Welcome to my venture pitch. It was inspired by the work I do everyday.
You can find my pitch here: https://sites.google.com/view/indigenous-science-learning/home.
A3: Indigenous Science Learning Portal
11 responses to “A3: Indigenous Science Learning Portal”
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FEEDBACK: Hi Terri. One defining strength I saw in your pitch was the venture. You provided compelling and interesting examples of how the science learning portal could be applied. You showed what kind of resources would be available for both teachers and students, as well as sample learning activities for each stream of science. I think it’s a new idea to focus on Indigenous learning which is shown when you introduce this niche. I think instead of just comparing it to the e-learning market, I would be interested to see the Indigenous learning market in general (or something closely related) as well (as your venture is a combination of e-learning + Indigenous science). Thanks for sharing!
REVIEW: Great project Terri-Lynn! Well organized and easy to understand your pitch. I think this is a viable project outside this course as long as you could secure consistent funding. From what I have read, learning science from an Indigenous lens is currently lacking and would be an important for Indigenous students, and benefit non-Indigenous students as well. I could see this expanding into math and potentially other subjects that are still being taught through a colonial lens. I especially think it’s important that you connected it back to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission Call to Action report, this would be key for your funding as I see you receive government funding for a project like this. One question I have about funding is how long do you foresee $300,000 supporting “educational technology specialist, an Indigenous education specialist, website hosting, as well as consultations with elders and knowledge keepers”? Thanks!
Feedback: Hi Terri-Lynn, I enjoyed reviewing your OER, visually appealing, and even though the website pages were concise, but they clearly show extensive research. As an EVA, the visuals helped me navigate the website easily, and follow the information flow with minimal effort. One question that I have, which is along the same lines as what Marie-Eve asked is around the 300K funding. Would this 300K be a one-time investment? How would future costs be covered?
FEEDBACK: Hi Teri-Lynn, thanks for sharing your venture. I too believe you have something here that is very viable and should be implemented. I wonder if rather than seeking investors, (which I realize was not the point of this assignment) it would make more sense to put together a proposal team and pitch this project to the government? Most of the feedback I was going to ask about you was covered in your reflection. You mentioned how perhaps the scope of the venture needs to be scaled back to one grade and subject, or perhaps break the proposal up into stages? You also pointed out there’s no direct competition, which further demonstrates the feasibility of this venture.
I hope you further pursue this project.
REVIEW: This is a great resource for Indigenous youth as well as instructors looking to support First Peoples perspectives. I have great, vast appreciation for this resource and venture. This is non–profit so, not for capital gains, but recognition. The fact that it is non-profit speaks to me. And if it was for profit, this would surely cause a set of relived trauma among our Indigenous relatives. This speaks to me very much because it is non-for profit and I tend to default to the mind and heart of an educator and social-change-educator. Thank you for this idea. I would surely want to back you up as a VA as well as an ally to Indigenous peoples AND a curriculum developer. Thanks again!
Hi Terri-Lynn, I think this would be a great resource to get more indigenous learning out to students in Canada. I think there is a need for more visibility of indigenous people as educators to all kids, especially in STEM subjects, so I like your concept of providing learning that is guided virtually by indigenous teachers. Although there are resources available to access indigenous learning, I like that yours would actually be provided by the people themselves instead of non-indigenous teachers trying to interpret and teach these lessons themselves. As an investor in this project I would like to know how you would draw teachers to your resource. I know that teachers often are interested in adding indigenous learning to the way they teach, but they are also very busy, so how would they know to access your site and would they be able to find material that could be used in their science classrooms pertaining to the curriculum they need to teach? Interested to know!
Sorry- the previous post should have been labeled FEEDBACK.
REVIEW: Hi Terri-Lynn, I really enjoyed reading your venture pitch. When I was reviewing the website, I went straight to the budget of this venture ask and found that it was very reasonable. Then I saw the reasoning behind your venture / the ask and I almost cried… I really do think your venture can be so impactful to your target market and the youths can really benefit from this resource. It reminds me of a similar non-profit organization called PRIYD who target people who may be impacted by external environments/factors in their lives and provide them with resources / mentors for them to succeed in life. Thank you so much for sharing! What an impactful and meaningful venture.
