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
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
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
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.
Thanks Patrick.
Thanks Patrick.
You’re welcome.. looks like it helped a few people so even better.
Cheers 😉
Hi all, I think having people to vote for and give marks to the available pitches for assignment 3 would be improved with more detail that explains the achievement for the number of stars assigned. The written comments are more useful and accurate at getting the points across. Perhaps having an explanation for each set of […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio – Suggestion for A3 Posted in: General
I didn’t mind the peer assessment bit, but felt the specific aspects we were asked to rate could have been expanded a bit to reflect the multiple facets of pitches.
Great idea, a rubric for each component would help in deciding the scores for the pitches. It would probably make the evaluations more consistent if we were all going on the same criteria.
I actually found grading and commenting on other people’s work very useful, it helped me reflect on my own work and how I could have improved it. The feedback everyone gave me and others was also very useful to learn from.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my learning experience through this course. The topics were very interesting and relevant and the OERs I found a great way to deliver content and learn at the same time! However, I agree and echo the sentiments others have about using the weblog vs an LMS. I also found it difficult […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio Posted in: General
Hi Melissa,
I too, agree with the suggestions that you have stated, especially the second one about being able to edit/update comments after pressing the “reply” button. I think not being able to do so is related to the reason why my heartbeat increases every time before I press the “reply” button.
James
Great ideas Melissa. I think that being able to provide examples (visuals or video) within the replies would be great. It would be difficult to provide the same response if you had to make a new post and then refer to the original posting that you were commenting on.
Ken
Totally agree. It’s awful not being able to edit a post you’ve written and later find has a mistake.
While I see some of the points made by other students regarding the Blog vs traditional LMS to facilitate this course. I myself liked the fact that this information would be live to the Internet. With this knowledge, I had to ensure a more respectful tone (not that we weren’t), but more so, considering at […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio – Resource Depot Posted in: General
I think the same thing could have been accomplished using a discussion forum that was publicly visible (although I would say that the thought of my colleagues in this class, all professionals and working at a master’s level, seeing my work was more than enough of a motivator to try to write something intelligent. My personal opinion is that a blog is best used when you have one primary author and a multitude of commenters. The discussion is guided by that primary individual. With so many authors, it is difficult to keep track of new, interesting posts, or to se who responded to the question that you asked here or there. I definitely prefer being able to open up a forum and see how many ‘unread’ comments I have. I am sure that I missed all sorts of good stuff in this course because of this. People are more likely to check the ‘recent posts’ or ‘recent comments’ and respond to something that interests them in there. If, for example, you happen to be in the same time zone as the majority of people, then you are more likely to get a response and generate a real discussion since more people will see it while it is up. For those that aren’t, their ideas may be buried quickly and by the time they get back 12 or 24 hours later, the discussion has long since moved on. (Either that or my comments were just boring…) Subscribing to a feed was one way to do it, but it’s not so simple to click from there into the wordpress to respond to a comment. So while I believe that there was no shortage of good discussion in this course, I would not recommend a blog for the next time around. (Incidentally, it seems that this was on a wiki sometime in the past, so it is cool to see the David’s experimenting with formats and technologies.)
I am not disagreeing about the intelligence of the community of learners, that was not my thoughts or intentions. However, in many of closed off courses, sometimes discussions are not course related, and yes I realize there is a section for those in those courses, however it was rarely used. I was just getting at the fact that the completely open environment, ensures that we are not only intelligent in our responses, but our cognitive dissonance, which will and should occur regularly, regarding at times, real life products, not only keeps us disagreeing agreeably, but aware that we are discussing real life products and the time and effort multiple people have put forth. Do I like other LMS’s, yes. I have used Blogs, Connect and Vista – and in my mind Vista provides the most services to assist conversations, in that it shows where new conversations have occurred and if any have been directed at you. Both of which are essential, and have missed dearly in this course.
And I am glad to hear that experimentation on delivery happens. For no matter what system you provide, some people will be happy, while others less so. And you never know, with experimentation may one day come my much wanted Resource Depot.
Thoughts?
I think that is a good idea. I think for a course at this level, individuals would use such a tool as a resource to help them to concretize and further their understandings not as means of plagiarism. I am a visual person and find that seeing an artifact teaches me a lot more than reading about that same artifact or the components of that artifact. This type of resource would be helpful to individuals who have no prior background in business and would give them more confidence in their ability to create a potent and plausible venture.
Nureen
I’ll just add to your comments, Tom, regarding the quality (stay-on-topicness) of discussion threads when open to the public vs in a closed LMS. I’ll respectfully disagree. Now in my 9th MET class, I’ve generally found my classmates to be very focused on the topics, always respectful, and very meaningful and rich. There was the odd brief off-topic comment, but those more often than not added to the spontenaity and group-building of the course. As mentioned several times now, in numerous threads, I think the combination of a large class size and the nature of blogs vs discussion boards (Ben explained it well) made it much more difficult to create rich discussions in this course. Rare were the real conversations between more than 2, occassionally 3, people at a time as a reall back-and-forth discussion. Unfortunately I felt very little of the collegial bonding of classmates in this course that I’ve come to greatly appreciate in MET and perhaps the public blog forum was a major reason for that.
I found this course to be extremely difficult. Partly because I wasn’t trained in the lingo and also because of other difficulties that have already been aired by other students. The WordPress site was extremely awkward to navigate at times and incredibly inept when it came to the search function, but it provided up to […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio Posted in: General
I was really challenged by this course and I greatly enjoyed the many avenues we were able to explore. Thank you to all of the teams that presented and the high quality of materials that were provided. Two components that would help me, and possibly others participate more would revolve around communication and collaboration. In […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio: Team Pitches suggestion Posted in: General
I would agree with the discussion component of the course layout and its limitations. Upon beginning the MET program, vista was the platform for most courses and it worked like a charm. It was easy to log on and easily locate your discussion threads and respond to comments that colleagues have added. This blog roll format does work but makes finding and posting discussions and replies a tedious task. I noticed that complex threads didn’t really evolve within this format as they had in the past with courses offered through vista. The connect platform is not any better either. This is the interesting thing with technology, just because something is newer, doesn’t necessarily make it better. The old saying “If it aint broke, don’t fix it,” is something designers should keep in mind. Then again, if that was the case, they would be out of a job.
As a note, I know that UBC is moving to a new system called Connect, instead of Vista. Having used both I find Connect much more cumbersome to navigate than Vista. It only shows one post at a time and you have to use arrows to click/scroll through conversations. At least through the blog I don’t have to click on each person’s post to read what they wrote. Just my two cents.
Thanks for the post Ken. This is the 2nd course that has used a WordPress blog instead of Vista or Connect. I know it can take time to adjust to something new, but I’ve had some experience now and as you said trying to follow threads and new posts is almost impossible and consumes far too much time trying to locate new posts (I didn’t like the RSS method much, either). I’m sure I’ve missed replying to comments on my own posts which I hate to do. As Manny said, the rich and complex discussion threads that, to me, are the real heart of a MET course are very difficult and almost non-existent with WordPress blogs.
Collaboration on the venture project is an interesting idea.
I also agree about using the Word Press Blog format, this is my second course as well, and the discussions have not been as rich as it is hard to keep track of them. These courses are all about learning from each other through the postings, so I believe we could have learned a lot more in this course if it was hosted in the normal Vista platform where the discussion threads are better managed.
The other comment that I would like to make which is even riskier as the final grades have not been posted, however it is a specific constructive suggestion, is we have been discouraged from continuing discussions once each group’s emerging market analysis week is complete. In other courses I have been in, continued discussions were allowed throughout the course, and I remember one where they were still going 7 days after the course was completed! I do not see a fault or danger in this, only positives as small groups of students are able to discuss topics to great detail and on a wide array of related topics.
Doug.
Good suggestions, Ken. I would also really like to see future iterations of this course to have the venture pitch assignment structured as a collaborative project because I found it disengaged my learning experience from the collective while I worked through the assignment myself.
James
My other 3 classes are currently in Connect and I think there are benefits to both. I have one course where our discussions happen on connect and we do assignment posting through wordpress. I dislike going through the extended process of “clicking” and collecting on connect, but it is easier to tell what you have already read.
I think that you are right, Ken, that it would be great to collaborate on an idea, however, I can see that being a bit difficult to coordinate, particularly for those who want to work on a special project/venture that they are actually wanting to launch.
One suggestion I would make is that maybe A1 or A3 could be shared on the weblog prior to submission. This way, individuals could view each other pitches and provide feedback. Thus, creating a tool that can be learned from and allowing for improvement in the skills being learned during the course. I am currently learning a lot […]
Continue reading Participation Portfolio: Suggestion for potential changes in this course for the future Posted in: General
I agree, it was easy to miss parts of conversations due to the blog set-up. It is much easier to follow the threads in a Vista forum posting. This is especially true considering how many groups presented and all of the external sites that were created where we were asked to participate in other locations.
Ken
I really liked the idea of a collective approach to the development of either or both A1 and A3. And for a lot of people, this may have increased value. My only caution, is for those potential students who truly want to use this class to help them develop an actual service/product. For these individuals, that collective environment, would reduce any chance of that product ever coming into existence, or intellectual property battles, if it becomes successful.
For myself, I would like the option of working in groups, or individually.
Thoughts?
That is a good point to bring up. As you said, offering the option to work alone or in groups would be a good solution.
I think sharing our A3 on a weblog prior to submission is a very good suggestion. I have learned a lot for the collective feedback to my A3 as well as to others. I welcome the feedback from peers at this level; that feedback could make the difference between a good pitch and a great one.
I also think that we could post our A3 ideas in a general pool. This could facilitate a team work approach for students with similar ideas.
Hi, Sorry for being a bit late, I submitted this to David on Saturday, but had problems uploading it to the blog. Hopefully this link works! https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8nu030x2g60lzr7/AhgxDlPBaH Let me know if there are any problems finding my assignment! I have done an educational market venture pitch on Penveu, a new technology similar to that of an […]
Continue reading Assignment #3: Educational Application of Penveu Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Hi Jhodi,
I enjoyed both your short elevator pitch and venture pitch. I really liked the design of your venture pitch – very professional and well laid out. I think you described the pain point, investment potential, current investors, team, and differentiation of the product all very well. As it is not your own original venture, I understand why you didn’t show a “face of the product” in the video, but I do find that I am more drawn to a pitch if there is a face behind the voice. To enhance your pitch, I would also recommend letting potential investors know what to do next – visit the website, contact our team for investment opportunities, etc.
As an EVA I expected to get a good understanding of what the product actually was in your venture pitch. I did reread what you wrote, and understand that it has something to do with pixels on the screen but a demo would have been a selling point for me, although I would agree there is a market for this product, I would not invest without seeing a demo of how well it works.
Thanks Jenny!
