Lisa Nevoral
I think it is good for MET students to try different platforms. We can use that experience to make educated decisions when trying out LMS for our students (if we are educators and we so chose to). What platform did we like? What lay-out or organizational plan would I want for my students? Do I […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio Posted in: General Hey All, Here is my avatar from Second Life. Her name is Larovenas. I found that I didn’t change much when compared to me. I guess I am not quite comfortable with doing something totally different online. I haven’t explored Second Life very much, but I did find it disconcerting walking around and seeing […]
Continue reading Lisa’s Avatar in Second Life Posted in: Week 12: Hi All, I am pleased to present my elevator pitch and venture pitch on my fictitious product of Wizard Portfolio. It is a e-portfolio platform that is part of Microsoft Office 265 SharePoint. This is a for-profit venture and I hope you enjoy both the elevator and venture pitch. Thanks for any feedback. I have […]
Continue reading Wizard Portfolio Posted in: Venture Forum
Hi Lisa,
Great work with your Wizard Portfolio venture. Your pitches were visually easy to follow and your script had all the necessary elements. Personally, I like the comfort of knowing that people still use Powerpoint.
In response to a few statements made about e-portfolios and the proper storage of artefacts: I know of many schools with working portfolio programs, that still rely on paper copy portfolios for student work. Especially in the lower grades when many of the skills students need and the work they do is not necessarily done on a computer.
I realize that taking photographs of student work and storing them in an e-portfolio is the way to start that process (Grades 1-3) but to state that there are no organized portfolio systems available could be misleading. Starting your ‘pain point’ requirement with this point may also need revision.
For me, the real pain point with portfolios is the fact that, as an educator, I really don’t know if universities and employers are even looking at these portfolios. In fact, I know many are not. I’m all for storing and organizing a portfolio of work, but i’m just wondering how beneficial a Grade 7 English essay or a piece of artwork from Grade 11 will be in an interview, etc. Perhaps i’m off base with that though.
During the presentation I felt I wanted to see the eportfolio in action. Perhaps a few screen shots or videos of kids actually using the service (or a similar service would add to the presentation as a whole.
As well, while talking about marketing to schools and districts who weren’t using e-portfolio services i was wondering how you would go about doing that? Would it be ‘cold-calling’ individual schools to see if they do in fact need or want an eportfolio service brought in? That had me thinking a bit.
Your ‘weaknesses’ slide was also a little redundant, as you mention that this service would require computers. I would imagine, however, that this is an obvious requirement that could even be left out of the presentation. If a school or company had no access to computers, i’m sure the last thing they would be looking for is an eportfolio service.
Your point about working offline and some other strengths of the service were great. As well, Mr. Great Guy and Ms. Awesome sounded quite generous…can i get their number?
The last little critique i can offer is through your ‘financing’ page, and the point you make about ‘seeking more funding’. It just sounds a little too vague. Is there a number in mind that Wizard would need in order to provide service?
Lisa, you’ve obviously done a great job, and the constructive critiques I have hopefully have been just that, constructive. Your clean, polished presentation offers a great service that definitely fills a need…especially as more and more students begin to go ‘paperless’ in their work at school.
Thanks for your efforts! I enjoyed learning more about Wizard Portfolio.
Kent
Hi Kent,
Thank you for your feedback. If you like PowerPoint, check out Slide Rocket – http://www.sliderocket.com/ (free) or Presenter Media – http://www.presentermedia.com/ (has a fee).
In my school district, we are going towards no final exams for middle school students and instead towards “Presentations of Learning”. I wasn’t quite sure how to spin that very well, but I thought that storing the student’s work and having a way to showcase what they did would be the answer. As well, my district is big into the “Attributes of a Learner” (essentially 21st Century skills) and want students to be able to show these skills. What I was trying to get at was that employers and future schools want students with these skills, but I may be promoted too much that they wanted these as portfolios.
Good point about wanting to possibly see the product or what it does. After reviewing other pitches, I realized how I could have made my pitch better. But I guess that’s how you grow. As well, for the “ask” and “return” I felt that I didn’t have enough background knowledge to put anything there, but I understand what you are getting at.
