Hi everyone –

Just a reminder that if your full pitch isn’t immediately available/linked within your elevator pitch in the Venture Forum, please make it easy for those wanting to do a thorough review to get a copy of it.  For example, I’ve suggested people can email me for my full pitch.

If you haven’t provided such information already, please respond to or edit your own elevator pitch with a note explaining the best way for your peers to obtain your full pitch for review.

Thanks!

DavidV

By now you should have all received, via email, your review assignments for the Venture Forum.    Please let me know immediately if you have not, or if you have any questions.

Good luck!

Yep, you read it right.  DavidV is part of the Venture Forum.

My real-life company CrowdTrust Technologies is in the process of launching a real-life product called “Gleanr” that I humbly believe will be the best learning technology ever invented(!). The marketing launch is December 7, but I’m keen to provide the world-class EVA’s of ETEC522 a very special sneak peek.

Gleanr (tagline “Sow what you know”) in educational terms is a next-generation hybrid of eportfolios and personal learning environments.   In web terms it is hyper-personalization, an emergence of “personal networking” that converges social networking, vertical search engines, and personal clouds (Twitter meets Google Reader meets Evernote meets LinkedIn).

I welcome your response to my elevator pitch (Gleanr Pitch).  Anyone who wants to review the full, confidential prospectus should email me directly.

Finally, I’m hoping that everyone will try Gleanr out sometime over the holidays.  Here’s an interim How To (Gleanr How To) until we get the onboarding/orientation materials into the product.   I will convey special charter membership and privileges to any ETEC522 students who provide me with good critical feedback.

Enjoy!

As everyone is likely deep into A3 by now, I just wanted to remind you that your deadline is end of day (Pacific) Sunday, November 29th.  Please email your submission directly to me.

One reason this is such a hard deadline is that, immediately following, I will be distributing your submission to a few of your peers for their EVA evaluation as part of the M12 Venture Forum.   Please review the outline for M12 to make sure you understand how the Venture Forum works and what is expected of you.  Some points to consider:

1.  If you feel uncomfortable about your submission being distributed for peer evaluation (exposure of intellectual property or other good reason) please let me know soon.

2.  Note that you need to compose and post an “elevator pitch” portion of your A3 assignment in this weblog by the same deadline (meaning, convey your message in 30 seconds or less (150 words max) to entice people to learn more).

Please respond here or email me if you have any questions about A3 or the upcoming Venture Forum.  I will be marking your A3 submissions.

DavidV

For those of you with your sleeves rolled up in the K-12 sector, I’m pleased to announce a prospective alternate path for your A3 assignment that is entirely optional.  It’s absolutely a one-time only, very special opportunity for those of you who are applying learning technologies in special ways in K-12 classrooms.

Tomorrow morning UBC will issue a press release regarding the UBC Global Minds Challenge.  UBC will award up to five (5) prizes of $2010 each to international K-12 projects that demonstrate innovative uses of learning technologies with respect to themes resonating with the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.  All projects are posted on the 2010 Winter Games website in the Education Project Showcase area.  The deadline for submission of projects is December 19, 2009.

The UBC Faculty of Education has been collaborating for six years with the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) to conceive and now realize the learning potentials of the upcoming 2010 Winter Games.  The UBC Global Minds Challenge is one dimension of this collaboration which we aim to establish as an enduring legacy of the 2010 Games.

For those of you wishing to take this on for A3, the basic idea is that your A3 can be an appropriate project that you’ve completed with your classroom already, or that you are able to complete and submit before November 29th (yes, we’ll keep the ETEC522 schedule, thank you!).    We will keep the rubric for A3 as assigned, only that the Pitch and and Executive summary would be your submission to the Challenge, and you’ll email a separate Critical EVA and Self-Evaluation to me.

Have a look (please ignore the guy in the video at the UBC site!) and email me if you have any questions.

Thanks!

DavidV

Hi folks –

Just a note that you all should have your A1 grades back to you by email by now.  Please email me directly if you have not received your grade yet, or if you have any questions.

I’d like to say I was very impressed with energy and creativity shown by all of you in addressing this assignment.   I’ve never experienced a higher calibre set of responses to an analysis of this kind from a group of apprentice EVAs.  Well done!

DavidV

Hi everyone –

Just a reminder that the deadline for A1 is end of day (Pacific Time) October 18th.   Please email me if you have any questions regarding your approach or progress in A1.   And when it is done, please email it to me – I’ll respond to confirm that I’ve got it.  That’s:  david dot vogt at ubc dot ca.

And if anyone is still looking for an A1 topic, here’s a news release that appeared in my inbox today about Odijoo.   It’s been around for awhile, but they’re apparently looking at a new business model.

Good luck!

DavidV

******************************************************

Free eLearning platform ‘Odijoo’ released to market

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oct 13, 2009 – Odijoo, the first ever online learning platform to give trainers their own secure space from which to create, deliver and monetize online courses, was released last week. Odijoo, which means “teacher” in Swahili, is a free to use web-based application that combines course creation, learning management, hosting, e-commerce and social networking tools.

Unlike other online learning solutions, Odijoo allows small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) to have their own private, personalized and secure “Odijoo campus”. A campus is an online storefront, where users can store, administer and promote their Odijoo courses. Campuses are designed for smaller businesses and organizations, that need to train their employees under a tight budget.

“Odijoo is designed to help companies get their training online in a matter of days without third party consultants,” says Shevy Levy, the visionary behind Odijoo. “SMBs can finally afford to reach their learners and with the campus feature, can do so from a single secure online place.”

After over a year of development, Odijoo was released in early October of 2009. The application is free to use and can be accessed at www.odijoo.com.

About Odijoo
Odijoo is a free web-based eLearning platform that allows users to have their own personalized online space from which to create, publish, share and monetize online courses. It is a SaaS-based (Software as a Service), end-to-end software, providing on-demand access to course creation, learning management, hosting and social networking services, all from one place. For more information, visit www.odijoo.com.

Contact:

Alon Margovskiy

Marketing Department

alon.margovskiy@odijoo.com

Just a reminder that your immersion in M2 and now M3 should be inspiring your thoughts toward Assignment 1, which will likely be using some of the same techniques for a broader and deeper analysis of a venture or market environment of your choice.

If you have any questions about your ideas for A1, I’m eager to hear them.   General questions can respond to this post, and more specific questions can be emailed to me.

Good luck!

DavidV

Welcome to Module 3 – which takes up weeks 3 & 4 of the course.

We’ve given this module more time than the others because it begins a shift in thinking to the perspective of the entrepreneur – which is more daunting than that of the analyst.   It’s so much easier being a critic than an innovator!   What entrepreneurs need most is focus, and identifying a customer is obviously a critical part of that.  Identifying a market is also critical, and the CUBE is one good tool for creating an understanding of the global marketplace.

I really appreciate all the great global resources that have already been offered forward by 522 students, and I’m looking forward to more!

DavidV

By now most of you are experienced with the unique WordPress-based ‘flow’ of the 522 course, especially in how it is different than the discussion group format of Vista, etc.   At first blush, it may not seem as easy to follow and participate in, but stick with it – find your own best way to stay afloat and master the current.  If you haven’t done so already, check out DavidP’s early posts about external RSS monitoring tools.

After Module 3, WordPress will primarily become our home base as we potentially explore a number of different platforms offered up by the moderation groups.  Your willingness to explore new technologies and crowdsource their value is appreciated.

Please share your concerns and ideas regarding the 522 experience here.