I agree that it would have been nice to have my face in the video, but as it is not my own product, I thought that I would assume the position of one of the CEO’s and keep it as if it was coming from one of them. I also wanted to feature the product, and since I do not actually have one, I thought that photos would be better. I do also like seeing a face in the video though.
Jhodi
Hi Jhodi,
Thank you for providing information regarding Penveu, never heard of it before, looks intereting. However, before I complete my rating could answer a question for me. I am just unsure what has been “made over” to quote one of David’s posts or what the new venture/idea is. Would you mind clarifying this for me?
Regardless, I like Jenny enjoyed the presentation, as it was engaging and highly information regarding this product.
Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom,
I wanted to market Penveu to the educational market in a way that would focus on the use by a teacher and students in an interactive, engaging way. I have tried to focus the pitch on marketing Penveu to instructors and schools for the purpose of engaging students and creating efficient hand-on learning in the classroom. By highlighting the educational aspects and benefits of Penveu, I hope to intrigue potential educational investors. I felt as though the original marketing of Penveu was not focused on the education market enough in terms of benefits in the classroom.
Jhodi
Well done Jhodi. I enjoyed your elevator pitch and like Jenny, it would have been more convincing to see your face. This would have given some visual cues and body language indicating your excitement towards the product.
Both your elevator pitch and venture pitch certainly convinced me on the more affordable price and flexibility of use in the classroom as big features of the product. Your venture pitch is very convincing and realistic to the point that at first I was wondering why you were just re-publishing or plagiarizing their marketing material. Once I was part way through, I then realized it was your own material thus I believe you did a fine job of role playing and creating new and unique marketing material.
Doug.
Thanks for the input, I agree that having me in the video would have allowed my body language to show more. If I actually had a Penveu, I would have definitely gone that route.
Jhodi, I like the idea behind Penveu and the approach of positioning it against whiteboards with the idea of cost savings and portability. Though the price is a bit misleading as a whiteboard already includes the projector where this product needs a laptop, projector and pen. Depending on what resources the school already has this might not be that much cheaper. Since it is portability that might be appealing as well to a school over a Whiteboard. As for the product I would really need to use it to determine its effectiveness before I would decide if it is worthwhile. Since it has to go through wireless to a laptop there might be a lag involved that could be annoying to teachers. Overall a good job I would definitely look further into investing into this kind of company.
Hi Jhodi,
I can see that your venture has a solid team from the biographical sketches you have provided and they have put together a solid product.
With the current thrust to get schools up to scratch with information technology you have convinced me that you have a possible game changer for those teachers who are intimidated by the hardware side of some of the products that are available today. As matter of fact our school was provided with two of a similar product but no one uses them because they have to be calibrated and you are ‘pinned’ to the front of the class when using them. I am just stating the fact because you did a great job of identifying the competitive edge of penveu and as such did not need any help from me. So the penveu team certainly did their homework and got their act right in this respect.
There is certainly a lot of room in the education market for penveu but you did not say how potential customers are exposed to the product. Also I would have liked to know the market size in terms of how much money it is estimated to have and how this market is projected to grow in the future. In addition penveu’s parent Interphase Corporation seem to be a solid company with a deep pocket so I do not think they need my money anyway. As long as you can provide me with the answers to these questions I will invest in penveu.
After all is said and done you did a great job.
Cheers
Patason
Hi,
Given that this is such a new technology, it has been grouped with the IWB market. As such, I explored the potential market growth for this market, but I was unable to determine what portion of the market would move to Penveu. This is an area that I would have liked to have found more information about (but with all of my searching, I was unable to). I agree that for a potential investor, this would be very valuable information.
Jhodi
I think the product is sound. I just went to a learning technologies expo last week and the one thing that I saw over and over was interactive whiteboards. Probably a third of the companies that were there were showing something like a Smartboard or something like a Mimeo. And, coincidentally, my wife is helping prepare a bid to a Central American government for the purchase of thousands of these things for schools. And I didn’t see anything like the penveu so I thought it was your own invention until I looked it up. I think you know your stuff. You present a myriad of facts and include a few figures that shows that you did your research.
I watched your elevator pitch a couple of times though and I spaced out each time. I think that the elevator pitch needs a bit more style and a bit less substance. I guess I am being a little picky about technical and performance issues, but I could hear you gasping for breath as you were trying to get everything out. There was a lot of information in there that would have been better in the venture pitch. The elevator pitch just needs to get my attention so that I listen to the venture pitch. It is not about making the sale. It is just about getting in the door. I watched the video that they had on their site (Dr. Yoram Solomin, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development) here:
http://www.penveu.com/products.html?video
and he was able to sell the idea without nearly so much information.
On the other hand, your venture pitch was beautifully presented and the little touches made it look very professional. You may have wanted to slide yourself in there as a senior level administrator though. It was not clear who you are in the company, unless I missed something.
I was also not clear on what you are asking. It seems that the project already has sound financial backing from Interphase. And from my experience, there is no guarantee that you will make any money investing based on a product that is produced by a huge company. If this is their only product, and it takes off, you can make money. If they are part of a huge conglomerate, then success of one product has little impact on the balance sheet.
So, before investing, I would want to know more.
Thanks for your input! It is funny that you mention too much information in the elevator pitch because I have a tendency to want to put as much as I can into things like this and I know that sometimes less is more. I think that overall, investors with some sort of tie to the education market would be the target market for this product as they would be able to invest capital and help make connections at the same time, which is what I think this device may need.
Jhodi
Hi Jhodi,
Your elevator pitch has a lot of information, so a provision of closed captioning would paint a clearer picture for me as an investor. As an EVA, your pitch would hook my interest more if you provided a description of what the students can do with the product (i.e., write on any surface?) in addition to information about how it is better than the IWB.
Upon reviewing Penveu’s website, I do wonder how your pitch is steering the company from its original direction?
Thanks,
James
Hi,
The only thing that I found when I explored their marketing was that it somewhat lacked emphasis on the impact that it would have on teaching style and student engagement. This is in line with the company’s vision, but my goal was to emphasize how this could make a bigger, stronger impact.
Jhodi
Hi Johdi,
It appears that most of us who were re-pitching for existing companies had the same problem. I wanted the company to focus more on the education market instead of the commercial one, but did not specifically emphasize how in my pitches. There should have been an extra section on both my elevator and venture pitches comparing which direction Knewton is currently going, how it differs from the direction I want the company to move towards and the results this new direction will have in comparison to the results they have now.
In any case, this assignment was a great learning experience for me, and I hope it was the same for you too.
Have a good break!
James
I appreciated the cleanness and succinct message from your elevator pitch. I did find it contained a lot of information to digest in a short period of time. Almost like a very short venture pitch – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing? Just something that I noted personally. Your recording was also very clear and overlaid well with the visuals that you provided. It was quite interesting to see that penvue compared to the smart board technology which many are now questioning the validity of. I hope that wouldn’t detract from the marketability of this neat little device.
Hi Jhodi,
Great job on the elevator and venture pitch. I found that they were both very professional and informative. Like others, my concern is that this is already a well-established company that is not really hurting for money. As such, being an investor, I am having a hard time finding a way that my investment is needed.
It was a good idea, however, to take this product in a new direction in order to fully move into the educational market. You would think that the parent company would have considered this!
Hi Jhodi,
Great work both you pitches were very professional!
From the elevator pitch I was not able to workout exactly what this product does unfortunately (I am a newbie when it comes to white/smart board technologies sorry) and for this reason I needed to look further into it. The pitch clearly states a pain point but I am not sure how this device actually works to meet this pain point from the video. Although the pitch does clearly identify how this provides value by means of a cost reduction compared to other products. My confusion for understanding the product lead me to view the venture pitch, which was professionally presented with most of the investment information I wanted to see as an EVA.
However unfortunately I do not think I would invest in this venture. While not because of anything related to the ventures pitches themselves or their contend purely as I think its something the competitors can reproduce and integrate into their own products or even buy the company if the product is something they find great.
Thanks
Melissa
Hi jhodi,
Sorry for the late post. I have had sleepless nights completing other assignments. I do apologize and mean no disrespect.
I am going to base my feedback on what we saw in week 3 regarding the content of a venture pitch(Perfecting Your Pitch).
1. Pain Point: the market gap or problem the venture is addressing
– Though this is an interesting product, I don’t think it is necessarily a very much needed one. Some people say the IWB is on its way out, and there are only 600,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_whiteboard ) out there, so it would appear to be a limited market.(http://eddigitaltribe.blogspot.mx/2012/01/are-interactive-white-boards-dead.html )
2. Solution: the new product or service that resolves the pain
– Yes, the gadget solves the problem
3. Differentiation: the reason someone will buy or use this new product or service, versus the alternatives
– The report does not state if here is anything else similar in the market
4. Marketing: where and how buyers/users will be reached
-It is not clear. Also, though the report states this gadget will enhance the IWB market, I read pages that suggest it may replace this market, so I got a bit confused http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/thinking-tech/penveu-electronic-pen-could-replace-whiteboards/11270
5. Championship: the competency of the venture’s leaders and advisors
– Good
6. Competition: an overview of competitors and partners
-Not mentioned.
7. The Ask: how much money, etc, is required to take the next step
– Not mentioned
8. The Return: how much and how soon will an investor be recompensed
– Not mentioned
9. The Message
-Overall the presentation, especially the PDF, was well presented. Some things to keep in mind: speak more slowly and have less text so investors actually read your proposal. This aside, however, I feel the look was good and if tweaked could work.
Good luck,
Adriana
It’s been interesting and, i have had my share of technical difficulties. I tried about 20 different permutations of technical fixes while recording this pitch, but couldn’t get it to come out both a compressed and, well not an art piece. If anyone has suggestions on tech support, I can repost if it works. […]
Continue reading Assignment 3: Venture Pitch DolFin Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Franc,
I tried to view your video but it looks like the link you sent is for the location within your video. You might have to update the link to show the url for the video outside of your video manager. Also, you can embed the video directly into the blog if you wanted to. Just click on the youtube button and paste the video url into place. Hope this helps.
Ken
Hey Frank,
The youtube link doesnt work as it is linking to your videos you uploaded page rather than anyone in particular. This just brings me to my video upload page so cant see yours at all.
The Prezi is giving me an error as well.
You said that you were having trouble with the export. Lash me off an email with details of what program you are coming from, what OS you have, and what you recorded it using and hopefully I can help.
Cheers
Stuart
Frank, the YouTube link does not work..
Not to sound too redundant, but I can’t view your video or prezi either.
Hi Guys, I did a complete re-install; try this now:
Hi Frank,
I can see your YouTube video, but not your prezi.
Lisa
Hi Frank,
While I too was unable to find your prezi, I did watch your elevator pitch on YouTube. From that I think you have a great concept but it was somewhat unclear to me if the key features or purpose is to teach users about finance, create a budget for them or both? As well, I saw there was mention of users interacting with one another and I would have liked to know more about how that would work.
