Me again. David, is there a way to add a more descriptive title for each of the weekly presentations? In the “Discussion” menu, each week is just identified by a week number. I’ll admit I haven’t really played around & explored to see if this is something we could add ourselves, but it would be […]
Continue reading Weekly Descriptions Posted in: General
From the research that I have been doing in this, and other, classes, combined with the information that has been presented by the BC government this year, I can actually see the potential for a massive shift in learning in the next 5 years. I imagine that cloud computing will be a big part of this […]
Continue reading Week 6: Last Activity Posted in: General, Week 06: More great stuff on your Advantages page! I’m curious about your decision to include so much about iPads. No doubt as to their benefits, and the video highlighting autistic and other special needs children was very powerful. But many of the apps highlighted are actually resident on the iPad once downloaded & installed I suspect, rather […]
Continue reading Week 6: Cloud Learning – Advantages Posted in: General
Hi Peggy, I agree that many of the apps that we install these days can be run locally without an internet connection. Though I do believe that cloud computing in general will be a necessity for mobile learning. Many software developers want to move to a system where you log in to their server to use an application. Students can pick up an iPad at school or log on to their computer at home an their information will be downloaded. The video didn’t do a good job of relating this aspect of Mobile learning.
Hi Peggy,
Thanks for your comments and getting the ball rolling this week. Next month my class is going to receive a set of iPads for two months. Although my students will be working on many apps that reside on the iPad itself, once their projects are complete we will be using the share button to access the cloud and transfer their digital media to blogs (which I am calling their EPortfolios). So in this respect, cloud computing becomes necessary with the iPads to save student work. I think this is going to become more common as schools tend to be sharing iPads among several students. Therein lays another privacy problem where students have access to each other’s work.
This is an excellent discussion on use of iPads for project work and then transferring, sharing it on the cloud! Students would be able to progressively develop an ePortfolio as they move on to higher classes.
Jen – Would you mind sharing how the “share” button might work?
Hi Ranvir,
The share button is located right on many apps. It allows you share the digital media that you have created to either your facebook account, twitter or email it to yourself. I plan to have my students email it to themselves and then they can move their projects onto their personal blogs.
I haven’t yet looked at the ‘limitations’ section; however, though I know security is an issue, there are clearly lots of advantages for using cloud computing. In developing countries the cost benefit factor is key, including the savings on energy bills, and making fewer trips thank to online collaboration. I can see how these factors could be of great benefit for school districts or educational boards short on resources and money. This idea of ‘pay as you go’, is also better than spending thousands of dollars on software and applications that soon become obsolete. I think more money should be spent on finding solutions for the security issue; it’s well worth it given the many benefits of cloud computing. (Ben in this group’s blog makes some useful suggestions of how to avoid having problems with security.
I understand the value of the pay-as-you go model, but are educational institutions and classrooms ready for that? As individuals we see the benefit, but a district has significant issues that may impede or hamper this or any adoption.
For example, I have been pushing Google Docs in our district for nearly 3 years, we are now just starting to explore what it might look like, and it is free. Secondly, sometimes tech budget dollars are tied to the purchasing of specific software only, which does not allow other, and maybe more beneficial software from being purchased.
Thoughts?
I made an app for the secondary school ussing AppMakr that I work at. I figured it would be a useful contribution for the parents and teachers who worked there to have direct access to the school and it’s announcements since most students and parents spend more time on their phones then computers. The RSS […]
Continue reading WVSS app Posted in: General
I hope you don’t mind but I’ve noticed that a few of us in the group have young children and so I thought I’d share a couple of apps that my kids love and that I find to be of high quality. One is NFBPixstop which is a FREE app created by the National […]
Continue reading Excellent Creative Learning Apps Posted in: General
Thank you for the ideas. I know my kids will love these! I am also trying to think of how I could use the first one in my class.
My own children use my iPad quite extensively, some for games – Angry Birds… But sometimes for various learning activities – I find the new “game” Bade Piggies an excellent game, but problem solving challenge as well. They also love the puzzle apps, and especially a book series called Deskplorers… As they need to understand the story plot, and solve problems to progress the plot.
Love the animation app here. I would use this with film students, not just young kids. I used to take my students to the NFB to create claymation PSAs. Now I can have them do this in-class. Film students will take this app to a whole new level. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing those apps Jen, I love the toontastic one – its a really great example of how technology can change the way learners learn. Being able to easily bring their stories to life with animation instead of just using the more traditional text and images is a great benefit/advancement I believe and no doubt a lot more fun.
