options for the search process, including the search sequence and a time range of the last-modified date from a page in the database. Unicorn was written in Perl version 5.

Finally, here is a short video (not in english) that is used to campaign for Indonesia to go open source. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this post, I’ll briefly try to reflect to one or more of the blog discussion topics you raised. From my own experience working for commercial IT companies, the OSS do exists in Egypt but with lower market share if compared to commercial software. There could be many reasons but the most obvious is the political power that international/global IT companies have established so far. For Example, company like IBM has established a research and commercial branch in Egypt since 1954, with this very early presence you can expect the type of relations IBM has with local government. Companies like Microsoft and Oracle had also established very strong connection with the government here. The driver for this type of partnership is a Win-Win situation, where commercial companies would offer very special prices and discounts as part of national-wide agreements, I recall few years ago there was an offer for college students to have Microsoft Office for less than $10. Of course with the economy of scale and future expansion would make such a deal justifiable. Initiatives to train K-12 teachers for almost zero cost encourages the ministry of education here to participate in Intel Future Teacher program, which mainly adopt the WinTel (Windows running over Intel processor) setup.

Another point I like to reflect on, is Moodle as open source. As M6 content showed, there are many ways to compare OSS with Commercial in terms of maintenance. Where I work now, we do offer Moodle services for our customers (Universities in the Middle East region). I’m always very careful when I promote Moodle to any prospect and make sure to set the right expectation. Many would be deceived that because it’s OSS there would be no hidden costs. On the contrary, you have to be prepared to host Moodle as if it’s a commercial software. You either need to have your own pool of resources who are very much capable of supporting Moodle and able to integrate it with other campus applications (like the Student Information System), or you should have a commercial agreement for support and maintenance with commercial company. That’s why beside Moodle.org , there’s Moodle.COM (the commercial arm of Moodle). But Moodle as OSS saves the customer the up front investment of purchasing users license, an excellent option to redirect part of the technology budget to other resources (hardware or other commercial applications). Nevertheless, I’ve ran into customers who don’t want to hear the word OSS !!, they want commercial and commercial only solutions, simply they want to deal with “real” single owner (a mortar and brick company) rather than virtual multiple owners – that is in thousands or even in millions -.

Still the OSS is attracting many developers here in Egypt and this is only one example http://www.eglug.org/  it’s the GNU Linux chapter in Egypt. Also I know of many other small companies who built their solution on top of OSS, biggest example I can think of web portals and content management solutions on top of Drupal and Joomla.

Having said that why is it that students need to use Microsoft Word?  After quickly looking at open office it seems to me that the interface is very similar to Word.  Why is it necessary to have students or schools pay for expensive proprietary products when they can just use the free OSS offered on the internet?  Open Office also states that their program is fully compatible with most other types of software so there shouldn’t be a problem transferring documents to Open Office from other programs.   There are most likely subtle differences between Open Office and Microsoft Word as well and between other applications from Open Office and the Microsoft suite.  In my opinion it is probably not going to be so great that it would cause a new hire to undergo intense training in Word in order to be able to use its basic functions. 

Besides this brings to mind a couple of years ago when I was working as a teacher and the entire school upgraded to the new Microsoft Office 2007 product.  The differences between the older version and the newer version were huge.  Myself as well as many co-workers were very distraught with the fact that our work production was slowed because we had to learn how to use a new program.  Things as simple as finding the line spacing format tab and the print preview button became frustrating examples of changes to the program that slowed us down as workers.  Not to mention there were problems with viewing older works from other word processors that made reading some students work impossible, I’m not even going to get into the frustrations with Power Point!  So even with new versions of PS coming out every few years workers are going to have to undergo some changes to what they are used to using anyway.  If employees are going to have to make changes anyway why not just encourage schools to use the free software for their students so they can cut down on their costs?  Better yet why don’t we have businesses using OSS technology and saving themselves money?

Tomorrow morning UBC will issue a press release regarding the UBC Global Minds Challenge.  UBC will award up to five (5) prizes of $2010 each to international K-12 projects that demonstrate innovative uses of learning technologies with respect to themes resonating with the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.  All projects are posted on the 2010 Winter Games website in the Education Project Showcase area.  The deadline for submission of projects is December 19, 2009.

The UBC Faculty of Education has been collaborating for six years with the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) to conceive and now realize the learning potentials of the upcoming 2010 Winter Games.  The UBC Global Minds Challenge is one dimension of this collaboration which we aim to establish as an enduring legacy of the 2010 Games.

For those of you wishing to take this on for A3, the basic idea is that your A3 can be an appropriate project that you’ve completed with your classroom already, or that you are able to complete and submit before November 29th (yes, we’ll keep the ETEC522 schedule, thank you!).    We will keep the rubric for A3 as assigned, only that the Pitch and and Executive summary would be your submission to the Challenge, and you’ll email a separate Critical EVA and Self-Evaluation to me.

Have a look (please ignore the guy in the video at the UBC site!) and email me if you have any questions.

Thanks!

DavidV

Just a note that you all should have your A1 grades back to you by email by now.  Please email me directly if you have not received your grade yet, or if you have any questions.

I’d like to say I was very impressed with energy and creativity shown by all of you in addressing this assignment.   I’ve never experienced a higher calibre set of responses to an analysis of this kind from a group of apprentice EVAs.  Well done!

DavidV

Please begin by looking at this concept map to get a sense of the content we covered in this module.  This initial concept map serves as a Module organizer only.  Check back at the end of this week to see a more interactive concept map that you can use for summative review.

To start off the dialogue, we would like you to consider the following question FIRST and post your replies here, before proceeding to our NING site.
When you hear the term “One to One Technologies” what does it mean to you?

Once you have responded to the above question, please proceed to our Module 7 website:

http://1to1tech.ning.com

There are instructions on the main page for navigating through the site.
You should be able to SIGN IN using the same email / password that you have used before, for NING.
There are many opportunities for you to engage in dialogue and discussion.
We will also provide an RSS feed so you can follow the discussion here.

Check back here throughout the week to view any posts that pertain to Module 7.
And feel free to post any comments or questions here as well.

Thank you and we hope you enjoy our presentation.
Kathleen Cavanagh, Cathy Jung, Merv LaBrash, Brian Powell, and Erica Toombs

We have also provided a video showing you how to navigate through our Module 7 NING presentation:

Click here to view the embedded video.

First there were several comments that OSS does not protect the intellectual property rights of the creators. I  agree that there is a real need to protect intellectual property rights with regard to software creation. However, in proprietary settings the code writers never get credit and it is the corporation or business that benefits financially from their work the most and holds all the rights. Microsoft pays it’s programmers well, but they are not doing nearly as well as Bill Gates. At least in OSS, if the software is licenced under GPL or Creative Commons, the actual programmers get to keep the IP rights to their work. If they want to develop a business around providing services to users of the product they are free to do so. If someone creates a derivative work on the shoulders of what I have done, then the IP rights to the new work should lie with them, but I would want to be credited as having made the original source.

Second, several people commented that they were surprised that ‘open-source’ style software predates PS. I truly believe that hardware and software development would have been seriously hindered if in the early days of computers there had not been a free and easy exchange of information and software between researchers and programmers. Science moves forward through the sharing of ideas, not just competition (although competition is a significant factor). One of the aims of the F/OSS community is to foster the development of new ideas and collaboration.

Lastly, I think we have to consider that OSS actually combats software piracy by giving people a viable alternative to buying shady copies of Microsoft Vista on the street corner. It also means that students can learn to use a wider aray of applications and programs than a school could provide if they had to pay high prices for software. Also students can take OSS home and extend their learning, as Eveline mentioned in one of her comments.

As we move towards things like Software as a Service, will the software we actually install on our machines continue to be something we want to pay for? Or will we be more willing to pay for services and support for software that is distributed at low cost?

As a secondary teacher I support the use of FOSS and OSS in schools.  I think they are a cost-effective and useful way to bring great software to students.  Not only does most of the software “just work” it is often frequently updated based on user comments and could even provide an opportunity for students to help out with the software.

Although OSS software may not always be the best option, I still prefer Word and Powerpoint for instance, but they often they can bring software to the classroom that might not otherwise be there.  For instance open-source CAD software (Cademia and avoCADo, video editing software (Virtual Dub and ZW-4) or audio-editing software (Audacity).

To give an example of OSS in the classroom I thought I would share an experience I had with OSS in my classroom.   A few years ago I was asked by my principal at the time to develop a new computers/information processing class for the grade 9′s.  After weighing out the various options and considering that I had zero budget I decided to develop an image and photo editing class built around the amazing FOSS photo editor Paint.net.  The software is nearly as  advanced as high-end, and extremely expensive, editors like Photoshop and also has a similar interface and shortcuts.  This is great for students who might pursue photo editing further and makes the transfer of skills easy.  The software also had numerous online tutorials, guides and help pages that were easy to use and navigate.   All of this made it extremely easy to develop a course around the software and give my students some valuable technical skills.

In the end the class was a huge success and I they are still using my materials and Paint.net to teach the class.  Although Paint.net has undergone over 2 years of revisions most have been additions, not major changes and most of the material required little or no change to support the new software.

Anyways, it is this and other positive experiences with OSS that have led me to use it more personally and professionally and I encourage other people to think twice about buying new software before exploring what OSS has to offer.  A handy site is Open-Source as Alternatives which lists alternatives for many types of software we normally pay for.  The site allows you to list commercial and alternative software by OS and by use.

Through these conversations, I am curious to know if people are using or exploring open source out of their own initiative or if people are encouraged to use open source by their school or workplace.

Many people have mentioned that their schools are making OSS (such as OpenOffice.org) available as it is more cost efficient, and many of you have mentioned that you are using several programs (such as GoogleDocs, Scratch and Prezi) in the classrooms.  This made me wonder: how supportive are schools in using open source and how much support is given to the teachers who are using them?

Some of us also mentioned that although we like to help, we do not want to be the “tech guy”.  I wonder if the “tech guys” are as fluent in working with OSS as we want them to be – and should we hold them responsible for learning OSS as part of their “tech support”?  With so much open source out there – and maybe with my lack of tech savvy skills – I do not want to be one of them. =)

So – my question is – is there enough support out there or all we doing this because we’re amazing METers?  I know I have strayed from our OSS vs PS conversation – but I think support is a factor that also determines the choice of choosing one over the other.

Thanks in advance.

Erica Toombs

I think students can be just as prepared for MS Office in the office environment if they are taught the basic desktop publishing concepts with OpenOffice.org and several other such applications in the class. The idea is to teach them the basic concepts and procedures of planning, laying out and editing content giving them experience in problem solving by exploring the interfaces, menus and help manuals of several applications.

What inevitably happens for students taught with open or proprietary software is that they get to the office and the new version of MS software has a radically altered interface. Just compare MS Office 2003 with MS Office 2007, or compare Word Perfect with MS Word. As for other software, Macromedia Flash changed significantly each time it came out, and then was added to Adobe Creative Suite.

I admit that students would probably prefer the proprietary professional workplace software to in some cases create better product easier. Fortunately, there are trial versions to practice with before going to the workplace.

I have to say that I teach Photoshop over the Gimp.  If I didn’t have Photoshop, I probably would just teach the Gimp for financial reasons, but since the school bought CS3 on a huge discount a couple years ago, I find it is a lot better.  Students find it less frustrating and can concentrate on making a beautiful end product rather than struggle to make things work.  Also, there is a huge user base for Photoshop on the net, so there are a huge number of free tutorials out there, negating any need to buy text books, manuals, etc.  Some stuff exists for Gimp, but nothing I have seen has come close.  Please prove me wrong in the comments – I’d love to see some great Gimp resources!

For presentations and spreadsheets we use Google Docs and Prezi.com (fantastic presentation software that does away with slides … check it out!!!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

I haven’t had much trouble with tech support.  FOSS projects often fosters dedicated online communities that are just as good as any paid tech support division – perhaps better because they actually love what they are talking about.  An example is the software pybotwar – a python “game” that lets students program their own virtual battle bots and turn them loose against up to 7 other students’ robots.  This is all the brainchild of one man, and although he was a bit hard to find, once I tracked him down, he was very eager to help me out with specific information regarding bugs I was having.  He even re-prioritized his bug fixing just to address the problems I was having!

I feel like it is all to easy to rave about open source software, so I will try to balance the picture with a couple of negative experiences I’ve had.  One of them involved a program called hackityhack … a Ruby-based programming language for beginners.  Well, just when I found out about it, the creator decided to end his online presence entirely, deleting all of his open-source projects.  It was a real shame, because the project was well received, and now I’ve only ever found older versions floating about on the web, not the most recent one with the fewest bugs.

Also, with all FOSS, new versions come out all the time.  I find I’m out of sync quickly with the latest version as we only reinstall software about once per year.  Students download the latest version at home, and sometimes their home projects won’t run at school.  This is the price of being an early adopter of FOSS projects I think.

 I’m not sure that it would put them at a disadvantage. Skills learned using OSS applications such as OpenOffice can be transferable should the student get a job in an organization using Microsoft Office. For example, in OpenOffice Writer, there is a toolbar with similar functions to MS Word and drop down menus. What I think is more critical is that in school the student learn to write effectively (grammar, sentence structure, expression of an opinion/thought, analytical writing). The application used to write with would be a secondary concern, with the thought that if you can use OpenOffice Writer than you possess computer skills and that the individual would likely be able to make the transition/leap to MS Word with a bit of assistance from the Help Function or tutorial.

At my small secondary school, we already support FOSS/OSS use.  Our server is run with Apache software and is hosting Moodle for some of our classes.

On another note, the Vancouver Board of Education has now installed OSS software such as Open Office and Gimp onto board-issued computers.  I know there are some teachers, including myself, that aren’t too keen on the Open Office at this point because most of our computer files are MS Word-based.  Even though Word files can be opened with Open Office, often, some of the formatting is lost.  I think it will definitely take some time before people get used to it and start transferring files over to using these OSS software programs.  It sort of reminds me of way back in the day when there was the battle of web browsers…Netscape vs. IE.  I can’t remember how many times (lots!) that I switched between the two browsers as my default.  One would come up with new features and I would then switch to that one.  This went on for years until, of course, IE won out.  Now, I’m using Firefox. =)

In general, I would support FOSS/OSS in public schools; however, only if we were given more tech-support from our school board.  Last thing I want is to become the tech-support guy every time one of my colleagues has a problem with the OSS.  If that’s the model (i.e. teachers becoming their own tech-support) that the school boards are going to then I would not support it.

Hello Everyone:

After having read Module 6 and completed the ‘Open Source Technologies’ presentation, I would support implementing FOSS/OSS in my work environment.

I am a middle school teacher in the public education system. Here, I would want my colleagues, the school, and the students to use FOSS/OSS as an effective way of engaging in the teaching-learning process.

Also, because FOSS/OSS is gaining in use and in popularity, all three parties would be armed with knowledge, experience, and skill with FOSS/OSS, which would complement their knowledge, experience, and skill with PS.

Indeed, using both FOSS/OSS and PS would allow all three parties to decide respectively which they prefer, depending on the need.

Cheers,

Barrie

Absolutely! Here’s why:

As I mentioned as a comment on this week’s presentation website, I rarely, purchase proprietary software. My software needs are usually taken care of by OSS, so there is no need for me to go out and spend money. I find OSS cheap, easy to use, and very efficient. My instructional designs make use of OSS as well mostly due to the conditions under which I teach.  There is generally no extra funds for software in my school division, unless it is determined that a program is required as a learning adaption.

Having said this, there exists an on-going debate whether to choose PS over OSS as we plan for the future regarding the use of technology in my school division. There are those who appreciate the affordability of OSS and those who feel that the cost of PS is justified due to the support and quality of the software. This was an argument outlined in this week’s module, so I’m going to assume that it is quite common. Another important discussion is occurring in regards to the old “PC vc Mac” debate. Interestingly, those in favour of going with Macs are also strong supporters and advocates for OSS whereas PC lovers praise PS.

Hmm?

There are many free solutions for hosting a website. Ning, for instance, helped the previous two groups create great presentations, complete with comments, RSS feeds, e-mail notifications, and common logins. Google Sites is another option. It also includes the ability for all group members to contribute. We settled on Joomla because I knew it was open source, I had used it once before, and I have access to a Web server and necessary databases to install it on. Another option for us, would have been to use WordPress like the blog used in this course.