Julie
I agree with Julie that your concept seems great, as i think there is a need for this type of learning, but it was a little confusing knowing exactly what ‘Dolfin’ does.
I’m sure your venture pitch will add greater depth, but i’m not sure with the limited information gained from the initial pitch that investors could go any further.
Do you explain where the 500K goes as well? I may be off base, but that number just sounds huge for the application you’ve explained.
Thanks,
Kent
Hello,
Thank you for your feedback. The Prezi is embedded in the Youtube video, so I did not post it separately.
DolFin is a LMS/CMS Platform that brings together budgeting tools, financial education content and social applications to make financial learning simple and fun. It can be utilized by teachers and and education providers as an all-in-one reservoir to draw from for tools, content and connectivity, so that they can focus their efforts on facilitating the learning process.
The budget is further laid out in the Venture Pitch; and the $500K covers both the Pilot and Alpha Launch development. Since you have $1 Million to invest on this, Investing in DolFin will allow you to fund something that’ is uniquely different and innovative, while having $500K left to invest in an another venture as well.
Cheers!
The elevator pitch is intriguing, but I don’t think it provides enough information for who would use it and what they would use it for. People are typically private about finances so I’m not sure whether that social media bit would be a good thing (as it would encourage sharing of ideas, etc.), or whether it would just turn people off. Finances are an area that everyone has interest in, but just based on the elevator pitch I would not invest further.
Hi Frank – An interesting venture idea. I think there is a market for people who would enjoy online classes in financial education, based on their needs. For evaluating the brief elevator pitch, I like focusing on these guidelines, realizing that the brief elevator pitch likely won’t touch on all aspects:
* Pain Point: the market gap or problem the venture is addressing;
* Solution: the new product or service that resolves the pain;
* Differentiation: the reason someone will buy or use this new product or service, versus the alternatives;
* Marketing: where and how buyers/users will be reached;
* Championship: the competency of the venture’s leaders and advisors;
* Competition: an overview of competitors and partners;
* The Ask: how much money, etc, is required to take the next step; and
* The Return: how much and how soon will an investor be recompensed
You managed to touch on most of these during the brief pitch which I found impossible to do – well done. However, for me I would have liked to have been drawn into your vision a little more deeply; perhaps spending a bit more time highlighting a few of your more essential or engaging aspects, rather than briefly covering many of them, would have attracted me more towards your venture. With my limited ability to fund ventures, I may have to pass on this particular one. But I wish you success, as I do think there is some potential here.
Hi Frank,
For some odd reason, when I click on your elevator pitch it goes to my videos in my personal video manager for youtube. The prezi also doesn’t seem to work, I get a message of ….
The presentation you wanted to join either did not exist, or it has already ended.
Please check the URL and come back!
Thank you for your patience,
The Prezi team
Hi manny, please see my post: frank 8:48 pm on November 27, 2012
Hi Frank,
I think that you have a very marketable venture here. As a math teacher that teaches finance to high school students, I am always looking for engaging resources such as this that would help students learn in practical situations. I watched your elevator pitch and read what you stated would be in you venture pitch. I would like to invest in this venture, but I would want to know more about it first. I would like to know exactly how it works and what the future plans are for this venture.
Overall, I think that you did a very good job creating your pitch and have caught my attention!
Jhodi
The Pitches Patason’s_Elevator_Pitch.wmv http://youtu.be/y0h7UmugwjM Patason’sVenture_pitch.mp4 http://youtu.be/xbwpeNLPC5E Reflection My idea for the product designed for this course began some years ago with the release of the ipad. It started when my colleague and good friend that sits next to me- a Macappresiendo complained about the new device that Steve Jobs was making and his dissatisfaction with […]
Continue reading The Pitches Patason’s_Elevator_Pitch.wm… Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Patason,
I choose to view your entire pitch because I was intrigued by the tablet notebook folding motion in your elevator pitch. I think you totally hit the mark in terms of using the media to portray your message in the pitches and the images you used were interesting and relevant. I also liked that you used reviews from various sources to increase your credibility.
You mentioned that there are who competitors have the ability to use the portal ability but only for certain types of phones. Is your competition also able to use the notepad/keyboard function? Even though it is patented, does something similar exist?
I am currently not an avid tablet user, although I use my smartphone all the time. To be able seamlessly move all of your information to a bigger screen with more flexibility is a huge advantage.
There was also a lot of information in your pitch regarding the growth of cell phone use. But since your venture is the tablet and its patented features, you may want to consider keeping the focus on how a tablet could be marketed to current smart phone users in the education field.
The only other suggestion I would have is giving more information about yourself and the development team. Your pitch was convincing and knowledgeable but if there were more details regarding your educational background and relevant work experience, you would gain credibility.
If I had a million dollars lying around, I would consider investing. Good job!
Thank you avninder.
Your Comments are valid and would certainly help my venture
Patason
An excellent venture concept considering the mLearning market is booming. I also like the ability of smartphone plugging into a tablet device – very novel ideal indeed.
As an investor, I would like to know more about you, your experience in this market and proposed marketing plan to recoup the investment of $1million.
Thanks Ranvir,
I was going to do some financial projection but left them out when I discovered we did not have to do any ‘money’ since my video was getting big and unwieldy.
Patason
Patason,
I love the idea of being able to turn a smart phone into a tablet. This device could be especially useful for schools wanting to employ a BYOD program, considering that a lot more students have smart phones on them than tablets, the school could purchase something like your product in bulk and have the kids use their smart phones in them.
part of my problem with doing work on my tablet is that I miss my keyboard, and this product would be a solution for me.
I would have liked to hear more about your marketing plan and where you would sell your product, and of course a little more about you and your background.
I felt a little hypnotized by the repetition of the animation of the product, but in a good way. It may have brain washed me into thinking that people would use it! good work,
MIKE
Thank you Mike,
Your point are all valid but rendering took longer than I planned and I had issues that I do not care to mention here that got in the way so I did not do as good a job as I had planned.
My target is education, business and emerging markets that will be serviced by our distributors as I imagined the company to be an O.E.M. Customers can still purchase directly via our website however. We will pay special attention to schools as we want our customers to be ‘hooked for life. So to this end we will have special deals with volume discounts for academic institutions.’
Within the next five years we expect that 40% of tablet owners and 30% of smart phone users will be using our product.
ME:- An educator with 25 years experience, For the last ten I was director of the educational technology unit of the ministry of education.
Tooooo Late 🙁
Hi Pat,
You have a great Idea here!
I think you have good know-how related to the business elements of this venture: the pain point: marketing, the Ask, the Return etc.
If you want to people to invest real money into this idea of yours, I suggest you do 2-things:
1) I would go and study successful spin-off products from popular technologies and study how they worked with OEM’s to develop their Spin-offs. If you can get the even 1 of the Tablet providers on board, this will go a long way for you in getting their support: they will share their design specs with you and you can potentially get exclusive rights to being their supplier if you can earn their trust – if they compete with you like Microsoft did with Netscape, you’ll be dead in the water before you start.
I would not spread myself too thin here; you’re better off creating a solid product for 1-technology platform, then something mediocre that suits several different ones. Even if you work with India’s $20 project, I think this venture will eventually pay off.
The key thing is to build a relationship with the OEM you want to support.
2) If you want to be the next Steve Jobs with this product, you’re going to have to find a couple of Wozniak’s who can design and deliver a solid product for you. I would search high and low for those guys and get them rolling ASAP. If you have a solid product, everything else will follow. To do that, you’ll need some Angel money from family and friends, line of credit etc ($100k) to fund the prototype in the first year. If you have the right guys, I think it’s a risk worth taking.
Great idea and Good Luck!
Thanks for your suggestions Frank.
You make me feel as if am ready for the big times.
Patason
Great presentation and very thorough. I loved the animation with your presentation. There is a children’s toy that let’s you connect a smart phone (I think iPhone) to it to access more information. I thought of it when I saw your presentation. It is similar to your idea, where the resources of the phone are being drawn-upon to make the original device more powerful and provide more features. You can take a look here: http://itikes.com/. It would make sense that this is something that would be useful for adults too. Nice work.
Thank you Ken
Hi Pat,
I agree, great idea! I think your product would be very marketable and you have identified the student target group that would be a very interested in this product. Your elevator pitch and presentation are very impressive. I would invest in your product! BRAVO.
Catherine 🙂
Thank you Catherine
You had me at adapter, Patason! I do think that mobile computing is certainly the wave of the future, especially having gone through my own hardware woes during my travels. I have had to learn about many different ways to communicate, collaborate and work, through necessity over interest. You product has me extremely excited about the future of this technolgy.
Your elevator pitch was very thorough, containing lots of valuable information, including research backup, flaws in currently available devices, and description of your new product. (I think the biggest thing for me was unlimited power supply! Well done there!!) Your venture pitch naturally brought in more specific information, including relevant facts and figures outlining the market share, which I found helpful in evaluating the importance of such a product.
My only question relates to the adapters. Will they indeed be able to accommodate every type of mobile phone, or those that are touch screen technology only. (Only touch screens are shown in the animation, but “all phones” is mentioned several times in the pitch.) Will even the old flip phone work here? I suspect that most mobile owners will have the latest, but undoubtedly there will still be students who cannot afford that level of technology. That is not a primary concern for your product however, but may be a question asked by an administration who is determining whether or not to integrate it into the educational system.
Overall, I was very impressed with the product! It reminds me of the Microsoft Surface they keep advertising here in the UK, but your adapter technology (and unlimited power supply) are what make it unique and pioneering. If I had the money, I would back you tomorrow!
Thank you Jennifer,
The technology is for smartphone because they share the same technology with tablets so it easy to make a portal to convert a smartphone to a tablet. To do this with a feature phone would be a more expensive and less profitable affair.
Cheers
Patason
Indeed, at its core this is an original idea which shows potential.
As a CEO Patason, you seem very knowledgeable and passionate about your product, which is a critical strength. I am also quite impressed by your team as presented in your written reflection – thank you by the way, for sharing a well written summary of your venture.
Where I begin to have reservations about the idea is with its concept and marketability. The concept of a folding ‘dock’ is novel and addresses many of the pain points of mobile technology as you note, however at least two concerns immediately come to my mind:
Firstly, your case, takes away to a certain degree, from the ultra portability and desecrate size of tablets and smartphones. I love my phone because I can take it anywhere and use it with one hand. I love my tablet because I can cozy up with it in my lap to read and type. After Jon Ive struggles with the form factor for a device for years and sources durable materials to construct it with, I’m just not inclined to add an extra case to it.
Secondly, how does the hardware you add, particularly the stylus integrate with existing apps? Can I still use Evernote, GoodReader and the other apps I enjoy, as I always have?
In terms of marketability, you have some solid references to support your products need, however some of the charts in your venture pitch were a bit dated – one from 2010 which notes that RIM’s market share is near what Apple’s is, which of course is no longer the case.
Finally, I am left feeling somewhat uncertain of what I am getting for my 1 million dollar investment – how will the money be used (though numbers were not an explicit component of our projects).
