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
Hi Everyone! I made up a quick app for the course this morning. You can get it if you point your phone’s browser to http://ibuildapp.com/projects.php?action=info&projectid=235609Â or you could try to scan the QR code If you have any suggestions about what you would like to have included in the app, please just let me know! FYI, […]
Continue reading ETEC 522 App Posted in: Blog Café
Nicely Done Kenton!!
Heh, slick!
dat’s l337! 🙂
That is awesome Kenton. I want to do that!!!
Dennis
Hi Dennis, it is nice to see you again!
If you are interested, the program I used is found at ibuildapp.com. It is fairly easy to create as long as everthing is already on the web, no need to program. Another option that works is a site called appmakr.com again easy to use but you will need to know some programming to get the phone to do more than just show rss feeds, its kind of a pain but with practice it gets better.
I have to say I prefer ibuildapp for its easy of use over appmakr but I think that there is more you can do with appmakr if you are good at programming.
K
That’s pretty sweet, particularly the ease of the QR. Any chance of tweaking it for the iPAd?
I’ll have a look and see what I can do. I currently don’t own an iPad or any tablet for that matter so I’m not sure how it looks as is on them, but I’ll try and tweak it a little bit. As always, with things like this, it is a work in progress and can only get better!
Neat stuff, Kenton! I’m porting some Android apps (apk) to Playbook (bar) over the summer. I might be able to port your native app to Playbook if there is a demand. 🙂
Not too confident that this one will hit a million downloads, but feel free to do with it what you want! I guess we will have to wait and see if it is useful for people first.
Excellent! Great share.
Awesome! I put xCode on my Mac and tried once to get building but gave up before I got anywhere. Any suggestions for skill development?
Sorry Chelsea, I am not much of a programmer, I tend to find sites and web 2.0 applications that I can use and modify for my personal benefit! I have tried to do some coding but have no experience with xCode or Macs in general. I do know that Apple does offer some online tutorials and support for people wanting to learn how to use xCode and make their own apps. I think too, a lot of getting better at programming and creating apps is practice and refining, its not going to be perfect the first time, you just need to keep trying.
Hey thanks – added this to the iPhone. One of the benefits of taking a course entirely on WordPress rather than the LMS is that is instantly becomes mobile friendly. Great work Knewton.
I agree! I really like how WP renders on the smaller screen without a hassle.
Side note: Has anyone had any problems accessing any of the pages?
Hey Dennis. I viewed the app on my phone and it looks great. I have an Android phone though … how do I put it on my phone? (Sorry … a little technically challenged here …)
gillian
Hi Kenton,
Wow! I’m impressed! Thanks for creating this app.
Cheers,
Adriana
Thanks, Kenton! Much appreciated.
Deborah
Good stuff Kenton!
Hello Kenton
Thanks for the application. I am using both systems iOS and Android. I tried the application on iOS ( iphone) and it is working properly. I haven’t tried it with my Android tablets. It is an interesting application.
Thanks
Nice work Kenton! I wonder if I’ve missed something since I can’t find the entry to install it (only can view it in safari). Isn’t it supposed to redirect me to somewhere with a “Install” button? Sorry I’m a newbie of iPhone. Tell me the steps pls, can’t wait to use it.
Thanks!
You are going to have to open it in safari for the iPhone and then add it as a bookmark to the home page. Its not like a normal app store app in that it needs to be installed, its just a web-based app at the moment.
Thank you Kenton, I got it. 🙂
Really cool stuff – Thanks Kenton 🙂
In the corporate sector IT managers are trying to cope with the ‘impossible’ situation that workers are insisting on coming to work, and doing their work, with their own mobile and work devices (Bring Your Own Device – BYOD), creating (for the managers, they say) a tsunami of technology management, security, etc, problems. Â For the […]
Continue reading BYOD Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
My school is moving in the direction of BYOD. I have blogged on the topic http://whatsitinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2012/03/bringing-your-own-technology-to-school.html and am interested in the contrast between our mixed platform environment and schools that have chosen platform for their users: are there significant impacts on learning when users are responsible for selecting and maintaining their devices?
Our school has laid the footings for a BYOD school but have not taken the final step of actually letting kids bring their devices. We are at the tipping point and I cannot wait to see what happens.
My school is in the dark-ages as far as this topic goes as we still ban cell phones in the classroom. I saw a wonderful use for cell phones in my daughter’s university class last semester when students used their phones to respond to questions the professor posted during class. What a great formative/diagnostic tool that could be!
