Amazon Kindle or Sony eBook

The product I have chosen to discuss is the e-book reader—such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony eBook ( an interesting link: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix)  The market potential for this type of product, especially if it were to expand available content and provide a user-friendly interface and better office software for note-taking and word-processing, seems strong.

Market focus: K-12, higher education, and corporate training needs.

Type of offering:  content and infrastructure.

Whose the buyer: learner buys personally and bought for learner.

Where: best suited to markets with internet services.

The technology works well with a well-developed e-learning system.

Hope no one has posted this one yet…I’m finding it a little difficult to sort through all the blog posts here.  Google Reader isn’t really helping either.  Nonetheless, this article discusses how to make a good impression in one’s pitch.  Enjoy!

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070604_577187.htm

Hi everyone,

I have been teaching for about 6 years including a recent posting at the Vancouver School Board’s online high school where I taught science and math. I live in Vancouver, but have also experienced living and working in Japan.

This is my third ETEC course and I am sure this course will be just as good as the first two. Unfortunately, I was engaged by my life outside of MET and was not able to start earlier. I look forward to not only immersing myself in the course material, but also meeting everyone here.

When I am not online, I love the outdoors and basketball as well as learning languages.

Best regards,

Adam

Hi everyone,

ETEC 522 is my 10th and final course and it feels good to be almost done.  This is officially the last introduction that I will write within the MET program.  Feels like a sad day.   

I am really excited to take this course because I find exploring the business side of education very interesting.  I currently teach Information Communication Technology at Princess Margaret Secondary School in Surrey BC.  Part of my role at the school is that of Technology Facilitator.  One part of my role as technology facilitator is to evaluate which technology enhancements are best for our school.  Knowing how to financially evaluate which technology is best is a key part of this.   

I’m look forward to getting to know all of you through next few months.   

Speak with you soon,

Trip to Italy 2008

I know I am bit late to post. I tend to agree with most of what everyone else says about the OLT pitch and Michelle Lamberson, so I will attempt to write something unique.

I didn’t feel that the video really did anything for Michelle Lamberson’s credibility. I felt that she seemed knowledgeable, but I didn’t really feel that I knew who she was from the video. I decided to search for more information. I found the following:

Michelle Lamberson is the Director, Learning Technology at The University of British Columbia. Her role, and the role of the Office of Learning Technology, is to provide campus-wide coordination and facilitation, linking units that are integrating technology to improve teaching and learning. Ongoing projects within UBC’s OLT include electronic portfolios, social software (weblogs, wikis), learning objects, understanding the impact of enterprise course management system use and web-enablement of scientific instrumentation. In addition to her learning technology role, she is currently teaching an online geology course. Michelle returned to UBC from WebCT in 2002, where she had worked for three years in a variety of roles related to training, event planning and best practice use of the system. Prior to that, she was the Faculty of Science EdTech Coordinator and geology lecturer at UBC. Michelle’s discipline area is Geology, receiving her degrees from UBC (PhD, 1993), Penn State (MS, 1987) and Boston University (BA, 1981). (http://www.educause.edu/Community/MemDir/Profiles/MichelleNLamberson/42203)

From this description, I would argue that Michelle Lamberson does have credibility. However, part of pitch is being able to sell yourself and an idea. I am not sure this was accomplished with this video.

Michelle Lamberson seems to have a clear concept of the role of OLT. She stresses that the OLT came from meetings with various UBC stakeholders who took part in a strategic planning process. Their objective is to collaborate learning technologies and create common ground between faculties. Interestingly, I took a course with Mark Bullen who seems to have a very different view of the conception of OLT. At the same time that the OLT was created, the Department of Distance Education and Technology was restructuring and planning to decentralize to the faculties. The creation of this office speaks to the central ‘hub’ that would support faculty initiatives; however, its arrival did not clearly address the issues of the duplication of support for LT in multiple central units. With DE&T and other central units, there was a need to remove duplication and create one group to facilitate

The cost efficiencies and need to create a consistent experience for learners was crucial. The concept was simple and necessary. It would be very easy to sell a pitch to remove redundancies to faculty heads and anyone involved in financial decisions.

I found this blog interesting and locally based.

Home

Sharon

In looking for some education-related business venture resources I stumbled upon a lot of relevant information and resources.  One that really stuck out for me was Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner.  The site has numerous videos of professionals and entrepreneurs sharing their strategies, successes and failures in both education and business.

I have included some of the more relevant videos that stuck out for me:

The first is Randy Komisar of Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (An educational consulting firm) as he describes how experimentation, innovation, and taking new risks can breed some exciting opportunities in the business.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=996

The second video is a bit dated (2002) but has some universal advice about entrepreneurship  from Google’s co-founder Larry Page.

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1076

I hope everyone finds these videos as informative as I did.

As UBC IT Services is structured and operate very differently from a business venture I chose to look at the pitch from a budgeting and an internal planning perspective.  Given the unique nature of this pitch I also chose to omit the competitive products and exit strategy aspects.

EO Credibility

Ted Dodds definitely has a vision of what university-level IT should be and how it should operate.  It is clear that he is confident in his abilities as well as his department and has developed the lines of communication to succeed in meeting UBC technological needs.

Management Team

It is clear that Dodds has a clear vision of how his department should be managed as he describes the community-based strategies he has employed.  By assigning an E-learning group to each faculty I think his department is better able to meet the needs of those groups and thus succeed as a team in the long-run.

Business Model

I think that UBC’s IT services are not only a vital part of the University’s ongoing success but the department has expanded its operational model into the commercial realm which can greatly improve the feasibility of the department.  From a business model standpoint this serves as strong indicator of success.

Beyond their integral role, giving voice to all the stakeholders involved with IT services including administration, management, business and, most importantly, the students further improves their chances of meeting their needs, an act which should define their success as a department.

Market Readiness

As the interviewer states first off E-Learning is a huge part of modern education and Dodds is clear that E-Learning is a “mainstream” and mature component of business and education.  As such, it is clear that Dodds sees his department as an integral piece of UBC.

The fact that UBC has managed to sell aspects of their IT developments, such as WebCT, to commercial companies further proves that not only is the education market ready for these innovations but so are commercial businesses.  I think that in many ways his group is already succeeding not only are new services getting to individuals and departments in the university but they have managed to sell off some of their more successful components to bring revenue back to the school.

Technical Innovation

I think Dodd’s community and open-source software strategies are refreshing to hear.  Historically development along these lines have been hard to develop and commercialize but by focusing on these methods as a source of innovation, direction and production he could be tapping into the individuals that need and care most about the services his group is developing.

Overall Investment Status

To be honest it would be hard for me to argue against focusing on UBC’s IT branch as an important part of the university’s plan going forward.  I am sure Dodds, the interviewer and you, my fellow classmates, respect the increased importance of Internet communication technologies we have observed recently in higher education.  I would be hard-pressed to pass on “investing” or rather allocating increased funds to further their services as Dodds has made a strong argument for its importance to both UBC and business.

It might still be early for it, but this is where I would go for if I have a good venture business plan

Venture Fund from Middle East; UAE/Dubai

Regards,

Ammar

Here are two internet resources:

Rookies Venture Club. Seasoned screeners and coaches review presentations and provide feedback to allow entrepreneurs to refine their presentations before getting in front of an audience.

“How to pitch a business idea” This article offers 10 tips to maximize your pitching power.