SHARED LESSONS
Hi Everyone,
For some time, I have been concerned that it is nearly impossible for teachers to find, share and discuss resources or initiatives with other teachers that are like-minded or that are simply constrained by the same learning outcomes. As a social venture that doesn’t make money, but more importantly saves time and money for the district and teachers, I have proposed a repurposing of an existing product using cloning software that enables teachers to form a community of practice that scaffolds and builds upon the knowledge of the group. I hope you enjoy my presentation and I look forward to learning what you, the potential users, think of the proposed solution to such a common problem facing teachers.
ELEVATOR PITCH
Link: Elevator Pitch
VENTURE PITCH
Link: Venture Pitch
Cheers, Steve
Posted in: Venture Forum
Donna Forward 10:31 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Steve,
Great opening with your Elevator pitch. It is visually attractive and I like your choice of pictures (like the one with the teacher and the stack of papers and marking). It was also interesting how you ended your introduction leaving the listener curious to hear more and that they should contact you if their interest had been tweaked.
The idea of Shared Lessons is good and you describe it well as a “cloning software that scaffolds and builds on the knowledge of the group”. It is almost a Google Doc’s type of concept that you are improving upon.
A few ideas to perhaps improve your Venture Pitch. I would have liked to have seen more slides to describe your venture as you were talking. Sometimes I was waiting for a new slide to appear but you remained on a previous one while you contined with your pitch. Also, it might have been a good idea to re-record your narrative as you spoke since there were several spots that you stumbled upon. By doing this you could have more of a professional, polished presentation.
The idea of your to help bring resources to reach all teachers is a excellent proposal. I’m not sure if you’ve quite convinced me to invest however, but the potential is there.
Donna
mackenzie 2:24 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Donna
I agree the visuals could have been more powerful, and executed with greater effect.
Being a social enterprise aimed at one particular district definitely made it difficult for the average investor to grasp what I have intended. I tailored the pitch to such a specific client’s actual needs based on actual meetings with district personal that the audience(classmates) has joined the process part way through.
Dave Horn 10:48 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve
As a teacher who has definitely been under the gun to develop lessons, the idea to collaborate and share lessons definitely appeals. As an investor, I wondered how I could contribute and how any monetary gain could happen. I may have missed it, but what about having a small cost for joining and sharing on the site? Who would be running and managing the site so as to update and organize materials?
Great effort though and I always like the idea of collaboration.
Dave
mackenzie 2:25 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Dave
This project will not make money. Every teacher that I have approached has liked the idea. But if asked to pay money to join, they said it would drive them away from the site, or any similar venture site. Some colleagues said that they may consider joining this site for a small window of time to reap the resources but would not keep a continuing membership. Essentially, the idea of profiting in any way from their sharing of resources was unpalatable to them, and seemed to set an adversarial tone and not a collaborative one.
Dave Horn 9:08 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I can see your point about membership creating an adversarial tone, or one where people have temporary accounts to access content, but then don’t really contribute in return. What about moving it to a larger scale, where the school boards/districts paid a small fee to allow their teachers access, this could at least cover the costs of maintenance and such.
Hussain Luaibi 1:29 am on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Steve
Great efforts can be seen in your work. You explained things in a natural way which gives more credibility to the whole project.
As a teacher, I think sharing materials is great. But that can be done through many free software these days. The i-cloud and the drop-boxes can be a product killer. With the tight-fisted school budgets , many school these days would prefer to use free drop-box to do the same job. Besides, you mentioned that profit is not a priority here. How would you expect to entice the profit-oriented investors?
I think the idea is generally good but it won’t last long in the light of the flourishing market of information sharing.
Great presentation, Steve.
Hussain
mackenzie 2:25 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hussain
This is definitely not profit investors dream come true, but that was not my intention. I was targeting my own school district to allocate some resources to back my social enterprise. It was never my intention to appeal to investors that had monetary goals, but instead to reach an investor that shared my vision for a cultural paradigm switch from isolation to inclusion.
shawn harris 8:30 am on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve ,
Thanks for sharing your presentation of pitches with us!
As an educator the market concept appealed to me and I was more than willing to listen in to hear what you had to offer the market and to potential investors. The idea for sharing lesson plans is one which I give praises to as last year the education department had to fly specialist teachers from one island to the next for meetings and planning of lessons for the new academic year. In this technological era, that should not be done as it is too costly.