One of the advantages blogs have over other online options is that they can be much more personal. I want the work my students to do to be meaningful to them and see a blog which includes highlights, accomplishments, and reflections as being of great value especially if it’s shared with peers.
Oops! I posted my blog comment here in error.
As part of a revamping of the technology plan in our district we are looking at BYOD. Right now students are not allowed to bring devices to school and phones are discouraged. Schools in the district are in the process of becoming wireless. It is a long process but I am interested in seeing how this initiative will pan out.
Student’s and staff are encouraged not to buy their own tech (such as appletv units) not due to security/reimbursement issues but issues surrounding our wireless internet capabilities & bandwidth/speed problems. These devices need to be supported by a stronger/faster internet connection before a school as big as ours (2000+ students &100+ staff) can sustain effective use.
BOYD is a debatable venture in the world of e-learning. But what encourages it on the long run is the fast pace of technology. It makes it inevitable in some fields of education.
Hussain
BYOD holds a lot of promise as it opens the chances for students to engage in ubiquitous learning and extending their learning beyond the classroom. Giving students the chance to continually learn and be engaged in their learning will enhance their learning and move their understanding to deeper levels.
I recently returned to a Markham public school after teaching internationally for the past 2.5 years. I was awe-struck when the classroom teacher asked the students to take down the notes on the board, and I saw a group of students come up to the board with their cell phones and snap a picture of the notes! The students who didn’t do this had been taking notes at their desks on their tablets or netbooks and laptops. Students were personalizing their learning with the devices that best suited their learning styles. I think that this is definitely the way to go considering the fast pace of today’s technology- students are investing in it at home anyways; our public schools cannot afford to keep up with the latest changes, so why not allow the students to BYOD?
BYOD holds promise for students to be engaged and it can be cost effective, but for a small organisation like ours the challenges are:
1. creating good connectivity and access across platforms and
2. how to effectively develop courses that integrate the use of the devices for learning, and not just result in learners being able to access their emails or multitasking irrelevant to the learning at hand.
I wish my school was moving in the direction of BYOD! It seems as though it is a recent trend in the more developed countries. At my school, students are not allowed to take any form of devices to school, however they still do especially since internet access is readily available. BYOD has its advantages and disadvantages, however, as an educator of Info Tech, I do allow students to use their devices in my class to integrate with the lesson being taught which brings about a more collaborative lesson; one which holds a discovery appraoch to it as well. In other words, students are more involved with its use as teaching and learning take place in a creative fashion!
Shawn Naomi
I think our devices are becoming evenly more deeply entrenched as an extension of ourselves, so it makes the most sense that our own devices are the primary tool to engage in our learning environments. On a practical note, my school was selected to be first in the district for a hardware refresh cycle. Our prize, 5 year old recycled off lease computers… My students phones seem to have more computing power than the “new” machines we just acquired. A BYOD may be the only way to solve the political and administrative nightmare of connecting students digitally.
BYOD is certainly an issue for the corporation I work for, but it also present a possibility of expanding our classroom horizon to include a student response system that utilizes common smartphone and personal electronic devices as input instrument.
Just today I received an e-mail from our district tech guys letting the staff know that our students now will have access to the school’s wireless internet and they have just received their own wifi password and the teachers have theirs. This will be a new venture for our school to see how the students and teachers work with this new found freedom.
My only concern with BYOD is that the underpriviledged students who can’t afford iPhones etc, will be left out in the dark. In my school, there are quite a few students living below the poverty level.
I’m curious to see how the next few months before the summer holidays will unfold and how each individual teacher will deal with the fact that the students will have constant access to the internet. Certain teachers don’t allow cell phones in class while they’re teaching so I predict that we will need a few staff meetings to decide how we’re going to handle the situation.
We are in the midst of implementing BYOD on our secondary school in our school board and I am a member of the planning and implementation team. It has been a whirlwind ‘ride’ to date but nonetheless has proven to be exciting times. Although I am involved in all aspects of the project, my core focus is the ‘pedagogical’ use of BYOD. The goals are to facilitate ‘transformed practice’ with the use of technology in the classroom. We must go beyond the first step of ‘digitizing our current practices’ to truly adapting our teaching practices to maximize the potential afforded to us by these technologies, and this will have a significant impact on how we deliver content, how we assess students and how we collaborate to achieve our end goals.
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