I won’t lie, there were a lot of frustrations with using Joomla. I can let my group members speak for themselves, but even up to Sunday night, there were lots of little things going wrong. For instance, if you embed a YouTube video, then edit the page after, the video is gone. I’ve since learned that using a different editor would have avoided that problem. Nevertheless, there were a lot of little issues, and under a deadline is not the best time to find them. Several people have already commented about this, and having a little more time to experiment before diving in would’ve been nice.

There were a lot of things that went well. First of all, it seemed really fitting to present this module on an open-source platform.  When we had decided upon the basic layout of the presentation, it was easy to add, remove, edit, and hide pages as needed. It was relatively easy to implement additional functions like the comments and forums, and there were a multitude of options for each choice. There were close to 10 comment systems to choose from. As it turns out, Joomla is designed to be able to handle huge and complex websites with multitudes of authors, including both backend administrative authors and front-end users. It has a lot of features in common with WordPress, likely because of their open source heritage.

I also used OpenOffice , SeaMonkey, and Gimp to create/edit content. All three of these applications work perfectly for me. There was no experimentation, I found no glitches, and they worked exactly as advertised. I would’ve been satisfied paying customer. All three of these should be beacons in the OSS community.

The big question, was it worth it? I think it was. Although Joomla is designed for more that we used, and I would like to try other content management systems too, it did the job well, giving us a clean layout, easy organization, and the ability for everyone to contribute. Like I said before, there are lots of free solutions, but I don’t regret giving OSS a chance.

I wanted to post this succinct and valuable summary that helped me in developing some perspective on this debate. A couple of points that have been touched on through the discussion for this module and hold for me are the advantage of having access to the code to tailor the program to an organization’s needs, as described by Cindy in her post. The other area is in terms of support I often get these message to report a problem to Microsoft but where do these go – I have never had any indication that they were received or addressed. Finally, it is interesting that I can open a Microsoft document with Open office but in my experience the opposite is not true. A subtle point that Sophia Peters makes in her analysis is the perceived idea that proprietary software is more reliable, easier to use, and better supported. From what I hear this is not true. When open source producers do not have advertising budgets they may suffer in the public relations campaigns waged by the advertising budgets of proprietary software that have everything to lose. The only area I am working on resolving as an issue with open source is the security aspects of having student groups working on these systems – are they as secure in terms of identity and published materials as the proprietary packages?

http://mashable.com/2009/10/20/mobile-web-presentation/

Your experiences with open source software will vary, and so did ours. But to walk the talk, as it were, we have hosted our presentation using all open source technologies.

When you’re ready to jump in, proceed to the Open Source Technologies Website.

One last thing, if you have any trouble viewing any part of the presentation, please leave a comment, and we’ll have it sorted out right away.

Please note that the ‘Conclusion’ tab for Module 5 has now been populated with the final version of our collaborative mind map as well as the results of the survey we asked you to complete at the beginning of this week. 

Thanks so much to all who participated and made these activities a success )

Facebook is #1 in UK and Canada, MySpace is #1 in US, Orkut is #1 in Brazil and India.

He looks at what happens when people do not participate in FB (for example, within a family) who miss certain interactions because they are not engaged. He talks about how some people equate being online = not being social while others feel the are being social on the internet.

Issues of equality, context, and information overload are also addressed.  Enjoy!  Sharon

Just a reminder that the deadline for A1 is end of day (Pacific Time) October 18th.   Please email me if you have any questions regarding your approach or progress in A1.   And when it is done, please email it to me – I’ll respond to confirm that I’ve got it.  That’s:  david dot vogt at ubc dot ca.

And if anyone is still looking for an A1 topic, here’s a news release that appeared in my inbox today about Odijoo.   It’s been around for awhile, but they’re apparently looking at a new business model.

Good luck!

DavidV

******************************************************

Free eLearning platform ‘Odijoo’ released to market

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct 13, 2009 – Odijoo, the first ever online learning platform to give trainers their own secure space from which to create, deliver and monetize online courses, was released last week. Odijoo, which means “teacher” in Swahili, is a free to use web-based application that combines course creation, learning management, hosting, e-commerce and social networking tools.

Unlike other online learning solutions, Odijoo allows small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) to have their own private, personalized and secure “Odijoo campus”. A campus is an online storefront, where users can store, administer and promote their Odijoo courses. Campuses are designed for smaller businesses and organizations, that need to train their employees under a tight budget.

“Odijoo is designed to help companies get their training online in a matter of days without third party consultants,” says Shevy Levy, the visionary behind Odijoo. “SMBs can finally afford to reach their learners and with the campus feature, can do so from a single secure online place.”

After over a year of development, Odijoo was released in early October of 2009. The application is free to use and can be accessed at www.odijoo.com.

About Odijoo
Odijoo is a free web-based eLearning platform that allows users to have their own personalized online space from which to create, publish, share and monetize online courses. It is a SaaS-based (Software as a Service), end-to-end software, providing on-demand access to course creation, learning management, hosting and social networking services, all from one place. For more information, visit www.odijoo.com.

Contact:

Alon Margovskiy

Marketing Department

alon.margovskiy@odijoo.com

What I found most interesting is that it is biotechnology, which is the prime investment target. This is where real software is being developed and purchased by real companies. Perhaps the best investment target for e-learning should be the biotechnology industry.

http://etec522m5.ning.com/activity/log/list?fmt=rss

Clicking on this link will display the log of activity on our site, with the most recent activity displayed first.

Also, you can visit this page for a list of recent activity.  It’s the same as an RSS feed, but for those of you who don’t know how to use one, this web site publishes the feed for you.

After having read this article, I could not help but wonder why entrepreneurs would want to put a lot of money into Web 2.0 companies unless these entrepreneurs simply have an insatiable appetite to create a monopoly within the Web 2.0 world, thus preventing others from building web-based empires.  Perhaps it is a matter of conquering cyber space, or making a name for oneself, or steering viewers to their companies over others, or getting people hooked (so companies can charge in the [near] future).

Whatever the reason(s), it is a high stakes game, for there is little or no revenue, despite on-line ads (which I, for example, never pay attention to anyways even though they are geared towards me based on my cyber hits).

Overall, I am thankful that there are some reputable Web-based companies that require payment for their services and/or products, for I find them valuable in my teaching profession.

Cheers,

Barrie

Click here to view the embedded video.

I bet you’re excited now … wondering what we’re going to be exploring?  Check out this Mind Map that serves as a table of contents to help you navigate our topic (click to enlarge):

And without further ado, we are proud to present to you the Module 5 Ning Site.  You can browse the entire site, but before  you can interact, you need to request membership to the site.  Our operators are standing by right now to approve your membership today!

CrowdTrust is more than a Community of Practice (CoP) in that this Web 2.0 company calls for the collective knowledge and wisdom of everyone, not just participants from a single industry or professional arena.  Here, industry leaders could utilize the wisdom of the crowd to help explore the various issues and challenges pertaining to urban sustainability in any given community, for example.

CrowdTrust provides space where one’s personal creative commons can become more meaningful and more valuable to you and to others so that things that matter most to an organization, for example, could be explored in a much more cooperative and collaborative manner.

After having viewed the pitch for CrowdTrust, I could not help but think how profitable this venture could be for schools, for example, where the wisdom of the crowd – students, teachers, parents, community stakeholders, administration, and other staff members – could explore and solve various issues, matters, and challenges that inherently exist in any school community.

After all, as with urban issues around sustainability, for instance, school issues around operations and functionality could be deal with by way of collected intelligence, which CrowdTrust secures in its company space.

In sum, in partnership with all stakeholders, I would utilize CrowdTrust in my school because I believe that, through collective knowledge, expertise, information, experiences, and ideas, school issues and matters could be solved much more effectively.

Cheers,

Barrie

 My workplace has brought MindLeaders into our organization and is piloting its use with our IT department, so my exposure to this is limited to the past 2 months. MindLeaders is a company that has over 25 years experience designing elearning programs. The courses cover topics from software skills to leadership, from workplace and food safety to programming and network administration.

 Market Focus

-Commerical, Government and Educational Sector

 Types of Offering

- MindLeaders offers services, content and infrastructure.

- offers over 3000 e-learning courses (software skills, business skills, compliance training, technical training)

- learning platform – central learning management system

- reference library containing over 13000 electronic copies of books

- online mentors accessible 24/7 to respond to learners questions

- tech labs allows learners to practice IT skills in a safe live environment

 Who is the Buyer?

-Learning is bought centrally by corporations, government or educational sector for employees or students

 Global Markets

-The company is based in Ohio with a global market. In 2007 they merged with ThirdForce a company in Ireland and England. The website indicates they have over 1000 clients in more than 30 countries. I would assume that their global audience would be found only within those countries with solid internet infrastructure. The courses are in English so the learners would need a command of the English language.

Development of the Market

-MindLeaders offers partner opportunities to resell the elearning courses and the learning management platform. As in the case of my workplace, one reason we went with MindLeaders is the economic reason, to send IT staff to off site in class courses is expensive and often involves several consecutive days out of the office. With MindLeaders they can access the courses for a fraction of the price and take as many courses during a year as they like, not to mention read the books in the reference e-library. In this situation, MindLeaders substitutes other forms of learning due to cost. However, MindLeaders also can be seen as working with a well developed learning system to extend the reach and upgrade credentials of employees in such areas as business skills and technical training.  

Google continues to use this business approach. Introducing free software such as “Google sketch-up”, “Google sites”, “Google docs” and particularly the recent “Android phone”. I think there are many more opportunities for new Web 2.0 companies since people have become comfortable sharing everything on the web.

Finally, I like O’Reilly’s description of Web 2.0 companies when he compares them to a phone call. Companies like Google provide the network, which harnesses the collective intelligence.

Web 2.0 here we come

The company I work for, the University Health Network (UHN) has started using Code Baby over the last year.  The company’s by-line is that their products will ‘Digitally Engage Your Learners with Attention-Grabbing Content.  The product allows you to create digital instructors for your eLearning courses and will integrate with your existing LMS or courseware.  We currently use these characters in 3 ways:

 1)     To walk students through course modules as a digital instructor

2)     As characters in serious games that simulate various situations in the hospital

3)     As a character UHNi who delivers 1 minute learning nuggets each week that can be played as podcasts or using any mobile web enabled device.

 Face #1:  Market Focus

ü      The Corporate Market

ü      The main focus is their product offering for companies to enhance their eLearning and/or web presence with the use of 3D characters (they prefer not to call them avatars as they believe their offering is much more sophisticated and integrated than being a mere avatar)

 Face #2:  Types of Offerings

Code Baby offers both content and services

ü      Content – the software that creates interactive digital characters for eLearning

ü      Services – there are 4 services:

• Art – creating custom 3D characters and their elements
• Creative – custom conversations that are planned, scripted and storyboarded
• Training – training for customers
• Support – support packages for customers

 Face #3:  Who is the Buyer?

I would say that there are really on 2 options here, Learning Bought for Learner and Learning Bought Centrally.  Our group is an example of Learning Bought Centrally.  This was bought and will be used by the entire Toronto Central LHIN (Local Health Integration Network), which is basically all of the hospitals in the city of Toronto.  However, I could also see individual companies buying this software for their learners to augment their existing eLearning offerings.

 Face #4:  Global Markets

The market I see this playing to would be mostly the Wired Anglophone.  There was no information that I could see in regards to facilitation for languages other than English.

 Face #5:  Development of Market

Market Supports Export Oriented Learning Technologies & Substitution of Imports

 Market Supports Import of Content & Infrastructure

 Face #6:  Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

 Learning Technology Works with a Well Developed Learning System. 

We already had a well developed eLearning system when we started to use Code Baby.  It works well with our current offerings and helps to enhance their appeal.

Teens too open online: privacy watchdog

Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has filed her report that looks at 2008 privacy complaint investigations; technology and privacy issues; and the commissioner’s efforts to encourage the development of international privacy standards.

Watch the Video

Or go to the address below and click on the QuickTime or RealMedia links.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/10/06/youth-privacy-commissioner.html

Lifetime learning is a commitment that must be made to ensure medical professionals remain competent.  To serve this function both at distance and at regional conferences, private ventures and institutions have developed continuing education learning modules.  One such provider in the CMEinfo group. Here are the 6 cubes:

Type of Market Focus

Their training offerings are for the practicing physician, and many of the products are focused on the market of those physicians studying for their specialty boards, an upgrading process.  The market is specifically those physicians who cannot leave their practice to attend live CE sessions. This product is well integrated with the rest of the physician education process due to the number of high profile partners and the extent to which they access continuing education conferences.

www.cmeinfo.com

Type of Product/Offerings

The CME info products include disc-based and live course components that are content focused.  They edit and broadcast conference sessions. The company is now owned by Oakstone Publishing, of Birmingham Alabama. CMEinfo has been providing these educational products since 1989. Many of these products are duplicated onto CD or DVD for distribution. They have partners and provide royalty on sales to them. Abut 26 partner hospitals and large private clinics (Cleveland for example) are showcased.

Global Markets

Though the company is based in the USA, the distribution of the modules is global. There is no information on the website about overseas customers. Because it is not internet based, the content discs could be taken or sent to places where online access is absent or of poor quality. No mention is given of translation so it is probably safe to assume these are English-only products.

Development of the Market

They refer to marketing programs to help promote the conferences they will be taping as well as email, mail, and an online web store to market the discs themselves. Oakstone publishing the parent company is

Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

The e-learning venture works with a well developed live learning system of conferences. These programs will compete with live conferences, though the market for learning at distance will always be there physicians still like to combine holidays and conferences so it will not replace this type of venue.  Online learning is provided by the various institutions themselves in the partner list. They also provide online taped conferences at some of the institutions. (see http://cme.hms.harvard.edu and www.med.cornell.edui/education/programs/con_med_edu.html for examples). A master listing of all medical schools CME departments is available at www.aamc.org/meded/cme/offices_medschools.htm

Via the company Practice Solutions, part of CMA company, learning by going on cruises is available and this is another competing venue for LT.

http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gei/index.htm

In its six years of existence, the Global Education Initiative has impacted over 1.8 million students and teachers and mobilized over US$ 100 million in resource support in Jordan, Rajasthan (India), Egypt, the Palestinian Territories and Rwanda. Today, the GEI engages over 40 private sector partners, 14 governments, seven international organizations and 20 NGOs with a Steering Board of nine Industry and Strategic Partners (AMD, Cisco, Edelman, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Satyam, StratReal, and SK Group).

When this initiative was launched in Egypt back in 2006, I’ve attended part of the ceremony, my analysis is mainly reflected from the Egyptian track.

Face 1: Market Focus

Egypt Education Initiative (EEI) has 4 tracks; K12, Higher Education, Life Long Learning and Corporate.

 Face 2: Type of Offerings

As the objective is to encourage Public/Private Partnership (PPP model), each commercial vendor supplied and sponsored either an Infrastructure, Content or Service.

 Face 3: Who is the buyer?

The hosting agency is the World Economic Forum, so such initiatives are normally discussed at the presidential level first during the famous Davos WEF summits. In Egypt, EEI is endorsed by the first lady of Egypt (Mrs. Suzan Mubarak) and the beneficiary stakeholders are; Ministry of ICT, MoE and MoHE

Face 4: Global Markets

Clearly such initiative targets developing countries. So far; Jordan, Egypt, Palestine, Rajasthan.  What seems interesting, that WEF is asking piloted countries to extend support to new countries joining the program. This is what’s expected from Egypt to offer for Rwanda.

Face 5: Development of the Market

EEI model is to export best practice facilitated by international private companies (like the Intel Teach program which has been Cubed in this blog) , also capacity building is highly pushed forward to achieve the sustainability strategic objective of this initiative.

Face 6: Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

As pointed above, technologies are being introduced as the big picture of integrating ICT in Education as one of the means for Education Reform.  Natural resistance is expected and alternatives are offered by starting with pilot model schools (ready for technology environment) in selected urban geography.

———————-

Food for thought; What the press reported when the initiative started that the international companies are engaged in this program for free, I believe there’s no such free lunch. What’s in it for the big guys is still something to debate and research further.

Face 1: Market Focus

Engrade seems to be focused for school systems from K-12; or for any company that need to keep track of student records, such as tutoring services, summer camps/courses, or educational services that do not have a required grading system.  Engrade provides services to principals, teachers, parents, and students – all at the same time.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

Engrade provides services to principals, teachers, parents, and students.  Some of these services include updated information of students’ class marks, attendance, work habits, and scheduled tests and exams.