I hope I am not being overly critical here, but in my mind, the concept and plan need some clarification and review before I could consider investing.
Hi Scott,
I love your thoroughness because this approach will bring the best out of any product you look at. As for the case it is valid concern but the main idea here is that you have to weigh the protection factor, creative affordances and unlimited battery life against form factor. Students will overlook the latter because the others will make the difference in their education. Considering that this is all you would need for school it is not an unreasonable assumption. The stylus is compatible with the current crop of drawing software.
Cheers
Patason
Hi Patason,
I appreciated the enthusiasm you showed in your venture and although you attack a pain point regarding the limitations of a smartphone by adding additional affordances, I just felt as though you were adding bulk to a perfectly working device for its function. If I want a tablet, I’ll buy a tablet while as if I want a smartphone, I’ll buy a smartphone. I don’t see much reason for buying a smartphone and then having to carry around the additional bulk that will likely not see much use. I’d rather carry around a VGA adapter, HDMI adapter or make use of an Apple TV along with a bluetooth keyboard when the need for projecting my screen’s content to a larger screen arises. The built-in Airplay functionality of an iPhone tackles much of what you propose and with a charger cable, there is unlimited battery power for using your device in this way. Still, your passion and motivation were evident and although it is an interesting proposition, I would likely look to invest elsewhere as I’m not convinced that it’s a feasible product.
Hi Patrick,
Thank you for your suggestions. It is clear that the creative product line is not for you. However you must remember that students are one of the main target groups of my products and they will have to weigh the tradeoff between added bulk and creative tools with unlimited battery life. From your scenario we have to remember that there will be times in the field when a plug is not available and the creative package is less bulky than an apple TV plus a keyboard. Finally not everyone lives by the all things apple mantra.
Cheers
Patason
My fictitious venture is for a specially designed educational tablet that is customized for use in schools. This tablet will be geared towards pre-school and elementary school students, as well as for students with special needs. This tablet will have all the capabilities needed to ensure students have access to multiple educational tools that are […]
Continue reading My fictitious venture is for a specially… Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Hi Nureen, your elevator pitch is private so I can’t watch it. I also tried to click the link above the video, still no luck 🙁
Sorry about that. . I am surprised the download didn’t work. That is odd. I have changed the settings. I think it should be ok now.
Nureen
Hi Nureen,
You did such a wonderful job for both of your pitches. You managed to get a lot of info into the 1 minute pitch, good job! Your voice is enthusiastic and very professional too. The graphic and music are also perfect.
Your venture pitch is thorough. Even though you didn’t give much detail about the CEO and the team, somehow I still feel your venture is credible; it could be because you provided a lot of backup research and statistics. I think you covered many important points investors want to know like marketing, future growth plan, and competitors. Especially the detail in how Nabi 2 differs from other tablets which is one of my biggest concern whether to invest or not. You did answered that question. “Nabi 2 tablet school edition is better than the rest because it has the same capabilities as other and also has the best processing speed”
It is a good venture concept and I am very interested in it but because there are so many tablets out there already so I wouldn’t feel confident to invest at this point, sorry. Otherwise a very well presented pitches and I really enjoy watching and reading it.
Thanks Paula. I appreciate the feedback. You are right there are a lot of tablets on the market. That is why I wanted to gear this to the educational market and make this product specifically for educational institutions by equipping it with a build in LMS system and master and slave capabilities.
I was actually drawn to this idea because I see my nephews and other kids around me wanting to play with digital devices and I can’t help but think these kids are going to grow up surrounded by these devices so why not make these devices conducive to their learning. It will be interesting to see what the future has in store for these kids.
Thank you so much for reviewing my work and for your helpful feedback.
Nureen
Hey Nureen, after the elevator pitch I was feeling many things. Due to its speed I was a little bamboozled and panicked, but not really in a bad way, more in a way that I wanted to look for you and just find out more and I felt I needed to do it immediately!!! I think your passion came through on the delivery very much.
With the venture pitch I found it difficult as there was so much information. For me I would not invest in your venture as the market is over saturated already with device offerings but also because it represents a massive investment into one device for school districts. So I don’t think the device route is the way to go.
Saying that I think that your concept is excellent and that there is a gap in the market for a classroom based facility such as the one you describe. I would be more inclined to invest if this was the main focus and you concentrated on the delivery of that by providing the software apps for all the other devices. This means that students could bring their own if the app was on them but also the school board could get a cheaper version of the physical device and purchase your software to fill the gap the market. If it was possible to have different brands of devices talking to each other and the teacher through the one app it would, for me, be a winner.
Just my two cents –
Cheers
Stuart
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for the feedback. I too think there is a gap in the market for devices/software such as these that can be used in the classroom.
Your idea would be ideal. It would be very beneficial for BYOD supporting school districts.
Nureen
Hi Nureen,
Good job on your elevator and venture pitch. You are obviously passionate about your idea. During your elevator pitch, I found the speed of your delivery too fast. When I was just grasping one idea, you had already moved three points ahead. I liked the idea that you wanted to make a product that would be interactive and provide individualized instruction for pre-school and elementary school students, as well as for students with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Differentiation is a very important aspect in teaching so you had a good idea and solution for that pain point.
In saying that, I have to agree with Stuart. For schools or school districts to buy these devices would be very costly, but if you could produce the software that could be used on many different types of devices, your product could potentially be a marketable item.
Good job!
Lisa
Thanks for your feedback Lisa.
Nureen
Hi Nureen,
Your venture proposal for a personalized tablet specific for children has good intentions but may be too little too late. Your elevator pitch was very fast and it was difficult to discern what the product you are proposing is. The one-minute time limit was definitely the hardest part of this assignment. It seemed as though you attempted to fit everything in within this time frame but you may have been better off just sticking to a few key points and slowing down your narration. For the elevator pitch, we need to remember that less is more. Although I think your product is something moms would buy for their children, I do not see school districts adopting it and would not invest for the following reasons.
1) Production costs – To produce a whole new tablet specific for child use would require an astronomical amount of money.
2) Competitors – The tablet market is highly competitive and there really isn’t much room for newcomers. If this device offered something different than other products it could have a chance. However, it does not offer anything specific that other tablets can’t do already and also restricts other features that mom or dad may want to use.
3) Users – I understand that this product attempts to fill a specific niche within the tablet market. I feel that this niche is very specific and way too small to justify the huge startup costs it would take to get it to market. I do not see high school or post secondary students using this device so it becomes restricted to early childhood years.
On a positive note, it is durable and half the cost of the competitors ($250 price range). I would purchase it for my 3 year old to play with but can’t see it as an investment that would yield substantial returns.
Thanks,
Manny
Hi Nureen,
I found your elevator pitch to be packed full of information! I did however have a hard time collecting all of the information the first time through. Perhaps limiting the amount of information and focusing on the key points in your elevator pitch would have allowed me to retain more information as I was a little bit overwhelmed. That said, this is a good learning experience for me as I have had similar issues in the past as well and sometimes have a hard time with the less is more approach. Overall, this seems like a very good idea and something that I would want to use in my own classroom. I was just having a discussion with my students today about the tablet that I use to teach with and how I would like to be able to have a tablet for each one of them to use that is linked to mine. WIth that said, the tablet market is saturated with devices. I would not invest in you venture because there are too many large company competitors that could easily (and I think probably will shortly) create education-specific tablets. Additionally, although $250 is mid-range, this is a device that I think a lot of schools would hesitate purchasing due to the high quantity that they would need, which would be very expensive.
Overall, I thought that you did a great job of your pitches and that they were both very informative and hit the major points.
Jhodi
Hi Nureen,
Although I can tell you are very enthusiastic about your pitch, I found it impossible to understand what you were saying as it is just too fast for my mind to process. I would need to download your pitch, put it in VLC and then slow down the playback speed to a more human speed. 🙂 I understand that you were trying to maximize your elevator pitch but sometimes less is more and that would be my only real recommendation at this point. I have faith in you but I’m just not sure what you’re pitching.
Hi Nureen,
I thought you did a really good job on your pitches. Especially your elevator pitch. There was a lot of information packed into that minute and although some may find that it is too much to take in a such a great in such in a short time, I thought it was a great idea to make it a fast pitch. People are busy and can’t afford to spend extra time in listening to a pitch that they might not be intersted in, thus wasting a couple of minutes. I think the way you did your quick elevator pitch, really got the information across without wasting time. It was straight business!
Good work
Hi Nureen,
You have a good idea but I too think a little late given the market is saturated with tablets and the implementation of BYOD might also impact the success of this venture. I do appreciate how your tablet with be tailored better to the educational environment but I wonder with all the software programs and learning management platforms can this be addressed. Your elevator pitch address all the components of a pitch but was difficult to follow because you spoke so fast, I am confident a slower version would be exceptional. The prezi presentation was also well done but I believe you could have made your pitch with less information.
Catherine
My fictitious venture is for an integrated system to easily capture & manage portfolio evidence for early learning classrooms and generate portfolios of student development. As I’ve described in my relections section, I’d love to see this actual product. The elevator pitch is below, and you can find both it and my website venture […]
Continue reading Early Learning Portfolios Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Hi Peggy ~ I have a genuine interest in this area as well – as evidenced by my venture pitches. Your elevator pitch was great and has me hooked. I am going to follow the link now to your venture pitch. Best, Jen
Peggy, I really liked the elevator pitch and supplemental information on your website. Like Jen, I would be interested in knowing more about this initiative if this were to be pursued seriously. Fictitiously, I would be interested to invest although I wonder how much investment is required… Did you come up with any investment figures and how could investors re-coup their investment?
Thanks Ranvir. I am definitely not a money person, and was very happy when David posted his comment that we could forgo concerns about the $$ aspect. Completely mandatory for a real venture pitch I know, but for me I simply would not have have the tme, or knowledge, to do anything better than make up numbers. But for the sake of making this more of a real simulation, I can see how even pretend numbers would have been a good addition. Thanks for the suggestion!
I am going to base my feedback on what we saw in week 3 regarding the content of a venture pitch(Perfecting Your Pitch).
1. Pain Point: the market gap or problem the venture is addressing.
I think the problem your venture solves gets a bit lost. It’s a valid and real problem, which if emphasized, I’m sure would capture investors attention.
2. Solution: the new product or service that resolves the pain. Excellent and well presented
3. Differentiation: the reason someone will buy or use this new product or service, versus the alternatives.
It is very clear why people would buy it, but not so much how it is different from what is out there; probably because there isn’t anything else out there like this, but then this is worth mentioning.
4. Marketing: where and how buyers/users will be reached.
This is not as clear. An important thing to keep in mind here is that the person who perhaps needs this product the most and will be the end user, the teacher, won’t be the buyer; the buyers are the school boards and its they who have to be convinced that there’s a need for this product.
