ETEC 522 – September 2012

Week 3 Starts Tomorrow – The Analyst’s Bootcamp

Thanks for diving into the rough and tumble world of emerging market predictions over the last week.

From my perspective, their accuracy and reliability lie somewhere between those of horoscopes and weather reports. You could ignore them completely, but it’s prudent to calibrate your own thinking against a few ‘professional’ sources every so often, and it’s sometimes eye-opening when you encounter completely new perspectives.

For most of you the business side of learning is unfamiliar territory, so such analyses and research reports are a good way to get a feel of the landscape from high up. They also should make you feel like you’re not a complete alien here – that your knowledge and experience in education give you a sound basis for understanding, accepting and rejecting different views about its future.

In Week 3 we get closer to the ground, and to the frontiers of learning. The Analyst’s Bootcamp is meant to make you feel equally comfortable about your ability to critically analyse the credibility and viability of specific products, projects and ventures involving learning technologies. Like the facets of a well-formed diamond, every credible venture should feature specific kinds of information. This makes analysis a rigorous process: if any elements of the required information are missing or flawed, the venture (and/or its champion) suddenly become much less brilliant.

I’ve now posted all of the “Pitch Pool” elevator pitches for your review. Another lesson for this coming week, as we analyse entrepreneurs passionately promoting their ideas, is that they’re just ordinary people too. You could easily be an entrepreneur. You’ll find that some presenters aren’t all that comfortable on stage, but may have great ideas (they may be ‘diamonds in the rough’), and that others are flashy yet may have little substance. The analysis framework of Week 3 will help you discover the true value.

Looking even further into the course, our developing logic is that if you have a good idea of how venture pitches fail, you’ll be in a better position to compose one that might not!

Have fun,

David

p.s.1 – The Ratings Plug-in for the Pitch Pool seems to be in error in terms of the title for each rating. I’ll try to have this fixed ASAP.

p.s.2 – You are encouraged to find and post additional elevator pitches into the Pitch Pool, and to analyse one or more of these instead if you wish. Before you post, just make sure that it is a pitch for prospective investors (about the value of the company) rather than a commercial for prospective customers (about the value of the products/services). You can ask me if you’re not sure.