A better way to teach high school math:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/YNbaaAX6_bw[/youtube]5 thoughts on “Empowered Learning”
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A better way to teach high school math:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/YNbaaAX6_bw[/youtube]You must be logged in to post a comment.
NO, I would not invest in this company. I will discuss this venture based off of the pitch criteria given.
CEO & Team
The fact that the CEO of this company used to be a software developer on a large scale certainly adds value to venture and makes it easier to get behind an idea such as this. Unfortunately, the CEO does not mention any other members of his team or actually refer to any other resources he would be using.
Venture concept
The CEO does an excellent job addressing the numerous issues related with schools and learning, especially when it comes to parent involvement. However, I think simply focuses on one subject, specifically Maths, is not good enough. I am sure, although not specifically mentioned, the plan would be to roll this out with other subjects as well, however how would this automatic grading work in subjects such as English. The major problem I see with introducing something such as this, is the different curriculums we find all over the United States, as well as all over the world. To my understanding, each state has its own education system, therefore different curriculums. This is a major roadblock to ventures such as this one, and unless properly addressed or considered, could mean disastrous earnings.
Marketability
Again, if this program works as the video suggests, teachers would love it. Although it might take them a bit of time to become adjusted to the program, once on board it would most likely reduce their workload. However, I do not think that they have an innovative advantage over other ventures, and I think something like Moodle might be able to offer very similar features and most likely at a fraction of the cost. For me, I think the possibility of designing software consisting of activities and homework for every area of mathematics and then making that compatable with something like moodle, then selling the rights to using the software or those components might be a more profitable approach (although I have no idea on what the details of that would involve, or if it would even be plausible)
Venture Plan
Again, I do not think this is a viable proposition. I envision parents having multiple login details for different subjects to keep track of their children’s status; it just seems like a hassle to me. Also, what is so wrong with using homework diaries or planners, if parents could not follow up with those, what hope is there to them logging on to a system to check their child’s results. Although I do commend the CEO for trying to deal with clear issues in schools today, I think he has tried to take on too much and it does not seem that his program would be viable.
Cheers,
Dave
Seems to me that Khan Academy pretty much owns this market niche. http://khanacademy.org
Khan Academy has tutorials, record-keeping, and badging, and is building more features all the time. It’s also available increasingly in other languages, funded by international donors like Gates Foundation, Qatar Foundation and others. Khan Academy is also Creative Commons-licensed allowing educators to freely customize or even re-voice the video narrations.
One of the most important venture criteria is product or service differentiation. This one is running up against a tough, established and freely available competitor in Khan Academy for Math (and other subjects).
I have mixed feelings on this product, although my final response would be no, I would not invest. I do like that the man behind the idea does have experience in technology and in teaching, which makes him uniquely qualified to put together a program such as this one. However, with someone who has spent so much time in the technology field, his simple PowerPoint presentation turned into a video leaves something lacking to the imagination, and makes me question the skill set he actually has.
As someone who has taught math for several years, I do know that the marking can take some time, and there is lots of marking, so the idea of instant feedback to students is important and I do think that there is a large amount of value to that. But who is to say that it is more beneficial for a computer to be giving them that feedback versus them checking their own answers in the back of the book.
I also question how well this product will actually work in use. They have yet to try it in a classroom, and I do not believe that implementation into the classroom will cost $250 000. At the very least, he could have tried it in his own classroom, to see how students, parents, and himself found the product and their response to it.
Although there is a lot of value in the idea, I do not think that it is at a place where I would feel ready to invest that amount of money, especially since there are other products on the market that do similar tasks. This includes some of the blended learning material that is available free through my Board. For this reason, I would not invest in the product.
No, I would not invest this in this venture.
However, I believe my willingness to invest could change dependent on time and location. To deconstruct the easy parts; the CEO seems sincere, enthusiastic and knowledgeable in his subject area. He demonstrates insight and experience through his identification of the pain points, and how his product will address them.
When it comes to differentiation, davidp mentions that Khan Academy would be a competitor. While familiar with Khan Academy’s tutorial videos, I have not used the other components (which sent me down a whole different rabbit hole).
However, despite Khan Academy’s existence, the pain points outlined by the CEO still exist, and therefore room in the market must still exist. I believe the differentiation of the product can exist through specialization and marketing. By focusing specifically on math, they can establish an entry point in a sensitive field. With aggressive inside marketing, I believe there would be enough demand to make this feasible.
My reasoning behind geography making this an investment I would NOT pursue, is that the Ontario Curriculum has moved away from homework questions which can be easily marked by a computer. With words and explanations being almost as important as the answers themselves, this type of program would not be able to address the more complex objectives. It would become a partial program, concentrating on lower level operational elements of math. Accelerated Math was such a program, which quickly lost favour among schools in this area.
If the CEO was able, in his rounds of improvement, to include elements for higher level thinking, I would reconsider investment. If elements of computer-graded essays were included, I might reconsider investment.
As a teacher, who also is taking on the role of an Educational Venture Analyst, I have a bit of an advantage in that one question I can ask is, “Would I use it?” In my understanding of its current iteration, this program would not fundamentally improve my current pedagogy as a teacher, and therefore I would not invest in it as a EVA.
John
I like the simplicity of the concept, and in fact feel that the focus on one subject, Math in this case, is exactly what needs to be done from a marketing perspective. Additional subject matter would dilute the clarity of its marketing focus, and we all know that Math is a major hurdle for many students with a massive market potential.
Although the Khan academy offers many online supporting videos that explain Math, they don’t tie in to a way for parents to oversee progress. A major marketing feature as I see it.
I see the pitch as effective in regard to accountability to parents, and to students providing immediate feedback, but would have liked to see some effort to point out the modular nature of this app, in fact helped by its narrow focus.