• For teachers, they are able to input grades of student assignments online.  This can be done anywhere with an Internet access (and the password to sign-in).  It is a paperless gradebook.  The teacher can manage several classes, multiple students, and customized weighting and grading systems as well.  In addition, they are able to communicate privately among colleagues.
• For principals, they are able to send messages to teachers at once or individually.
• For parents and students, to check their grades and their information, class marks, missing assignments, work habits, customized feedback from the teacher, etc.

Infrastructure

Engrade also provides some infrastructure in that it manages student and content.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

As this service is absolutely free, there is no “buyer” per se, but there are users.  The people who will be logging in to this service are students, parents, teachers, and principals.  So, the buyer would be people related to the K-12 system (or as mentioned earlier, an academic environment  – ex: tutoring company).

There is nothing to download; however, the only thing that participants must “buy” is access to the Internet.  If Internet access is a problem for the student, teachers can also print out specific pages for students to bring home.

Face 4 – Global Markets

Looking at Engrade, I do not see the option for other languages.  Therefore, I assume that this service is for English speakers only – or those who can navigate student names, numbers, and letter grades simply in English.  As our school is located in Beijing, China, it would be only be fair to say that English speakers in Asian Countries with Internet can also benefit from this service.  Basically, Engrade has a global market as long as there is interest.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

The market is among educators around the world (Engrade claims that over 250,000 educators are using this service).  Engrade is continually improving since 2003.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

Every classroom, regardless of public or private, has some sort of grading system.  Teachers will assess the students’ development in one way or another.  Engrade is an alternative to paper gradebooks, and because its functions are very similar to Integrade Pro (or now, PowerSchool Pro – Pearson Education), it may be in competition with electronic gradebooks that the school or school districts are required to use (such as BCeSIS – which I am, unfortunately, not familiar with).

Simple eXtensible Identity Protocol

I mentioned in a previous post here in Module 4 that I have always been trepidatious about putting my personal information on the internet.  My facebook page is an exercise in watching what everyone else is doing…not very valuable in terms of getting any information about me.  I am not part of the twitter movement so that people won’t know exactly when I am going to Costco   (as mentioned in the comment by Ed on their module 4 ning)
I like Dick Hardt’s  analysis that your virtual identity is what a website knows about you. But another website doesn’t have access to that information. So your identity is site centric. This means that you are entering information about yourself to an infinite number of website registry pages.  Not an efficient use of time for the user, nor is it an efficient use of your identity information.
So in the end we aren’t really anonymous in terms of our personal information or identity, so why don’t we have a user centric model where my personal information exists and intersects with the various websites that I interact with?
In our world operating under Web 2.0, Identity 2.0 is inevitable.  I agree with him.
And I know that after signing up for a series of networking sites in the last month, that a better way of navigating my way through the internet HAS to exist…and people will seek it out.

CEO Credibility:

Brad McPhee (VP): In this clip, he does not come across as very confident; not quite sure where this company is really going – it is not clearly stated

Management Team:

Says there is a great team, but no description.

Business Model:

The model seems to have many areas of products and services – it feels very scattered.

Competitive Products:

Market size, market share, and selling price were not discussed.

Market Readiness:

The company seems ready for tackling various areas and pathways, but this also means that there is no clear path being laid.

Technical Innovation:

Being able to unlock information from any format and share the content object with others – this seems to be their “edge”

Exit Strategy:

Does not seem to have a clear destination.

Overall Investment Status:

There is an innovative idea, but the path to success is not clear.  They need to have a clearer vision before I would invest.

Recombo 2005

CEO Credibility:

Brad McPhee: Compared to the previous pitch, he is more confident as a speaker; knowledgeable, but still lack a clear vision (always changing throughout the last few years)

Management Team:

Mentions that there are 3 sales, currently 12 people on team, in process of hiring 10 new employees within the next 3 months.

Business Model:

They have moved from a products model to a service (solutions based) model.  Clearer than last year. They plan to be more focused and choose the “right” companies to work with.

Competitive Products:

Brad seems confident in only working with big companies (100 million dollar business) and will turn down smaller ones. Compares the company with IBM.

Market Readiness:

They are in a year of transition, changing their targets. They are willing to sell the business when the time is right.

Technical Innovation:

They have the support of a lighthouse (publisher), which seems to lead them into a bigger network of customers.  This will give them an “edge” into the market.

Exit Strategy:

The business seems to be growing (expanding and doubling in staff size).  Again, the company seems flexible with its path, but this means that they do not have a clear vision of a path.

Overall Investment Status:

Although the company is innovative and always looking for new chances and ways to improve, it is not solid enough – I would be cautious when investing.

Ingenia

CEO Credibility:

Ramona Materi: Confident, although stumbles through her presentation; knowledgeable and has a vision.

Management Team:

Claims to have a team of qualified people with masters and PhD degrees, but does not state exactly in what field.  Also, her presentation (including photos) was more about herself than her team.  There is no “team” presence.

Business Model:

They have done research and have a good argument about their market.  They have experience already in the region.  They have done their homework and understand their competitions (ex. Japan)

Competitive Products:

It seems that there is a market and support from the government; they have a price for investors, but these prices are not specific enough for me to want to invest.

Market Readiness:

The company seems ready and is waiting for investment.

Technical Innovation:

E-learning is not new, but it seems that it is an “edge” in Vietnam.  However, there is not enough evidence about Vietnam’s interest in this market.

Exit Strategy:

She has a clear destination; she seems knowledgeable that there is a market and money to be made in Vietnam.

Overall Investment Status:

She is asking for a large sum of money.  However, 40% of the $100,000 investment is for airfare for 2 people.  On a simple online check, her quote is 4x the amount that is needed.  This makes me wonder: where exactly is all the money going.  I need more convincing before I part with $100,000.

UBC OLT

CEO Credibility:

Michelle Lamberson: Knowledgeable about her work, has a clear vision, confident that her and her team will succeed with the support of UBC; comes across as a good leader with a big team

Management Team:

Have highly qualified individuals on the team

Business Model:

Has a strategic plan. Work with many faculties and faculty members to support them in the projects. Have IT as support to provide the infrastructure.

Competitive Products:

Perhaps there are competition with other institutions; but they seem to run the entire platform system in their own university.

Market Readiness:

Continually tries to improve. Have bought and are hosting wiki’s and blog’s

Technical Innovation:

Innovative – look towards students as knowledge builders, provide framework and tools for individuals to use.  Success comes from blending technology with learning

Exit Strategy:

Driven by faculties and schools.  Provide services.  Will be successful as long as the institution (UBC) supports it.

Overall Investment Status:

Need to prove to UBC that they are valuable.  There is a great leader and this section seems to be successful.

UBC IT

CEO Credibility:

Ted Dodds: A very confident speaker, has a clear and strong vision of where he is going, seems very knowledgeable.

Management Team:

Has a strong team; all of the VPs at UBC (5) are on the team

Business Model:

Knows the importance of having a clear vision. Community based; interactive; have annual town hall meetings. Have partners working at the strategic level. They have an e-strategy framework.

Competitive Products:

They are innovative. Prepared to create and work with other universities.

Market Readiness:

The team seems to be ready to deal with anything that is new on the market

Technical Innovation:

They are innovative and unique in Canada.  Prepared to stay on top with technology (open source, community source, etc.)

Exit Strategy:

Very clear vision and path to success.

Overall Investment Status:

Ted has a very clear vision and knows where this team is going.

I just finished reading the account of the failed United Kingdom UK e-University project. The reasons why it failed are many. The analysis of the failure provides a framework for evaluating emerging international opportunities. Here is the link to the entire article.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmeduski/205/205.pdf

The UK e–University project was effectively shut down in 2004 after spending 100 million dollars of public money, but having succeeded only in attracting 900 students. No wonder they shut it down.

Some of the reasons given for the failure are:

1)   Took on a supply driven rather than demand led approach.

2)   Overly ambitious project, plan was to market to the entire world on proprietary e-learning platform.

3)   Lack of market research in terms of selecting markets, courses, and countries to target.

4)   Did not have a ‘learner-centered’ approach.

5)   Narrowly focused definition of e-learning.

I’ll comment on two;

3) Lack of market research in terms of selecting markets, courses, and countries to target.

UK e-University did not form a partnership with the British Council to help understand the markets that it was trying to enter and to develop strategies for selling its products. This is in direct contrast to the company Negroponte, which Jeff Laird points out, is partnering with the Columbian Ministry of Defense to bring laptops to children in remote areas. This demonstrates that the right partnerships are essential,and need to be chosen carefully. The resources offered through countries military or through its Council could be enormous benefit  for an international emerging technology company and should not be over looked.( Government agencies)

5) Narrowly focused definition of e-learning.

UK e-University had a very narrow focus of the e-learning technology platforms. Partnering with Sun Microsystems they developed a proprietary e-learning platform. This turned out to be a mistake, costing millions and not being ready on time and not performing as promised. An old story. No need to put so many resources into developing a platform when there are several available. Sean McMinn points out that companies like “Techsmith” which are not technically working on education tools often provide excellent e-learning platforms. There are many examples of this. The rapid development of these online communication tools suggests the need for e-learning content rather than new learning platforms.

UK e-University needed to get three things right in order to be successful; a platform, the courses, and the marketing. They manage to fail on two of the three.

Perhaps the greatest opportunities for emerging international e-learning technologies are in providing two of the three, course content and marketing.

However, after finding this video:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_takes_olpc_to_colombia.html

I think Negroponte may have found a buyer that typically has much deeper pockets than the educational branch of government one would expect this product would be marketed to.  Here, Negroponte partners with the Columbian Ministry of Defense to bring laptops to children in remote areas.

Depending on the motivations of a country’s military, having a wired, educated, distributed network of users in remote locations that have traditionally been under the control of guerrillas or insurgents could prove a boon to these isolated areas.

As adage goes, the military rarely holds bake sales to fund its operations and the paltry $200 cost per device compared to other communications systems typically employed by the military could make this a very interesting experiment – and most importantly, will get these device into the hands of the kids.

Running this through the cube we get:

Market: Developing Nations (and philanthropic individuals in developed nations who participate in the buy one, give one program).

Offering: this is a hardware offering and arguably a service as the mesh network created by the laptops for a community web.

Buyer: Still a national level – only large scale purchases can produce the low price of these machines.  If Negroponte can “pitch” the benefits to branches of government other than education, we will see some significant development of this project.

Piece of the global market: Definitely targeted towards underserved, developing nations with established education system but little other supported technology.

Development of the market: This is a contentious piece.  Many think this project can revolutionize education in impoverished areas – many think that $200 per child could be better spent on teachers, food, clean water, shelter, etc….  The market seems to be still in the pioneering phase.

Integration of learning technology: The environments that these laptops are entering have, almost by definition of the marketplace, little integrated learning technology as we would see it from a western perspective.  The laptops offer a quantum leap in environments where they are placed.

Powered by the proven techniques of visual learning, Inspiration 8 supports multiple learning styles with three unique environments for creating diagrams, outlines and mind maps. Using Inspiration, students develop critical thinking, planning and organisational skills for lifelong learning and achievement.

Face 1:  Market Focus

• Although Strategic Transitions, the parent company of Inspiration 8, markets the software to all ages.  I’d say the main market demographic that they appeal to is the K-12 segment. Although they clearly state that it is meant for students age 10 to adult.  Inspiration is similar to CMAPS the minding mapping software that we currently use at UBC. 

Face 2:  Types of Offerings

• Inspiration is Infrastructure based.  Inspiration can deliver graphical organization of content through creating visual representation of the course material.  The software allows students to make and create their own connections to the material that they are learning.  As the learn new concepts they plot them in their concept map.  Within these concept maps they can embed hyperlinks to websites, wikipedia definitions, pictures, video etc.  This multimedia graphical display enriches the overall education experience. 

Face 3:  Who is the Buyer?

• In our district (SD36) the buyer was the curriculum planning and support branch of the district.  They purchased a district wide license centrally for Inspiration a few years ago.  Then they made it available to high school in the district for free.  This central branch of the district has been heavily promoting the software throughout the district.   It is up to each school to use the software through guides or facilitators in the schools.  This form of a buyer is probably similar to other parts of the country where Inspiration 8 is marketed in.

Face 4:  Global Markets

• A major component of their market is wired Anglophone Countries.  There head office is located in Aurora, Ontario.  But they also provide software to international markets as well.  There products are available in multiple languages; English, French, Spanish, and German.  It seems they are mainly marketing their software to developed nations in North America and Western Europe.  These global markets have a lot of money to spend on education.

Face 5:  Development of the Market

• Inspiration has great potential around the world.  Large markets are available in Asia.  It might be worth while to develop software for the Chinese and Japanese market.  Chine is an up and coming market.  Although these markets might also have local companies which provide the same software.  In countries like India and China many post-secondary intuitions provide education in English.  This might a great place to market Inspiration 8.

Face 6:  Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

• Inspiration 8 is just one piece of the puzzle.  It is not a platform to teach e-learning but a tool to add to the e-learning environment.  Because of this there are probably many competing software packages out there. Old technology is also a competitor.  Inspiration’s graphical organizers can also be duplicated with a pen and paper.  Thus the competition is the old technology.  And if schools cannot afford to purchase this software, students can still get the educational benefit of creating mind maps on the board or a piece of paper.  Although it is hard to embed links and pictures into a static piece of paper. 

Group 4′s site on “Social Technologies” is now open! You can find it at: http://etec522module4.ning.com/ . You will need to create a Ning account for yourself, if you are not already a member of Ning. Luckily, it’s free!

The Social Technologies Bandwagon!

Please participate in the discussions, take a survey or two and explore the links. Most of the sections have RSS buttons, so you can pull in the feeds from the site. Probably the best one to use is the “Latest Activity” feed (http://etec522module4.ning.com/activity/log/list?fmt=rss).

Enjoy being a part of our social learning network!

Anthony, Barbara, Cari, Ed, Erik and Noah

BridgeIT

Face 1: Market Focus

BridgeIT is aimed at teachers in elementary schools, so the focus is k-12 (although there is an element of training involved in that the information goes to teachers to improve their instruction rather than to the children directly).

Face 2: Types of Offerings

The end product of the program is content. Information is provided to teachers on hand-held mobile phones. One of the partners of the program is Nokia, and they presumably are interested in selling mobile phones, so there may be some interest in providing hardware as well which would come under the heading of infrastructure.

Face 3: Who is the buyer?

In this case the buyer would be the schools who have agreed to be part of the project, although at this stage they are not paying for the devices or content. Perhaps, then, the buyer is the International Youth Foundation that is funding the project? Presumably the idea is to develop a product and service that can eventually be sold to schools and teachers across developing nations.

Face 4: Global Markets

This project is aimed exclusively at markets where there is poor or non -existent internet availability. If the product and the project are successful, it might be possible to market this kind of product to vast populations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Face 5: Development of the Market

At the present time, this project is in a market that does not support learning technologies. The hope is that projects like BridgeIT will develop products and services that will become viable opportunities. Presumably this is why companies like Nokia are involved in the project.

Face 6: Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

This project is bringing content into schools where there was previously no access to this kind of information. This does not compete with any other forms of learning.

CEO Credibility
Brad Mcphee.  At first I found his presence not powerful enough to lead the company during a time of transition.  As I watched further, I found he was knowledge but still did not provide with a clear vision about what Recombo’s goals were.  Maybe that is why there is currently a new CEO leading the company.
CEO 2009: Mike Gardner     Source: http://www.recombo.com

Management Team
Only name mentioned in the video was Brad Mcphee.  He also mentioned that there are a total of 3 sales people and 12 current employees.  They are in the process of hiring 10 new employees. 

Business Model
Recombo has technology that allows users to run their course content on.  I believe there product and business model is feasible.   They are trying to sell existing technology to customers.
Private Company with investors

Competitive Products
Have switched from a product based company to a service based company.  “Services provided over a architecture”.   Trying to prove that they have technology that solves business problems.-
-“Content integration router” new product out.  “Adapter “is a performance evaluation product.

Market Readiness
Recombo is currently in a year of transition.  They are shifting from a product centered business to services centered business.  

Technical Innovation
Their lighthouse technology seems to give them a competitive edge.  It seems like there are constantly innovating new ideas and re-packaging old ones to make them better.