Thanks again for the comments,
Lisa
Hi Lisa, great elevator pitch and venture pitch. However I did find the elevator pitch a bit too much focused on the consumer rather than the investor. The venture pitch had a better balance and did focus on the investor.
I am of two minds on the purpose of e-portfolios. I agree with Kent above as to why the majority would want to keep their “early work”. There maybe a bigger market in post-secondary programs for students to build up a portfolio for career hunting. We currently have a few programs with an e-portfolio requirement and when we were hunting around for a system we settled on using Word Press as nothing else seemed suitable. So you could be selling yourself short on the post secondary market as some may have a system, but it probably is not that good. If an organization has D2L for example, don’t assume that they have bought the e-portfolio module or if they have that they happy with it.
Doug.
Hi Doug,
Thank you for your comments. Yes, I have to agree that my elevator pitch was geared more towards the consumer than investors. I should have tried to have an “ask” in there somewhere.
Good idea about maybe targeting the post-secondary schools market. In this program, I have only seen portfolios made on WordPress, so there may be a need.
Lisa
Hi Lisa, good job on your presentation but I have to agree that I don’t think there is a real market for Wizard portfolios. I needed to do an e-portfolio when I was completing my education degree at UBC but when I went to an information session for a school district their comment to us was they don’t want to see them. They have very limited time to go through applications and come to a decision. I have to agree that no employer really has a time to look at portfolios. Also the use of Sharepoint is problematic as I know my district is using it but they made so many adaptations to the program that a lot of the options you mentioned might not work. The other problem is that a lot of work isn’t done on computers as many students don’t have access to a computer so only limited documents would even be included. Good pitch and use of graphics but I wouldn’t invest in Wizard Portfolio.
Hi Colin,
Thank you for your comments. Our district is also using SharePoint (that’s why I decided to use them as my main company) and I saw the potential to possibly have something like Wizard Portfolio being used. But I have to agree, there are many glitches in SharePoint and I hope that they can smooth out some of these problems soon. My vision of storing student work that wasn’t done on computers was to finish a unit or chapter and then have students pick out what they wanted to store and take pictures to store. This may seem a little unrealistic, but it could be a solution.
Lisa
I loved the music. I think the elevator pitch looked clean and professional but I would caution against using clipart and images that people have seen a lot of. I’ve seen those first few images a million times. I agree with Doug that this is too focused on the consumer though. As an investor, I didn’t feel that it spoke to my interests. I also didn’t see anything about how your product is different from the other products on the market. Student websites are nothing new and are available for free from some other pretty heavy-hitters in Google and Weebly and more. What makes your product stand out. (Is your company Microsoft? If so, I agree that they have missed some significant opportunities with the education market and this is a glaring hole in their own portfolio.) If on the other hand, your product is separate, but leveraging Sharepoint, then I would have other concerns. Too many schools are shifting away from this sort of self-hosting model and moving to cloud-based solutions. If your idea is that this eportfolio follows the students everywhere and lasts throughout their academic career, then I would again be concerned about a self-hosted solution. What if the next school doesn’t use Sharepoint? What if it’s a Mac school?
Good luck.
Hi Ben,
Thank you for your comments. The song is called “On & On” by Friska Viljor.
Our district is using SharePoint (that’s why I decided to use them as my main company) and I saw the potential for something like Wizard Portfolio to be used. But I have to agree, there are many glitches in SharePoint and I hope that these problems can be smoothed out soon. SharePoint does have the ability for students or teachers to store information using cloud computing; therefor it wouldn’t necessarily be self-hosting for a school district. Students could move school to school within a district and still be able to access their information. If they moved to another district, they would need a Microsoft Office 365 account, but they should still be able to access their information once they had one. One weakness I did miss (as you pointed out) was if a school or district used Mac products.
Lisa
Lisa,
Although I like the idea and could see how well it could be introduced, I know there are other similar programs out there to create portfolios. I think, for your pitch, it might have helped me if you had stated how exactly this product is different. Why is it better, and how could you ensure that it remains better? It is absolutely an attention grabber, as far as the video, but it is perhaps a better commercial than pitch? As an investor I think that other points of your program might need to be shared. I would be interested to learn more as a teacher, but as an investor, I would say no.