With that said, the concept about online space for teachers to collaborate, share resources and their best practices was clear to me as you gave some valid reasons and examples why this market is needed. You sounded passionate about the solution you are bringing to the table. However, for both pitches you did not introduce yourself nor did you make mention of the management team behind this as this would add some credibility to the potential investor.
I think you should have taken the time to re-record parts of your pitches for a smoother and a more professional work.
As others mentioned there are other spaces for shared lessons and collaboration. You mentioned that the product is not about profit, so what’s in it for the potential investor?
Overall Investment Status: I like your idea about helping educators to collaborate in a shared space however, I don’t see the CEO or the team, I don’t know the financial details about the market as little is mentioned about the marketing aspect or specifics about revenue and I didn’t hear much about the global market. I consider this extremely high risk and would not pursue.
Good effort!
~ Shawn
mackenzie 2:25 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Shawn
As this is a venture aimed at my district, and since I am already a well-known member of its professional development initiative program amongst district leaders, a formal introduction didn’t seem necessary. Essentially, I was aiming my presentation at my target audience, an audience that already knows and trusts me, rather than providing a cold sell to angel investors. And since I was having trouble conveying all the things I wanted to in the time I had, I streamlined the parts that were less necessary. I know that I could easily present a paper that conveys most if not all of the information necessary, but I have an actual meeting scheduled with district members in the fall and believed I could double dip so to speak by creating a dual purpose pitch. I obviously need to work on my pitch so this was an excellent opportunity to test the waters. Thanks so much for your input.
Colin 9:48 am on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve,
I like the choice of visuals to complement your oral presentation. I think that collaboration between teachers is sometimes lacking in this profession. You identified the problem and offered a solution. However, the main issue is the amount of existing competition out there. I think if you can differentiate your product from your competitors (i.e. why is your product better than the existing ones), you will capture more interests from potential investors. I would not invest at this time but may reconsider if your elevator pitch showed some product differentiation or competitive advantage.
Good effort.
Colin
Ronna Hoglund 4:28 pm on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve,
You pitched your product well with great visuals and with a personal touch. You certainly made the “pain point” clear – we ARE overworked!! I like the idea of collaboration but I am not quite clear on how this will make $$$$. Thanks for sharing.
Ronna
Denise 9:32 am on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve,
As an educator I thought your idea was an interesting solution,..
As an investor I was taken with your written introduction it really captured my imagination. When I listened to the elevator pitch I was disappointed. You presented well, the slides were clean and good visuals, but I didn’t meet you either visually or in any introduction nor get an idea of your competency. I would have been wowed with an elevator pitch that highlighted what you had written.
The venture pitch I felt suffered again for me by not meeting you here either,and having a personalised approach. You did sell the team well – but too late. While you did stumble in the audio I think this would have been less noticeable if Ii had been seeing you – or had seen you.
As Donna commented i would have liked more visuals. it became quite hard to keep listening to your voice when the visuals didn’t match and weren’t changing. One clasic example was the numbers of teachers across BC – I got lost and the information would have been better reinforced with a slide.
While the venture wasn’t about money I wasn’t sure what you did want from the investor.
Unfortuantely i would have turned off the venture pitch half way through (for the reasons above) So while a good solution you didn’t keep and increase my excitement/imagination with this. I don’t know, but your initial written intro was so enticing I wonder if a written venture pitch woudl have kept me engaged?
Good luck with it if you are going to try and implement it though! Difference between a user’s enthusiasm and an investment analysis.
Denise
Kenton Hemsing 8:39 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve,
The idea is good, many teachers will be very interested in an easy to use site that allows them to gather lesson ideas and resources. However, as an investor, I do not feel that this would be a venture for myself. The target market is great, but for a service that does not generate any income directly it is too much of a risk for myself. I think if you were willing to sell advertising space within the site I would be more inclined to invest as there is some potential to generate a vast amount of money.
Collaboration is lacking in our profession, and I feel that it is directly related to time constraints. Your solution seems to be useful for some in that they can gain resources and lesson ideas directly, but it too could suffer in that there will not be many contributors to the site. I appreciate that you are honest in that critical mass is 100 contributors to the site and 5000 users, but it seems that is a small amount of contributors in the grand scheme of things. If the site was able to make uploading lesson ideas as simple as filling in a form or check boxes with an area for a quick description of how to implement the lesson, I think more people would contribute. More contributions are key to the success of the site.
