Ed Tech Marketplace – Venture Forth

From blogs.ubc.ca/etec522Sept2013
Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace

Post by jiorns 7:54 pm on September 8, 2013

Emerging Market Reports: An EVA perspective

Moving on to explore Emerging Market Reports from https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec522sept13/stage2/education-marketplace, I found the emerging market reports to differ greatly in their scope and geographical reach, as well as to differ as reports of primary research or reports of secondary research. The style of publication was also interesting.

Very capturing was Major Ed Tech Trends for 2013 by Online Colleges at http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2013/01/23/major-ed-tech-trends-for-2013/.

The authors cleverly used an infographic to present ed-tech trends that they had located from edudemic.com and other sources. As an EVA, I found this infographic helpful. It summarised key trends in an illustration that was very easy to read. The colour coding was particularly helpful.

However, the ‘report’ has limitations.

Firstly, the writer of the article cannot be identified (the link for ‘staff writers’ doesn’t open up a page with details about writers).

Secondly, the source of data in the infographic is unknown. There is no specific reference to the page or pages on the edudemic.com site where the writers obtained any of the trend data, nor who on the edudemic.com site was the original writer or publisher. None of the data in the infographic has a citation.

Thirdly, the context for data is unknown. Without explanation or a source, the data is not contextualised to a location, state or country. We can assume it’s the USA, but there is no more detail than that as to what location and what sample was used to gather any data.

Fourthly, the references in the box at the end of the article, of which edudemic.com is one, do not provide proper reference details. They are simply home pages of websites (e.g. forbes.com).

In summary, as an EVA, I would need to do a lot of work to validate the findings of the article.

Comment by davidp 4:44 am on September 9, 2013

No doubt, validating data sources is a big part of an actual EVA job, especially if venture money or angel investment is at stake. However, I think the piece cited is really about opinion and impressions of the edtech trends afoot in 2013.

Here’s a more venture-centric infographic that might be closer to the data integrity you’re seeking…
http://thestateofedtech.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ibis-capital-global-e-learning-investment-review.png

From blogs.ubc.ca/etec522Sept2013
Posted in: General, Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace

Post by pweeze at 1.54am on September 16, 2013

2013 Internet Trends by Mary Meeker and Liang Wu

This dissection of Internet trends by Mary Meeker and Liang Wu is extremely comprehensive. The first section I wanted to skip to was about the usage of different computing devices and I wasn’t surprised to see that netbooks were dropping, as tablet sales were taking off. It seems as if there is more of an appetite for learning based apps and touchscreen performance, then a mini-laptop. The data isn’t surprising, I am just personally happy that his trend is emerging, and I am interested to see if education districts stay with this shift towards tablet based computing.

App based learning and gamification (which is enabled by tablets) seems to be the driver behind this. Incorporating these with the wearable devices and user data driven apps like Waze and Yelp will only promote their further integration.

As I am abroad I am currently using a number of apps such as TripAdvisor that have constantly updated content. These apps are only as good as the content on them, and with new pics, suggestions and updates continuously being sent, the number of users and customers are only grow. From personal experience I was able to see pictures of Summer Palace that were taken just a few short weeks before I was there. This kind of real time information beats any travel brochure and demonstrates the real power of these products.

The most revealing part of this whole slide deck was the information on the emergence of China as a global market that should be getting a lot of attention. Especially with recent developments in the countries main social media network Sina-Weibo, the 500 million (220 real) users in China and the decision to extend this network to other countries and regions, the so called “Chinese Intranet”, as referenced in this article in @theAtlantic.

Maybe it’s because I just moved here and I’m in a bit of a honeymoon phase, but there are a lot of possibilities in the Chinese market with education. With the growth of International Schools and a greater demand for a transformation away from the traditional Chinese classroom model, and a move towards a more globally minded, 21st century approach to teaching, there is a huge market just waiting to be tapped into.

I feel that Mary Meeker has a finger on the pulse of the truly important trends, and has the data necessary to help when preparing a pitch.

Comment by jiorns 10:57 pm on September 27, 2013

Just on what you said: “From personal experience I was able to see pictures of Summer Palace that were taken just a few short weeks before I was there. This kind of real time information beats any travel brochure and demonstrates the real power of these products”.
Well yes, the electronic information likely feels a lot more engaging and you can get “recent views’ of tourist attractions online.
I think I like apps like Trip Advisor for destinations that are plain old getaways and I want to get a hotel sorted fast for a good price.
However, there are some downsides to this type of digital product. Or the fact that people have forgotten what it was like to travel – especially abroad – without them. It was genuinely adventurous. If you wound up somewhere on your own, you really got to experience being on your own (not doing selfies on facebook).

Comment by jiorns 11:09 pm on September 27, 2013

I did wonder what the Chinese millenials were using for searches and communication given FB and Google are blocked.
Is that media allowed in schools, i.e. for teaching and learning?