Exit Strategy
- Although they have a great product, I believe they do not know what success looks like.  They are prepared to walk away from a business if it does not fit there business model.  Estimated dollar value is 100 million.   If the price is right he/shareholders would sell the business.

Overall Investment Status
Have a signed a new deal with a publisher that is equal to their entire revenue.  Are a growing company which is hiring an additional 10 employees.  Current employee base is 12.   I would invest in this company. 

UBC OLT

CEO  Credibility
Michelle Lamberson (Director).  She seems to come across very knowledgeable and credible.   She understand some the problems that OLT faces and some of the opportunities as well.

Management Team
Nothing is really mentioned in the video.  When access the OLT website the page cannot be displayed.   Page might be down for maintenance.

Business Model
Role: OLT plays a leadership role in Facilitation, Coordination and Communication of technology within curriculum of courses at UBC.   I believe because they are part of university most of their funding comes from the government and student tuition.  This means they are not selling a product or service in the open market .
-Public Education Institution.

Competitive Products
They provide a services of hosting and maintaining e-learning platforms at the university.   It seems they have no other competitors within the university.

Course Management Software. 
- Recently they have bought a new server to host web blogs and wiki’s.

Market Readiness
Success for OLT is not measured in profits but more in the learning success of students within the e-courses at UBC.  Seamlessly integrating technology into courses is a measurement of success. 

Technical Innovation
- learning through blogs and wiki is an new project that they are trying at UBC.  Their goal to always incorporate new ideas.  And they understand that some will fail and others will succeed

Exit Strategy
Student centered goals.
Driven by UBC faculty and students.  As a support unit OLT will always have to be there as a non for profit organization of the university.

Overall Investment Status
They have to keep showing the university that are benefit.  They will never really earn the university money but that is not their role.  Their role is to help facilitate the technology

Here is a link to a site that suggests 5o ways to create web-based stories: http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools

I quite enjoyed using this learning platform.  Following is an amateur piece I did some time ago: “http://www.slide.com/r/mGRPg3_47D9n-C0TQLRYp_qd5rF7ryl7?previous_view=lt_embedded_url”

Cheers,

Barrie

CrowdTrust

Looking at the pitch for CrowdTrust, it really makes a point about data management. How do users deal with the chaos associated with their online self. We have an entire life online. How do we manage the data being created everyday? How do we make sense of this online self? In reality, these things seems to be separated into categories on their own. The family lives in a home on a street, but my family online is scattered among the many other email addresses with the people I have known since high school. Online, it all becomes a blur of chaos. The idea of a personal creative commons can really help to not only organize the online reality of who we are but also highlight the things that are important to us. Being able to objectively step back and see our own online “DNA” is a very exciting step because it is so honest. The connections CrowdTrust is able to make is accumulated from our day to day lives. This ability to map out who we are will make our online self even much more organized than that of our reality.

Last Note

The way social technologies have changed the way we surf the Internet and interact with the people in our lives is both exciting and overwhelming. The dynamics between people, the politics between our online and real self, and the organized chaos of it all is quite overwhelming because of all the possibilities. Our existence whether online or offline is bound to the notion of what is meaningful. The lack of boundaries, the power and the freedom of being “social” is a topic one can continue to discuss and pursue.

Thanks,

Ernie

RE: NEPAL — SCHOOL SECTOR REFORM PROGRAM (SSRP)

(From the World Bank)

Project ID: P113441/Project Status: Active (2009)

http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=282386&menuPK=4679878&Projectid=P113441

FACE 1: MARKET FOCUS

SSRP is intended to increase access to school education and to improve the quality of school education.

FACE 2: TYPES OF OFFERINGS

The SSRP project is divided into two parts: basic education and secondary education.  First, SSRP is intended to ensure equitable access to and quality of basic education for all children ages 5-12 as well as to prepare pre-school-age children through Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) for basic education and deliver basic numeracy and literacy to youths and to adults, especially women and marginalized groups.  Second, SSRP is intended to improve equitable access to secondary education by financing the development of physical facilities (i.e. classroom construction and rehabilitation, library and laboratory construction, and school construction for children with special needs) and provide scholarships for marginalized groups, the disabled, girls, and children from poor households.

FACE 3: THE BUYER

Learning bought nationally – open to regions – local guide offers via the World Bank

FACE 4: GLOBAL MARKETS

A region with no, restricted, or poor quality Internet service

FACE 5: DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET

Market does not seem to support E-learning/learning technologies

FACE 6: LEARNING TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION WITH OTHER FORMS OF LEARNING

Not yet applicable

CONCLUSION

As an educational venture analyst (EVA), there may be a business opportunity present in this project, for there is no infrastructure (i.e. LMS, CMS, virtual classrooms), no market development around E-learning, and no E-learning system.

Face 1

Type of market:“Knowledge anywhere” is a leader in developing training solutions for corporations. This company is geared toward large private and public corporations.

Face 2

Type of offerings:  “Knowledge anywhere” Has a variety of offering for business uses, online interactive educational tools to provide training programs for sales, computer software, human resources, financial planning, and business management.

Face3

Who’s the buyer:  All the e learning tools are available to individual business and professionals. Their customers are in the medical, sales, software, retail and industrial industries.

Face 4

What piece of global market are we talking about: “Knowledge Anywhere” has made alliances with e-learning companies in Europe and Africa.

Face5

How developed is the local market: “Knowledge Anywhere” Has established a presents through out North America with a long list of corporate ciecnts.

Face 6

How integrated is the learning technology with the rest of the education system:

“Knowledge Anywhere” provides its e-learning programs strictly for business enterprise. Their market direction is not geared toward public or private education However, because business enterprises are very much involved in education i.e.: Apple, Google, Microsoft  “knowledge anywhere” e learning solutions do end up being used in the rest of the education system. It’s easy to see how all e-learning companies and products influence each other.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/the_hottest_ed_tech_company

I have been thinking of ways to use Jing for creating machinima — a creatve way to have students practise their language skills through storytelling. If you want to watch some good examples of machinima, go here.

Sean

The United Nations has launched the world’s first tuition-free, non-profit, global online University.

Market Focus:

Higher education courses in information and communications technology that are accessible to everyone around the world. Primarily targeting those who cannot afford the tuition fees from other institutes, or who don’t have access to higher education from where they live.

Types of Offerings:

Content and infrastructure for courses in two academic fields: Business Administration and Computer Science. Both offer 2-year and 4-year programs that are the recommended sequence to follow, but students may also chose to take individual courses from either of these programs as well as from a list of General Studies courses.

The University is not yet accredited and cannot confer any degrees.

Who is the buyer?:

Tuition is free, but the learner personally pays any fees. There is a “sliding scale” of fees for admissions ($15-50) and exams ($10-100), depending on the home country of each student. The University is sponsored by financial donations and volunteer time.

Global Markets:

The courses are offered globally, however an Internet connection is necessary. All materials are online texts, with no videos or content requiring broadband so slow Internet connections will work. All courses and texts are in English, so students must have the required level of English (must be able to complete a series of mandatory orientation courses).

Development of the Market:

There is huge potential for the development and growth of this University. The UoPeople plan to apply for accreditation which will open the doors to more opportunities for the students, as well as higher enrollment. Many more courses and programs can be developed and offered (I personally would like to to some on Environmental Sustainability) and courses in other languages could be offered.

Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning:

I believe that the UoPeople is not necessarily displacing other forms of learning, but offering a much needed alternative to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities for higher education.

Jim

 Face 1: Market Focus

e-Pike could be purchased by any number of groups considering it is an LMS and authoring software. However, the information provided online leads me to believe that AIS is marketing to corporate groups and governments. Since this infrastructure costs money, businesses and governments must find a way to finance this technology.

The e-Pike information sheet states:

“Applications for this technology include:

• Businesses with remote field training needs (oil and gas, construction)

• Government organizations maintaining remote offices

• Reaching remote communities in developing nations in Africa

• Supporting humanitarian missions abroad

• Allowing countries to rebuild faster from conflict or disaster”

http://www.advancedintsol.com/news/e-PIKE_product_info.pdf

Face 2: Types of Offerings

e-Pike is offering infrastructure only. The fact sheet states: “The e-PIKE™ core uses proven learning management software from the open source community.  With millions of users world-wide this software is fully SCORM 1.2 compliant allowing for e-Learning professionals to upload their course content with confidence of delivering a rich environment for students to focus on their studies. (http://www.advancedintsol.com/news/e-PIKE_product_info.pdf)”

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

Although this infrastructure has been developed for developing nations and remote training field needs, it costs money to have it. I am sure AIS is expecting governments and businesses to purchase this product.  For this reason, I would suggest the learning is bought centrally by corporations and developing regions.

Face 4 – Global Markets

 e-Pike was developed for remote areas and Africa – both areas with no or poor quality Internet service. This is a fairly new technology (released in March 2009), so I am not sure if this technology is actually being used in Africa yet. The company has not declared this technology for any other developing nations, and Africa is a very large and diverse continent, so it will be interesting to see where this product goes in the next few years.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

The remote areas, especially remote areas in Africa, do not support learning technologies. In fact, many of these areas do not even have access to basic radio technology or desks and chairs. As well, even if the infrastructure becomes available, local teaching resources most likely won’t be. Lundell and Howell (2000, as cited in Butcher, 2003) suggest insufficient funding; a lack of computers and other resources; a lack of computer literacy among teachers; and the absence of established curricula for teaching computer skills are hindering schools from using computers for learning. In addition, even schools that have a computer rarely have access to the Internet. In Ethiopia, “nine of the 12,000 primary schools had Internet access at the end of 2001, and ten of the 424 secondary schools (Butcher, 2003, p. 61).” 

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

 In remote areas of Africa, existing learning solutions are not working.  Many children do not have access to basic classrooms, books, and teachers. Literacy levels are low, as well as limited technology exposure. In 1960, Sub Saharan African governments dedicated themselves to providing primary education for children and by the 1990’s, those countries implemented Education for All (EFA). Suprisingly, by 2001, “over 45 million children of primary school age in the region, almost 42 percent, were not enrolled in school (Zhang, 2006, p.581).”

Comments:

Overall, I believe that of intent for this project is positive; however, without someone to develop the content and provide the technical support, I have a hard time expecting this project will be successful. Africa is such a challenging and diverse place to market e-learning. In ETEC 511, I had the opportunity to research education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Not surprisingly, the level of technology present in Africa is considerably low compared to developed countries. Extension technologies, such as radios and televisions have spread throughout Africa more so than computer technology (2001, http://www.adeanet.org/publications/nesis/AssessmentofBasicEduc.pdf). In addition, neither technology requires the ability to read and write which allows individuals to receive information easily. However, there is still great disparity within each country. In 2001, of the 818 million people in Africa, only 1 in 4 had a radio, 1 in thirteen had a television, 1 in forty had a landline telephone, 1 in 130 had a personal computer, and 1 in 160 used the Internet (Butcher, 2003, p.68).  Along with infrastructure and resource issues, there are issues with cultural perceptions of Western technology and education. There are many challenges involved that might not be answered by e-Pike.

Reference:

Butcher, N. (2003). Technological infrastructure and use of ICT in education in Africa: an overview. Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). Retrieved on October 7, 2007 http://www.adeanet.org/wgdeol/wgdeol/publications/icttec.pdf.

Zhang, Y. (2006). Urban-Rural Literacy Gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Roles of Socioeconomic Status and School Quality. Comparative Education Review,  50 (4), 581 – 602.

When I think about e-learning technologies and businesses, I tend to think mainly of the delivery, presentation, and access to information aspects of e-learning.  Turnitin is something different; it is a digital information tracking software that protects intellectual property.  Recently, it has started to evolve into a comprehensive online teaching tool, integrating filing management with both teacher and peer assessment.

Market Focus:

Initially, Turnitin focused on post-secondary institutions and is generally used to check the authenticity of student writing.  Today, however, Turnitin, has expanded the utility of its services to include grade-book options and assessment strategies, and, as a result, has expanded its market to include K-12.  Turnitin is especially useful to teachers of the Social Sciences and English where the volume of student written output is greatest.

Types of offerings:

Services:

In addition to searching of plagiarism, Turnitin provides a number of additional services and is evolving into complete management and assessment system for teachers.  The online “Write Cycle” system allows students to actively engage in a collaborative writing workshop.  In addition, Turnitin provides grade-book services.

Content:

There has been a definite shift in the content delivered by iParadigims which, interestingly enough, has started to morph into more of a learning interface. It seems like this is natural progression and possibly a necessary one given the emerging competition in this area (ie. Google Docs).

Infrastructure:

iParadigims provides internet-based services designed primarily to protect intellectual property.   It is expanding this service to include online evaluation and assessment tools.

Turnitin also is designed to allow for open integrations with e-learning systems such as WebCT.

Who is the buyer?

Up until recently, the buyer has been post-secondary institutions.  More recently, however, with the addition of online products, the target market has expanded to include K-12 public schools.  Turnitin services are packaged such that they can be purchased by individual teachers—a fairly expensive proposition which works out to about one dollar/assignment.  The most cost effective way to purchase the service is as a school or department.  The flat rate for a medium to large public school (1500-2000 students) is approximately $3500.00 US.  This fee includes unlimited access to all of the services for a one year period.

Global Markets:

Turnitin is current available in 10 different languages and in 110 different countries.  The only real barriers to market would be the lack of internet in developing countries or the lack of language capabilities.  The primary market, however, is post-secondary institutions world-wide.

http://www.iparadigms.com/index.html

http://turnitin.com/static/index.html

http://www.iparadigms.com/history.html

 http://www.medibtikar.eu/+Development-of-the-E-learning-in+.html

This article seems almost like a public relations piece but it contains a number of conditions, according the cube analysis model, indicating that the country of Morocco is a viable and sound market for the development of electronically supported learning.

Market Focus – Private and Public institutions providing e learning for students and employees. I think that areas of vocational training and higher education would provide the major focus area with public schools being targeted at a later time.

Types of Offerings – The majority of use would most likely come in the form of services or  “flexible training opportunities to individuals, businesses, and government bodies”.

Who is the buyer? – Increased government sponsorship for elearning projects and the establishment by the finance ministry of a distance learning service indicates a solid ‘lighthouse’ customer. As well, the president of Ibn Zohr University is an advocate for the establishment of a Virtual Moroccan Campus.

 Global Markets- I would infer that the infrastructure required to support the development of elearning is not in place as of yet, but Morocco seems to be stable enough and indications from the growing use of information technology favor the continued development of communication technologies including Internet.

Development of the Market- I suspect that at this time Morocco is a market that supports the import of content & infrastructure, although national policies and the need for local content would favor indigenous suppliers if they could meet the needs of the market. It would be interesting to explore why there is such a high cost for the development of training platforms and modules. Is it because these elements have to be imported from other countries or is it due to problems with local companies that have been formed?

Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning – In this aspect of the cube learning technologies are competing with existing systems. It has been deemed necessary to support the implementation of elearning with personal tutors and it should be recognized that implementations of elearning would complement conventional training already in place.

Anyone been to Morocco lately? What do you think?

Face 1: Market Focus

Google Docs is being used in a variety of settings from K-12 to higher education institutions as well as in business venues.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

Google Documents encompasses a variety of offerings from word processing to presentations.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

Because Google Documents is open source technology, there is no “buyer” per say, but rather a customer. The decision to use Google Docs can be made by individuals or by institutions. In the educational arena, many utilize Google Docs for its collaborative features.

Face 4 – Global Markets

Google Docs is uniquely positioned in the global marketplace. Due to the popularity of Google’s free web browser and electronic mail service, customers can easily access Google documents. For those who are unfamiliar with how to use Google documents, tutorials are readily available such as this one from CommonCraft.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

A growing demand for open source applications ensures the continuing development of the market for application such as Google Docs. Other open source roducts such as OpenOffice  provide competition in the market. As a company, Google is committed to ongoing development and open access to an both products and an infrastructure which allow for ease of access (portability). For more information see http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

I am not entirely sure how to address this aspect. While Google Docs is not solely a learning technology, the growing demand from various sectors for open source productivity applications stimulates competition. Within the educational realm, the need for dependable, collaborative applications ensures that Google Docs and other developing open source productivity applications will be well received.

I chose to focus on a companies’ long term investment into a project that will bring them returns later in the future…

Technology giants such as Cisco Systems, Intel, and Microsoft are setting their sights beyond the United States and are investing heavily in global education reform initiatives.  These efforts are benefitting developing nations such as India, Jordan, and Kenya.