Hi Rebecca,
Thank you for your comments. I did try to state how Wizard Portfolio was better than other products on my comparison of companies slide that included the ability of students to work offline, e-portfolio templates, 21st Century skills reflection questions being included with the product led by a school district, archiving student work from grades 1-12, and using familiar tools that are used by a majority of companies in the business world. But I didn’t add how they could have remained better.
My elevator pitch was probably geared too much towards consumers than investors. Reflecting back, I should have probably added an “ask” or what I wanted out of the investors.
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I enjoyed watching your elevator pitch. From the perspective of an EVA, I think your pitch would improve with information on how your product differentiates itself from its competitors (i.e., blogs, BlackBoard) because potential customers would wonder why they need to pay for something they can get for free. What is proprietary about your product?
I was unable to find information on your credentials in both the elevator and venture pitches. Your venture pitch is thorough and the plan on how to bring your product into the education market seems viable.
Hope that helps, and thanks for a well-presented pitch.
James
Hi James,
As I look at other people’s pitches and read the comments made on my own, I see ways I could have made my presentations better. One area I think I could have put more effort into was showing the product and how it worked. How I envisioned Wizard Portfolio differentiating from other companies in its ability to store work from grades 1-12 in pre-made grade folders, where students could store their artifacts. As well, our school district is big into the “Attributes of a Learner”, so I thought I would add that school districts could create reflection questions students could answer for each grade.
I am unsure what you are asking about when you state that you couldn’t find any credentials in my pitches. Do you mean references? Thanks,
Lisa
Hi LIsa,
Maybe I missed it, but I am referring to the information about the Championship of your company.
James
Hi James,
I had a slide near the end of my venture pitch stating that Bill Gates and another person were involved with the project, as well as myself as the lead designer and another who was the lead IT personnel. Thanks for asking!
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
That was a very professionally made elevator pitch! I felt intrigued by watching it and was drawn to do a further analysis on the wizard venture. I couldn’t concur more that the wizard combined a repository for students work with an innate ability for students to demonstrate their flexibility and comfort with 21st century technology. It was great how you identified some competitors that employers might be more familiar with, but then you showed how wizard was potentially a stronger venture. The cost point wasn’t clear to me, but your projections were easy to understand and bespoke your well thought out target audience and marketing strategies. I did feel that the overly thorough identification with the problems that wizard might encounter actually worked against me wanting to consider investment. I couldn’t imagine how these would be overcome – and it diminished my interest in the product. At this point, I was really struggling to see how the free offerings (mentioned in your slide… with googledrive etc..) wouldn’t be just the same, as well as being more familiar to industry standards. And I’m sorry; even though I looked twice I couldn’t see it clearly mentioned what exactly you were asking for in the way of financing. Nor what the expected return would be. As much as I was impressed with the quality of your research and the suaveness of your presentation I couldn’t see some of what I was looking for with the wizard venture presentation. I would however (I know it’s fictional) be willing to give it a trial in my personal classroom to see what the affordances could be.
Hi PC,
Thank you for your comments. In my school district, we are going towards no final exams for middle school students and instead towards “Presentations of Learning”. I wasn’t quite sure how to spin that very well, but I thought that storing the student’s work and having a way to showcase what they did would be the answer. As well, my district is big into the “Attributes of a Learner” (essentially 21st Century skills) and want students to be able to show these skills. I admit that I may not have added enough to my presentation and that my “ask” and “return” were a little weak. I just felt that I didn’t have enough background information to answer these questions.
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I’ve found it fascinating to review your elevator and venture pitches as, essentially, you and have proposed the same solution using different software! Needless to say, I think that it’s a great idea and one that is long overdue.
Your venture pitch was very comprehensive. I felt like you had a good understanding of who your market is and how your product will be sold to them .You were honest and forthcoming with the product’s weaknesses, though I wonder to what degree using a Microsoft product will limit what sort of artifacts a student can collect. You comparison of Wizard Portfolio to competitors was very informative and a good selling point. Your plan is detailed and clearly presented. That said, if Bill Gates is part of your team, then you already have the financial backing that you need. You don’t need my help!