5. Championship: the competency of the venture’s leaders and advisors.
Excellent
6. Competition: an overview of competitors and partners;
Not mentioned
7. The Ask: how much money, etc, is required to take the next step
Not asked
8. The Return: how much and how soon will an investor be recompensed.
Not mentioned
9. The Message – clear and to the point
Overall a very well presented venture and one I feel could interest investors. Excellent work. Well done Peggy.
Thanks for the feedback adelpaso. You’re right about the missing points. Some of these I touched on in my reflections of strengths and weaknesses, found by following the link to the subpage found at the bottom of the website home page. I think the absense of marketing is a real weakness here. I had some marketing plans in my head, but didn’t get them down into the plan.
I appreciate the time you took to go through the venture. I found it a tough project – a way of thinking quite different from what I’m used to!
CEO & Team:
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.
After viewing the Elevator Pitch, and reading through the venture pitch for EL Portfolios, it is clear that the CEO is not only confident in their product, understands the market and the role this product will play within it, but appears to be high capable and passionate to take this project from start-up to essential classroom resource. As a potential investor, I would want more information focussing on the overall team, to ensure my money was going to be properly used. Regardless of this slight concern, I believe this CEO would only surround themselves with the best.
Venture Concept:
Even though the idea of portfolios, and even electronic portfolios is not a new idea, that is beyond the point, as EL Portfolio’s has not only taken an existing idea and made it feasible for today’s classrooms and technology, but has made an easy to use assessment tool, that enhances learning for students, teachers and even parents. This venture is further strengthened by the solid research that has been completed to not only understand the market, but capitalize on the areas of weakness currently recognized within the educational system. Overall, this venture pitch not only does a good job of telling a story, but does a great job of wanting this product to exist… now!
Marketability:
The actual marketability of this venture was not provided at this time, leaving potential investors wondering about this ventures true market size, potential share, and overall need within the current educational system, making this venture a more than moderate risk. As for innovative advantages, EL Portfolio’s does a great job of maximizing the current capabilities of technology to provide video/picture/audio artifacts for a students assessment, which is combined with rubrics to utilize and potentially linked to specific learner outcomes. While no information is provided about intellectual property rights or copyrights, this would need to explored to ensure that market share this company gathers would not be eroded by copycat competitors.
Venture Plan:
At this time, no specific information has been provided about potential timelines, or product readiness, information that is essential to ensure that this market can be capitalized on quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, EL Portfolios, have done a more than professional job at examining and understanding the potential legal issues with this approach, and have created solutions for each, a situation that allows investors to focus on the product, not the potential lawsuits.
Thanks for the thorough analysis Tom. You’re right about those missing pieces. Were I to move forward, those would definitely have to get put into place. As a new experience – preparing pitches – there really is a learning curve. Even when you know in advance what all should be present, it seemed all to easy for me to miss assembling everything together. I appreciate your well-written analysis and suggestions.
I think your idea is absolutely sound. There are a lot of similar products out there for purely social media purposes but I haven’t seen anything quite like this. As someone who is pretty familiar with the technologies involved, I can easily imagine how it would work and what would be required to get it off the ground. I’m afraid though that I may be filling in a lot of the blanks on my own. The way that I am imagining it is something like a Facebook or Instagram or even Delicious app. You take a picture or record a bit of video or audio, then as you tag it, it gets added to that student’s blog automatically. Allowing us to see what the portfolio (probably like a timeline) would look like would have been a powerful addition.
But as an early childhood educator, I would want to know more about this product and if what I am picturing in my head is right, I would be very likely buy into it if the price was right.
I want to add that doing this as a website was a good match for the product. For every potential buyer or investor, there may be just as many different reasons to be attracted to the product or the company. It’s good that we can come back to it and work through the material as we like.
Hi,
I think you did a great job on both your pitch an analysis. I found it a little hard to hear what your were saying in the pitch because the music was slightly distracting. I would suggest reducing the volume of the music slightly. I found that your enthusiasm, knowledge about the product and belief in the product was an asset to your project. I was drawn in just by watching the pitch and was interest in going on to read more about it. I think you could have addressed the market a little bit more but other than that this is a very sound venture.
Thanks for all your hard work and work sharing you idea. There is definitely a need for this is the in market.
Nureen
Hi Peggy:
I loved your elevator pitch with your enthusiasm, facts and background music. This got me excited and interested in the product as a buyer, however maybe not so interested as an investor…. But it did catch my interest to look further.
The venture pitch concept is brilliant; structured like an e-portfolio, the product of interest. I like the tabs set up relating to the product and investment. I wonder with this structure if it could be reorganized by the four areas that EVA’s care about: CEO and Team, Venture Concept, Marketability and venture plan.
As you mentioned the $ side is hard to create without a background in this area. If you had created some numbers and used them without meaning then this might generate questions that you really could not answer.
As an investor, I am interested as e-portfolios are an interest of mine and I see great potential here. So if we were going to take this further then I would say – lets talk!
Doug.
Hi Peggy,
Your elevator pitch has a good hook.
Here is my analysis on your venture pitch using the guidelines found in section 2.7 of our course blog – Deconstructing a pitch:
Early Learning Portfolios: The Content
Pain Point:
Good research information here. I would suggest including Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory in this section to explain why the “early” aspect of your product is important, and use this information to differentiate your product from its competitors.
Solution:
Questions: What would the implementation of the product look like? What is the role of the teacher? Would the teacher be spending most of her time documenting student progress with a mobile device while students do their work as opposed to providing support to help students overcome their challenges? Can the product allow students to document their own progress using their own devices as opposed to the teacher being the one doing the documentation? Where would the documented information be stored? How would student privacy be addressed? How will you be partnering with NAEYC to provide you with the rubric for your product?
The addition of learning analytics technology such as Knewton’s Adaptive Learning Platform would enhance your product’s applicability in education.
Differentiation: I was unable to locate information on your website about how your product differs from its competitors such as WordPress, Moodle, etc.
Marketing: I was unable to find the information which identifies the target market. Will your customers be the teachers or school districts? What will you do so that your product reaches the customers? The inclusion of these information would redirect your pitch to the investors as opposed to the customers.
Championship: The “About us” page is well-written. The provision of positions that need to be filled to satisfactorily put your product on the market would enhance the viability of your pitch.
Competition: I was unable to locate information about the competition and the necessary partners (other than NAEYC) on your website.
The Ask & Return: These are not identified in the pitch.
Thanks for a well-presented pitch!
James
Hi Peggy,
Well done on both the elevator and venture pitch. Funny that we both were thinking portfolios for this assignment! Your pitch was engaging and I could envision how I would use your product in the classroom, which as a potential investor I feel is important. You did well to speak to the need of having a system which is easy for teachers to use and portfolios can be fairly burdensome. Content tagging and automatic cataloging are great features to build in! You also did a good job of explaining your background and credibility.
As others have mentioned, you have not fully addressed who your market is (neither did I ;)), which investors would want to know about. Aside from this, it appears to me to be a very solid venture and I would be interested in investing.
Hi Peggy,
I love you elevator pitch! It is great, totally engaging and identifies a pain point and solution and made me curious to go learn some more about your venture via the venture pitch. In fact to be honest I think I was even sold on the product without having to go to the second pitch (website).
I think I too (like Ben mentions above) understand a bit how this could be created and have skipped ahead and filled in some of the missing gaps other have already pointed out you have for marketing and investments etc.
You are a credible, knowledgeable and passionate founder and president who seems to have a great grasp of the product you want to create and have done the research to back it up. I believe you present a very marketable product (especially going by class feedback on the idea of ePortfolios in general over the course of ETEC522). As an EVA investor I would want to do some basic market research and competitor analysis before making an investment decision. However, I am sure this is on the right track and that this venture would be a great potential investment opportunity.
Thanks
Melissa
Hi Peggy,
You have a great elevator pitch and a professional looking website. Some more information on the marketing would have made this complete.
Cheers
Patason
Hi Peggy,
Great elevator pitch. Your presentation came across as professional and you came across as a passionate champion that identified your product, problem and solution. Your website was very clean. I found that it appealed to me more as a user – teacher – than as an investor. I found that:
Pain Point and Solution: These was real, clearly stated and one with which many educators relate.
Differentiation/Competition: The venture proposition was weakened by a lack of information on the market in terms of competition, positioning, barriers/ease of entry.
Market/marketing: The target was clearly identified but there was an absence of a marketing plan/strategies.
Ask and Return: These were not clearly stated.
The Team: Investors are interested in the skill set and abilities of the CEO and team to drive a start-up business to success. The information on the CEO revealed a very qualified visionary and champion. I would have loved to see information on other members of the team.
Overall a good presentation.
Sophia
Thank you all for your excellent suggestions. I’ve gone back to drawing board and made some changes to the venture pitch, based on your suggestions, most importantly adding information on my marketing strategy and a smaller section on “The Ask” (on the “Why Invest” page). I believe I did read in some course instructions somewhere that we were encouraged to take your suggestions into consideration for our final version?
Skoolbo is an interactive game that is targeted at K-7 students to improve their core literacy and mathematical skills. Skoolbo has been built for student use with its easy to navigate menus and enjoyable plot. With the use of exciting mini games, Skoolbo is sure to be a hit in a classroom, at home or […]
Continue reading Skoolbo is an interactive game that is t… Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Hi Jonathan,
Your elevator pitch video is still private and also I can’t open your longer version neither. Looking forward to view them 🙂
Same here. I’m quite looking forward to learning about Skoolbo!
I was dying to hear more about the enjoyable plot of this venture Jonathan.
I am having the same problems as Paula and Peggy.
Skool booo to it not working as I enjoy a good interactive game!!!!
Oh no. My apologies. I will make sure it is opened up. I think I have been pretty confused with all of the settings. It should be up now. Sorry it took so long!
Elevator pitch looks great Jonathan – you had me looking forward to the venture pitch, but I’m afraid the link to that isn’t working.
Hi Jonathan,
The idea of video gaming in education is an exciting phenomenon that I am sure will spark some interesting debates as its implementation progresses. I was unable to open your venture pitch but your elevator pitch was really well done and provided a great overview. My only concern is that you offer 20 free hours of game play to new members as a way to entice them into signing up. I thought that this may have been too much time and would turn an investor off as revenues would take a hit with that model.
Hi Manny —
Upon further thought, I think I would have to agree with you. Skoolbo itself is already in existence and I have a feeling that their current model of providing the game for free is probably the way to go. I was looking for an active way to interest investors (but I may have done the opposite).
If I were to revise the project, I may keep the game free and look to the value added projects (ie. digital books, teacher resources) for more revenue.
Thanks for the feedback Manny.
My apologies for not having the extended version working (I’ve been playing with the links endlessly..)
Hi Jonathan,
I really like your idea. I think the gamification of education is a great tool to leverage to increase engagement. I’ve only viewed your elevator pitch and am not able to access your venture pitch.
