adi
It was interesting to go back and reflect upon my participation. I agree that a platform that helps you keep a better track of your own posts would be useful, and perhaps doing this same participation reflection half way through the course. Regarding the platform we used, I agree it is perhaps not the best […]
Continue reading My last participation :-( Posted in: General On behalf of this week’s group, we would like to thank you all for being a part of our OLE. An OLE should promote hands on experiences, self-directed and mediated learning, learner autonomy, personal inquiry and divergent thinking. You all embraced the challenge in different ways and held different opinions regarding the various platforms and […]
Continue reading Thank you from the Week 12 OLE team Posted in: Announcements eLT-PD is an online professional development site for English Language Teachers. I wish I could have produced and edited this project with the high quality many of you achieved in this course; unfortunately, I lack the know-how. However, I welcome your honest feedback to help me improve it and to hopefully one day be able to […]
Continue reading eLT-PD online professional development Posted in: Venture Forum
Hello Adriana,
I appreciate your honesty about your skills. I was also impressed by others tech savvy skills. I wished I knew how to impose graphics alongside the video of me speaking in iMovie. I liked your Elevator Pitch. You address the pain point and the fact that your venture is free makes is more accessible than going back to University for a diploma in supporting English Language Learners. I also thought your Venture plan was really good. My only suggestion would be to make your ask and return more clear. Are you asking investors for money or personnel? Great job, Jen
Thanks for the tips Jen. I guess because there are so many people that could invest, e.g. government, private educational institutions, language associations, British Council, ELSA NET, etc., I’m not really sure how to pitch to them all. I guess I could perhaps adjust the pitch depending on the possible investor. However, I also felt very ‘green’ when putting this together; I hope to learn from all the tips I’m given, and from everyone else’s work.
Thanks a million.
Adriana 🙂
I liked the consistent look and feel of your slides. The images against the white background created a very clean look. Unfortunately I could not hear any audio and the clip on the slide that said “2 billion” did not play, it just said “codecs unavailable”. So I was unable to get the full impact had I known what the numbers were representing. Based on the text I believe that your venture has a lot of potential as ESL may be a very global issue which was captured through your use of graphics.
Thank you. I’m sorry to hear you could not hear the audio. I really appreciate you taking the time to view it.
I really liked the venture concept and believe it has lot of potential. It would have been great to know bit more about yourself and your marketing/venture plan…
Thanks Ranvir. I hope to learn from other people’s projects regarding where and how to insert more information on myself and how to best market the venture. I am still a bit confused as to hoe pitch a non-for profit venture and to investors who gain different things from their investment.
Hi Adrianna,
I don’t think that technological savvy played any sort of detrimental role in your pitch. The venture plan was cohesive and made logical sense. Good work.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
I’m going to have to concur with my colleagues. Wouldn’t even worry about the tech savvy aspect. I thought the Powerpoint did the trick just well. You had simply slides, spoke clearly and your message was delivered very effectively. I actually quite enjoyed it. It’s really the message that is the most important and I got it from watching your powerpoint (audio worked just fine for me!).
I definitely would have liked to have a bit more detail about how you were going to roll out your plan? How you would attempt to attract users to your site. But I loved the delivery of your message for the need of this product!
Hi Jonathan,
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I felt it was a bit slow, but recording a voice-over using PPT is a bit complicated. I will work on the details regarding the users.
Thanks again 🙂
To facilitate and objectively review the venture pitch you have put forward, I will be utilizing the guidelines provided within our course, Section 2.7 – Deconstructing a Pitch.
CEO & Team:
Throughout this venture pitch, it was clear that the CEO is not only aware of the need for such as service, but is a significant member of the current English Language community. These essential pieces, speaks to the CEO’s confidence in their venture and the passion they have to make it succeed. Furthermore, the venture is further strengthened by the addition of two other members, who also have significant experience within this field. The only concern regarding this team, is the inclusion of individuals who are experienced at taking real world information, and effectively and meaningfully translating it to the online world. A key element, that will not only attract users, but keep them.
