Just a reminder that your A3 submissions are due in one week: they must be posted in the blog by midnight Sunday, March 31 in order to be included in the Venture Forum, which is the activity for the final week of the course.
The opportunity horizon for learning technologies expanded rapidly during the pandemic, and now is expanding rapidly again through our engagement with AI. I predict this horizon will continue to grow significantly as people and institutions wrestle with new ways of living, working and learning. Face it, our old classrooms and schools will never look ‘the same’ again – learning zeitgeist has shifted, and remains unsettled, which means that opportunities abound.
Most of you are well into your A3 work and I’m getting a number of email questions (which are welcome!). Some overview points:
- you are meant to take the role of protagonist of your venture – the person with the vision and responsibility – not a team member or arms-length connection.
- you are authoring your pitch to persuade prospective investors (not potential customers).
- think carefully about what your audience of investors needs to hear from you in order to be excited about your venture: educational value is obviously important, but venture viability (the ability to realize that education value with an intended audience) is essential.
The purpose of A3 is that all of the exciting new technologies, tools and potentials you encounter in your MET journey may never become central to your career if all you do is wait for them to be picked up by your school, organization or working world. Your ability to make a persuasive pitch, to a supervisor, superintendent, dean, president, CEO, investor or whomever, makes you a changemaker.
Good luck!
David