Also, what is going to be done when there have not been any new contributions for a while? I know with initiatives like this there is always a rush at the start, then nothing new added for a long time. Will there be PD sessions offered and release time given to teachers to contribute ideas and lessons, or will this be expected to be done on their own time?
Great idea and pitch as well as the venture plan. I am just not convinced it would be an investment for myself.
Thanks,
Kenton
mariefrancehetu 3:35 pm on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Steve,
I thought your elevator pitch was well rendered with a good choice of pictures to accompany your presentation.
First of all the idea behind ‘Shared Lesson’ is an innovative one. I can see how this type of sharing online platform could work as a great teaching tool within my own work environment where I teach adults. At work we do share projects, and collaborate on lesson planning, but it seems to always be the same people who do so. You obviously well researched this potential venture and I do like the idea that it is a social venture. The vocabulary you used to explain your venture was general and accessible to a large audience.
Suggestions for improvement:
– Segmenting your venture pitch into shorter periods where you speak, with perhaps more slides and especially titles that let the listener focus on the next category introduced. This would also have permitted you to record shorter segments and thus record again if necessary.
– Increasing the volume when recording, because I had difficulty hearing you even with the volume up high
– The first minute of your venture pitch had little to do with your elevator pitch, so I was left wondering what your project was about until later. Perhaps you could have summed up your project and then provided details about the problem and solution.
As an investor, I may want to invest in this type of project, because I have a social conscience and know projects like these can help foster technology within the classrooms, but I found that if the presentation had been a bit more dynamic I might more readily have embarked in your venture wholeheartedly.
Cheers!
Marie-France
Sherman Lee 11:41 pm on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve,
Good effort in your pitches. I think “Shared Lesson” is a great concept from a teacher’s point of view. I can see how this tool can promote better instructional design as well, so as a teacher, I support your effort in this regards.
As an investor, I have a couple of questions in mind that were not quite clarified. First and foremost is how would “Shared Lesson” know the lessons are contributed by teachers? If you go by teaching license, there would be a lot of great educators that would be ruled out. Are those lessons reviewed individually? If that is the case, how much expenses would it cost in a month? a year?
Furthermore, I think you would need an immense amount of money in order to jump start the marketing of this product. How would you build popularity? Organization such as TEDed would invest in many revenues to get their publicity to draw in sufficient attention. I would like to know more about your marketing plans.
Lastly, I think it would be a great idea to make your speeches a bit smoother. I find it difficult to keep focus without seeing your face but keep hearing a bit of hesitation in your tone.
Good job though! Let me know if you are going to do a re-pitching!
Sherman
Danielle Dubien 12:29 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Steve,
I’m from Ontario, so I won’t be investing in your venture. Nonetheless, I found your idea interesting and wrote down a few things…
The main concern I have with this venture is the search method. It seems that even if you separate the material by topic, there still would be loads of material to go through to find just the right lesson plan. If your venture contained a classification system that is quick and easy for teachers to use, it would have a lot of value!
Now, even though some lessons are voted higher because of “repins”, this does not mean that they are pedagogically sound. Most primary teachers don’t have a background in science or math so misconceptions in these topics could propagate through your system. As well, lessons that are newly pinned will definitely have less pins even if they are better lessons. That fact alone can mean that newer lessons are unfairly skewed towards the bottom and have less of a chance to even get seen, let alone voted positively.
Being that this venture is limited to BC is great because it means that there is only one set of provincial goals that are in play. That said, I believe your math curriculum is shared with many other provinces and territories. How would you feel about having a separate site like that of your venture dedicated to that common math curriculum?
Around the 6:00 minute mark, you talk about spreading to other provinces. I don’t think that’s a good idea because everything will get very complex, what with the different curricula everywhere else. I would suggest creating separate, customized programs like yours for each province and territory. That said, you could still enable some sort of function that makes it possible for people to copy and paste an art lesson from grade 5 in BC that corresponds to and is relabeled to match a goal in grade 4 in Nova Scotia, for example.
You say that this site will contain lessons that are of professional quality, in comparison to what is on Pinterest. What will you do to ensure quality control? Up and down votes by repinning still requires teachers to take the time to look at lesson plans that may be poorly created.
I’m glad you’re starting with a pilot project. Hopefully, you would have a simple questionnaire for teachers to fill out so that it would be easy to sort through the feedback.
Much luck with your venture!
Dan