[FEEDBACK] At the core, I like the concept and that you immediately highlight the TRC’s recommendation for the added sociological aspect. That you are attempting to bring important content forward is what really drew me into this idea/concept. Around the world, especially here in Canada in light of recent events this is a really important resource to get behind. My comment about funding is rather consistent with my colleagues here; how sustainable is this project on one investment or will this need to be annualized? What is the long-term goal of this resource in terms of sustainability?
Feedback: Your venture pitch was well laid out and explains how it fits a real need in our society. You outline how this program would be integrated into school districts and that it allows for not just a surface review of indigenous knowledge. I, like others, do not see the annual value to this purchase after the initial one. Would there be increasing revenue? I would explain it the way I generally see resources that are specifically geared towards the use in School Districts. The market is different than a public resource. I would compare it to a School District purchasing a textbook. Once the purchase is made that would be the end of it. The value in an electronic resource is the capacity to adapt and interact, so perhaps offering coursework, virtual field trips or guest speaker opportunities could be included in the revenue possibilities.
You present a very interesting problem – the failure of education for a particular group of students. Your solution to this problem is one that is in line with governmental ideas and ideas of ruling council of elders. The devil’s advocate in me wants to ask this question: is lack of cultural content the problem with the education, or is it something else? Ultimately, we’re also asking if there is a strong connection between First Nations children and their culture which would connect students more strongly to their education. I know I’m probably sharing a very controversial opinion here, especially in light of the abhorrent creation of residential schools and of their mission to exterminate their cultures. But I want you to consider another possibility. Here is my counterpoint: are we seeing similar trends in other ethnic groups? In these other ethnic groups, have solutions similar to yours been applied successfully? Are these poor graduation rates because of the lack of indigenous cultural content, or is it symptomatic of a different problem (poverty, quality of education, systemic racism, etc)? Is it the lack of cultural content, or how the students are being taught?
I recognized one final major problem here: broadband. How good is the connectivity poor internet services on most preserves? I can’t speak to this myself, but given the news items I have seen about things like water quality issues never being addressed on territorial lands, and the fact that most of these reservations are not in major cities oh, I can only imagine that internet service where they are ( and in their schools) would also be particularly poor.
Pain Point & Solution: This is a clear educational gap within the market that wishes/needs to be specifically addressed by the Canadian government. You are providing them with the solution
Marketing: Clearly, this needs to be integrated within local, provincial, national curricula. This will require you to convince school boards, but also local educators, to begin integrating material from your website into their lessons.
Championship: Your timeline seems to outline appropriate schedule for gathering specialists around you. It’s not overly ambitious, which is good.
Competition: Being not-for-profit, and being free, certainly give you a competitive advantage. Being such a small market, I don’t know of any additional companies or organizations that are actively trying to develop material. In fact your biggest competition might be local teachers doing their own thing
The Ask: I think your ask might be a little short, but I’m not too sure if it factors in the actual technology itself: acquiring an LMS, web hosting, equipment, possible copyright issues and acquiring licenses for images – and honestly I’m sure there will be issues of remuneration with the elders and knowledge keepers. I think you may have underestimated your budget for the quality of product you wish to produce. Remember, during the pandemic, many students were turned off of online learning because of the poor quality of initial delivery. As I said, you might be best to reach out to the government, local school boards, for other funds marked for reconciliation projects.
The Return: As a not-for-profit venture, I can understand that return on investment is not an important issue. The return on investment you are looking for ultimately is an increased graduation rate of First Nations children and perhaps inspiring them into STEM programs. I’m not sure when you can start seeing a definitive return on this. It might not manifest in the first year. It might not manifest in the first 3 years. But it might start to manifest over 5 years and a decade as students go through the program and become too engaged.
However, it must be sustainable. This could be done through conjunction of government grants, local educational budgets and the employing of First Nations Educators to be part of this program.