Colin
Welcome to MobileCMS–a classroom management suite for mobile devices that helps teachers monitor students, show demos, and more! This product is ideal for blended-learning classrooms with tablets–both class sets and BYODs. The 1-minute video will introduce you to MobileCMS: its features, benefits, and opportunities. Click here if the video is not properly displayed. More information […]
Continue reading MobileCMS Posted in: Venture Forum PhET is a non-profit organization that provides free interactive simulations of physical phenomena on their website. The PhET team consists of diverse individuals including research associates, software engineers, website architectures, marketing managers, and high-school teachers. The team believes that their research-based simulations enable students to make connections between real-life phenomena and the underlying science. To […]
Continue reading PhET Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Nice summary and I think PhET is great. I have used PhET simulations and tools numerous times in my classes, often as a T-GEM approach, since the models allow students to explore and adjust different variables.
Dave
NO, I would not invest in SchoolManager. Lacking experience in administration, I don’t think I could add any value to this venture aside from capital. However, the product does differentiate itself from the rest of the market by combining a learning management system (e.g. Moodle, Blackboard) with a student management system (e.g. BCeSIS). From the […]
Continue reading SchoolManager Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
Hi Colin,
You bring up a good point when you say that investing in a venture does not simply mean with capital. When I reviewed my elevator pitch, I realized that the pitch could be viewed from a student perspective (investing the time to engage in a learning experience), a teacher perspective (investing energy and time into teaching as a volunteer), a higer learning instititution (investing the space for wrokshops) or as a capital investor. I think it is very important the elevator pitch is quite clear about what type of investors they seek.
NO, I would not invest in this venture. After watching the video, I kept asking myself “why would I want to invest in this company?” When I think of photo sharing websites, I think of the big-name competitors: Flickr, Photobucket, and maybe even SkyDrive and Facebook. Even though they may have limitations (upload size, storage […]
Continue reading Smugmug Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
I agree with you that it is important that the challenges to the venture be outlined in the pitch. It shows that the CEO and organizers have “thought it through”. When investing, you want to be confident that the developers have done their homework and researched the challenges that they will likely encounter on their way to success. It also shows transparency, which I think is vital to success.
-Lisa
Connie Malamed describes eight technological trends in Learning Technology Trends to Watch in 2012. She explains how these technologies are being (or can be) used in learning environments, whom the technologies are used by, and what she expects of them in the future. The report is clear and easy to read; it reaches out to […]
Continue reading Malamed: Learning technology trends to watch in 2012 Posted in: Uncategorized
Colin:
Good, succinct overview. I like the less formal blog nature of this report as it allows some discussion and reflection that may provide key positive and negative experiences. This frees the report from possible bias due to input controlled by funding interests.
Tim
Hi people! My name is Colin, and this is my fourth/fifth course (concurrently taking ETEC 530). I live in Vancouver, about a 10-minute drive away from UBC. Despite living so close to campus, I chose to do the MET program because I wanted to experience online learning first hand. I’m a high school teacher in […]
Continue reading Greetings! Posted in: Uncategorized
Hi Colin,
It’s good to hear there is someone on the course with business knowledge. It’ll come in handy!
I love your dog by the way 🙂
Adriana
Hi Colin,
It sounds like you have a lot of background knowledge to bring to the course! I look forward to working with you.
On a personal note, can one ever say enough about their dog? I have a black lab…she also likes splashing, though in deep water!
-Meggan
Hi Colin,
In my opinion, you can never talk too much about your dog. I talk about mine all the time! She’s a 95 lb flat coated retriever mix and she is always doing goofy stuff worthy of mentioning.
Best of luck in both courses.
gillian
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
Meggan Crawford 6:48 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
I think that your venture is presenting something that would make BYOD more attainable in a lot of classrooms, but it is not an easy venture to get started! Your presentation explains your goals and theory well, though it moves a bit quickly at a few points. As a teacher who allows student use of personal devices you definitely had my interest.
I am curious though, about potential privacy issues this may bring about – to run, I assume that your venture would need a high level of access to the student devices, which some students and/or parents may object to. If the teacher has access to a classroom set of devices this is, of course, a non-issue. As with desktop versions of this venture I would be concerned that some teachers might become absorbed with watching their screen to keep everyone on task at every moment and that the teaching itself might suffer a bit, but that is more about individual educators, rather than your venture!
I would be interested to see this venture in reality!
Thanks for sharing!
-Meggan
Colin 9:14 am on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Meggan,
Thank you for your constructive feedback. I think I put too much time synchronizing the background music with the slides that some of them went too fast.
Re: level of access. Without going into full details, MobileCMS creates a local VPN and can only communicate with other tablets within the same Wi-Fi network (similar to a hotel hotspot). That means, teachers will not be able to monitor BYOD devices once students go home. Secondly, students are warned about being monitor in the Terms of Service agreement when they connect via Wi-Fi.
I hope this clarifies a bit of your security/privacy concerns.