Hi Jonathan,
I also agree with many of the others in terms of the excitement generated by using games to teach. The concept is interesting but I wasn’t quite sure that giving 20 hours was quite right. I know quite a few games that I barely make to 20 so you’re pretty giving users all the usage they want out of it and then they may just opt to put it aside feeling as though they barely have anything left to gain out of it. I’d likely say that 5-10 hours is more than sufficient to determine the viability of a product and whether it deserves my hard earned dollars. Anything more is just a bonus in my end. As such, I likely would shy away from investing but would likely follow the venture to see where it leads.
Thanks for your feedback Patrick.
I was trying to figure out how I could increase revenue, but as I think about it more — developing the core product is really important. As I was mentioning to Manny, I think the way to go is to leave the game free. I hear what you say about 5-10 hours and shortening the game — but with the 20 hours I wanted to give enough opportunity for both teachers and students to try it out. Either way, upon some reflection, I feel that a hard cut off would be a turn off to educators and students. As I mentioned in a response to Manny — I think building upon the core product would be important to ensure that students continue to return.
Thank you for your feedback!
I’ve had a lot of difficulties posting up both my Youtube and my documents. I hope it works now, although I’m thinking that it is too late. Thank you all for trying to view my submission.
Hi,
I think that you have done a great job creating an elevator pitch that is simple and provides key points of interest for me to want to further explore your venture. I, like others, was a little surprised by the 20 hours of free gaming to start as I feel like that is a lot and students may lose interest after that or if a school uses it, 20 hours may be enough time to use it without actually paying for it. I would probably shorten it to 5 so that they can get a feeling for it, but not get to use it for the completion of a task.
Jhodi
20 hours is quite generous amount. The creators of Skoolbo actually have allowed this game to go for free. To me it isn’t clear how they are funded currently, but I do believe the way to go with content now is to provide a solid experience and monetize on products afterwards.
Build a product people can’t live without and then they will be happy to pay for it. Try before you buy, I feel is extremely important.
Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Jonathan –
Glad the tech issues were worked out with posting. I didn’t mind the wait and was happy to see your final product. I liked the quality and general content of the elevator pitch, but with so much competition in the educational gaming market today I didn’t really get enough in the brief pitch to sell me I’m afraid. I caught the pain point, but felt the solution could have been expanded upon. I’d like to know more, right up front, about what you mean by intricate story lines – some quick examples perhaps, that are intended to keep the students engaged. So I would have some concerns regarding how you would stand apart from the competition. As a potential EVA, I would be interested in seeing what you’ve got for me once you’ve got some samples to show me.
Hi Peggy !
It’s interesting that you say you didn’t get a good sense of what the product was about. I remember right at the beginning of the course we were tasked with watching a lot of pitches and thinking the exact same thing.
As we headed into doing our own project, I remembered trying to balance out how much about the game I should talk about and how much about the general direction of the venture. It feels like a fine balance because we were definitely suppose to keep it towards the investors. But one could argue that the investors need to have a good idea of what is going on in the product. I have quite a few ideas about how to redo the pitch and I think it would have to include some gameplay. I may be crossing over into copyright issues though if I do this as it is a real product.
Thanks for your feedback, Peggy!
Welcome to KidConnect, an online learning program for young hospitalized patients in Canada. The goal of this venture is to bring learning, communication and entertainment to those in need. For a better look at what KidConnect offers, watch the elevator pitch below. As well, please keep in mind that although the pitch is delivered as […]
Continue reading KidConnect Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Nicely done Julie!
I tried uploading a video to this post using the instructions given in 4.1 Venture Forum Resources and I am having trouble. The instructions state to use the upload video icon from the menu, however I can’t see this specific icon. I tried to use the general Upload/Insert feature (the only option) but that only […]
Continue reading Help – Uploading a Video Posted in: General
Hi Doug,
I am having the same problem! Hopefully we will have an answer soon.
Julie
Hi Doug, Julie
One alternative could be to upload it to YouTube and then embed this in the post instead.
Thanks
Melissa
Hey Doug and Julie,
I uploaded to Vimeo, (similar to youtube), and then posted the links. You can choose to embed them if you wish, but it’s up to you. Hope this helps.
Joel
Thanks, I went with the You Tube option.
Doug.
Here is the A3 Elevator and Venture pitch: My venture focuses on a new kind of software that attempts to blend the lines between educational and entertainment software in an attempt to make the new hybrid genre more marketable to the regular gaming community. It’s focus is contextual relevance and it’s explained more in the […]
Continue reading A3 Elevator and Venture Posted in: General, Venture Forum
Hey Joel:
Both of these links take me to your school district access portal, what is the log in and password?
Doug.
Hi Joel,
The same thing happened to me when I tried.
Jen 🙂
Weird. Ok fixed now. Apologies
Joel, fair play it works now for me anyway.
Well done – Sound argument, well presented with a good idea.
I would definitely want to chat to you more about the background you and your team have and what other projects you have done to make sure that you have the ability to develop the ‘Context’ project. Also I would be interesting in learning about the revenue model for the product, would you be pitching it at an educational market or take on the games industry in the ‘real’ world?
It is an engaging and fascinating product you are pitching. I would be interested in being involved early once the development and revenue questions were as good as the concept.
Well done
Stuart
Thank you for the kind words Stu. It’s going to be pitched to both the gaming and educational industries actually because of the nature of software. Remember that what we are trying to accomplish hasn’t actually been done before and recently the gaming industry, like the movie business has become a little shy about producing anything that’s a possible risk. This is one reason that we have been recently inundated with sequels and horrible reboots in both genre’s. One of the inspirations for this software was Lumosity but after working with it I believed that the idea could be expanded and marketed in a different direction. Once I started looking into it, I realized that the product pitch had grown beyond the constraints of Lumosity and that we could really revolutionize the concept and subsequent genres.
As far as the revenue model is concerned, Kickstarter is a model that allows for small donations, usually enough to cover one instance of the software and if the company reaches a certain goal, they can then continue with production based on the promise of customer delivery once the software is finished. It has revolutionized multiple industries because it allows startups to engage the public with products that are deemed too risky for regular production.
Hi Joel,
I see tremendous potential in your venture in terms of education but I’m not 100% sure on the viability of producing an endless continuum of content without a strong user base. If you are tempted to pursue this venture, I might look at crowdsourcing content to establish a larger content repository for use with your platform. Ideally, you would want to create the tools and provide them to others to generate the content for you. I think something like Minecraft comes to mind. Still, I see a great idea, the right person to lead it with passion and drive and those are elements that would encourage me to ask additional questions to determine the viability of the venture. Good work!
Hi,
I think that you have an interesting concept here. I think that if you are able to do it, you could have a very high demand product. However, developing the content for such a project seems like a very large undertaking. I think that you seem like a very confident leader and have made very persuasive pitches.
Jhodi
@ Patrick,
I think that to garner interest in the product/project, we have to showcase the capability of the software first. In order to do that we need to create the three modules first and then approach the crowd sourcing with a later release after we have enough funding to develop user friendly development tools for user created content and modules.
On the rubric for A3 there is a component where it says we will be assessed on self evaluation. I am not sure if I missed something. Are we supposed to submit an evaluation with A3? Nureen
Continue reading A3 self evaluation Posted in: General, Questions & Answers, Week 12:
Hi Nureen,
I plan to add this section within my blog post beneath the links to my pitches. I believe David wants us to take a step back and critically evaluate our pitches, similar to what we did in Week Three. I hope I have been able to add some clarity. Take Care, Jen
I agree with Jen, it is something I missed in the first assignment, and do not plan on missing this time as well. I do not plan on putting it into my pitch, but it will be part of my overall project. Hope that provides some help.
Tom
A lot of people I’ve spoken to had trouble with it in the first assignment as I myself did. My “difficulty” section is placed into my pitch as part of the sale.
“Had Trouble With” is a really nice way of saying, I completely overlooked it in the rubric… stuff I give my students grief for… Oh well, maybe I should be more understanding in the future…
Tom
Hi Nureen,
From what I understand we are also supposed to be submit a self-reflection of our projects in addition to the elevator and venture pitch. I included mine at the end of my venture pitch, but I am sure there are other ways to do so.
Hope that helps!
Julie
Thanks for the clarification. 🙂
Nureen
It appears in my previous explorations of Second Life – coupled with my desire to remain anonymous while probably reading some Science Fiction about virtual worlds, and the possibilities of creating something beyond ourselves, not just a digital replica – I created the attached avatar. If memory serves me correct, I was going for proportions […]
Continue reading Hey I Had An Avatar Already Posted in: General
Hi Tom,
Great avatar and response. You might enjoy reading Dr. Sherry Turkle (I’m sure you have already done so), and her research about how people use avatars to express other sides of themselves. Your entry supports her suggestions very well.
I completely agree with you, I do not enjoy the upkeep. In fact, if you see my avatar in the video, you will notice that my skirt and tights are white. This was the default and after fiddling around, I realized that I am not so passionate about the look of my avatar, but much more what I can explore and potentially do in SL.
I think this would be an amazing art project, but I would say that I would not recommend it under 18 years (as that is the new minimum age of SL). Perhaps you can use another VR? Perhaps your students already have avatars?
As for the art project, I agree. There are other avenues – I tried Meez awhile ago – not sure it still exists. However, the value of the avatar might be gaining ground, for our school is exploring the use of Mathletics to assist our more struggling students, and the avatar is now a component on the student side.
Thoughts?
I fell short on this one, but only due to my reservations about this site. I’ve played some video games like this before and seen some not so pleasant things happen to people I know and, almost like a gambler avoiding Vegas (or Gamblor’s effects if you’re up on your Simpsons), I am unwilling to […]
Continue reading Rebecca’s Avatar Posted in: General, Week 12:
Hi Rebecca,
Your reservations about this kind of software are absolutely warranted. I have just begun playing around with some of its features and realized the addictive component built into it. Traditional video games have levels and an ending but this kind of game play (i.e. world of warcraft) only get more complex and addictive as you play. However, if it is designed correctly, I can see a lot of advantages in utilizing certain features for education.
Manny,
Agreed. I can see that there is massive potential there. “With great power comes great responsibility,” though, and I don’t know if I could encourage the use of this kind of virtual world in my own classroom, although I imagine in some cases it would be a good fit.
Hi Rebecca,
I do know of addictions to video games, which are very valid. However, did you have a chance to see the videos we posted? I think they speak to what Manny has pointed out – the very structured and innovative use of Second Life. I think it is important to consider the context we are presenting SL – within a highly structured assignment or curriculum. We are not suggesting that our cohort allow their students to randomly hang out in SL. We are asking them to consider entering a virtual classroom or guided tour of certain areas. This is an important distiction.
For example, in my experience, creating a Machinima video was a highly structured and educational activity. I only logged in to meet my classmates, scout locations and conduct our video.
I hope that the videos may inspire you to consider using SL in the ways that many other educators have done. What did you think of the SL educational applications?