Great suggestion Jen. I’ve tried this one in my classes and the kids loved its simplicity and immediate results. Plus you can’t beat the free price 🙂
I haven’t let my 13 month old use my phone yet but I’m sure it’ll just be a matter of time. I’ve heard that PBS kids has some good educational apps. Jen – the video your daughter made is so cute.
Global School Net [picture pending/ my Internet connection keeps on freezing] Though the Global School Net web page mentions two founders, Yvonne Maria Andres and Al Rogers, it could be said that the original concept of connecting schools for online projects was Yvonne’s back in 1984. Like a good entrepreneur, Yvonne partnered up with Al […]
Continue reading Embracing change over the years Posted in: General
Co-Founders: Nicholas Borg and Jeff O’Hara Venture: Edmodo Photo source: Xconomy Edmodo is an educational microblogging site which affords students and teachers to collaborate in a private environment. It was co-founded in 2008 by Nic Borg (CEO) and Jeff O’Hara (Co-owner) as a means to incorporate a social media element to mainstream education, while nonetheless […]
Continue reading Edmodo Posted in: General, Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
I have personally used Edmodo for years in my class, and love the mobile app as well. I am aware that Edmodo provides more sophisticated services for a fee, but was unaware that they are a for-profit venture.
With that in mind, I also wonder how the potential inclusion of a more sophisticated fee structure, or advertising might influence those 8 million plus users…
Thoughts?
Edmodo seems to be right on the button of taking Social Media into schools and using it as a driving vehicle to leverage technology to provide education for the 21st century classroom.
In fact, I am curious as to whether our class, or for that matter any class could be taught through the use of Edmodo as the underlying technological platform facilitating online content delivery, social interaction, and tracking.
Tom, do you think that for example, you could use Edmodo to deliver a financial literacy module for your class, using content that is already available online? Any shortcomings to using such an approach, and suggestions on how they could be overcome?
My two risk concerns for this venture are 1) Whether social media moguls such as FB or Google Plus could create spinoffs to outcompete Edmodo, if Edmodo’s success grabs their attention and they decide to enter education technology. 2) I’m dubious about marketing/advertisement as revenue sources for educational products. Mainly because learning requires focus, and advertising disrupts it.
As for the founders Jeff and Nicholas, they’re clearly doing somethings right as their venture is gaining in prestige and popularity. Whether they have the right stuff to go from entrepreneur to CEO remains to be seen.
So far, so good..
I also wonder if Google+ has the potential to steal Edmodo’s userbase. Apparently, Google Apps has 40 million active users and is used in 61 of the top 100 schools (I just plucked that off the Internet, it came from a report in US News & World Report) but they only rolled Google+ into it less than a year ago. With tons more schools preparing to move over to GApps (like mine) it seems silly not to use it. While Edmodo does include all sorts of assessment and tracking tools, for example, you can make your own quizzes and so on, you can do a lot of the same things without much more difficulty using google forms. I believe there is a lot of potential for social networks in the classroom for sure. I set up a social network for our grade 5 classes about 5 years ago using an open source product called Elgg. Even after the novelty wore off, the kids were still on there all the time and using it for things I had never imagined–creating discussion groups to share their passions for horses and LEGO and all sorts of stuff. But today, the kids ant my school are divided between a whole punch of overlapping software, Weebly, the school blogging platform, Managebac, the school unit planner, WCBS, the school gradebook, FirstClass, the school email system and then their own stuff on Facebook and all the rest. A move to a single platform like Google Apps will reduce the hassle of multiple sign-ons in a big way and make it way easier for them to keep track of their online world. I could never sell Edmodo in a situation like this and I bet that’s the same in a lot of places.
Interesting inquiry. Our school actually uses many of the embedded features within Edmodo to instruct our students in Information Technology, through the use of this social platform, we instruct students how to be proper within online environments, as well as managing an entire class with no physical paper. We have been quite successful with this approach.
Currently, our school is looking at many options for an online learning environment. I have recently posted about Schoology as another one of these LMS’s that seems to have grown out of necessity to have ‘one stop shopping’. Teachers are looking for it all when it comes to online class management and collaboration tools, and the ability to not only view paperless student work but to comment on it, grade it and access it anywhere.
The Facebook feel of both Edmodo and Schoology is what concerns me the most, as many parents have voiced concerns in our school over the use of Facebook and sharing student files in the cloud.