Colin
shawn harris 9:34 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
Your elevator pitch is one which caught my attention. I rocked straight through and just loved the music. I listened to it over and over.
The mobile CMS venture definitely has potential in the education market. The market was clear stating who it is designed for. You also gave a nice overview on the product features.
I liked the fact that you had a contact slide at the end in case the potential investor needed more information to make a decision.
On another note Colin, you did not mention who created this product nor was the management team mentioned. It would have been nice to see and hear the CEO somewhere in between the presentation to add some credibility. Something to look at in the future.
The classroom management suit has its place in this fast growing market and has the potential to do well!
~ Shawn
Colin 9:24 am on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Shawn,
Good point about not mentioning the CEO or creator of MobileCMS. To be honest, I initially wanted to drive the elevator pitch with a good product. In hindsight, it is probably a good idea just to mention.
As for speaking, I don’t have a functioning mic jack–there’s a paper ball in that jack. Not going to ask how it got inside. Besides, I’m one of those people who hate hearing my own voice. It would have driven me insane just to listen to my pitch over and over! 🙂
Colin
Donna Forward 11:34 pm on July 30, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Colin,
Great, catchy Elevator Pitch. However, I think that I’m getting old because I felt rushed trying to read some of the slides before they moved on.
When you mentioned that your product could be used for assessment and surveying the class, I immediately thought of clickers and that you were taking this concept 10 steps future will a great, innovative idea with Mobile CMS.
I really liked your Venture presentation and the way it was put up on the WordPress site, very professional. You used humour which was great. I especially laughed at the comment “yes, this is the link you want to click on”. Your humour continued on as a CEO and I’m glad to know that you’re a very nice person, that you’re very generous and that you are going to donate all of your net proceeds back to education.
As a business venture, your application is very well priced at $2.99 which makes it a realistic. You have really done your homework to research this idea and crunch the numbers.
Definite investment!
Donna
Colin 8:48 am on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Donna,
Thank you for your watching my elevator pitch and visiting the product website. I was worried that nobody would go forward with my venture plan since marketing is not my forte, as indicated in my venture plan! 🙂
Colin
Ronna Hoglund 12:05 pm on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
I completely understand about not liking your own voice! The only way to get over it, I have found, is to jump in there, do lots of recording and listen! It works! Now I have to get used to looking at myself on video – ick, lol. Anyway, to the point. I think your venture idea is a good one. To entice future investors, however, I think putting yourself out there as a commanding leader would do it. Thank you for sharing your work!
Ronna
HJDeW 6:34 pm on July 31, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Colin, you present a novel and interesting venture that has a vision for global reach in the niche of mobile classroom management. It certainly is one area that dominates teachers’ attention and time. Would teachers be purchasing the product themselves or would you licence to school districts?
Your comment about teachers ‘using technology to overcome their fear of technology’ is certainly hopeful, but it takes more than using it to overcome the inherent issues of tech in classrooms. Since you plan to reinvest profits into education, perhaps supporting communities of practice rather than individual grants to teachers would be a better way to create change with your unique product.
I was looking for the ‘ask’ for the investors, but there was no specific target amount that you were looking for from your investors. You do provide some interesting numbers for return on investment – just for markets in the US.
Helen
Colin 7:36 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Even though the product is affordable for teachers, I think most teachers will ask for an reimbursement from the school. The product is uniquely licensed to the tablet. The product is affordable enough that a district license is not planned at this time.
Colin
Denise 8:47 am on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
I thought your elevator pitch was very professional and highlighted the pain points and solution and differentiation. As Shawn commented the one thing as an EVO I felt was missing was an intro to the CEO and thus the competency behind the venture. One possibility would have been a slide with your picture and a few lines eg on the WordPress blog the CEO page worked really well and could have been modified (no need for video or voice)
The venture pitch was again really professional and I too like the clean blog you produced. i enjoyed the humour and you backed up your claims with a lot of good references. As an EVO looking to invest though I actually had to go through the site to find the investment pitch itself and while I was reading all the other material I found myself thinking it was focused on sales. I wondered, if I were unsure about whether to invest or not, whether this need to try and find the info might havebeen seen as too time consuming. One suggestion would be to lead straight to the investment venture pitch and then when hooked all the other material becomes important to explore – (and is really engaging).
I too wondered what you wanted from the investor – it wasn’t clear, but the possible returns were exciting!
I believe I would have wanted to know more about investing.
Denise
Colin 7:25 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Helen and Denise,
Thank you for your feedback. I will keep them in mind moving forward.
On a side note, I did not include an ‘ask’ purposely. As a hard-nosed number cruncher, I would need to back up my valuation of the company, using a test market or sales figures. (I’m actually using feedback from EVAs to test the market acceptance to see what I should address or whether I should pursue this further). Since I have no proof of concept at this moment, I didn’t include a numerical ‘ask’. I did, however, hint that marketing is not my strength. In an ideal world, I would find an investor who has the knowledge and experience to market this product to the next level. If not, I could use the extra money to hire a marketing firm.