Hi Eva,
Even though there are some fabulous ways to integrate it, and some very valid educational opportunities, I’m more concerned with the bigger moral implications. I don’t like where SL is going, it feels too much like “The Game” the Star Trek: Next Generation episode. Maybe it’s an irrational stand, which is very well could be, as at 28 years old I’m a seasoned gamer who has spent hours, days, weeks, months, and maybe even years playing games (though I do fall short of diaper-wearing to stay playing, I’ve pulled all-nighters and forgotten to eat). I guess I need to examine why I have such an emotional response to it, but thank you for sharing it as a good example of what can be done!
I agree with Rebecca on this one. Second Life has the potential to be Pandora’s Box. Great rewards with potential negative impacts. Prior to having my two daughters, I would often spend time playing video games of various nature but none were as time consuming as massive multiplayer online games. Although Second Life isn’t as much of a game as an online world, I still feel that it could be very addictive in nature and would never present it to my classrooms. For those who don’t remember, I teach a technology program that focuses on programming and technical support. The perfect type of student that could fall into a downward spiral of gaming addiction. I fully support gaming as an activity and still think it’s a valid educational tool but worry about certain types of escapism games such as Second Life.
I found editing my avatar impossible. I followed the instructions, then watched the video and right clicked on my avatar but nothing came up. I selected the clothing icon, clicked on several different things and hit save but nothing happened. I have never been a gamer – likely due to my lack […]
Continue reading Jen’s Avatar Posted in: General
Oh my goodness. Let me step out of student role for a second and say that your post here about winding up in the dark room and being stuck just made my day, I actually am near tears of laughter. I was feeling uncomfortable about the whole secondlife thing and actually did not download it to my computer, although I did create my avatar. Thank you for lightening the mood.
Thanks to you both for trying this exercise with a sense of humour. I recall that 2 years ago, when I attempted SL the first time, I was not even able to walk properly. It took time and watching videos to learn.
Jenn – I think your avatar looks good (even from the back)! You should be proud, as I think you manged well to build it. By the way, you would just have to view yourself from the front through the camera controls, to take a shot from the front. If you want to get out of the dark room, just go to destinations and teleport yourself out of there. You could try going to the USC campus, where we were in our video. However, don’t worry about the learning curve. I think you have done very well considering the obstacles.
Thank you for your engagement and participation in this week’s OER on Voice, Touch and Gesture. The points you contributed and the questions you posed not only challenged us to ask critical questions about our topic, but helped us further evaluate and refine our thinking about its future potential. We have seen voice, touch and […]
Continue reading Very big thanks from the Voice, Touch and Gesture team. Posted in: General
Advantages, Disadvantages and Future Potential Post your thoughts on the questions from the ‘Reflections’ section of the OLE site here.
Continue reading Week 12: INTERACTIVITY 3: CLOSING THE CIRCLE Posted in: General, Week 12:
My school board uses Desire2Learn as its main LMS. Most teachers that I have seen use D2L as a mode of delivering classroom notes and lectures to students that may miss a class or want to review a lesson. Very few teachers take advantage of all of the tools that could contribute to an OLE- calendar, dropbox, online quizzes, Elluminate, etc. The advantages that I see of OLE’s are its ability to encourage an independent learner and a collaborative, engaging online learning environment. Students seem to enjoy taking control of their own learning and a constructivist learning environment is designed to foster true understanding rather than rote memorization. Some disadvantages that I see are the potentially time-consuming nature of these projects for teachers to initially set up, which may be a negative factor. Creating an OLE could require minimum technology specifications that may not be available to all students.
Thanks for pointing out how many people are not fully using the tools available to them. I often feel this way myself when trying to incorporate new technology. I think the problem often comes down to training and time to learn. I see the many advantages of OLE and as you pointed out collaboration and learner control seem to be the biggest strengths. I thin kthe disadvantages come from teacher/student/parent adoption of these resources. Many perceptions will need to be changed to take advantage of the newer strategies. Some decision makers and parents may have a hard time with these approaches as they might be too far from the traditional approaches that they have become accustomed to. Time and training will be needed if educators really want to maximize the benefits of an OLE.
For me an I am finding that I am agreeing with Hannafin et al (1999, p. 139) as stated in question 2. There are too many technologies out there and the development of new technologies is definitely not slowing down. But then again I think that we as educators are looking for one system delivery to do everything for us. There should not be a catch all system for this because if there was then the complexity would have to be massive to incorporate all of the educational elements required. This then as a result would make it more complicated and more difficult to use.
I am starting to think that smaller bespoke technologies can provide excellent services to niche markets, still have a viable business model and be less time consuming for educators to develop.
These then could be able to integrate into a larger system if necessary.
This modular approach to learning technologies and delivery is the way education is delivered now, for example we dont see teachers being able to teach Maths, science, autocad and non linear editing. It just would not be practical. Why are we expecting a technology to be easy to set up and to do everything?
Great point regarding us wanting technology to do it all. Part of the problem is that that’s how it is often marketed; but yes, it is not easy to set up. One thing is the tool itself, that may be user friendly, but creating the appropriate learning content is another matter. As we say in Mexico ” Feed something peanuts, you get monkeys.” If we don’t want monkeys, we need to start ‘feeding’ these tools more than just peanuts! 🙂
1. As a teacher or student, have you come across situations where an OLE has or has not been used to its full potential?
I used Desire to Learn with my students for a few years but I did not have much success because I found students did not use the tool to its full capability. I would set up multiple functions in my shell for students but they either did not use them at all or used them on a very surface level. As a teacher, I found his to be very disappointing because there was so much potential to extend learning but I did not get a lot of buy-in from the students. I felt like I was putting in so much effort to customize this tool but not all the students were using what I was putting time and effort into. I did have some students who benefited a lot from this tool and in the end I think that is the main factor to focus on. Not all children will respond to tools in the same way but as long as it is impacting some students, it has worth. I know of many other situations in which D2L shells have been very successful. Hence, I do not think it is the tool. Sometimes it just depends on who you are working with. I want to try using this tool again because I feel like I may have very different results now that I am working with a different population of learners.
2. Hannafin et al (1999, p. 139) argue that there are too many resources out there, and given the growth in both technology and information, this trend will continue. They ask, “How can we not only make existing resources more available to support learning, but accommodate future developments in each? It seems unlikely that we will be able to maintain pace using resource-embedded designs.”
I disagree with the notion that there are too many tools out there. I think the more tools there are the better. Different tools appeal to different learners and help with differentiation. As the world changes, elements in our environment need to constantly change and adapt. Hence, educational tools also need to change and adapt in order to meet the needs of individuals in the changing society. It is definitely difficult keeping up with changing technology but the only way to do so is to make sure teachers are offered PD and resources to stay current and trained. Another crucial element would be BYOD. A lot of times the reason there is a lag with technology in educational institutions is because of a lack of funding. Many children already have the latest gadgets at home so it makes sense to allow them to bring these tools to school for educational purposes.
3. In your opinion, what are the advantages and disadvantages of OLEs and what is their future potential?
Some advantages of OLE’s:
Differentiation of content
– Improved access
Versatility
Student accommodation
Engagement of learners (students can relate to digital tools)
-Increased avenues for interaction
-Empowerment for all learners (Learners feel comfortable to share their thoughts)
-Efficient tracking and feedback capability
-Flexibility
OLE’s have some disadvantages such as:
– Teachers need to put in a lot of time and effort
-Students lack face-to face interaction
-Students may engage in off task or inappropriate activities
-Teachers need to be vigilant and mindful of interactions
-Parents may be concerned about their children using too much technology
I believe that OLE’s have a lot of potential in the future because they can cater to the needs of all types of learners and can make learning interactive. Education is moving more and more towards forms of distant learning. For example, they are talking about structuring High school in a different manner in Calgary. They want to allow student sot take courses in the time frame that suits them, to go and write computerized exams when they have completed their course and to complete a lot of this self-directed learning online. The vision is to make High school more of an independent leaning environment where students can choose to take course at their pace and through the means that suits them best. Students will still be able to go and receive instruction from a physical classroom but the majority of their learning will not be based in a formatted school setting. This example shows that the way learning is delivered is changing. Tools such as OLE’s are essential for learning to take place in this manner.
Nureen
Nureen,
As I sat down to write my reflections on OLE, I saw your post. You hit many of the points I wanted to make about the advantages and disadvantages of OLE.
I am interested to see how the high schools in Calgary fair with their new structuring system. I wonder if parents know and are on board with this change. As well, how will the computerized exams look like? All multiple choice? I know from putting exams on Moodle that it takes a lot of time and effort to now insert open or short answer questions onto an exam. Will this be their only assessment? What about students that are not motivated to work on their own? What role do teachers now play? If a student finishes a grade early, so they get to move onto the next one?
I’m not expecting you to know the answers, but if this was coming to my school district, I would have many questions that needed to be answered first.
Lisa
Thank you for your very detailed and thorough reply. I agree PD is the way to go, which is why my venture is geared towards that; granted, my one is for English Language Teachers, but local school boards need to start working in that direction. Teachers are often willing to continue their PD, but at the same time want to make the best of what little time they have, so some guidance I am sure would be welcome.
Your post promoted some interesting doubts that Lisa point out. I’m glad the topic of OLEs and what we’ve learned in this course has raised so many very valid questions. Often the people making decisions to implement technology are not necessarily the best equipped to do so properly. An online OLE is not simply about transporting what we would normally do f2f online. Designing a balanced and well structured OLE is a lot of work; keeping it working properly more so.
Thanks again for both your posts.
(ADVANCED EXERCISE) Post your journal entry about your experience exploring Second Life here and any ideas about how this landscape may lend itself to teaching, now or in the future. If you are a teacher, please give specific examples of how you would consider incorporating SL into your curriculum.
Continue reading Week 12: INTERACTIVITY 2B: EXPLORING SECOND LIFE Posted in: General, Week 12:
I spent some time walking, running, flying, driving, and teleporting around SL. I even made a couple of friends. I was pleased with the ease of navigating and moving around…although I didn’t figure out how to dance at one of the welcome centres. I found that by using the top picks for destinations I was able to see some interesting places. I enjoyed going into the art gallery and actually going into one of the paintings. It was interesting to see on the wall my username as Artist in Residence. (I have never held that title before 🙂 ).
While moving around and seeing how much detail has been added to some landmarks and the various museums available I could see using this as a makeshift field trip option. I will not be taking my students to The Globe in real life, but allowing them to explore the stage and wander around would be interesting. I am still a little unsure of how I would set this up. I could see some issues related to content, students being approached by other users, and maintaining a sense of control that I would want to ensure that my students were safe and protected. Are there ways to do this?
There are quite a few places in SecondLife that have replicas of monuments in there that you can use for a virtual field trip. Here are some links to a couple museums and things:
https://sites.google.com/site/secondlifeu/field-trip-assignment
Just Google it and you will see more. There is also an ‘international schools island’ that I think is still active where you can meet teachers and students and find out more.