It is all a learning opportunity, and as Tom put it, we can embed information into these platforms to help alleviate the concern and proactively promote positive online behaviours.
Hi there,
I personally loved using Edmodo. I had tried Twiducate before that and like most of it…but it was incredibly slow. I was cautioned though through discussion with the Department of Education in my province. They were concerned about the content being hosted outside of our own servers. They said that we could continue to use it as long as there was no identifiable information anywhere on the site. Not even the school’s or my name. They were also concerned about the intellectual content stored there. Reading through the information it seemed as though the authors would be protected. However, the concern was if the company was bought out or shut down…what would then happen with those resources. Good questions to consider.
Ken
The privacy issue is indeed a sensitive one. It is interesting that working in the public system last year I would not have been able to use Edmodo, but now being in the private system it is permitted with some stipulations (close reading and disclosure of the terms of service is a big part of the solution). I wonder how many schools are currently looking for LMSs and running into this problem… does this favour the use of Moodle and others which can be stored locally? There’s a segment of the market that Edmodo can’t tap into.
Just launched: Google for Entrepreneurs Here’s an article about it: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-supports-startups-launch-google-entrepreneurs-updates/
Continue reading Google for Entrepreneurs Posted in: General
Thanks for sharing this, Ben –
In every sector, not just digital, companies are finding it more and more difficult to innovate internally. The number of processes, events, incentives, etc, that companies are inventing to try to ramp up internally-generated innovative ideas is quite amazing. Google in particular has given its employees enormous creative freedoms to pursue new ideas on company time. However, it doesn’t seem to be enough to allow companies to be competitive. The demise of Google Labs is one indicator of this for me.
What’s the problem? The way I see it is that with global competitiveness the proverbial “low hanging fruit” in every sector is long gone. That means companies need to reach higher (for example, do lots of advanced R&D in pre-competitive technologies) and reach wider (for example, bring on experts and projects intersecting many different fields) in order to stay ahead. Both of these activities are typically expensive and really difficult for companies to manage, especially on their spreadsheets.
So most companies in the world don’t actually “do” much innovation anymore, they “buy” it. They allow the depth and breadth of the open marketplace (ie: gazillions of small start-up companies) to take on the expense and risk of pioneering. Then they try to buy those few companies that seem to be succeeding while they’re still young and affordable. Its a risky and inefficient process, but less so than doing it yourself.
Another thing large companies are doing is getting involved in “open innovation”. This is where they will put money, with few strings attached, into research labs, incubators, etc, that aim to do work in sectors the company cares about.. Their hope is that this will allow them to spot emerging innovations more quickly than anyone else, and then scoop them up.
The analogy I’ll use is that traditionally companies planted their seeds in walled gardens, but now they’re finding that this soil isn’t fertile enough anymore. So now they’re more often sewing seeds strategically in many public places, waiting to see what comes up.
This is how I characterize “Google for Entrepreneurs”. It is a “strategic” public service, essentially like all of Google’s products, that give something away in order to reap value from the activity it generates. Very smart….
The reason for this long comment is that this global innovation trend should be eye-opening for our current entrepreneur bootcamp. Companies can hire the best people in the world, but they can’t seem to successfully hire entrepreneurs, or cultivate them internally.
Thoughts?
David
I’ve already done my “founder parade” on a different company and although I might do my venture analysis on these guys, I found this really interesting so feel free to check them out and use them if you’re struggling to find an interesting venture. http://www.wimp.com/futurebulb/ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light-bulb-reinvented
Continue reading I’ve already done my “founder parade”… Posted in: General
This is a nice-looking product and I think it does have the potential to sell, since it is so easy to install. You could build something very similar in a weekend using an Arduino microcontroller, some LED’s and a little patience, but this is a no-brainer. Screw it in and it works.
Here’s an example of a simple Arduino-powered light that almost anyone could do in a couple hours or less:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-an-LED-Ambient-Mood-Light-A-Beginner-/
This article shows you how to make a dimmer switch for your lights that is controlled by your phone:
http://www.instructables.com/id/android-bluetooth-controlled-outlet/
I wonder how cost effective that is Ben? I’m guessing that’s why these guys are kickstarting their project because with mass production they can lower the costs signficantly. Thanks for the links!