In hindsight, I should have included an ‘ask’–at least from an assignment standpoint–since this was a common thing people had mentioned. 🙂
Colin
Kenton Hemsing 12:52 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
You have put together an effective elevator pitch, even without using your own voice. The website that you created for your company is also very effective and informative for investors. It appears that you have also done a lot of research on the potential market for your product.
As someone who is extremely interested in mobile technology in the classroom and BYOD solutions for educators I am keenly interested in learning more about your product. I have just a few questions:
1) Obviously this product will be aimed at schools that have good and reliable access to the internet in wifi connections within. Will there be any need for schools to upgrade their existing infrastructure to accommodate so many learners and teachers accessing the wifi simultaneously?
2) How will support be given to educators for using the product?
3) How will updates to the program be rolled out to the users? Is it possible that one day it might take 10-15 minutes of class time to allow all users to update the program?
Other than those questions, I am ready to invest. I think that you have a lot of knowledge about the area and the market is primed and ready for going mobile.
Well done,
Kenton
Colin 9:35 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
These are excellent questions that I will definitely include in future FAQ updates!
1) If the school does not have school-wide wireless internet (like mine), I recommend setting up a wireless router in the classroom (or setting one up on a iPad/tablet cart).
2) Setup instructions (PDF) will be included when the app is installed. There will be an FAQ and a user community (similar to Moodle). I may hire
3) Best question. I thought of giving the admin a “one-button update” that updates all the tablets. However, because of BYOD (tablets not belonging to the admin), this can become an issue with violation of privacy/security. Unfortunately, at this time, updates must be done manually and individually. If you have a better idea to work around this, I would love to hear it! 🙂
Colin
Danielle Dubien 8:13 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
The basic idea of your venture is very interesting. I agree that a lot of the features offered by Mobile CMS would be helpful to teachers, particularly the Remote Control, Demonstration Mode and Polling functions. However, the issue of class management may be solved by better training and school/district policies with regards to behaviour management.
Also, if the teacher’s lessons are not sufficiently engaging, kids’ minds will wander. A teacher who is able to see which students are viewing inappropriate or irrelevant sites still has to deal with the underlying problem leading the kids to visit these sites. A teacher who is able to gain the trust and respect of their students is less likely to need the monitoring services like those of MobileCMS because the kids will be focused on the course content. On the other side of the same coin, a teacher who uses punitive or controlling software might cause kids to want to rebel more.
It might be worth looking into the psychological effects of using different technologies and management approaches. In the hands of an excellent teacher, Mobile CMS would certainly enhance education. However, in the hands of a teacher who is poorly trained or poorly skilled for whatever reason, it could be a false promise. For me to invest in your venture, I would need to see consistent research results using sound methods that prove that MobileCMS significantly helps to improves students’ results and behaviour.
On another subject, if you are going to work on apps for mobile devices for teachers, I suggest forming a partnership with companies who produce gadgets that allow teachers to hold onto devices easily. Since the teachers would be working with these devices more often, there are much greater chances that they’ll drop them, so a glove-gripper of sorts for tablets would be useful.
Cheers,
Dan
Colin 9:08 am on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Danielle,
You bring up a fantastic point: pedagogy before technology. I totally agree with you! My pitches emphasized too much on classroom management rather than classroom enhancement. The tools, after all, are intended to enhance teaching with mobile technology.
There is also some research regarding its effectiveness of my competitors’ tools in school environments. http://library.iated.org/view/HERNANDEZMORA2011ANA. The research was done on workstations (computer labs) rather mobile devices (classrooms).
Colin
Allan 1:23 pm on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Colin,
This is an impressive elevator pitch. I think Mobile CMS is an excellent and the product is a sound investment. There is a lot of energy in your venture pitch, and I can see you’ve covered a great deal – competitors, target audiences, drawbacks. Your website in particular is a great engagement tool with your investors. I especially appreciated your FAQ section. I see that your approach centres on the presentation and not so much on your team. I think that is fine, although it would’ve been interesting to see who built this product.
Well done!
Allan
mariefrancehetu 4:14 pm on August 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hello Colin,
Your elevator pitch was a good combination of music and visual element, but I found the wording went by much too quickly, I had to stop the slides to read the material. I know that you were trying to squeeze in as much as possible in 1 minute . . . Perhaps putting your ideas in point form instead of short sentences might have helped with the timing.
Venture Pitch
I felt the web site looked professional and thought your FAQ section was innovative and very pertinent, trying to lure investors.
As an investor however, I would not have been convinced about your venture after watching your pitch, because I did not feel there was anyone really behind the venture. The team and CEO were not presented and because of that I felt the pitch was impersonal. Perhaps a short video introducing the venture and the team might have been appropriate – your website needs a touch of warmth to give the public a sense that you are talking to them.
I can see how MOBILE CMS would work well in an adult learning environment, helping teachers foster technology in the classroom – with a worthwhile message I can relate to: pedagogy before technology!
Cheers!
Marie-France