Intel is working with governments and educators to help integrate technology into teaching and learning, investing $100 million a year.

See an introductory video here:

www.intel.com/education/video.htm?xmlFilePath=education_intiative.xml
FACE 1:  Market Focus

According to Intel, the goal of  the Intel® Teach program is to help 13 million teachers in more than 40 countries develop new skills to incorporate technology into their curriculum by 2011.

Intel introduces the ®Teach program in communities that are chosen based on the strength of their commitment to the program.
A three-year evaluation of the Intel® Teach Program finds that a large majority of teachers increased the use of technology in the classroom after taking an Intel Teach course.

FACE 2:  Types of Offerings

The Intel® Teach Program helps teachers to be more effective educators.  They provide professional development which focuses on how to integrate technology into their lessons.  This program promotes problem solving, critical thinking and collaboration skills among the students. “With more than 6 million teachers trained in over 50 countries, Intel® Teach is the largest, most successful program of its kind”.
The company works with an initial group of teachers to help them learn 21st-century teaching methods, and these teachers then train other educators in these methods.

The program consists of 24-40 hours of face-to-face, interactive instruction delivered through up to 11 curricular modules through the use of online tools.

The goal is for teachers to leave the course with a standards-based unit plan, support materials, and implementation strategies to improve and assess students’ higher-order thinking with the use of free online tools.

FACE 3:  Who is the Buyer

Intel Foundation

Founded in 1989, the Intel Foundation is a philanthropic organization focused on programs that advance education and improve communities worldwide.

As mentioned in my introductory paragraph, Intel is working with governments and educators to help integrate technology into teaching and learning, investing $100 million a year.

By providing funding for national and localized grants, the foundation helps fuel innovation in classrooms. The goals of the Intel Foundation are to increase interest in math and science education, and to help develop a future workforce that represents the diversity around the world.  In this way they can produce their next generation of employees and customers!

FACE 4:  Global Markets

Intel Corp., a company with four decades of educational reform initiatives—including the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, the Learn Program, and the Model School program—has incorporated its Teach program throughout many parts of India.
The focus of Intel and the other major technology giants such as Cisco Systems, and Microsoft, is on developing nations with poor technology resources.

FACE 5:  Development of the Market

The current market that Intel is targeting (developing nations such as India, Jordan, and Kenya) does not support learning technologies.
For reasons of poverty, marginal languages, and poor or restricted Internet infrastructure or geographic isolation, the target market cannot support learning technology ventures of any type that will be viable businesses.
Funding is provided by grants.  The Intel Foundation provides the money (up to $100 million) in national and localized grants.

FACE 6:  Learning Technology competing with other forms of learning

This learning technology substitutes for other types of learning  – enhancing the traditional teacher delivery model that is currently the most cost effective in these developing, yet poor economy countries.
By policy decision, learning technology is displacing other forms of learning. The existing learning solutions are not working (e.g. rural public schools in less developed nations – they do not have the funds to incorporate technology on their own).  As learning technology is not the “best” solution in all cases, gaps in learning performance may persist.  However Intel is not just providing the technology, but is supporting the training of the educators that will implement the technology into their classrooms.

Jim

http://www.whartonafricaforum.com/

It has some interesting topics and is very pro-Africa as a place to invest.  Thoughts?

Sharon

This article discusses how an organization called n-Logue that focuses on rural India, helped to establish internet kiosks through-out rural India. Kiosks, which cost less than $1000 to set up were financed by bank loans and were established by trained entrepreneurs in the villages- mostly women. Further tech support is provided by n-Logue. It was determined in the original business plan that these kiosks would need to make around $70 per month in order to break even. This amounts to about 7 or 8 cents per person per month which the authors felt was affordable and sustainable.

These kiosks provide an amazing variety of services in these communities from training children how to type, to providing farmers access to on-line veterinary services. Many of the kiosk owners also bought digital cameras so they have also become the village photographer. At the time of writing they were proposing to add internet banking services as well.

This article does not conclude how things are going, but the authors were very optimistic about the future. I think this is a really interesting idea and with over 6 000 000 villages in India has great potential.

Would anyone else prefer links from the blog to open in a new window? I prefer this personally rather than navigating back and forth between the blog and the link.

Cheers,

Jim

Mission Statement: To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

Personally I view OLPC as great starting point for e-learning as it provides the basic tool required to access the wired world.  I once helped ship books to Africa as part of a community service club.  It was time consuming heavy and costly.  The amount of knowledge that we sent was worth less then the cost of the books.  If one could access that information times 100 for only 100$ I think it would be well worth the cost.  Here is OLPC cubed, granted it doesn’t work that well.

Market Focus:

OLPC is focused on bringing learning to the poorest countries through the form of a laptop and the software and hardware that it contains.  The aim is the K-12 market, with the residuel efect of educating those that care for the children.

Type of Offering:

OLPC offers content and services.  The laptop is both hardware and software equipped and training and costume materials can be included.

Who is the Buyer:

So far the buyers have been at the national level including countries such as Nigeria and now Rawanda.  The Laptops have been bought on scale to the 100,000 range.

Global Market

The globe is the market, but specifically countries with high rates of poverty and low education.

Development of Market:

Market does not support Learning technologies.  The solution will be funded at national or international level.  The company tried a buy one give one laptop program.

Learning Technology Competing with other forms of Learning:

OLPC is advocating education.  I don not feel as if it views it self as in competition with other forms of education.

BrainPOP describes itself as a creator of animated curriculum-based content which helps to support students and educators through engaging materials.  BrainPOP offers lesson plans, video tutorials, quizs, games for most topics and curriculum componenets.

Here is sample video to get started…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Face 1: Market Focus

The market focus is the K-12 public school system.  BrainPOP offers curriculum connections from k-12 in Spanish and English.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

BrainPOP is a content developer that create the curriculum based activities that can be access once a subscription our licensing fee is paid.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

BrainPOP has done an excellent job in regard to addressing the various levels of purchasing.  By offering a variety of purchasing agreement BrainPOP access the level of learning bought for learner and learning bought centrally.  Here is a list of the option: school wide, district wide, media lab, classroom, home school, family, or a virtual subscription.

Face 4 – Global Markets

The United States of America and wired Anglophone countries are the primary global markets.  Although the content is offered in Spanish this is more for the Spanish speakers within the United States.  As for the content it is primarily American centric in that the social studies and history aspects are in coordination with American curriculum organizers.  The other aspects are more generally applicable and to offer a wide variety of topics to be explored.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

From my understanding of BrainPOP it would be situated within a market that supports export oriented learning and substitutions of imports.  The American curriculum would make it better suited than perhaps a British or Canadian company offering the same products, but could be used in both of those countries as well.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

BrainPOP works well with a well-developed learning system.  In fact, BrainPOP is used as a way to reinforce the already exciting system and not replace it.

BrainPOP is a great resource I recommend trying a free trial….

I have many email addresses because of this feature…..

Noah

http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_mwenda_takes_a_new_look_at_africa.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/euvin_naidoo_on_investing_in_africa.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/ngozi_okonjo_iweala_on_doing_business_in_africa.html

2.  INVESTING IN INDIA

http://www.ted.com/talks/nandan_nilekani_s_ideas_for_india_s_future.html

3.  INVESTING IN AFGHANISTAN

http://www.ted.com/talks/iqbal_quadir_says_mobiles_fight_poverty.html

4.  INVESTING IN CAPITALISM, ENDING POVERTY, AND REVIEWING AID

http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_on_patient_capitalism.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_a_third_way_to_think_about_aid.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_invests_in_ending_poverty.html

Enjoy!

Barrie

RE: Alternative Learning & Skills Development Project (ALSD)

(From the African Development Bank Group)

http://www.afdb.org/en/projects-operations/project-portfolio/project/alternative-learning-skills-development-project-alsd-525/

FACE 1: MARKET FOCUS

ALSD is intended for out-of-school youth.

FACE 2: TYPES OF OFFERINGS

ALSD is a project aimed at developing human resource by providing access to alternative learning, to skills, and to employment opportunities.  Here, ALSD is to (a) provide assistance to out-of-school youth attain basic and secular education and (b) improve self-employment further.

FACE 3: THE BUYER

Learning bought nationally – open to regions – local guide offers via the African Development Bank Group

FACE 4: GLOBAL MARKETS

A region with no, restricted, or poor quality Internet service

FACE 5: DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET

Market does not seem to support E-learning/learning technologies

FACE 6: LEARNING TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION WITH OTHER FORMS OF LEARNING

Not yet applicable

CONCLUSION

As an educational venture analyst (EVA), there may be a business opportunity present in this project, for there is no infrastructure (i.e. LMS, CMS, virtual classrooms), no market development around E-learning, and no E-learning system.

I haven’t really used E-learning tools other than Blackboard, so I’m digging in to analyze this online platform in regard to its use in our University System in Baja California, Mexico.
I’d just like to contextualize before I begin the analysis: CETYS University is a system consisting of three campuses in Mexicali (main campus), Tijuana and Ensenada. The three campuses are in completely different economical and student population situations. Several years ago, the president along with academic advisors, decided to buy Blackboard for system-wide use.

Face 1: Market Focus

Higher education. As I mentioned, Blackboard was bought by the system to use within University level, although it has also been adopted by high school teachers and students of the same system.

 Face 2: Types of Offerings

Infrastructure. CETYS University initially bought Blackboard to deliver and manage content, considering the possibility to expand on distance education later on.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

Blackboard was bought FOR the learner and it was bought centrally. As I mentioned, the three campuses didn’t really make the decision (or teacher for that matter) to buy the software and students are somewhat obligated to use Blackboard for their courses.

Face 4 – Global Markets

We are located in a somewhat complex situation. Although we would technically be situated within the European countries requiring translation, our University System is located in the border with the US, most of your students are fluent English speakers. Our internet and connection services are somewhat poor due to budget restrictions-this last characteristic limits our accessibility to Blackboard, especially in Ensenada’s campus.

 Face 5 – Development of the Market

Market supports export oriented learning technologies and substitution of imports. We currently import much of our infrastructures, but are working towards the development of content and systems that will eventually replace Blackboard within our System.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

Learning Technology Works With a Well-Developed Learning System. In CETYS’ case, we had a well-defined and developed system before adapting Blackboard onto our System. We have used the platform to extend the reach of our programs and elaborate hybrid courses for students and teachers.

Scratch is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at the MIT Media Lab (http://llk.media.mit.edu). Our group develops new technologies that, in the spirit of the blocks and fingerpaint of kindergarten, expand the range of what people can design, create, and learn.”

I have been teaching scratch in my beginning programming course going on three years now, and I have also offered summer programming camps where I teach programming to grade 6-8 students. This is to say, I’ve used this product to enhance the service which I offer my students as their teacher. This product is an amazing way to get kids – both boys AND girls – interested in programming.

Face 1: Market Focus

Scratch is definitely focused at K-12 education, although it has gained some interest at the post-secondary level as well. This can be seen in it’s child-friendly interface and overall design.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

Scratch delivers both content and infrastructure. The content is the programming language, which allows students to build their own animations and video games. The infrastructure is the online sharing management that allows students to share their projects with other students and educators around the world.

Face 3: Who is the buyer?

Scratch is a free product, so “buyer” may not be the right word here. Scratch is usually acquired at the classroom or school level, and students are exposed to it this way. Because it is free, easy to download, has minimal system requirements, and is crazy fun, learners that are exposed to Scratch at school will often then acquire the product directly themselves to use at home.

Face 4 – Global Markets

As a free product that is offered in 50 of the world’s most common languages, Scratch has a lot of potential to spread through the globe. Also helping it is the fact that it can run on most operating systems (windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista, Linux, Unix, and MacOS), is small enough and resource-light enough that it can run on most hardware, and has no cost.

However, to download the program requires an internet connect and a computer to run it. This does limit it’s spread in the world’s most poor countries. However, I see this as the only limitation in Scratch’s ability to spread in global markets, and it is being addressed as it is shipped with the OLPC laptop for 3rd world countries.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

The market seems quite underdeveloped at the moment. Most k-12 schools do not pursue computer programming as one of their major focuses, and in many schools computer programming is taught by teachers still teaching the same lessons they taught 20 years ago. This means that Scratch is not in a position to spread rapidly despite the excellence of the product. From my own personal experience, however, I know it is spreading at a grass-roots level among interested computer science teachers in North America. Beyond this I am not certain.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

There is very little competition for Scratch. The closest product is Alice, which is also graphically based beginner programming language produced at Carnegie Melon University. Scratch will win hands down at the elementary level, as it is easier for young kids to get into than Alice. At the high school level, it comes down to teacher preferences in terms of teaching in programming classes. But scratch can also be used to teach math concepts, story telling concepts, and art concepts, and it is easier to use, it is more likely to be picked up in other subject areas as a teaching tool.

Learn More about Scratch

Interested to learn more about scratch? Visit http://scratch.mit.edu/ to download the program, view student projects, and get resources. Also check out the educational community’s scratch forum at http://scratched.media.mit.edu/

Moodle is an open source Learning Management System (LMS) that provides a framework for elearning course delivery.  The LMS is a shell through which “customers” offer course content.  Moodle provides a wide range of tools to facilitate online interaction between students and offers the administration functionality required to enroll, grade, and monitor student and teacher users.

Face 1 – Market Type

Moodle is being used in the K-12 sector and corporate training but has found its biggest niche at the post-secondary level in fully online courses and blended classrooms.

Face 2 – Offering

Moodle offers two services.  The first , branded as Moodle.org (the product) is a completely free and open source software platform.  The second, Moodle.com (the service) is a company that offers hosting, support, and customization through country-based Moodle partners that pay royalties to Moodle (which are then used to support development of the product).

Face 3 – The Buyer

Moodle the product is usually acquired at an institutional level (school, school board, university, corporation).  Due to the free nature of the product the decision to utilize Moodle does not always come through the usual channels and often takes a grassroots approach as instructors and technicians pilot the platform.

Moodle the service is purchased by organizations who wish customization of the product, in-house training, and feature development.

Face 4 – Global Markets

As an open source project, Moodle has the benefit of a large client based contributing back to the product.  As such, the Moodle interface has been translated into 81 different language interfaces (Moodle, n.d.).  Since content is developed by the customer, the product is viable in any wired market.

Moodle partners offering a wide array of paid support services operate out of 33 different countries offering a wide range of language support and local suppliers (Dougiamas, 2007).

Face 5 – Development of the Market

Within the scope of the wired marketplace, learning management systems are well-supported and in growing demand as institutions look to offer online or blended learning environments.  Additionally, acceptance of open-source software is gaining acceptance for use at the enterprise level with successful products like Linux, Apache, Firefox, and OpenOffice being recognized as equivalent or superior to their commercial counterparts.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

While the impetus for competition varies globally with jurisdiction, there seems to be a trend in wired markets for elearning technologies to augment or replace traditional classroom settings (Howell, Williams & Lindsay, 2003).  Whether this is market driven where students are demanding the flexibility to study at their convenience and maintain work schedule; or government/corporate policy to reduce cost in infrastructure spending on brick and mortar learning spaces.

Dougiamas, M. (2007). Moodle: A Case Study in Sustainability. Retrieved Sept 24, 2009 from

http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/cs-moodle.xml.

Howell, S., Williams, P., & Lindsay, N. (2003). Thirty-two Trends Affecting Distance Education: An Informed Foundation for     Strategic Planning. Retrieved September 28, 2009 from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall63/howell63.html.

Moodle (n.d.). Moodle UTF-8 Language Packs.  Retrieved September 24, 2009 from http://download.moodle.org/lang16/.

http://teen.secondlife.com/

Face 1: Market Focus

Teen Second Life is designed for teens 13-17 so obviously they are focused on secondary education. Because of the tight restrictions higher education institutions and corporations must go to the main Second Life grid.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

Linden Labs is offering the infrastructure in which educators and students can create content. Instructors and students can create virtual educational spaces where all the data is saved on Linden Lab’s servers, but which they can access from their own computers.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

There are two levels of buyer in TSL. First, they are trying to attract institutions like school to buy land and create a presence in TSL. Second, individual instructors who are early adopters of the technology may purchase land themselves. This may occur when schools are not willing to invest and the individual teacher wants to prove the concept to a principal or a superintendant. Teens can create accounts for free, so they are not buyers.

