Patrick Pichette
I went ahead and created a short tutorial in case it might be helpful for a few of you trying to locate your course contributions to submit as part of your A4 assignment. If it helps just one person, it was worth the minute to make it. 🙂 Keep in mind that this tutorial allows […]
Continue reading Quick tutorial for those of you trying to locate your contributions Posted in: General Here is my venture and elevator pitch: Personal Reflection: This was definitely a difficult assignment given the lack of knowledge in pitching ventures I had at the beginning of the semester. What I found most challenging was trying to gather sufficient details to present in what I consider a possible venture that I am […]
Continue reading EdTech Services Posted in: Venture Forum
Hi Patrick,
I’m not sure if I’m just missing it, but is your elevator pitch within the venture video? Was there a particular section of time that was meant to represent it? I didn’t want to watch the whole video out of fairness for my evaluation of the top 3 (30-60 second) pitches.
Cheers,
Rebecca
Hi Rebecca,
The elevator pitch is played within the video during the overview section. It is the video that starts playing right after I present the team.
Thanks Patrick, got it 😉
Hi Patrick:
Great presentation and integration of You-Tube, Prezi and Camtasia. This gives me confidence that Ed Tech Services knows their stuff.
A great concept but I am not sure exactly what Ed Tech does or can offer. In the presentation I think you could spend a bit more time explaining what the services are that are offered, with perhaps some examples.Perhaps pick one or two areas that schools or institutes struggle with that you could help them with, maybe for example migrating from one LMS to another..
Doug.
After re-reading your comment, I think I understand what you mean now. You were hoping to see 2 or 3 very specific examples of each service offered to further demonstrate how EdTech Services can help. So for the ‘help you find the right tool’ I could present a scenario with someone looking for a solution that meets their needs and I provide a potential solution based on the criteria established. For the ‘coaching and mentoring’, I could explain how EdTech Services would sit down with you to learn how to use Moodle efficiently or provide video tutorials describing the very specific tasks you’re hoping to accomplish with your LMS. For the ‘migrate your content’ I could show a scenario where EdTech Services could take those wonderful binders full of exciting activities and convert them into interactive lessons using Smart boards or another popular tool that the teacher had available in their environment.
I can see how that could have solidified the presentation without putting me over the 8 min mark. I would have had 2 minutes to present the scenarios and discuss some potential solutions available through EdTech Services. Thanks for the feedback!
Ah.. I thought it was clear when I indicated that I would help them find the right tool that suits their needs, coach or mentor them in using the tool they’ve chosen or migrate content towards their tool of choice. I appreciate your feedback though. Perhaps I need to specify that it is an educational tool or give an example of what educational tools are? Or maybe I could have included the same pictures of tools from the elevator pitch to remind users of some of the tools might be targeted?
Thoughts?
Hi Patrick, I think I understand the premise of your business and I can see the value in it. I know many Pro-d seminars where teachers are overwhelmed with new information and get packets that they shove away in their binders never to be looked at again. Having someone to actually help a teacher choose the right technology and then implement it would be very beneficial. However, I also see this as being very expensive because in a Pro-d seminar you might present to 100 teachers but with a mentor session you are working one on one with a teacher. This teacher may not be very computer literate and as a result takes a large amount of time to set things up and additional support. You might also run into problems with what you can access in the district since you don’t have the computer access that some technology would require. Really you would be limited to web based applications only. Overall I see your business as a service business that would be beneficial for teachers but too expensive and difficult to make a return.
Hi Patrick,
I enjoyed watching your presentation and thought it was well organized, you spoke clearly and did a job of integrating technology. I also appreciated that you took the time to conduct research and included those facts and figures to support the marketing goals. Similarly, including a break down of where the finances being asked for are going towards gave it more strength and clarity.
One thing that I would have liked to see a a greater sense of how Ed Tech Services truly offers something different that what other competitors are already offering. Perhaps giving specific examples would have made this point stronger.
Julie
Ditto Julie,
Great use of technology in your presentation Patrick. It really gives a venture like yours that much more validity when a pitch looks and sounds professional. For me, it is often how an idea is presented, and not even the idea itself that is often the most important aspect.
In terms of you venture pitch, however, I must say I needed to watch it a few times to really grasp the concepts laid out. I also agree with the above comments that some more specifics would have been good, to really see what your service – or similar service – looks like in action.
I appreciated your financial information and the options your presented the investors. I’m not entirely sure I would invest in this venture, as much of what you offer I -as a tech coordinator- do for my school already. However, I realize that not every school has people in place to organize, find, and support tech use in schools.
Good luck with this venture if you take it further!
Kent
HI Patrick. I think the pitch was clear and professional. I decided against using background music in mine but after watching yours, I wish I put it in. In your reflection, you comment on a seeming lack of enthusiasm but I didn’t get that and I think the music helped. It looked and sounded slick. I cracked up with you referring to your wife as Chief Relationship Officer.
You value your company at $1,000,000. That seems a bit high for a start-up. I think the idea would work and I think you got your target market spot on. You talk about “using your time for things that matter” which in my 15 years of teaching is probably the complaint that I hear most from teachers. Your little montage of all of the different edtech products out there was just long enough to reflect the sentiments that many educators have–that there’s way too much out there and it’s all very confusing and intimidating. While many schools will go the route of keeping someone in-house that can help them navigate this course, many will find the simplicity of outsourcing more convenient. As an investor though, I would have to compare this venture with other opportunities I see and you have way more overhead than, for example, many of the other pitches coming from this group. It is certainly possible to make money in something like this, but I would be more likely to put my money into something that afforded a simpler exit strategy. I don’t want to own a company and have to deal with the headaches that come with it. I am an investor. I want to make my money and have a way out.