Venture Concept:
Online professional development is beginning to be explored in various areas of the educational world, from university courses to webinars. However, at this time, I am unaware of ventures specifically focusing on English Language Learners, therefore, even though the venture may not be original, the concept is. Furthermore, the CEO did provide evidence to create a foundation of knowledge which supports this venture. Even though I have no experience in English Language, I am interested to see if this is a necessary or only perceived service.
Marketability:
The CEO did a good job of providing information regarding the potential market of students who require instructors better trained in this area. However, I am unclear on the actual number of teachers who provide instruction in this area. For without this key piece of information, a determination on market size, share and revenue cannot be made, all of which needs to be within a certain range to make eLT-PD a viable venture. Furthermore, even though the specific idea is relatively unique at this time within the online professional development market, in the long run, if this venture is found successful, any market share will be threatened by competitors do to lack of intellectual or proprietary right.
Venture Plan:
At this time, no specific market readiness timeline has been provided, creating concerns about their ability to enter the market before or after other competitors, especially considering this market is gathering momentum both offline and online. Secondly, seeing that other products are becoming a reality, is it possible for this venture to maintain its viability if it is simply focused on one product, where as larger companies could attract more users by providing multiple opportunities under the same online platform.
At this time, I feel there is a need for better professional development opportunities in English Language, and with more focus, and the inclusion of web training specialists, this venture might prove worthwhile in the near future.
Thank you very much for your very useful and through feedback. You are right about the number of teachers; unfortunately I only managed to get certain statistics per country and still need to do the math and get figures from other places. Your observations regarding the specific market readiness timeline is also very important.
In terms of competition, our product complements rather than complements with the private market. The private market has well structured courses/books designed to teach very specific elements related to teaching and often designed/written by people with little or no classroom experience. The workshops on the site are from conferences where speakers range from being well-known authors and teachers with years of experience, to everyday teachers who want to share what they do in the classroom. Publishing companies and teacher training schools can complement rather than compete with the site, but I need to get this across in the presentation.
Thanks again. All your observations will help me improve the overall project very much. You have pointed out lots of things. Cheers ☺
Thank you for providing more clarity in regards to the overall project, much appreciated. As well, I remember there being mentioned a Journal? Would this be online, offline… follow the peer-editing model. I found this interesting, but forgot to mention it before.
Hello,
I do not think the level of tech used to create a pitch or plan impacts the message being sent.. You did a good job of getting your point across. Your slides very aesthetically pleasing and your facts did a good job of addressing the need for this product. I worked in Africa for a year and I saw the need for training and the lack of teacher education. This product would do great globally.
I did find that there were some missing components in your presentation overall. For example, I would suggest maybe appealing to your investor and directly stated what you would like (i.e. an investment).
Thanks for sharing. Your hard work is evident.
Nureen
Hi Adriana,
I appreciate your honesty and challenges with the technology; for me it did not detract from your pitch. I thought your elevator pitch did a good job at addressing the two of the three key components: problem and solution. Your venture pitch clearly showed the viability of your venture re assessment of your market, your position, your team and business model. I agree with Nureen’s feedback that your pitch could be strengthened by clearly stating your ask. I had no problems with the audio.
Sophia
In short Adriana, I found your pitch well articulated and concise. While it may not have featured all the production ‘sizzle’ you wanted, it delivers a substantial helping of EVA ‘steak’! Thank you for your hard work and for sharing such an original idea.
Hi Adi,
I enjoyed your elevator pitch. It is well organized and well pitched. I wish there was more information on the ask and return because that would’ve allowed me as an investor to get a better picture as to what I need to put in and what I can get in return.
Thanks for the well-presented pitch.
James
Hi Adriana,
I enjoyed both your pitches and found them informative. You identified clearly a market need and the target customers as well as a solution. Also I like your idea for generating revenue via sponsorship and advertising. Before investing as an EVA I would be interested to know more about whether this is feasible as a marketing strategy, i.e. that you can generate enough revenue from these sources to keep up an running.