What an awesome project! I have a doubt though. I thought the venture we had to choose needed to be an educational venture. Maybe I’m wrong. Also, having seen these guy’s excellent presentation, my other doubt is if we can use existing material our chosen venture has, or do we sell them ourselves from scratch. I’d welcome being enlightened, please. Cheers 🙂
Haven’t you been in a classroom where lighting was an issue? I think that this could be really useful in an educational environment not as a tool, but instead as an implement. In the same way that the whiteboard revolutionized the methodology of how we teach, this could do the same for that horribly buzzing light we all have in our classes.
After reading the first few posts for this week’s task, I was thinking are there any females that are the founders of learning technology ventures? I have found one that I will report on later this week but I thought this article might be of interest to some: The Face of Success, Part 2: Where […]
Continue reading After reading the first few posts for th… Posted in: General
Jenny ~ Interesting that you bring this up. I explored Design2Learn and I too was surprised that their leadership team consists of all males except for one.
Thanks for sharing that Jenny – it was a really interesting article. I hope this is a trend that will change in the future as I am sure when we look at the education domain that statics would indicate there are more female educators than male I would imagine.
Jenny –
Thanks for opening this question, and for presenting a great example of a female entrepreneur in the Founder’s Parade.
As the article points out, there are some obvious historical reasons for why there are still fewer women championing tech start-ups. I won’t dwell there because I’ll just end up saying some unfortunate things about immature male-dominated cultures.
What I will say, in context of this week’s discussion, is that an entrepreneur is typically someone who is brave enough to go where few have gone before, to see an opportunity in a wilderness. An entrepreneurial woman won’t be daunted in a wilderness of men – she’ll actually see this as an advantage because she has innate tools and perspectives that are lacking in the ecosystem.
This is particularly true with learning technologies, which can be characterized as the awkwardly opportunistic marriage of an engineering culture with an education culture. It isn’t so much that the cultures are actively antagonistic as they are simply far apart. All the best opportunities are in that wilderness in between. Be brave – march in!
David
Thanks David. This course is great opportunity to entertain the idea of marching right in! At the moment I seem to be tiptoeing back and forth. Prior to this course, my thoughts were only really related to coming up with and implementing small creative ideas at my workplace so this shift in mindset is taking some time.
Here are 15 women with successful start-ups:
http://www.inc.com/ss/christina-desmarais/15-women-watch-tech-startups.html#11
Here’s a fun site that tries to show how a whole pile of Tech companies try to monetize their products. I don’t know what their sources of information are or how accurate it all is, but it’s fun to look at and a starting point for those who are interested. http://rcs.seerinteractive.com/money/
Continue reading How do they make money? Posted in: General
Thanks for posting Teacherben!! I had just posted on Colin’s post, asking this very question. Your post is excellent. Personally, this would be a very useful direction for ETEC 522 – not just what makes for a good entrepreneur, but also how one could/would/does make money in the “free” web 2.0 world.
Your post provides excellent food for thought – thank you!
Peggy
Thanks for the website I just replied to Peggy and then saw your post. I definitely will need to use that with my class.
John Baker is the founder and CEO of Desire2Learn. Desire2Learn Incorporated, also known as Desire2Learn or D2L was founded in 1999 by John Baker who desired eLearning or a Learning Management System (LMS) that was not available when he was studying systems design engineering in his third year at the University of Waterloo. Baker […]
Continue reading Biography of John Baker Posted in: General, Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
I was at the D2L Users conference this summer and saw John Baker speak several times. He speaks just as he looks with confidence and passion about his company. It is interesting as at the conference he was introducing some of the new members of the D2L management team. Many of them were from Research in Motion (RIM) which is located in the same area of Kitchener-Waterloo in southern Ontario. I can only imagine that these people felt the uneasiness of RIM and decided to move over to a different technology company that is currently more stable than RIM.
Doug.
Doug – From what I have read about D2L, those people who moved from RIM will likely not be disappointed. Do you use D2L in your area of work?
Just want to let anyone else who is taking ETEC 511 know that I just realized that we are reading about the D2L and Blackboard court case this week. I am actually geek’d about the serendipitous connection. I plan to read the article tomorrow and will repost if it sheds any new light on John Baker.
Hi Jen:
Yes we use D2L; we migrated from WebCT two years ago and have not looked back.
Doug.
Great synopsis of the D2L product, I got a good sense of what the founder/CEO is like and his overall approach in various aspects of the educational technology business world.
On a side note though, I am wondering, did you notice if this company has any true educators, or people with classroom experience in their core group?
I did notice that indeed there are no executive team members with educational backgrounds. I think the way they get around this is the meet with educators from within the classroom and listen to their needs and concerns to develop a personalized LMS that fits their school’s requirements. It is an interesting point you bring up. Thanks Tom.