Face 4 – Global Markets

Because all the documentation and marketing for TSL is in English, the primary market would be wired Anglophone countries, with some customers coming from European countries with language skills. It would be possible for instructors from Asia and other well wired areas who had English skills to set up a virtual environment for students who would then communicate in other languages. This would mean that TSL could expand into any market that had good, high speed internet and a population with higher end computers.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

TSL targets markets with well developed internet access and a population which has access to higher end computers with good graphics capabilities. They also need to attract instructors who are willing to go outside of their classrooms and create educational experiences in a virtual world. Within that relatively narrow niche, they compete well in the market because they have all the technology and software developed for Second Life. Other educational immersive environments have less developed infrastructures, or are based on earlier versions of Second Life released as open-source projects. Linden Labs has the economically successful Second Life to drive development and improvement of both Second Life and TSL while the smaller and open source projects have fewer resources.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

Teaching in immersive environments like TSL is currently an adjunct to teaching face to face in a classroom. The 3D building environment competes with some aspects of traditional teaching, like lab demonstrations and lectures, and provides the opportunity for students from geographically separated locations to interact and work together. In the future immersive environments may displace some aspects of traditional teaching, but with the current level of technology and the constraints of having to have a higher end computer; TSL is still very much on the fringe of teaching and learning.

Face 1. Market

The way this software is developed makes it an easy tool to develop training material. The ability to capture screenshots and video sceen movement permits the training developer to capture step-by-step demonstrations. As well, it is easy to create activities that guide users through steps. For use of text instruction, this application is limited. Powerpoint has more options. However, there is no reason Captivate cannot be used in other markets. In Calgary, I know that Alberta Health Services and Shaw Communications both use Captivate in their training of staff. Captivate has received the CODiE Award for Best Corporate Learning Solution, a Business Software Satisfaction Award, and a Technology & Learning Award of Excellence.

Face 2. Offering

Captivate offers infrastructure. The software provides the tools for creating interactive content, simulations, and quizzes without the need for multimedia experience. Check out these websites for more information: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/captivate/articles/whatsnew_cp4.html and http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/faq/

Face 3. The buyer

Captivate is purchased for training. Although, this software can be purchased in K-12 or higher education situations, the type of learning is typically skill related and suites the training environment the most.

Face 4. Global markets

Captivates largest markets are the wired Anglophone countries and the Asian countries with quality Internet. However, the software’s trial version comes in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japenese, Korean, and Spanish. Abode products are available internationally and Adobe is a world leader in software development.

Face 5. Development of the market

I am not sure how to answer this one; however, I imagine , since this market is business driven, that it supports export oriented learning technologies and substitution of imports. In efforts to be more cost efficient, most businesses will import alternate training where applicable. As well, Captivate publishes in AICC and SCORM compliant files, allowing for export of content to various LMS. In my work, we are using Captivate to create training for patient care applications. The content being created has been exported to neighbouring health service teams using similar applications.

Face 6 . Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

Captivate is a very useful tool, but not the only tool available for creating interactive eLearning and simulation. With the advances in Web 2.0 tools, there are a number of alternate ways of communicating similar skills-related training. For example, Elluminate allows for demonstrations and slides; Lectora creates highly interactive modules using easily created variables and actions, and it has the capablility of containing video, animation, and graphics. WebEx demonstrations can be recorded and saved. The market is saturated with options, which is probably why Captivate is on version 4 and continuing to fight to be a market leader. Captivate tends to compete in the market as an Abode product and not as an individual product. Captivate can be purchased with Photoshop Elements, Premiere Pro, Flash, Illustrator, and various other products used in eLearning and corporate settings.

I use Captivate at work and I have found that there have been really amazing changes in this program from version 1 until now (ver.4). It is obvious that this product continues to improve in order to maintain a steady presence in the market place. Captivate is only a piece of Alberta Health Services training tools. We also use Corel Paintshop, Lectora, Flash, and MS Frontpage. I believe that Captivate serves a purpose and is a useful tool, but it could not satisfy all of our training needs.

Anyone else have experience with this software?

Regarding e-learning tools, products, and services, here is a very short list of LMSs and CMSs links:

http://plone.org/

http://drupal.org/

http://www.joomla.org/

http://www.desire2learn.com/

http://www.elluminate.com/

Cheers,

Barrie

http://www.elluminate.com/

FACE 1: MARKET FOCUS

Elluminate provides web, video, and audio solutions for online learning and according to Elluminate.com they serve “more than 600 million annual web-collaboration minutes to over 7 million teachers and students located in 170 different countries”.

FACE 2: TYPES OF OFFERINGS

Elluminate has several offerings that are explained in detail through the links below including:

Elluminate Learning Suite™. – a full package of products

Elluminate Live!® features voice over the Internet, interactive functionality, upports multiple platforms and low-bandwidth connectivity.

Elluminate Next>™ bundle combines Elluminate Plan!™ and Elluminate Publish!™

Elluminate vSpaces™ single-room configurations of Elluminate Live!

Elluminate Bridges a tool that provides integration with learning and content management systems.

Elluminate VCS™ is an affordable  multipoint video collaboration product for desktop users.

LearnCentral™ is a social learning network for education, sponsored by Elluminate.

FACE 3: THE BUYER

School Districts or governing educational groups, individual educators and business.

If you are a BC educator you can have free access provided by Learnnowbc. A single meeting can be booked  or you can reserve a long-term meeting room for up to one year. Click here for more information: http://www.learnnowbc.ca/lnbcresources/elluminate/

FACE 4: GLOBAL MARKETS

As the internet expands and computer access improved within education there is potential for classrooms to meet and connect globally. This meeting platform allows for easy interactivity that incorporates, audio, video, text and more.

FACE 5: DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET

There are several reviews and articles about Elluminate:

http://www.elluminate.com/press/articles.jsp

The company is located in Calgary, Alberta and Pleasanton, California and claims to Ellumiate claims, to be the choice of “ Apple Computer, California State University, Florida Virtual School, Georgetown University, K12 Inc., London Knowledge Lab, Los Angeles Unified School District, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Novell, Queen’s University, Royal Veterinary College, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and many more.”

According to their website they are the one of “Deloitte’s 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies and is positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing, 2009”.

FACE 6: LEARNING TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION WITH OTHER FORMS OF LEARNING

The Elluminate services are very useful and have great potential in the market. A set back (or competition) is the every growing development of free Web 2.0, & 3.0 tools. Many of these tools provide similar functions including online chat, whiteboard, and texting capabilities. As second struggle that the company will encounter is convincing educators to change their practice to incorporate virtual meeting spaces over face to face. Ellumiate has many market challenges and must keep current with the many emerging new technologies in order to survive.

Here is a short video found on Youtube introducing Elluminate:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Face 1. Market

They are as their name suggests focused on the K12 educational market

Face 2. Offering

They offer mainly content. They have all the courses for students to do online learning K thru 12

Face 3. The buyer

K12 mainly sells to state governments in the US who then offfer it to their citizens as an option to state schooling. K12 is also getting a few students whose parents are buying the training for them, mainly american expats in countries with no american school offering.

Face 4. Global markets

K12′s largest market is in the US. They are now going overseas to families seeking an american education, i.e. countries with quality internet without translation but all over the world, asian countries, latin countries, middle eastern countries. So a large market in the U.S. and a much more pulverized market elsewhere.

Face 5. Development of the market

If we look at the specific market they are going after it is a market that supports import of content and infrastructure. These are foreigners who want an american education or americans abroad who are looking for an american education. If they decide to grow their market then it would have to be analized country by country.

Face 6. Learning technology competes with existing forms of learning. Both in the US as well as oversees the family decides if this is the best option for their children versus the state education in schools or the local offerings oversees.

Face 1 – Market Focus

Public Schools (in particular, middle and secondary schools) and higher educational institutions.  Alternatively, corporations, associations, healthcare and government agencies may find use in D2L products to training and educate their employees.

Face 2 – Types of Offerings

Desire2Learn’s (D2L) flagship product is its learning management system called the Desire2Learn Learning Environment.  This is an educational infrastructure-type product.  D2L’s Learning Environment is a web-based system that allows administrator and instructor users to create, teach, deliver, and manage course content to potential student users.  This extensive and complex platform includes systems such as grading, internal communication, and user database.

D2L also offers other services including delivery, hosting, content, training and support.

Face 3 – Who is the Buyer?

For public schools, the buyer is likely to be a school district as opposed to a single school itself.  This is due to the relatively high cost of the system which would not make it feasible for a school to purchase it for its own use.  Upper school board management or school district e-learning staff would likely make the purchasing decisions.

For higher education institutions, since staff and student populations are generally larger than elementary or secondary schools (and therefore have greater budgets), individual faculties or the entire institution itself may choose to purchase D2L’s learning management system to deliver or support its courses.

Larger healthcare, corporations or government agencies, where there is a need to train and educate large numbers of staff members, may choose to use this learning management system for these purposes.

Face 4 – Global Markets

As internet access expands across the world, so too is the growth of online education.  Public schools, higher educational institutions, corporations, healthcare, and government agencies around the globe, where internet access is widely available, are the target markets for D2L.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

D2L’s vision is to be a global leader in providing e-learning solutions to their clients.  They have won a number of awards for technology innovation; however, these awards were presented by North American based associations and institutions.  In order for D2L to meet their global market aspirations, greater computer and internet access in regions with restricted or poor availability needs to be realized.  Though this may be beyond the scope of D2L’s line of products and services, infiltrating these markets by providing products and solutions that meet their current technology capabilities may help to develop and expand D2L’s global market.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

For various reasons, many educators who use traditional methods of teaching (e.g. chalkboard, paper and pencil exercises) may refuse to or be afraid to integrate technologies in their teaching practices.  However, most would still agree that computer skills are a highly important component of a modern education, especially since these skills are transferable to many potential occupations.  Encouragement through professional development, training, and follow up support are necessary to assist colleagues with technology use.

D2L’s Learning Environment could be used in conjunction with traditional teaching approaches following a blended learning model or be used to replace traditional classroom teaching and learning by placing courses completely online.

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is software used to create information and general presentations, online training materials, web conferencing, learning modules, and user desktop sharing. The product is entirely Adobe Flash based.  This product could be used by many organizations including government, corporate institutions and universities.  http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/elearning/ .

The Market

At quick look this product is very multifunctional.  In keeping with the elearning market niche Connect Pro could be used by high schools, universities and corporations who are interested in online training.  Really anyone who wants to make a presentation could use it so it may even be a useful tool for elementary schools.

Types of Offerings

Adobe offers Connect Pro as  software that could be used to build infrastructure within an organization.  It is a program that allows the user to create content, deliver training and manage the participants. 

Who is the Buyer?

This product would most likely be purchased by a large corporation under license or governmental agencies to have all instructors use the product for training their employees.  Teachers or independent instructors could buy single copies of the software and invite their students to attend their e-course as all the students will need is a web browser and the Adobe Flash Player.  My expectation is that Connect Pro is used mostly in higher education for classroom modules or entire web based courses.  I would expect students themselves would not be purchasing this software but either the instructor or a centralized official would purchase and mandate its use across an organization.

Global Market

This product can is available in many languages including English, French and Spanish and is useful anywhere there is reliable internet infrastructure.

Development of the Market

Connect Pro is supported in any market where reliable internet infrastructure is present and language spoken is English, French or Spanish.   The instructor or organization supports the use of the product through their funding the user or learner only needs internet access.  Many universities, governments and corporations can import the software by license agreements or low investment hosting by Adobe. 

Competition with Other Forms of Learning

Connect Pro will work best with well developed learning systems.  Developed nations with reliable internet structures will be able to use Connect Pro in unison with existing forms of learning.  Connect Pro will provide options for organizations to increase learning opportunities for users who are looking for alternative mediums to train or educate themselves.

http://wiki.zoho.com/Zoho-Wiki-For-Education.html

FACE 1: MARKET FOCUS

ZOHO Wiki for Education is intended for public schools (K-12) and higher education (college and university).

FACE 2: TYPES OF OFFERINGS

ZOHO Wiki for Education is a learning and content management system, providing schools with space to design interactive, on-line courses for students.  Here, teachers would develop virtual classrooms so that students and teachers can remain connected outside the physical classroom.  As well, ZOHO Wiki for Education provides post-secondary institutions with space to allow (a) college graduates to share information and to build knowledge, (b) research students to collaborate on reports and to share research findings, and (c) faculty members to design course curriculum.

FACE 3: THE BUYER

ZOHO Wiki for Education is for the typical public school market and for higher education situations.

FACE 4: GLOBAL MARKETS

ZOHO Wiki has global markets in India (an “Asian” country), the US (an Anglophone country), and internationally: http://www.zoho.com/contact.html

However, this does not mean that ZOHO Wiki for Education specifically is available in all global markets.

FACE 5: DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET

It seems as though the markets of the US, Canada, Japan, and India support the import of content and infrastructure:

http://www.zoho.com/in-the-news.html (Press Releases)

http://www.zoho.com/zoho-in-the-news.html (ZOHO in the News)

http://www.zoho.jp/ (Japanese ZOHO Wiki Site)

http://www.zoho.com/awards.html (ZOHO Awards)

However, for ZOHO Wiki for Education may only apply in the Anglophone countries and possibly in Japan and India.

FACE 6: LEARNING TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION WITH OTHER FORMS OF LEARNING

ZOHO Wiki for Education works with a well-developed learning system in that this e-learning service/product is designed to enrich and to enhance the teaching-learning process by providing e-learning space for, but not limited to, collaboration, research, communication, showcasing, and participation.

face one – MARKET FOCUS

A little about CambridgeSoft.com  and its ChemDraw program:

CambridgeSoft is the leading supplier of Internet browser and webserver based life science desktop software, enterprise solutions, chemical databases and consulting services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries.

CambridgeSoft offers a complete line of desktop software for chemists including ChemDraw, the industry standard for chemical structure drawing and analysis.

Cambridge Soft introduced, on August 17, 2009, an e-Learning course for new users of ChemDraw software.  The software program is described below.

The * ChemDraw Ultra 12.0 Suite
by CambridgeSoft
Media: Download for Macintosh

Cost is $2330 USD (offered at academic pricing of $890)

http://scistore.cambridgesoft.com/ScistoreProductPage.aspx?ItemID=5548

face two – TYPES OF OFFERINGS

The e-Learning course that I am focusing on is a complimentary product to the purchasers of the ChemDraw software program.

CambridgeSoft offers prepackaged courseware and online training to support that courseware.

It provides online instructions (delivered in modules) as well as an assessment of certification at the end of the course.  You are given access for one full year to ChemDraw Basic e-Learning Course @ $250 USD per individual license (offered at scistore.cambridgesoft.com @ $150).

ChemDraw Basic E-Learning Course

Media: Online

http://scistore.cambridgesoft.com/ScistoreProductPage.aspx?ItemID=5837

face three -WHO IS THE BUYER?

Interested clients include Students, Educators, and Government Employees in the Chemistry / Biology fields.  This particular online course caters to new users of the ChemDraw packaged courseware.  They also offer bulk uploads  – for many students from one organization seeking access to the course.

This could be used by all the teachers in the science department of one school, or perhaps it would be a district initiative to get the program for use at all the schools in all Science programs.  Not only could it be used as an instructional enhancement, but could allow students to work on chemical models in 3-dimensional space.  The e-learning program would instruct the teachers and students alike, on how to use the tools in the ChemDraw software.  In industry, such as the Ministry of the Environment, analysts would use the software for their lab write-ups in their analyses of samples.  The e-learning software would appeal to Ministry labs inplementing the ChemDraw program for the first time, in order to train all scientists on staff as to the effective use of the software application.

face four – GLOBAL MARKETS

CambrigeSoft has offices in the US, Europe (including Germany and France) and Asia Pacific.

They offer support in English, German, French and Japanese.

So CambridgeSoft is catering to Wired Anglophone Countries, European countries that speak English, as well as a few European countries that require translation.  They also market to Asian Countries with quality Internet access, specifically in this case Japan.  This would also appeal to special situation such as military or marine use for scientists in those fields.

face five – DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET

The e-Learning that CambridgeSoft is offering is an export oriented Learning Technology.  It is designed to support the global customers of its prepackaged courseware.  This is a well established company with a lengthy line of software products that are being used internationally.

face six – Learning Technology competing with other forms of learning?