On a different note, I once write a research paper on social presence theory and non-verbal cues in 3D virtual worlds. I got a lot of good stuff from a paper called ‘A microethnographic analysis of non-verbal cues in Second Life. The author just teleported to random locations in Second Life and would observe people’s behaviour. Interestingly enough, while most of the built-in gestures were ignored by more sophisticated users, positional or proxemic cues were pretty much the same as in real life. So, for example, two people (avatars) might be talking to one another with bodies slightly out-turned to encourage others to come in and join the conversation. Others might be closed, turned away to block others from joining in the conversation. Incidentally, this area of research is called ‘proxemics’ and it’s pretty interesting. Here’s the microethnography paper:
Thank you for your very thoughtful (and funny) response. I’m glad you had the chance to truly experience SL. I also saw your avatar picture (and your CAR!), which were great.
Second Life used to provide Teen Second Life, which was for certain age groups, however, it seems this no longer exists.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/second-life
However, you can buy or rent land that is for your class only. In other words, other users would not have access to this area. I completely understand that you would hesitate setting this up if you thought they would be exposed to anyone out there. Believe me, I have seen some scantly dressed avatars and would not feel comfortable letting anyone (of any age in a class) see.
Furthermore, SL has a classification system:
“Land in SL is marked either general or moderate or adult. Those ratings are something like the ratings used by the movie and television industries to denote the age-appropriateness of behavior, language and creations.”
Please read more here:
http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SecondLife/PGvsMatureSL.html
For example (as stated on the website above),
“General areas are free from sexually explicit language or behavior, swearing and other forms of aggressive language, violent behavior and imagery, and horrific materials.
General regions are areas where you’re free to say and do things that you would feel comfortable doing in front of your grandmother or a grade school class.
There are thousands of general areas in Second Life because adults often seek an experience free of moderate or adult content.
A region of Second Life may be general if it does not have content or activity that’s sexually explicit, violent or depicts nudity. Sexually-oriented objects may not be located or sold in general regions. ”
http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SecondLife/PGvsMatureSL.html
Thanks for the reply. I was not aware that you good buy “land” or space for your classroom. Are users then invited in once it is established? I did read a notice when I entered one of the rooms for new SL members. It posted a general disclaimer about what type of behaviour and dress was expected in that area.
Yes, you provide invitations. Some areas will simply not allow you, if there are those types of restrictions.
Eva – I am pleased to hear that you can limit access to areas for students. As an elementary school teacher those were my initial thoughts. I found the avatar choices to be somewhat sexual in nature. They reminded me of Barbie dolls with tiny waists, large chests, and long hair. I had hoped to be able to shorten my avatar’s hair but was unable to make this work. I did spend some time walking around and found this relatively easy to do but unlike Ken who found the space easy to use, I found myself quite confused and unsure of where I was and what I was supposed to do while in that space. This was a real turn off for me. I am an A-type personality who likes to know everything up front. I think I may have enjoyed this experience better had I watched the video on how to navigate in the space. I know that some students prefer to learn through exploring but I am not that type of learner. Given that when I teach in the classroom, I teach students under age seven, I don’t see myself incorporating this into my practice. Thinking of older students, I like Ken’s suggestion to use the program for a virtual classroom. I also think the program could be used to let students play and then use their experiences to spark a digital citizenship discussion. The topic of the freedom of anonymity could be a really interesting discussion.
This is how I felt initially too. The avatar that I chose in the initial step kept flicking her hair are moving around in a very sexual nature. As a high school teacher, I feel that young teenage girls are already in a stage where they are trying to figure these things out for themselves, and perhaps they do not need this as a role model. It seemed like all of the initial avatars were very beautiful and skinny. This does encourage students to filter information and things they find on the Internet, but not something that I would necessarily love to deal with as a classroom teacher. It could potentially distract from the learning process as teenagers love to debate both sides of topics such as these.
Just piggy backing on the current discussion…
I also found navigating around pretty straight forward. However, as I teleported around different places, the main thought going through my head was, “ok, this is cool, what do I do now?” Overall it was fun and engaging but I can’t see how I could use second life in its current state in my practice. If you are able to purchase separate rooms with restricted access, it may be possible to structure it in such a way that provides clarity and fluidity for student use. The question then becomes, how much time do we want to invest in the design phase of integrating this technology.
Hi Manny,
I think you are right, it is worth asking about how long it would take to design spaces. From our research of what others have done in SL and educuation, there is a significant time committment required for this type of work.
As for getting lost on your own after a while, it is true, it is critical to have a goal in SL for educational purposes. From our own learning experience as a group, SL was MUCH better to use when we were all together in a group. It was as if we met on campus and finally saw each other and could interact in real-time. It seemed much more gratifying than skype. In our case, we were collaborating on making a virtual film. However, if our teacher had instructed us to view different stations on the campus and discuss in Spanish (as one of the space was a Spanish course SIM), it would also have been very interesting and appropriate to learning Spanish. We wanted to create a time where people could all meet in the class, but decided against it, as we were afraid that the complexity of learning this in one week would work against the success.
Hi Jen, thanks for your reply and sharing your thoughts about using this with a younger audience. I can very much understand some of your reservations. A few things to keep in mind are, that it takes time to get used to SL. When I first used SL a few years ago, I was so frustrated that I stopped using it for a few years! Second, you can curate a highly structured experience for students within a space in SL. Did you get a chance to see the video of Sloodle? In no way are we suggesting that this would be easy to implement or even appropriate for all age groups, (likely better for more mature students), but from our research we felt that there were many professors doing some amazing work in SL to create rich experiences. I would say, similar to what one of the nursing students said in our Duke University video said, going to campus is still her #1 way to interact, but SL is the next best option. Other videos also make the case that one should use SL for things that are impossible in real life.
As for the look of your avatar – I do think you can completely change the look of your hair to shorter. Since you can have an avatar that is not even in a human form, rather in animal forms, I think you could eliminate the sexualized element of the avatars. if you noticed, our avatars in our intro video were dressed somewhat professionally. For example, Adriana’s avatar was wearing a blazer. In the Duke University video it also depicts the professor in a professional outfit. It is just a matter of customizing the avatar. I do agree, that the initial options are somewhat Barbie-like.
It is important to note that SL, as your feedback indicates, is used by a wide range of users, and perhaps a greater ‘protection’ of educational areas would be important in the evolution of education in SL.
Thanks for trying, despite the difficulties and also for sharing your thoughts.
As I have explored Second Life in the past for my personal and potential classroom learning, I always struggled with where the technology was, and where our thinking the technology could take us.
I agree with others, that the potential for this environment is huge – be it science experiments – doing that which safety regulations no longer allow us to do, or are physically impossible, shrink down to the size cells or molecules, or travel the universe. In History/Social Studies – visit historic sites in their prime, or partake in famous battles, etc…
And because of these thoughts, I was reminded of the following book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Player_One
A reality where education is facilitated through a virtual environment, where education can happen regardless of budget concerns, or even safety. Where the technology facilitates any pedagogy, not limits it.
For me, when this day occurs, we will have truly created a virtual open learning environment, that could meet the needs of each kid, providing extensions and remedial work as necessary, quickly and easily.
Thoughts?
Thank you, Tom, for your visionary response. I get the sense from your response that you see what virtual reality can bring to education. I like your descriptions of shrinking down to cell size. I know that this would impact scientific learning in a revolutionary way.
Thank you also for the book reference. I have not read it, but now I will. I read the synopsis and it is very much related to this topic. Perhaps how Blandrunner is realted to AI.
I am glad you bring up budget, as this is truly one of the most limiting factors in education these days. Furthermore, the physical boundaries that exist will be elimited to some degree. For example, my thesis work will research how we can teach film production online. This would normally be unheard of, however, through the process of Machinima (filming in Second Life), we can offer almost all lessons related to filmmaking, online for anyone at a distance, and for a fraction of the cost (essentially, almost free compared to thousands of dollars in the traditional form). There are of course cons to every new technology (such as access, broadband, risks of VR, etc), but I believe the potential of virtual worlds in the context of education far outweight the drawbacks.
I am interested in your last statement, about providing remedial work. This reminds me of the NYC school (school of one?) that we were introduced to a few weeks ago. Are you perhaps saying that whatever virtual schooling we conduct can be structured in a similar way?
Thansk for your excitment.
Hi Eva,
It’s been fun creating an Avatar and playing around in Second Life.
It might still be too early for me to speak of the learning potential of this OLE as the Noob that I am to SL. I agree with Tom and others that it shows promise for Research and other creative projects.
So far however, I do not see how it provides a significant advantage over something like Moodle on its own and other MOOCs projects. I’ve looked at the Sloodle presentation online for example, and there seem some interesting possibilities in scaffolded learning, role-play, and co-creation. But these also come with significant time commitments to this environment, and whether and how much there is to take away from the ultimate experience – anecdotes of meeting the love of your life on SL etc, not withstanding – remains to be seen. Lmk if you have any thoughts and cheers!
I actually had a pretty hard time with this activity. Setting up my account and choosing and initial Avatar was fine but once I got into Second Life, I had lots of issues. It took me a very long time to change my avatar because the loading times were very slow. I was getting purple and pink shadow that were blocking out most of my screen. I tried teleporting to different areas but the shadows would not go away and this made it difficult for me to see what was in my surrounding.
While watching all the videos this week I started warming up to this type of virtual learning because I began to think about all the possibilities. I really liked that students could actually visit places and experience what they were like rather than just reading about them or seeing pictures. However, I have to say that there would be a lot of frustration and loss of interest if my students had to go through the same issues as I did.
Overall, this was an interesting experience and I really did learn a lot. I am sure it will get easier for me with more exploration and I may not have the shadows if I try using a different device.
I think I would use the exploration capabilities of this tool to help my Social Studies class to gain an in depth understanding of places we are studying. This way they can actually immerse themselves in the surrounds, artifacts and culture of the place they are studying.
Nureen
Hi Nureen,
Thanks for your posting. As for the slow times of loading, this is a common issue with SL. It simply requires a fast connection and there is little way around it.
I’m glad, despite the issues, you were able to see the potential of SL. I think, as many have experienced technical issues, SL requires a very extensive introduction by any professor. However, once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are endless. I like your idea of using SL for a social studies lessons.It is important to remember that SL is for 18+ at this point. However, you could curate a tour and even have your own spaces that are limited, where other avatars (uninvited) cannot enter. Once you have this set up, it would be a very engaging way to navigate spaces that you are referring to in your class (even if it is you at the front of the class or allow other students to take over).
Thanks for your point of view.
Exploring second life is not natural with the mouse keyboard functionality – but then I saw the suggestion of the 3D mouse and that has opened up a whole new world for me. I would definitely think that using that interaction would be more natural and become almost instinctive.
At 299 dollars Santa would want to be really nice this year. Fingers crossed
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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 🙂