I guess, if done properly, this would not be a big deal. However, too many times, both personally and professionally I have used Educational Software created by non-educators and have been easily frustrated, for these products have been designed, developed, and deployed from a non-educator perspective. Again this may seem not a large issue, but the intuitive feel is not educationally focused, creating frustration for many users, forcing them to avoid or potential drop the program entirely.
Thoughts?
I believe that Blackboard finally did buy out Desire2Learn, did they not? Or perhaps just a very close partnership. Blackboard also absorbed WebCT (a UBC initiative!!! And my 1st experience with an LMS when I became a provincial online teacher for Saskatchewan), among others.
This is another topicthat is perhaps beyond the scope of ETEC 522, but clearly related. Is it good practice for an entreprenuer to think to the future – what company do I want to impress, that will absorb me down the road? In the Web 2.0 world, would this not be a critical consideration?
Hi Peggy:
Blackboard has not bought out Desire to learn. Rather Desire to Learn keeps luring Blackboard customers over to them. The mantra of many new Desire to Learn customers at their recent Users conference was “Bye bye Blackboard”!
Doug.
I often wonder like Penny about what happens down the road. Do some of these entrepreneurs design these products for long term success, or in the hope of threatening to compete with a big company in order to be absorbed. I’ve looked at Desire2Learn and for me it’s just yet another LMS to add to the list that is already out there. As I student and teacher, it just makes life harder having to get used to yet another platform, so unless it’s drastically different, or free, I’m not sure I’d bother. I think that more than ‘bye bye Blackboard’, Blackboard will end up buying this one, too.
From thisamericanlife.org this week: 474: Back to School SEP 14, 2012 As kids and teachers head back to school, we wanted to turn away from questions about politics and unions and money and all the regular school stuff people argue about, and turn to something more optimistic — an emerging theory about what to teach […]
Continue reading Emerging views on what to teach in school and how to reward teachers Posted in: General
Thanks Frank for this. This American Life always does great work and I’ll be sure to queue this one up on the iPhone for my next drive.
I haven’t heard it yet, but it got me thinking about another This American Life about the Brooklyn Free School where there are no tests, courses, homework and the kids are the key decision makers. This one is pretty good too! 🙂
Act 3: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/424/kid-politics?act=3#play
Hi Jonathan, thanks for the link. Interesting concept – children and youth engagement and empowerment in the truest forms. I run a youth engagement program within a organization whose primary services are for adults. We have a lot of creative tensions. It is so hard for adults to let go of the reign of control. I wonder about the extent that learning technology is incorporated into this program?
~Sophia
It’s been a while since I’ve heard this one about the Brooklyn Free School, but from what I remember it was a lot of student led meetings. Students would call meetings whenever they were upset about something and deal with it as a group.
It worked initially, but towards the middle of the podcast you got a sense that students were being overwhelmed with meetings. Students began to get upset at one another. There was a sense that in some way this worked, but in others — leadership from the top (in the form of a teacher) was needed. There wasn’t quite enough maturity for it to work.
With regards to learning technology, I do remember computers being available. But that there were no electronic days in the school as well to allow for some peace and actual “talking” to occur. 🙂
I’m very skeptical of the approach proposed. I’ve read that for most tasks that require little to no active thinking, you can use rewards to improve performance but once active thinking comes into play, it’s quite difficult to achieve any level of improvement strictly through monetary rewards. Generally speaking, better results are obtained by granting employees certain freedom to innovate to allow them to get incredible ideas out of their heads and onto a sharing medium. By encouraging teachers to work harder to obtain certain results without providing them some ‘cool-down’ time, they are likely to find more of these ‘loss-aversion’ teachers in a burnout state rather quickly.
Thanks Jon, Sophia and Patrick.
Jon, I’ll have to check that one out, I’ll try to plan it for a road trip as well 😉
You are right Sophia, with creative freedom comes innovation, but also, greater room for conflict, perhaps over what should be done and how best to do it. We may have to learn how to help adults feel more comfortable about giving up control; maybe by helping them gain a greater sense of relatedness to their students and the people they work with, so that at core, there is mutual trust among participants that people’s intentions are good.