On the whole, you’ve done a great job!
Hi Mr. Cunnian,
Thank you for your feedback. I only choose to use Microsoft because our school district is using them instead of FirstClass now. I saw that several people were also doing pitches for portfolios. I haven’t had a chance to check out your pitches, but I will definitely look at it now.
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Sorry for the late post. I have had sleepless nights completing other assignments. I do apologize and mean no disrespect.
I enjoyed viewing both your pitches. Your elevator pitch was very clear, visually attractive and well put together; however, it did not contain all the elements needed to attract investors. Nevertheless, your detailed pitch did go into depth and shows a very clear knowledge of the buyer and end user and why there is a need for the product. A clear problem is addressed and a solution proposed. Perhaps the one thing lacking is information about the competition. Overall, though, you did a great job!
Adriana
I can see AR being a good tool to use for objects that are abstract or very small (ie. a cell or an atom). That way, it gives the students an 3D representation. As well, having information pop-up on different items may enrich students learning. Again, as with many new technologies or ideas, it takes […]
Continue reading I can see AR being a good tool to use fo… Posted in: Week 07:
Hi Lisa,
I would agree in that I see AR being used more outside of the classroom than within it. At this time, it seems to be more of a novelty that one would see on a fieldtrip (such as museum) and not inside a typical classroom. What is exciting is that it is in its infancy and it would be interesting to see which direction it goes. For instance, some of the intangible concepts such as chemistry are difficult for students to conceptualize. The fact is that we all see the world in different ways and AR can perhaps spark some creativity in how we make intangible concepts more relatable to the real world. There are many real life phenomena that occur in the natural world and through AR, perhaps we can make connections to abstract concepts.
Manny
Hi All, There is a site called Common Sense Media that provides information about the current issues in the media if you sign up and subscribe to their emails. There is a section that is devoted to learning ratings on “Apps for Learning”. This might be useful for some of you. The site is: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Lisa
Continue reading Common Sense Media – Apps for Learning included Posted in: Week 05:
Thanks for sharing Lisa. I checked it and it is a great resource. – Jen
I forgot to mention that I loved the features. You can search by age of the child, skill set you’re looking for, subject, genre and/or topic.
Crestron – in business for more than 40 years Founder, sole owner and President of Crestron – George Feldstein (engineer) George Feldstein started his own company in 1969 out of a room above Crestkill Delicatessen, New Jersey, when he got fired from an engineering company and decided that he could not work for anyone else. […]
Continue reading Crestron – George Feldstein – Founder and Sole Owner Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
Hi Lisa, interesting life story about the founder George Feldstein. Creston has many areas of the market covered, not surprised they are so successful.
Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies of 2012 In this press release, Gartner Inc. identified the top 10 strategic technologies of 2012. I found it helpful that they included their definition of strategic technologies in the opening paragraphs because it helped put into focus the target audience for these technologies. To me, the projections […]
Continue reading Opportunity Horizon – Gartner: 2012 Top 10 Technologies Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Upon skimming through this report, I agree with you analysis Lisa.
In addition to the Cloud and App Store areas you focused on, I also see potential in the area of Contextual and Social User Experiences. I can envision the growth of mobile apps which leverage the camera and GPS location features in devices, to provide services and information to students when they arrive at school/campus and as they move through the campus. As an example, such technology is already being tried for identifying when students arrive at school, simplifying attendance tracking procedures. Privacy concerns are undoubtedly a concern in this example, but the concept is intriguing I think. I can envision augmented reality apps which could assist students (those able bodied and otherwise) in navigating the school/campus, finding resources, or in the case of a high-tech media lab such as I teach in, for providing real time tutorials and support for the various pieces of equipment in the lab.
Hi Scott, I found your comment about identifying students and simplifying attendance tracking quite interesting. Privacy issues would be one area of concern, but I also think that there is an assumption being made that every student has a cell phone or mobile device. This may not always be the case. As well, what grades were these attendance tracking procedures taking place on? Are kindergartners expected to have these devices on them?
