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ETEC 522 – Ventures in Learning Technologies
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Nolan Amy-Plickers Founder and CEO

By Caleb on October 2, 2015

 

Nolan AmyNolan Amy

Venture
Plickers is an app based tool for quickly assessing a student body. It enables the teacher to instantaneously assess student understanding without the need for students to have an electronic device. All that is required is one smart-device equipped with a camera and some printable cards for students to hold. The camera then scans the class as students indicate their answer with the cards. Plickers gives a teacher great flexibility in assessing for-learning. An educator has the freedom to be spontaneous and quickly poll the class or more methodical and prepare deeper, directed questions.

Currently Plickers is completely free, as it is created by teachers who greatly appreciate a quality assessment tool and wish to benefit their fellow professionals. Going forward they have aspirations of creating a ‘premium’ tier that would require payment. They are open to suggestions from their user base as to what kind of features would be beneficial in a payed version.

Founder
Nolan Amy is an education innovator and the found of Plickers. Having graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor of Science, he pursued a career as a math teacher. During this time as a teacher the basic foundation of Plickers was developed, and its broader potential was realized. In 2011 he then partnered with ImagineK12 to accelerate this development, ultimately releasing Plickers to the public in 2013. Amy is an educator at heart, and is motivated by a drive to improve classroom instruction. As someone who has spent time in a classroom, he possesses a clear idea of the challenges teachers face with assessment. His venture is birthed from a real-world solution to a real-world challenges. While relatively new to the EdTech world, Amy possesses an ideology that sees him benefitting other educators, before profiting personally.

The Plickers team is comprised primarily of former teachers with a passion for pushing the boundaries of learning. Along with a few experienced tech innovators, they have a lead-team that is both knowledgeable about education and passionate about software development. At current, the team is still growing as they are on the search for quality iOS and Android software engineers.

Reflections
As an educator that is never happy with the status quo, I am greatly inspired by the work of Nolan Amy. He was a classroom teacher with skills and a vision beyond the four walls of his classroom. His genuine desire to improve assessment for all teachers is exceptional and encouraging. I’m impressed at how the product only requires one electronic device and a few pieces of paper. It is accessible to all educators as the product is free and only requires a smartphone. The barrier of usage is almost zero. It is also interesting how this is truly an internationally available product as it could be used equally effectively in New York City or remote areas of Thailand.

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Rating
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4 Oct Posted on Nolan Amy-Plickers Founder and CEO

This is a very interesting product and it would be accessible to more teacher than a clicker system or even an online poll where each student needs a device. I like that Nolan Amy developed this from within a classroom. He is a good example of a person that works to develop innovative solutions to the problems they face and then shares that solution with others. In terms of education, it is nice to see some entrepreneurs coming from the classroom so they have a better understanding of the challenges teachers face. Hopefully he can inspire other teachers to do the same. I do agree with tslearn that as the company expands the lack of business experience may become a hindrance; however, he could succeed and he could always bring someone with a business background on board to advise.

4 Oct
1 Thumbs Up!
Catherine @steeve8

This is a very interesting product and it would be accessible to more teacher than a clicker system or even an online poll where each student needs a device. I like that Nolan Amy developed this from within a classroom. He is a good example of a person that works to develop innovative solutions to the problems they face and then shares that solution with others. In terms of education, it is nice to see some entrepreneurs coming from the classroom so they have a better understanding of the challenges teachers face. Hopefully he can inspire other teachers to do the same. I do agree with tslearn that as the company expands the lack of business experience may become a hindrance; however, he could succeed and he could always bring someone with a business background on board to advise.

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3 Oct Posted on Nolan Amy-Plickers Founder and CEO

Although I admire Nolan Amy's inventiveness and see the value in the product that he offers, I am not sure if I would subscribe to him as a CEO. Perhaps as this venture is kicked off, his passion for innovation and vision towards education will become part of the company's mantra, but I would expect that if this venture significantly expands, there may be a need for someone with more "business acumen" to facilitate the scaling of the company and attend to investing customers. I do believe he is a good role model for inventor entrepreneurs; having the initiative and vision to relies a product and bring it to market is admirable, but his lack of business experience could be cause for concern in the long term.

3 Oct
1 Thumbs Up!
tslearn @tslearn

Although I admire Nolan Amy's inventiveness and see the value in the product that he offers, I am not sure if I would subscribe to him as a CEO. Perhaps as this venture is kicked off, his passion for innovation and vision towards education will become part of the company's mantra, but I would expect that if this venture significantly expands, there may be a need for someone with more "business acumen" to facilitate the scaling of the company and attend to investing customers. I do believe he is a good role model for inventor entrepreneurs; having the initiative and vision to relies a product and bring it to market is admirable, but his lack of business experience could be cause for concern in the long term.

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