Patrick, as a trained economist, I am first to confess that economists have an extremely narrow and thereby, limited view for understanding human behaviour. Working harder for better results in the short-term can definitely lead to burnout in the long-term as you have identified. I’m hopeful however that the financial crises is challenging this discipline to take a long, hard, and deep look inwards, and realize the errors of their ways. Also, budding work in neuroscience and behavioural psychology/economics, is not only exceptionally interesting, but also directly challenging many of the conventional wisdoms of economic thinking: “People are rational” etc..
Here’s a sarcastic but somewhat insightful critical look within (5-minutes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVp8UGjECt4
My current interest is gaining a greater understanding of meta-cognitive skills and how technology might be used as a vehicle for delivering this kind of education. I also believe that better financial capability might be one concrete example of such skills, as consistently good financial decision making is, I would argue, more habitual and behavior than necessarily cognitive.
With your permission, I may continue to post content to this feed on this area as I come across it; though I am open to suggestions on how to better do this for the purposes of sharing and archiving.
Observation on Financial Literacy Shortage:
[–]Betsy514[S] 12 points 3 hours ago
You know – I’ve read about a million studies on this issue and while some indicate that increased tution is a result of increased federal aid – others conclude the opposite. I’m not an economist so I can’t give you any theories or proof either way – but I think the increase in tuition is probably more the result of a combination of factors. I think the increase in student debt is in part the result of the lack of financial literacy/education resources available to families – especially when they are making the college decision in the first place.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10m8yn/i_work_as_an_advocate_for_people_with_student/
Frank –
Just listened to the podcast and it was again another well put together piece by This American Life. It was neat to hear about the “different smarts”, got me thinking about multiple intelligences. Any different than what they are talking about being “social smarts”? Actually from what I recall, they were having trouble labelling all the different “smarts” without it sounding off.
I also enjoyed the last story piece about intervention pieces that can go in. It’s nice to know that all of these can be helped. What is key is that the individual has to want to do it. It’s really about persevering and motivating through something. It’s effortful as the girl in the last piece spoke about, but she enjoyed it! Thanks for this again!
This is the second annual blog post from ‘The eLearning Coach’ where the author, Connie Malamed, gives her predictions of which educational technologies will really take off in the upcoming year. The article is perhaps meant as casual reading and provides some ‘food for thought’ but her predictions are fairly conservative and there is nothing particularly surprising […]
Continue reading Learning Technology Trends to Watch Posted in: General, Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
I find it interesting the delay this article has in presenting “trends” when compared to other similar articles. Might this be her attempt to allow the general educator time enough to become familiar with the technology to use, and not those on the cutting edge?
Thoughts?
My guess is that she composed her list based on her reading of other people’s top ten lists. Her blog rarely has anything original. She is more of a content curator than anything else.
Interesting observation, which would force one to recommend this type of posting based upon the individual teacher. Those who need time, and more general information, experience should utilize this type of information. Where as our early adopters should steer clear?
Thoughts?
I think that lists like these that are casual, light readings are more important than ones that are overly technical. The majority of educators and administrators do not subscribe to “Wired” or follow Ed Tech professional’s twitter feeds. Lists like this might be purposefully underwhelming as to not scare off an on-the-fence educator who might be looking to become more tech-savvy. If the overall goal is to encourage more teachers to use and become interested in the available technology to increase learning efficiency, it is important to give opportunity for some to start in the shallow end of the swimming pool, so to speak.
I agree with your statements, as to not scare them off.
However, to help facilitate more general educators, would it not be beneficial to add ideas, suggestings, examples on how this technology might look like within a classroom. Allowing teachers to get their “feet wet” before jumping into the pool.
Thoughts?
I agree she just mentions the tools, but not how they could be integrated into classroom practice. She says that the advantage of clouds is that you don’t have the content of your course in your desktop; i though this was the case with an LMS, too. And if you look up the sites she mentions, they are all private companies that offer, easy online course creation tools and even hosting of the course. Isn’t this what Blackboard does? I was not impressed
I see what you are getting at, however I have a different opinion between Blackboard and a Cloud Based Application. Blackboard is a Learning Management System. I go, get information, maybe take a quiz, maybe have a working “chat room”, post comments, upload assignments, get grades. Basically, an electronic version of a traditional classroom. Where as cloud based applications, like Google Docs, simulate traditional software, such as MS Word, that would be entirely housed on your PC, but can be accessed from anywhere.
Yes they have similarities, need the Internet, function regardless of computers operating system. But LMS’s facilitate learning, where as true cloud based applications facilitate the creation of learning artifacts.
Thoughts?