Thanks,
Melissa
Hi Adriana
No matter how I tried I could could not view your elev
With the popularity of the internet and English being its main language you have a feasible venture.
Sorry for the previous incomplete pose. It was an accident.
Hi Adriana
No matter how I tried I could could not view your elevator pitch so my opinion is based on your venture pitch. With the popularity of the internet and English being its main language you have a feasible venture that can succeed.
Cheers
Patason
For the founder parade I was going to talk about the founders of ‘Chomp’; a really useful search engine of apps i came across . However, as it was not related to education, I changed my mind. I was going to share the site with you for this week, but it’s gone! Apparently Apple bought […]
Continue reading Ventures that come and go Posted in: Week 05:
It’s sad when the big companies gobble up the small ventures. The one that stick in my mind is Sparrow an Apple mail client for iPhone and Mac desktop. When Google bought it out it was truly for the talent. It’s good that the talent isn’t going away, what makes it sad is that the great apps that they built will no longer be developed. 🙁
Another one that sticks in my mind is one for iOS. It was on a jailbroken iPhone where users could bring down a control panel from the main screen to access many functionalities. Apple offered him a job, he stopped developing his “app” but now we get to see it baked into iOS. It’s a up and down thing but it’s sad to see the small “guys” disappear into the big companies.
I fully agree adi – sometimes a successful venture is one in which the founders assume they will not have a long, independent shelf-life, instead creating a product or service that either due to usefulness or avoidance of competition is expecting to be bought by a larger fish. I’m not sure, Jonathan, how sad those entreprenuers are when they get gobbled up. Many may continue working on their products in an environment that can provide them with better funding, or they are free to go off and come up with yet another new idea or two. I understand what you suggest about them feeling sad when their original ideas get buried when bought out, but I suspect many (most?) true entreprenurs are more married to the idea of making money than of birthing a viable product.
Peggy
Global School Net [picture pending/ my Internet connection keeps on freezing] Though the Global School Net web page mentions two founders, Yvonne Maria Andres and Al Rogers, it could be said that the original concept of connecting schools for online projects was Yvonne’s back in 1984. Like a good entrepreneur, Yvonne partnered up with Al […]
Continue reading Embracing change over the years Posted in: General In order to know if a source is good or not, it’s important to see its affiliation to see how objective the information they provide is, or if they have been paid to carry out research to indirectly promote a company. This is why I chose the OECD research report Trends Shaping Education 2012. The […]
Continue reading OECD – Trends Shaping Education 2010 Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace Hi, I just wanted to see if anyone out there can clarify some doubts I have regarding non-profit online educational ventures. In particular, I am referring to the Khan Academy (mentioned in Section 2.1). 1) Would this be considered an OER? 2) They have a lot of permanent staff and a career’s section that promises […]
Continue reading How do non-profits survive? Posted in: Questions & Answers
Great questions… funny enough, the question as to whether or not the Khan Academy is non-profit came up at a family dinner last night. My father-in-law saw an interview with Khan on television. I would be interested in the answer to your questions. I saw the same documentary and I think they are selling programs to districts for teachers to use in the classroom. Knowing this, I skeptically assume they must be making some profit. Best, Jen
Maybe it is a social enterprise?
Regardless of the Khan Academy specifics, which I don’t know, the answer to the title question, “How do non-profits survive?” is relatively easy to answer.
Every corporate entity has a business model. A for-profit corporation has a business model that is designed to generate profit for its shareholders/stakeholders. A non-profit corporation has a business model designed to generate other kinds of value for its stakeholders. And there are social enterprises that mix profit with other values.
Non-profits survive by being paid for delivering their value, which is usually some form of public good. Their sources of income are typically donors, sponsors, foundations, governments and the general public. They also typically have tax and other advantages to support their viability. If they have any cash left after delivery (nominally a ‘profit’) they are legally bound to reinvest this in creating more/better value. When income drops, so does value delivery.
