A3 – incentivED

REVIEW: Brilliant. I love that you are crowdsourcing resources for field trips. Until now, most field trip venues have to develop their own resources for teachers in-house and when they don't have the expertise, it often leads to lacklustre activities for students. Your idea would reduce costs for providers and increase engagement for students. I think there is one issue though: teachers will not want to spend their own money on pledges (unless they only need to pledge a few dollars to get a quality resource). And I doubt that schools will want to spend money on resources that they feel teachers or field trip providers should be creating themselves. This makes me wonder if anyone other than institutions will put up the money for the challenges? And I'm curious about how curation will work? On the surface I think this is a great idea (and certainly a good pitch), but I have to wonder if it will be sustainable over the long term. Once a museum has some resources developed, they won't need or want to sponsor another challenge for a few years. I also have to wonder who owns the content? Is it the teacxher that developed the resource or will it be the people who put up the money for the pledge? I think there are a few things that need to be resolved, but then I would happily invest in this venture.

Review: Fantastic job! Your pitch clearly outlines your project, goals, purpose, investment opportunity and credentials. It is a unique idea and certainly a niche market from my experience. Your video had a professional feel, not rushed, highly informative. Referencing Kickstarter and very articulately explained the process of project development including cost analysis. Your product is collaborative and constructivist in nature, appealing to the student population. It involves multi-industries which is exciting but will require a great deal of management by your company. Crowd sourced, curated with rate, review and comments integrates an effective system to manage the workload. Your experience and confidence help sell the product. You were clear about where you want your project to go and how investors can be involved. I wonder how you are going to engage teachers in the project? Fantastic opportunity. I would definitely invest.

Review: I like your idea for your venture. I have experienced this lack of disconnect between the "intentions and learning" of a field trip that you explain. You highlight a valuable piece of information that most museums and attractions have less than 5% of their revenue coming from student visits. A definite area that can be targeted, especially when so many schools exist in urban areas that offer different venues, museums, and attractions that teachers can take advantage of and cater to their needs. I do agree that teachers are the ones best suited to create meaningful resources for students that reflect the parts of the curriculum teachers are aiming to address. I am not sold on the part in which teachers have to create challenges themselves to generate funds for the field trip to take place. If the project falls through, what is the teacher left with? I don’t think most teachers would support this model, as the work they put in is not a guaranteed outcome. I know our school provides $10 per student for field trips for the current year and if this money could be put towards the challenge, proving it successful I would be more inclined to support it. Perhaps after some generated challenges occur from some of the organizations, teachers would have more confidence in the idea and be able to put in place ones for their own uses that would have the go ahead. The option where a cultural organization creates a challenge and sets the parameters of the project to stimulate pledges is better. Within the challenges you have included reviews and ratings completed by other teachers, and I definitely like the curated aspect for the future venture that so that allows each resource to get better or change as the attraction becomes updated or includes new exhibits. I think your venture has a lot of value and if tailored with the challenges to the latter option I would invest.

Awesome pitch! I love the idea and I'm on board! I agree that without the proper knowledge or resources to go with the field trip, many are a waste of time and money. I love the crowdfunding for field trips and I like that teachers can share resources that are effective for different field trip experiences. This brings expertise and allows each experience to be more meaningful. I also like the phase after the field trip, when people can add their resources and reviews, as it continues the community experience and encourages others to do the same. I like how you brought in TpT to show how this model could make money. This answered some of the questions I had about revenue. Nicely done.

Sorry meant to say Review for my Feedback below.

Craig, what an innovative idea for a venture. You immediately caught my interest when I heard "crowdfunding" as an approach to field trips. I thought your elevator pitch was very effective and good use of visuals. Regarding your venture pitch, I felt like I needed more details of how the venture would actually work. Does the teacher solely design the field trip or is it a collaborative effort with the organization/venue? Your experience and teaching credentials are impressive and definitely provide credibility to your venture. I'm not sure how I would make money (as a teacher) but maybe the money is made by the organization? So, I was left with some questions after viewing your venture pitch, but I was also intrigued and would be interested in further demonstration/discussion from you about the venture details. I'm not saying that I am completely sold on your idea but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of investment either.

Feedback - Great work. I really like this idea a lot. Crowdsources the creation of learning materials for a field trip is could create some really powerful learning resources and great experiences for students. I'm a little hesitant as I'm not sure you'll have the backers that you anticipate without having to write grant applications, but I'm willing (and hoping) to accept that I may be completely wrong with that one. I think it may be more complicated than you anticipate. I really like the inclusion of app requirements for the challenges. It really stretches not only the teachers and organization but also the students. I'm curious how this would impact the employment of individuals who create programming for some of these locations.

Craig, congratulations on your awards. It definitely gave credibility to your championship and I would want to work with you on a venture that you propose. You have identified a great solution to this pain point, as many of my local teachers find field trips very difficult when most museums/zoos/field trip providers are a three hour drive from our rural location. I have to make a field trip incredibly useful if I want to create student buy in, and engagement. I agree with Cathy that I have started questioning how this could work, but the questions that I have also would be the same questions that I have about Teachers Pay Teachers that is successful, so that was a very good comparison to make in your video.

I agree that field trips can be a bit of a crap shoot - you don't know if any meaningful learning will happen unless you are a repeat customer! I like the format - it reminds me of a kickstarter page, and that look is becoming more and more familiar with the public. Good idea!

Feedback: Great job Craig. Really like your idea between a combination of kickstarter funded field trips and curated/reviewed resources. I can see the need / gap that your are trying to address and you are right in the sense that field trips are becoming increasingly hard and harder to justify (student interest, fear of missing classes, paper work, cost). Just the other day my colleague went a field trip of which only 60% of the class went on and the rest were too afraid to miss exams. So the relevancy of field trips definitely needs to be there. However if I understand your presentation correctly, I believe you are also trying to address this gap by creating more interest from students and community partners. I can totally imagine students being involved in the planning of the field trip and the campaign of raising money by promoting through their social media connections. This I believe will definitely garner more interest from students and get them to appreciate field trips more. The only downside in all of this is if a field trip / project is put up and doesn't come through it can be a real disappointment and wasted time for planning. Many teachers also have a very regimented curriculum schedule to get through (especially the senior provincial courses) and if a field trip is not completely planned out I believe teachers many be hesitant to start in the first place. Your business model still has a lot value, especially the geographical curated resources, I would love to see on a map all the destinations and related resources. Great Job