I thought I would share a link to some videos I discovered today. I was looking at the Creative Commons site for some material to use in another course. On their home page they had an ad to watch the winning videos for their “Why Open Education Matters Video Competition”. Here is the link to […]
Continue reading Open Education Resources Posted in: General
Nice video, thanks for sharing!
I liked the video but I am still curious how schools that do not have the funds to purchase the materials such as laptops, mobile devices, etc. are able to provide access to the students to these open programs. Am I missing something? The students would still need Wifi wouldn’t they?
I’m not entirely sure how this will work or look for schools that are lacking in tech resources. I think it will at least be a support to the educators that can use the ideas and resources in their own class after gathering them from the “OER” site(s). Great question though. Maybe someone else has more insight to this. It is new to me.
How, and how much, is it useful and valuable to the broader community of educators, as well as learning technologies specialists and venturers? The 2012 Horizon Report is useful to educators, learning technologies specialists, and venturers on a few levels. First, it provides educators of all ages with an appropriate report applicable to specific age […]
Continue reading What is on the Technology Horizon for 2012? Posted in: General
I am just starting the program and was wondering if you guys could recommend how many courses I should take this term. I work as an academic advisor in China, and do a lot of that work after school hours and at lunch. I forsee having a some time during the working day to do […]
Continue reading looking for advice Posted in: General
I’d take 2, for quality over quantity.
that’s where I was leaning…thanks James you probably just swung a life decision for me.
Two would probably be enough on top of your busy schedule. Good Luck.
With your busy schedule, I would take 2 courses. Good luck, Mike.
I would agree with all the above 2 seems like a good fit. Where in China are you working?
Hey Shaun, I am in Wuhan, China working for Maple Leaf Schools, BC accredited, BC salary, China cost of living. Its pretty good, but Im in my third year and I am getting a little China’d out. Not sure where the next move will be though.
Hi there Mike,
With a full teaching load I find I’m only able to keep pace with having one course per semester but I’m not as motivated as the rest here I guess 🙂
Good luck and enjoy yourself 🙂
Thanks all, there is a lot of after school/lunch work that comes with Academic Advising, so I forsee having a little extra time between the school hours most weeks. I gotta be at work in front of a computer anyway and facebook and youtube are banned in this country, so I think two will be manageable.
Hi everyone, This is my sixth ETEC course so I am passed the halfway mark and it has been great so far. I am of the opinion that this will be a different experience to the others since it is geared towards ‘selling’ rather than the theories of learning and teaching. In a way I […]
Continue reading Hello from Tobago Posted in: General
Good to see you Patason. I forget now which course we took together. I look forward to hearing more of your insight. Have a great term.
Ken
Hi Patason,
Great to see another person from the Caribbean here. Looking forward to learning with you.
Sophia
Hello all — I’m going to give a good sigh of relief (like Ken). Got the first full day of teaching out of the way, now I can settle down to a little quiet with MET. My name is Jonathan Tang and I’m currently teaching a Grade 2/3 classroom in Richmond, BC. This is my […]
Continue reading Hello from Richmond! Posted in: General
I agree with you Jonathan on how hectic it can be teaching and studying. I too use my class for tech experiments which haven’t always been successful. My latest is creating a virtual world for them to perform tasks in, I will have to see how that one turns out. What were some of your “experiments”?
Wikis have been my greatest experiments to date. The success has varied and I’m currently trying to use it as a language development tool in primary classes. I’ve had some success but I’ll give it another shot this year. I’m also dabbling with Mindcraft. I’ve sen a lot of stuff online and have spoken with quite a few people in MET that have used it, but I’m still wrapping my head around the game. I’m not sure I totally enjoy the game (which is a shame) but I do appreciate the creative aspect of the game.
What about your tech experiments?
Hi Jonathan! I also teach in Richmond. Which school are you at? What other MET classes have you taken? I am breathing sigh of relief knowing that i have a real person I can connect with should I have difficulties in MET. Did you know that the District will begin loaning iPad2’s this year. My school is scheduled to get them next month. I only work on Fridays but am excited to use them with my primary class to document their mathematical understandings.
Jen! A friend in the district? That is great news! I’m over at Whiteside. Yourself?
I’ve taken three to date (500, 511, 512). Let me know if you need course material from those classes (although I believe a lot of the reading material was online). I didn’t know that the district was loaning out iPad 2’s this year, I’ll have to get my school into it. Our school has recently acquired two of the iPads and I’ll be curious to use them with the students. I’ve had one (personal) in my classroom for a few years and have found opportunities to use them.