I can also see the potential of apps in the classroom. Now to only find the funding to provide the devices to students…
Hi Lisa,
There are many online schools that are already making good use of cloud. For example, here in the Okanagan there is the youlearn.ca online school that has managed to mesh it’s moodle into google drive in a really amazing way. I don’t know how they have done it but it’s an incredible means of tracking students and having access to shared documents/portfolios/etc.
And BYOD is a huge reality too – simply because of the financials. Districts don’t have a means of keeping up with the technological changes due to financial restrictions. I’m chuckling as I say this because I have heard it so many times when I’m wheeling the laptop cart from 2002 into my classroom and kids are begging to be allowed to use their phones to carry out research.
Torture with out of date technology – there’s a first.
PC
Hi PC,
I have heard about youlearn.ca, but don’t have any experience with it. Post secondary institutes probably make use of cloud way more than is seen at the secondary and middle school levels.
Our district is looking at BYOD, but probably not for another 2-3 years; on one side, it would be good since signing out laptop carts is becoming harder and harder since more people are using them for projects, but on the other hand, will every student be expected to buy a device to use at school? Our school (and district) won’t be putting in anymore money for laptop carts.
Lisa
I
Hi Lisa,
As far as I can see no cutting edge technology in IT today was designed from the ground up for education. The PC, mobile computing, social networking and cloud computing are just a few that comes to mind. Furthermore as established in this course education is not the easiest market to break into. So it is not surprising that this report is not aimed at educators. Historically education is ‘added’ after the technology is established and its capacity for exploitation by educators is determined. In this report the Internet of Things (IoT) can be a vital tool for gathering data for research and context-aware computing be used to enhance the learning experience.
In the light of the position I have presented I am not convinced that despite the technology available today the current generation tablet PCs are not designed with student and teachers in mind but do not worry I will design one.
Patason
Hey Patason,
Let me know when you have finished creating your “tablet” for educational purposes. I do agree, the current generation of tablets has some capabilities to use in classrooms, but they could be much, much better.
Hi Lisa,
Just in case you missed it my tablet can be found in the venture forum @ https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec522sept12/2012/11/26/my-pitches-and-reflection/
Cheers
Patason
Hello All, My name is Lisa and I currently live in Kelowna, BC, Canada. Today it will be a balmy 30 oC here. I have been working at Dr. Knox Middle School for the past 7 years and teach Science 8 and 9, as well as Math 9. This is my fifth MET course. I […]
Continue reading Hello from Kelowna, BC Posted in: Week 01: Introductions
Afternoon Lisa,
Great to be in a course with another OK’er. Looking forward to learning with you –
PC
Hi Lisa,
kudos to you for doing tow courses at once. I am sure it will be nice to take one course while you are back to work.
I felt the same way about this course. It is definitely a different concept then the other courses offered and will help us all to have a different vantage point for educational technology. I look forward to interacting with you in the course.
Nureen
Yeah, two courses was enough for me (especially while starting them at the end of the school year), but I did have July off to work on them. Good luck in this course,
Lisa
Hello again Lisa,
Yes its back to one again for me also and I share your sentiment for this course too.
See you around.
Patason
Hey Patason,
We seem to be on the same education path! Good luck in the course and nice to interact with a familiar person.
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I grew up in Kelowna and my dad used to teach @ Knox… say Hi to Leo and Marlon for me.
Welcome to the course!
John
Hi John,
Did your dad end his career at RSS? If yes, then I know who he is. I will definately say hello to Leo and Marlon for you.
Lisa
That’s him… enjoying the slacker retired life in the Gulf Islands now.
John
Hi Lisa,
Nice to meet another Kelowna teacher here and congrats for reaching the half way mark of the MET program. My two sisters live in Kelowna and I always go visit them and I had a chance to drive by your school many times. Such a nice campus! It is a challenge to teach grade 8th and 9th I guess, especially with the Math subject where things start to be difficult for them.
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Eva Ziemsen 9:13 pm on November 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Lisa,
Great avatar. Mine is also close to what I really look like (well, mostly). I agree with you, it is very odd to interact with complete strangers in SL. I found it much better to meet with my actual classmates. In that situation, it was very gratifying. There are definitely privacy settings for creating educational spaces. I encourage you to keep exploring the educational opportunities of SL.
Best,
Eva