This Learning Technology works with a well developed system.  This company sets the bar for other learning technologies of this category.  The development of this e-Learning media download shows expanded support for its customer to use their prepackaged software for effectively.  It will draw more customers into the purchase of its software products, if they know that they will be supported by tutorial programs.  This learning technology is more effective than instructor-led training since the customer will seek help for the particular application that they are employing, and will want to refer back to the instructional software many times, and any order that makes sense to them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Background:

This isn’t strictly an internet based company, but one that markets a specific education technology that I have become very familiar with and which I think is quite appropriate for this critique. As you’ll see I am quite an enthusiastic supporter of using Vernier equipment so this may be slightly biased.
Vernier sells and supports a wide range of electronic science equipment.  Sensor probes are plugged into a portable computer unit called a LabQuest which processes and displays the data. Students can manipulate both the collection of data as well as analyze the data after it is recorded on an interactive touch screen.

Market Focus:

Public Schools, specifically middle and high school.

Types of Offerings:

Vernier’s primary offering is the LabQuest computer unit with an extensive and ever growing list of sensors that can be plugged into the LabQuest.  (Examples of these sensors include motion sensors, temperature probes, pH meters, accelerometers, photo spectroscopes, and photo gates). Each sensor is sold separately and schools usually purchase at least one complete class set of both the LabQuest computer unit and the sensors they need.  Vernier also provides new and innovative sensors every year in an attempt to keep up with what science and math teachers need.

In addition to the hardware they sell the company also markets training and support services.  Because the technology can initially seem quite daunting and may be confusing to the uninitiated, the training sessions are quite popular and can usually be arranged onsite at the school.  If a school purchases an entire class set (~$450/each) they provide free support and training.  For smaller purchases there are additional costs associated with it.

Who is the Buyer:

In almost every case, the buyer is the school or school board.  The LabQuest computers are relatively expensive at nearly $500 each so it becomes quite restrictive for a student to buy it themselves.  Although the sensors that plug into the LabQuest are more affordable, the expense is generally not something that individual students, who will likely only use the LabQuest for one or two courses, want to deal with.

Global Markets:

Vernier markets their products and services around the world.  I have personally used them in Asia and North America and received excellent product support in both places.  The company has modified its software to suit the needs of the country it is operating in without difficulty. By using specialized adaptors, the hardware can be used in any area of the world and although software updates are available through the internet, it is not a requirement.

Development of the Market:

The market in the developed world is particularly well suited to Vernier.  As the student population becomes more comfortable and versatile using technology and as teachers learn more about the benefits of this technology, Vernier will likely experience significant growth in North America, Europe and parts of Asia.  However, because of the expensive nature of the equipment, developing nations will be hard pressed to justify the expenses associated with this computer technology.  Publicly funded education in developing countries will likely focus on the necessities of a proper science education like well trained science teachers with suitable lab environments before they begin to consider luxury science education items like the LabQuests.  Exceptions to these policies will likely come from offshore private education institutions.  However, as developing countries progress there will be a steady increase in the demand for Vernier equipment.  Currently there are very few competing companies, the most notable being Pasco Equipment.  As a result, there are few reputable and established alternatives for interested buyers.

Competition from other Forms of Learning:

One consistent argument against Vernier equipment is that it does not sufficiently teach students proper lab skills or prepare them for real science because most of the data gathering is done by computer.  While there is no arguing that nearly all the data is gathered by computers, assuming that real world science is not done on computers is a fallacy.  Modern sciences (and many other related disciplines) embrace technology as a way to improve speed and productivity.  Educators will have to follow this line both in terms of teaching methodology and as a content area.  Students will need not only the most up to date learning techniques, but they also need to be prepared for the technology that awaits them in the real world.

I have tried a couple of times to add an avatar to my profile  for my comment posts but the ‘crop’ field  won’t  move over my uploaded image. Is anyone else experiencing a similar issue (and how do you resolve it?)

Thanks, Jim

Face 1: Market Focus Insight targets the educational and business markets

Public school, higher ed and business training.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

Content and Infrastucture

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

Bought regionally (provincial school boards, municipal libraries) or at a faculty level in universities and colleges. Large business may also be a buyer.

Face 4 – Global Markets

Wired Anglophone and European market with language skills

Face 5 – Development of the Market

Market Supports Import of Content and Infrastructure Category.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Works With a Well-Developed Learning System

Interestingly this program is a piece of tech that facilitates tech ed  and is therefore a self fulfilling niche. It requires networked workstation and IT personnel to help set up and  troubleshoot, but the software is quite user friendly.

The Insight software not only allows for live multi-workstation demos but students/learner peer present and can pose questions on the fly, in an anonymous fashion if so chosen. I see this as an extremely valuable tool for knowledge building communities.

Smart Technologies, the maker of the Smartboard, was founded in 1987. They create interactive whiteboards, interactive pen displays, interactive digital signage, wireless slates and software. The interactive whiteboards are becoming commonplace in today’s classroom.

Face 1: Type of Market

Smart Technologies supplies Smartboards and other interactive technologies to every level of educational or corporate training.

Face 2: Type of Offerings

Their main offering is the Smartboard interactive whiteboard. This comes bundled with Notebook 10 software. The whiteboard is connected to a pc which it controls by using touch (human hand, electronic pen etc). The company provides training for their product in the form of online tutorials, videos, manuals and webinars.

Face 3: Who is the buyer?

Smartboards are typically bought by individual schools and school districts. Some school districts are purchasing this product and putting them in every classroom in certain schools while other districts are leaving the purchase decision to the individual schools.

Face 4: Global Markets

Smart Technologies is presently concentrating their efforts on the English speaking ‘wired’ countries. Given its ties to Intel and Microsoft it is easy to imagine them expanding globally.

Face 5: Market Development

The North American and English speaking European markets would support this product. Worldwide they account for more than 53% of all such devices sold. In North America their market share is 62%.

Face 6: Learning Technology Integration

The Smartboard is becoming more and more common in today’s classroom. It is replacing blackboards, whiteboards, maps, charts and other visual teaching aids. Its interactive nature allows students to quickly and easily interact with the technology.

Many of their products and services take the form of interactive, explodeable 3D representations of complex machinery and equipment such as aircraft engines, military weapons or off-shore oil rigs.  Their goals are to accelerate training, increase first-time performance, minimize downtime, streamline operations and optimize worker performance in general.

Face 1 – Market Type

To date NGRAIN has focused on the training needs of government, military and corporate training needs.  NGRAIN’s customers include all branches of the United States and Canadian militaries, as well as leading manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, Standard Aero, Northrop Grumman, and CAE.

Face 2 – Type of Offering

NGRAIN’s focus is to provide consulting, designing and development services to their clients.  They create 3D training solutions by consulting with the client and designing models, applications and courses that are deliverable over average computer systems as opposed to custom or expensive workstations.

Although the creation of custom models and application is where they began, NGRAIN has also developed a number of “off-the-shelf” solutions that can be implemented with simple technical and training data provided by the customer.

Face 3 – Who is the buyer?

NGRAIN’s business model is based on a corporation or government entity purchasing the content for the learner.

Face 4 – Global Market

NGRAIN has focused on two global markets: wired Anglophone countries and special (military/maritime) situations.  They have had no major issues reaching these markets and have made significant progress in the North American Market both in the private and public sector.

Face 5 – Market Development

I would say that the market NGRAIN caters to is highly developed.  Large Western corporations, military and government agencies are among some of the earliest adopters of educational technology used for training.  This market is not only well established but has fairly deep pockets and the justification for accurate, high-quality training such as 3D simulations and interactive scenarios.  The potential costs of downtime in these markets are often very large and extend beyond the financial to include the safety and well-being of those trained.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Integration

NGRAIN focuses on content development but has made strides in meshing their content with established learning systems.  Many of their materials are designed to fit within established learning management systems or be delivered along with traditional training methods.

This company does not wish to replace traditional training methods such as hands-on time with equipment, traditional class-based learning or on-the-job training but provide a new, supplemental view of equipment and tasks which is unavailable any other way.

Face 1 – Market Focus

Echo360 has a very clear focus on the Higher Education market. I believe this comes as a natural result from competition between academic institutes to offer innovative alternatives for students missing any class lecture or just want to revise the lecture as whole or selective essential elements.

Face 2 – Types of Offering

A clear infrastructure solution that is based on a hardware component – named the capturing appliance – which can be integrated with smart classroom equipments (podiums, smart board, document readers, audio/video peripherals) and the instructor laptop to capture the whole lecture experience. Supportive software application servers then handle the capture processing (converting to different publishing options) and then the streaming part.

Company also offers another nice solution called the “Personal Capture” where you can run your lecture from your laptop wherever you are, and this software will capture what’s on the screen together with the audio narration and your video if you’ve your web cam on.

Face 3 – Who is the buyer?

Another clear “Learning Bought for Learner” typical situation. Within the campus, people in charge of smart classrooms/eLearning technology purchases are the target decision makers.

Face 4 – Global Markets

The company had so far achieved quite an impressive track with clear achievements in the US market, in addition they have clientele from all other continents (except for South America)

Although they have developed localized versions of their application, but I think the reason for the global success is product’s user friendliness. Once it’s installed by the campus IT (who normally are OK with English based products in case their local language is not there), the end user (classroom instructor) will not need to do anything except step in the classroom and deliver his/her lecture. (the software has a scheduling module)

Face 5 – Development of the market

This products is built around special “patent” technology, this allows it to enter almost all markets and not only those which supports import. Local competition is rare and the demand is there.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

The core essence of this product is based on a live classroom lecture (classical type of f2f learning), so the model here I would say; “eLearning Works With A Well-Developed Learning System”. Although, in some – well, may be rare – cases, the product faces resistance from faculty member who just don’t like the idea of being “captured”  and exposed in such a semi-public way.

http://www.newventuredesign.com/

New Start-up business consulting website

 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1348221

 The Impact of New Venture Design on Entrepreneurial Exit Abstract: In this research we examine how the selection and assembly of initial strategic resources (financial, human, and technological) impact the entrepreneurial exit strategy. Our results suggest that an IPO exit strategy is positively related to all three types of strategic resources, while a strategic sale exit strategy is positively related to financial resources or total initial investment, and a sale to an individual exit strategy is positively associated with percentage of ownership, a financial resource. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

http://www.andrewhargadon.com/Release/Hargadon_DMR_Leading_by_Design.pdf

Leading With Vision: The Design of New Ventures ‘Design is now readily acknowledged as essential to the enterprise. Andrew Hargadon argues, however, that designers must go beyond the making of individual products and brands to cut across the traditional boundaries within firms to create innovative business ventures. Advocating a new profile of design leadership, Hargadon explains how design principles and practices are uniquely suited to this exciting, multidimensional task.

http://www.heptalysis.com/

 Heptalysis is a methodology, software solution and set of tools for planning and analyzing startups companies and business ventures

 http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/company_assessment_brc.html

Venture Company Assessment Tool

CEO Credibility

ü      Brad at this point has poor presentation skills

ü      He does not exude confidence, in fact his voice is weak and his speech often stumbles

ü      His lack of a clear goal or vision does not leave me confident in his company’s success

Management Team

ü      It is interesting to note that neither Brad’s credentials nor those of his team are discussed during the pitch.  An oversight on his part after doing some research on the web as Brad does have some excellent credentials and experience behind him.

Business Model

ü      The general lack of focus leads me towards a ‘no’ as to whether this is feasible.  They are looking at too wide an area with tools, platform and service.  They need to have a clearer vision to share to compel the investor

Competitive Products

ü      Brad has not convinced me that his product is ready to compete with the existing competition and take a market share.  Price point was not discussed but is relevant.

Market Readiness

ü      The product is already in the market place but I’m not convinced the company is ready or prepared for growth.

Technical Innovation

ü      The company does have a unique edge with their ‘connectedness’ this is where I think their focus and vision should lie.

Exit Strategy

ü      Right now, overall Recombo is lacking a clear vision and goals, without these I don’t think that it is possible for them to accurately define what their success looks like.  They do not have a clear destination for themselves

Overall Investment Status

ü      At this time I would not be willing to risk my money on this proposition

Recombo 2005

CEO Credibility

ü      Brad at this point has improved his presentation skills

ü      He is very confident in his company and the product

ü      His lack of a clear goal or vision does not leave me confident in his company’s success

Management Team

ü      It is interesting to note that neither Brad’s credentials nor those of his team are discussed during the pitch.  An oversight on his part after doing some research on the web as Brad does have some excellent credentials and experience behind him.

Business Model

ü      Recombo has obviously learned from past successes and failures and have remodelled the company

ü      They are now focused on being a solution based company and are willing to turn down business that does not fit into their new vision

ü      Brad’s presentation, however, does not compel me to believe that they have done all of their homework to be competitive in this market

ü       

Competitive Products

ü      From the presentation it appears that the product is scaleable and adjustable for various markets, however, it’s niche is not readily apparent

Market Readiness

ü      The product has its first lighthouse client and has an interesting approach towards incentives for existing clients to produce new leads.  However, the sales teams approach does not seem to be focused and unified

Technical Innovation

ü      The company does have a unique edge with their ‘connectedness’ but do they offer their client’s and edge?  I am not convinced.

Exit Strategy

ü      Brad talks about focus but doesn’t seem to have a clear focus for growth and success.  They do not seem to have a clear vision of where they want to be with their product (other than a million dollar company)

Overall Investment Status

ü      At this time I would not be willing to risk my money on this proposition.  There is still work to be done on this company.

Further Remarks

ü      I took the opportunity to investigate Recombo’s website.  They have changed the focus of their product yet again.

Ingenia Training

CEO Credibility

ü      Confident, clear speaking voice

ü      Excellent credentials

ü      Concise Presentation

Management Team

ü      Solid business, highly qualified team

ü      Industry leader

ü      International expert

ü      Good successes already

Business Model

ü      Good research into the market

ü      Ripe for growth in eLearning and custom content

ü      Aware of the competition

ü      Already have contacts in Vietnam

ü      Money is available for the product

ü      Solid focused goal

Competitive Products

ü      From the presentation it appears that the product is easily able to take a good piece of the market share in this country that has yet to be tapped into

ü      The price for investment is clear and clearly broken down

Market Readiness

ü      The product is ready, the path to success should be relatively short

Technical Innovation

ü      If they act quickly and take the large market share than I believe they will have an edge that they can keep

Exit Strategy

ü      Their vision and goals are very clear and focused

Overall Investment Status

ü      I would invest in this proposition.  Although the return on investment is relatively small I do believe it is feasible

Further Remarks

ü      From further research on the Ingenia website it looks like they were successful in securing the IDRC/Government of Vietnam as a client

UBC Office of Learning Technologies

CEO Credibility

ü      Although the director was not a great speaker she does seem very knowledgeable about the various intricacies of overseeing the learning technologies for such a large institution with so many unique faculties and individuals that require accommodation inside her office’s vision

Management Team

ü      The UBC Office of Learning Technologies is filled with highly qualified individuals

Business Model

ü      The office does have a strategic plan

ü      They ensure that they work collaboratively with all individual and faculties

ü      They provide facilitation and co-ordination across UBC, which is difficult in an institution that values de-centralization

ü      Works collaboratively with IT services to ensure that the infrastructure can support the learning technologies

Technical Innovation

ü      This office values advanced and innovative users

ü      They look to the future and value online interaction

Exit Strategy

ü      Although the focus has to be on broader goals to encompass so many unique faculties and client groups, they still seem to achieve a clear focus and strategy for the future

Overall Investment Status

ü      No office is perfect and learning technologies are still continuously emerging and evolving.  This is a very difficult office to hold and please so many separate interests while keeping a common vision.  I think the director does an admirable job.