You’ll have to keep me updated on what you think about it for student use!
Welcome to the course Jonathan. My students have also had to deal with my attempts at using technology to enhance OUR learning (theirs and mine). That was part of the reason why I selected the MET over other Master’s programs. It just seemed to fit my needs. 🙂 Best of luck this term.
Ken
“enhance OUR learning”
Nothing wrong with learning together right? 😉
Greetings everyone! I always love this 1st week of a new course, meeting everyone for the first, or 2nd or 3rd time. One of the greatest things of MET is getting the chance to work with people from all over the world. I’m Peggy Lawson, and this is my 9th class. Like Doug & others […]
Continue reading Peggy, from Saskatchewan Posted in: General
Hi Peggy:
Welcome aboard. Your name sounds familiar but I can’t recall if we have been in a course before. Maybe a sign we have been in the program long enough!
Doug.
Hi Peggy —
Which part of Saskatchewan are you from? I was born and raised in Saskatoon until I moved out to the West Coast!
Cheers,
Jonathan
Welcome Peggy. Congrats on being near the completion of MET. I also love meeting so many people from around the world. I am always interested to see what technologies are being used and how they are being implemented in other places. It is also striking that the problems I face in NB are often similar to those that others are facing across the Globe. 🙂 Have a great term.
Ken
Great seeing you again, Peggy! I see that you are taking on more responsibilities at work, but the experience must be very rewarding. Looking forward to learning from the contributions that you and everyone else will be making in this course!
James
Hi Peggy, Great to meet up with you again. You were a wealth of knowledge for many of us in ETEC 565 when we were developing our Moodle Course. Look forward to learning together again.
Catherine
Hi, My name is Suhayl Patel and currently reside in Calgary Alberta. This is my 6th course in the MET program and am looking forward to working and learning through out this term. I have never taken a course that was located on a blog and am interested in this first-time experience. Currently I work […]
Continue reading Hi, My name is Suhayl Patel and currentl… Posted in: General
Welcome Suhayl. Sounds like an interesting position that you have begun. It is nice to know that there are positions out there focusing on Learning and Innovation. I am sure that this course and the other MET courses will help you. Best of luck this term.
Ken
Good day, My name is Tom Whyte, from Medicine Hat, Alberta. This is one of the many courses I am taking this semester, which I hope I will be able to continue to take, professional changes might be happening, which may reduce time 🙁 However, if I remain this will either be my 6th, 7th, […]
Continue reading Greeting From The Hat Posted in: Announcements, General
3 MET courses in one term is quite a bit! Nice meeting you, Tom.
Hi Tom,
Like you I am taking 3 courses. I have been doing two per fall/winter while teaching. I am on leave right now, so hopefully it won’t be too crazy. Best of luck this term.
Ken
Hello Tom,
I took two MET courses at once, but found it to be more than I bargained for with work. Good luck.
My professional obligations might be changing, forcing me to alter this plan… Will know in the next week. But thanks for the insights, greatly appreciated.
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
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
| joeltremblay on Week 11: Voice |
| joeltremblay on A3 Elevator and Venture |
 | manny on Photo App Elevator and Venture… |
| adi on My last participation :-( |
| adi on My last participation :-( |
jkotler 3:30 am on October 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Rebecca,
I think you make a great point about how it is often hard to make long-term projections in the future of technology because of the rapid pace at which things now develop and change. With that said though, I too think the biggest change for cloud computing and learning would be in regards to its widespread use and that we would see it become commonly used in most school districts.
Colin 9:20 pm on October 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I agree I think we will see a big shift in the amount of cloud computing applications that are used in the classroom. As for the technology that they will be using it is hard to predict. One prediction is that we will be using Virtual Worlds that are integrated with a LMS system. It would allow for students to learn while they look and interact within the virtual world. It also will allow for collaboration and can be done online without a need for a building. As this would allow for cost savings I can definitely see this as a possibility. That said these are all guesses and depends on so many variables that we just can’t predict.
pcollins 2:03 pm on October 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This idea is so fitting for the research I have just completed for my project. Even though many people (educators, administration, parents) see the need for an overhaul in the education system and everyone is floating around predictions about how this might manifest itself….. it is such a huge shift in paradigm that it may take something really, really big to provide the impetus for this change to occur. And yes, the cost savings is undeniable – once it’s up and running. However, the start up costs and the funds for development and research still have to come from somewhere first…. and where does it come from? Private sector? Dismantling classrooms? Teacher layoffs?
PC