So for-profits and non-profits both live or die based on the quality of the products they deliver, and the value proposition they present to prospective ‘customers’ of their products.
And while there is no perfect oversight of any kind of corporation, it is very difficult to get away with ‘faking’ a non-profit status – this is a very low percentage proposition.
Hope this helps,
David
Thank you for this information, very informative and enlightening.
Also answers my own questions between the two.
Hi, Has anyone been able to open this rubric? I wasn’t able to. Cheers, Adriana
Continue reading Rubric Assignment 2 Posted in: Questions & Answers
I have no problem open this rubric, https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec522may12/files/2010/04/A2_2011-Rubric.pdf, have you tried open it with diferent browser?
Thanks Paula. I was able to open it with this link. Cheers 🙂
Hi, my name’s Adriana. I am from Mexico and a recently landed immigrant in Canada; however, I still come and go between both countries due to my job. I have worked in ELT (English Language Teaching) since 1984 in teacher training, coordination posts, materials design, and teaching. I have also co-authored several textbooks for the […]
Continue reading Hi from Mexico City! Posted in: Week 01: Introductions
Hello Adriana – Wow! 3 classes at once will definitely keep you very very busy. But congrats on being on your last leg of your MET journey. I’ll look forward to working with you in 522! Peggy
Hi Peggy. Most of this week was spent sussing out how to use a new LMS ‘Connect’ that we’re using in ETEC 512 :-{ At least it keeps my brain ticking. Have a nice week.
Hi Adriana:
Good luck taking 3 classes! When you are in Canada where do you live?
I can appreciate your final comment about staying up late finishing assignments with your adult kids. I did that for a couple of years with my older son, then he graduated and left the nest.. I miss my “school buddy”.
Doug.
Hi Doug,
When in Canada I live in Vancouver. I love it! It’s a beautiful city, with great outdoor activities, amazing places to go nearby, and the best hockey team 🙂
Adriana
Welcome Adriana. We are in the same crazy boat (3 courses this term). We can try to keep each other sane. Your experience and background sound very interesting. Best of luck this term.
Ken
Hi Ken.. I didn’t get off to a great start, but I hope to organize my time better this week. The first week is always confusing, trying to navigate your way around different course structures, schedules and activities.
Best of luck to you, too.
Adriana
I couldn’t agree more when you said “we learn by trying things out, by making mistakes, and by embracing change.” Looking forward to the learning we’ll be learning together in this course, Adriana!
Thanks James. I must admit it’s often a challenge, but a gratifying one. We appreciate more what we don’t come by easily.
Have a great week!
Hi Adriana,
Nice to meet you here. I love Mexico and their people, I went to Guadalajara quite often and I love it there. I always want to pursue an MA in Applied Linguistics as I love language teaching and learning. Looking forward to getting to know you.
Nice to hear you liked Guadalajara. I go there often because my parents live there. If ever you’re around this side of the continent, let me know 🙂
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C. Ranson 6:10 pm on December 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Adriana,
Congratulations to you and cheers for your completion of MET!.
What a great idea being able to go back and make some final revisions to Assignment 3 after all the peer feedback. The other suggestion would be to make the font larger and a different text style in the reply section so those of use that can’t see as well as we use to could actually see when we have made a typo, once you hit reply there is no turning back or method to make any corrections. But I do agree with your comment about how brilliant this course is.
This course provided a significant amount of new knowledge construction and created some very interesting and meaningful discussion.
Catherine 🙂
adi 4:50 pm on December 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you Catherine. Good luck with the rest of your courses. 🙂
Peggy Lawson 5:33 am on December 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Congratulations Adriana on completing your MET program! I’m sorry we didn’t cross paths earlier. I’ve enjoyed your posts and your work in this course. All the best!
Peggy
adi 4:51 pm on December 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you Peggy. I enjoyed your posts and venture pitch. Good luck with the rest of your courses 🙂