UBC IT Services

CIO Credibility

ü      Wow, Ted is a very well spoke individual

ü      He is clear, concise and exudes capability and confidence

Management Team

ü      All 5 of the UBC VPs volunteered to sit on the executive steering committee

Business Model

ü      Ted is very much aware that it is essential to have a clear vision, and the ability to articulate and share that vision with others

ü      The office has an eStrategy framework

ü      Annual town hall to discuss the strategy

ü      They give voice to the entire community

ü      Align their goals with the strategic goals of the faculty and the university

Competitive Products

ü      The office makes a point of keeping track of the innovators within the UBC community

ü      Liaise with other universities

ü      Keep current with the work of other institutions

Exit Strategy

ü      I was very impressed with the clarity of Ted’s vision.  He has a clear definition for success for his department

Royal Roads Open Courseware

CEO Credibility

ü      Miss Burgess speaks confidently and believes in the success of her proposal

Management Team

ü      It is made apparent that the current staff at Royal Roads are highly competent

ü      However, no mention is made of the team that would design and implement the Open Courseware – are they the same?  eLearning courseware is different than teaching in class

Business Model

ü      Although Miss Burgess talks about open courseware at other institutions and the benefits of open courseware, there is very little substance about how this would be implemented at Royal Roads

ü      Is the infrastructure already in place?  Are the courses fit for online learning?  What type of budget are they looking at?  Where is the evidence of a business proposal?

Competitive Products

ü      The selling price is zero dollars, Miss Burgess has done little to convince what the return on investment will be

Market Readiness

ü      This was not addressed at all during the presentation

ü      Are there courses already created?

ü      How much hardware requires purchasing

ü      What will the software requirements be?

ü      How long will this take to implement from start to finish?

Technical Innovation

ü      There are already a number of universities that offer Open Courseware.  Miss Burgess has not emphasized what will be unique about the Royal Roads open courseware

Exit Strategy

ü      I believe that Miss Burgess has a clear picture of what she would like to see, unfortunately she has not paved a clear road of how she will get there.

Overall Investment Status

ü      At this time I would not be willing to risk my money on this proposition.

Perhaps others are “new” to the venture side of elearning as I am so there are many  terms/connected concepts that are challenging to grasp the first time.  There are probably many sites but this one has a comprehensive list of “investor terms”  Might be of use.

Cheers,  Greg

According to their website E-Line is currently developing several original games and comics. The focus for these projects is to be fun, relevant and make meaningful impact in the areas of learning, health and youth empowerment.

At this time the strength of this venture is in the personnel the E-Line team features. Described as “seasoned executives who’ve helped build some of the world’s leading game and digital comic franchises as well as social entrepreneurs who are committed to harnessing popular media for impact.”
Face 1: Market Focus
- Public schools (K- 12) Although the concept of gaming is not exclusive to young people aged K-12 there seems to be a strong base for interest from this group based on the statistics quoted on the eline website (stated below but not supported by a documented source) and through personal experience of how many young people gravitate to and enjoy computer based gaming environments.
97% of kids in America play computer & video games
86 million gamers visited casual gaming sites in December, 2008
The game industry is a $30+ billion global business that experienced 20% growth in 2008, despite the down economy.
There are approximately 100 million Nintendo DS handheld game machines and 50 million Nintendo Wii consoles which offer great opportunities for family friendly gameplay.Face 2: Types of Offerings – Services/Content
 “Talkers and Doers” is one example of a game designed to empower youth who are at risk for dropping out of school and give them tools and motivation to become young entrepreneurs. This game seeks to utilize fun and relevant gameplay with the integration of real- world mentors, opportunities and resources. This company seems to be going through a morph as indicated by the soon to be released sections of their website “view all eline game projects” and “view all eline comic projects”. From my review I cannot determine if this project is open to creating games/comics for their customers or if they do market research to inform them of what gaming/comic content development would be the most marketable. I am presuming the later although they may be open to original projects if adequately compensated. Also I am presuming that the games are web based requiring adequate infrastructure and computers to run them.
Face 3: Who is the Buyer? – Learning bought Centrally – Local Guide offers to Learners My interest in gaming environments would be to provide engaging and valuable learning experiences to my students. According to the website for E-line the following list are examples of organizations or groups for whom games with real-world impact can significantly accelerate their mission and outreach:
Foundations
Non-profits
Educational institutions
Government
Documentary filmmakers
Book publishers
Corporations (CSR)
Philanthropists
Social Entrepreneurs
E- line does not give an adequate explanation for how these groups would utilize their services. They are marketing a service for building customized content but evaluation of how well a product is accomplishing the goals set out by the customer needs to be addressed.
Face 4 – Global Markets – Wired Anglophone Countries Potentially this product could be used anywhere a computer had adequate memory and processing to run the game program (assuming it is not net based) but if having adequate internet support is a requirement the market would be restricted.
Face 5 – Development of the Market – Market Only Supports Custom work or Indigenous Suppliers The market for this product seems to be extremely competitive and based on the customer’s ability to buy the product. A game simulation can be adapted for other countries and culture and may be valuable in terms of a basic model but could easily be ripped apart and rebuilt as a clone of the original product. Therefore, this company needs to work where copyright laws will protect the content of the game/comic.
Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning A key element for this learning technology is the appeal that games and comics hold for young students. Currently both forms of learning are elements of popular culture. Why Nintendo would not start to develop this type of product should it become lucrative enough seems to be answered in that different potential customers may require unique elements and circumstances to be included in their learning product (game or comic) to maximize it’s effectiveness. This could be accomplished but there is not a clear formula as to what the costs would be. Also programs such as comic life allow students to create their own comics, which is a more extensive learning process then taking in a comic that has already been prepared.

Here’s a list of top 20.

http://www.vccafe.com/2008/11/12/top-20-entrepreneurial-startup-resources-europe/

Face One: Market Focus

CASUS In.struct is a system developed in Germany beginning in 1994. It currently combines an authoring tool, player and learner tracking to create and deliver online cases for undergraduate and continuing medical education to help prospective physicians practice making diagnosis and other decisions about patients. It’s market focus is higher education and training related to continuing education.
Who we are. CASUS. 2009. Retrieved September 23 from

http://www.instruct.de/en/WerSindWir/index.html

Face Two: Types of Offerings

CASUS In.struct is primarily an infrastructure provider offering an authoring tool software, some guides on how to use it to create case content, and a server to host the player and the cases created by the customer. The system has been developed to the extent that CASUS has several licenses for different uses of the system. An authoring license allows the customer to create cases on CASUS. The course license allows the grouping of several cases under a course administration tool which provides detailed assessment information on each student user. An Exam license allows the use of the cases as exams for testing students online, and a faculty model license is an arranged customization of CASUS In.struct at a negotiated cost.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

The buyers of CASUS In.struct are notably not medical students – not the end users. The buyers appear to be all in higher education or continuing education and are either medical faculty, medicine related programmes or departments.

Face 4: Global Markets

CASUS has clients both wired anglophone countries and “european” countries with language skills. The first clients were in Germany, and then new clients were established in North America. Most notably, a slight customization was dubbed CLIPP (Computer-assisted Learning in Pediatrics Program) and the 31 or more cases developed in it are in use by over 80 medical schools in the United States and Canada.

CASUS Projects. CASUS. 2009. Retrieved September 23 from

http://www.casus.eu/index.php?article_id=22&clang=1

Face 5: Development of the Market

It appears that clients in Germany, Europe, and North America comprise a market that supports import of content and infrastructure. That they buy licenses to use the German server hosted system suggests that they support importing the infrastructure, and the sharing of content in the form of cases created by different clients and contributed to CLIPP in North America suggests that clients in the United States and Canada are willing to import content.

Face 6: Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

The medical schools in Germany and North America already have well developed learning systems in the form of instructor-led courses. However, they are under pressure to achieve competencies in a growing curriculum as, for example, new illnesses, clinical treatments, technologies, and pharmacology are added each year. Many schools are under pressure to increase enrollments as there is a shortage of physicians and medical faculty to train them. Consequently, there is a little of all three levels of competition with other forms of learning. In some instances and aspects the cases are readily accepted into the existing mix of learning technologies which tend to be teacher led. In other instances, for lack of lecturers or scheduled class time, cases are used for independent study. In a third instance, the use of online cases is imposed on faculty and students who prefer lecture delivered content instead of problem-based learning or independent study.

Face 1 – Market Focus

I actually had a little difficulty with this. What is their market focus? Public schools, higher education, or corporate training needs? Their service seems blended. Although, their website does indicate that their major markets would be higher education and corporate consumers. PBworks has separate services, such as “Project Edition” and “Campus Edition”, which seems to support this multi-market ambition.

Face 2 – Types of Offering

PBworks is mainly a service providing a product and infrastructure for managing course and students content; although, wikis can be used for numerous other things, including asynchronous communication.

Face 3 – Who is the buyer?

I see two options here, being:

• “Learning bought for Learner” – perhaps, for example, it is mainly for higher education courses where the instructors wish to include wikis in the course; and
• “Learning Bought Centrally” – perhaps, for example, a university or schools district has adopted the idea of wikis and wishes to provide this type of learning environment for the entire institution.

This seems evident in the various packages that they provide.

Face 4 – Global Markets

PBworks is mainly focused on “Wired Anglophone Countries, although there is a small market in other areas.

Face 5 – Development of the market

PBwork saw a niche in the market. MediaWiki and Wikispaces would be the two other major competitors; however, PBworks, perhaps seeing the growth of wikis in education and corporate use, simplified the enduser’s experience with wikis. The international market freely imports content and infrastructure, although I’m not aware of many (if any) local companies that produce wiki packages.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

PBworks would fit under the category: “Learning Technology Substitutes for Others Forms of Learning”. For one thing, their product and service may have to compete with the various LMSs, other Social Media platforms, such as NING, blogging platforms and other services, such as Google Docs. But that’s just “eLearning”. PBworks would have to compete with face-to-face appracs to collaborative approaches to learning.

Originally, known as PBWiki, PBWorks is an online collaborative environment that allows users to create wikis fairly easily. It operates on the “freemium” model (free low level features plus a fee for higher levels that offer more features) and uses its own proprietary software which seems to evolve and improve year by year. When it was first released, it was markedly simpler to use than other wiki programs and has added more functionality such as more stringent security measures and audit logs which holds appeal for commercial applications. I have some experience with the company/product through doing a wiki for a History 12 class. A great product/service that I feel educators should explore given the time. So…

Face 1: Market Focus-(K-12, higher education, commercial)

PBWorks has and is being used by all three of the above categories. Save lower level grades (which might not be able to use computers until a certain age), this product has huge appeal for middle school and high school, universities/colleges, and businesses as well. According to their website, commercial ventures are their main focus with the claim to fame that they have users in half of the Fortune 500 list.

 Face 2: Types of Offerings-services rendered/product description

Obviously, the company offers workspaces for individuals, companies, cohorts etc to collaborate on various projects or personal quests. Simply, a wiki is a set of interlinked web pages that allows the user(s) to edit and share information in particular field or application. These wikis allow for different levels of access and editing/deletion abilities so as to preserve the integrity of the work being done. One is able to navigate fairly easily through a number of pages in specific folders and users can leave comments and insert both links to other pages/sites and actual multimedia files.

 Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

The buyer fits into seven different categories including:

 Master Pricing Guide

 The basic/free level appeals to individuals and those needing only basic services. The “Public” level is aimed at libraries/institutions while the differences between the Classroom and Campus editions is the number of users and number of workspaces. Standard, Legal and Project editions all allow for unlimited storage measured in Gigabytes. The differences between all seven categories is fairly substantial. For more go to:

http://pbworks.com/content/pricing-overview

 Face 4 – Global Markets

According to PBWorks, the only language that it is offered in is English (main business language) “PBworks itself (tools, help, support) is not available in languages other than English.” However, it utilizes Unicode meaning that any language that you can type in from your computer will be displayed in the workspace pages. So, you can use other languages but if you need help it is going to be in English. Customers include companies from Australia, the US, the UK, South Korea, Canada and China. A company like Bracewell and Giuliani has ten offices around the world and 450 attorneys. Basically, the nature of the product/service makes it very attractive for anyone with Internet access that wants a collaborative experience.

 Face 5 – Development of the Market

Arguably, PBWorks is the giant in the wiki business. Over 50 000 businesses subscribe, they host over 900 000 workspaces and millions of users utilize it each day. According to various sources, the company does spend time/money developing new features that reflect what their customers are telling them or are based on observed trends.

 Face 6 – Integrating the product in the education system

The product itself is relatively easy to use and includes very substantial and well developed webinars and technical support – that is a strength of the company. Hardware needed to run this is minimal and speed of the internet connection is not absolutely crucial. The playing of multimedia might be an issue. Getting students to use this would not be hard as it imitates blogging in some ways; however, some might feel self conscious posting comments/ideas using their own names. Cost is quite low and can be free unless many features are needed. Evaluating user contributions can be eased by paying more for a higher level edition.

If you have any questions about your ideas for A1, I’m eager to hear them.   General questions can respond to this post, and more specific questions can be emailed to me.

Good luck!

DavidV

Face 1 – Market Focus

Rosetta Stone claims to be “a leading provider of technology-based language learning solutions”. A large portion of their sales is to retail outlets for consumer training but they offer online versions and various bundling options for schools and corporations.

Face 2 -  Types of Offerings

Rosetta Stone offers pre-packaged content for second language learners starting with beginner levels up to common conversational.

Face 3 – Who is the Buyer?

Retail buyers are purchasing the products directly for their own use.  Schools and corporations purchase licenses for their students or employees.

Face 4 – Global Markets

Rosetta Stone’s products are sold in 150 countries, teaching over 30 languages.  It has an international focus and fills wired Anglophone countries, European countries with English language skills, European countries requiring translation, and Asian countries with quality internet.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

In the case of Rosetta Stone the “Market Supports Export Oriented Learning Technologies and Substitution of Imports” is the most representative.  Other companies can (and do) make language-learning software but Rosetta Stone is a leader in many markets.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

As a prepackaged product, Rosetta Stone products are often a substitute for other forms of learning. In a school or corporate setting the technology may be used to support other systems of learning.

Face One:  Market Focus

Distance learners, remote learners and students who need more assistance at home.  The software that is developed is utilized by students who have access to a computer and their assistance is from teachers online.  These students are being home schooled but online.  At any point in time, the teacher can take over the computer of the student and guide the student in what or how to solve any problems.

Face Two:  Type of Offerings

This type of offering is definitely a support system for the students.  They can provide guidance and direction when students are confused.  It is a stepping stone for the students so that they can move onto the next stage.

Face Three:  The Buyer

The buyers are school districts.  The purchasers within that district can access how many hours of this help line they would like to purchase.  They should also decide how many teachers per subject should be hired.

Face Four:  Global Markets

The software and hardware is available for Personal Computers and Macintoshes’.  For now, the project is in its’ preliminary stages and therefore is closed to Alberta right now.  Once the program has been working fine and the bugs have been ironed out, there will be availability to other provinces and even other countries.  We must look at hiring teachers who can speak French and other languages of school boards that are interested in the program.

Face Five:  Development of the Market

Roll out for such a program will begin in the rural areas.  In addition, it is also being offered for students wanting to study other languages because many students would like to enter University (or post secondary education) with a second language.  Often it is difficult to find teachers that can speak other language.

Face Six:  Integration of the Program

It will be easy to introduce this program into the homes of students who need help.  It would save the parents from having to hire a tutor.  It would be available for students in the evening hours and weekends.  Students would not have to leave their homes and have a larger success factor in all their courses.

Face 1: Market Focus
Because Lynda.com has so many resources that cover so many applications, they have a very broad market focus. They mainly differentiate the markets based on pricing and access to their resources. For instance, public schools would most likely invest in a few lessons for the applications that they use, but at a multi-user price point. Higher education and corporations may look at larger site licenses, or they may opt to have the end users purchase only what they need.

Face 2: Types of Offerings
Lynda’s offerings are mainly pre-packaged content, either available online subscription or by purchasing hard copies of the software or videos.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?
Again, because of the large market focus, there are many types of buyers. Single package licenses are available for individual learners, right up to large corporate site licenses, where all employees have access to all of the available resources on company computers.

Face 4 – Global Markets
As they are produced in English, the main users of Lynda’s resources would be wired Anglophone countries, European countries with language skills, and possibly, thanks to the closed captioning, European countries requiring translation.

Face 5 – Development of the Market
Lynda would fall under the category of “Market Supports Export Oriented Learning Technologies and Substitution of Imports.”  It is assumed with this sort of resource that the market is always ready to accept the newest technologies, and that end-users will need training to run them effectively, or more importantly, competitively.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning
Because of its prepackaged nature, the resources that Lynda provides would be a substitute for other forms of learning. These tutorials and videos could be used in addition to other forms of instruction, but there would likely be a lot of redundancy. That being said, these resources may not meet the learning needs of everyone using them, so having a proficient instructor would be important for success, especially in that K-12 environment.