I like the points you make about the site and I see that it fills a real and big need. My concern with it, is the differentation, how do you ensure that your product remains in the lead? Also, if I understand it right, it woud require a continuous high amount of work and a large team to stay on top of new technologies. I can see some serious benefits (as far as advertising for products), but at this point I would not invest in this venture. Fabulous video though and very compelling.
Hi Patrick,
I really enjoyed your venture pitch! This is an ambitious venture in that it asks a lot from investors and it seeks to offer services in an area where there are already established services. I think that you know how you would differentiate your services from those of your competitors, but I am not sure that came through clearly in your pitch.
Your use of the various media in your venture helps to add credibility to the services that you offer; clearly you are very proficient with using them. Again, good job and best of luck!
Hi Patrick – I enjoyed your pitch. An interesting idea. I know I often tend to focus my reviews on whether the quick elevator pitch presents a pain point and a solution – which yours did quite well – but that’s the world I come from; more of an educational EVA. However I think it might be a tough sell. Teachers needing some educational tech support often don’t even know what to ask, or even that they have a problem, and I’m worried that EdTech Services won’t be able to make that personal connection that a F2F support person could. I don’t doubt that EdTech could provide a valuable service to some, but ‘m worried about the real marketability of the service. I wish EdTech Services well however – best of luck with your venture.
Sorry for the late post. I have had sleepless nights completing other assignments. I do apologize and mean no disrespect.
Hi Patrick,
I liked the way you started your pitch getting to the point by saying how much you need and what the investor will get in return, and then proceeded to do an excellent job of explaining what your venture consist of, what the investment will help do and what the investors return will be. I would invest in your venture because there is a need for this product, you have a strong team, and finally, you have a clear idea of the market and your finances. Excellent work!
Adriana
Zach Sims is the co-founder and CEO of the Codecademy website. As a 22 year old CEO, much of Zach’s biography involves some of the short term projects he’s worked on to date such as Drop.io (acquired by Facebook), AOL’s venture group, and GroupMe (acquired by Skype). Codecademy Codecademy is a website designed to […]
Continue reading Zach Sims is the co-founder and CEO of t… Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
I signed up for codeacademy when it was in beta and managed to get through the first set of beginning tutorials on javascript. I think it’s great that it has become popular and that so many people have used it to learn coding. I set 2011/12 as my year to learn programming, but I personally found codeacademy to be really dry and ended up turned to other resources. There is no shortage of competing products out there there days. The new Khan Academy computer science section certainly takes better advantage of possibilities for interactivity than these guys, but Khan Academy started off a bit boring too. With the right backers and momentum, I imagine that they will be able to tweak the product to match the wants/needs of their target audience, whoever that turns out to be.
The thing I enjoyed about Codecademy was its ability to encourage younger students to learn to code. Many of my high school students loved the badges and reward system and constantly strived to get more badges and compete amongst themselves. The immediate response and guided approach seemed to work well to help students progress through the content at their own pace. I haven’t looked at Khan Academy’s new computer science course so I’ll need to have another look but I did find Codecademy’s approach to be quite promising. If anything, their core concept could be leveraged to produce content for other courses as well (math, languages, etc..).
I found my thoughts to be well aligned with those from the NMC 2012 Horizon Report in terms of emerging markets. Of the key trends they mention here are a few that I felt necessary to share: 1) Ability to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever: As a MET student, I already see huge […]
Continue reading New Media Consortium 2012 Horizon Report Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Hi Patrick,
I think many of the points you highlighted are extremely valuable. Sometimes certain technologies seem great but they may not be suited to a certain time and place as of yet. Evolution is continuously occurring with learning and technology. Many of these technologies may not be adopted right away but there is definitely room for them in the future. The main thing is to have them in our radar because when they do surface we will all have a better understanding. That is why articles like this one are so important. They keep us informed about the direction education will be heading in. i agree with you, this is a good article to keep on hand and the refer back to.
Collaborative learning and learning analytics areas I may like to invest as a venture capitalist. Analytics are gradually catching interest and institutions including ours are thinking of ways to better manage and mine data for informing teaching and learning. One of things we are exploring is the value of SCORM and TinCan API to track informal learning and behaviour patterns. Anybody else interested, exploring similar areas?
Good evening everyone. My name is Patrick and I live in the Ottawa region. ETEC522 and ETEC565 will be my 7th and 8th courses in a thrilling ride across the MET program. I am a high school information technology teacher and run a specialized focus program where students from the Ottawa region come to our […]
Continue reading Bonjour from Ottawa Posted in: Week 01: Introductions
Welcome to the course. I was in Ottawa a few weeks ago. My wife’s family lives about an hour from there (Westport-a small cottage/farm town). We spend a couple of weeks there each summer. The three points you listed are very important. Good luck this term.
Ken
Hi Patrick,
You are two courses ahead of me in MET. You seem to have your hands full both at school and at home.With your experience I know I can learn an lot from you and I look forward to working with you.
Patason
Hi Patrick,
What beautiful children. 🙂 I bet a few minutes with them makes you forget about all the other work you do. Sounds like you have your hands full with work.
I look forward to working with you this term.
Nureen
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Peggy Lawson 10:05 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great tip Patrick! I’ve been copying and pasting some of my posts as I’ve gone through the course because I dreaded having to go back at the end and try to hunt them down. Your solution is excellent – thanks for taking the time to create & share the video.
sophiabb 11:56 am on December 1, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Patrick.
C. Ranson 8:37 am on December 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Patrick.
Patrick Pichette 7:02 pm on December 2, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
You’re welcome.. looks like it helped a few people so even better.
Cheers 😉