Sentinel: A classroom management app for the 21st century classroom

Hi Gary. This is an excellent idea for a product that is much needed in schools. Teaching proper device etiquette and digital citizenship is important, but let’s be honest - there will always be (many) students who use their devices for non-educational purposes in class. If this was technologically possible to implement, I think you would have a winner here. The point made by others about it being cross-platform would be key to its success. The issues raised by some others need to be addressed - privacy concerns, reluctance to opt in, how to prevent students from closing Sentinel or just rebooting the device, etc. I recognize that a subscription based service would provide the most revenue in theory, but this does not seems like a product that would be suitable for that model. I see subscription based services as continually providing new content or features, unlike your product. I think you should ask for more money. Great job on both the elevator pitch and the website.

Hi Gary, A nicely presented app that addresses teacher's pain points! Your well structured venture pitch will definitely get a yes for this investment! While I love the idea, I do concern about the number of students who are willing to download this application.(I guess most of them are unwilling.) So, if they do not download the app, how do you plan to control the classroom then? My suggestion - A thorough participation plan should be drafted in order to justify need for your product. Regards, Yuandi

Hi Gary, Really liked your presentation, elevator pitch, and the website. Your product is interesting and you have mentioned the expertise of your team and a market analysis. However one thing I did not fins was competitor analysis, and why your product will be chosen over others? What is your USP? Also, what is your vision for the venture? I do think this is an investable venture, but it just needs a few more dots to connect the entire picture. Regards, Moumita

Hi Gary, Your venture pitch was really well done and, if this were a real product, I would be inclined to pursue investment. My device knowledge is mostly limited to iOS, but I can see that the basic components of your concept do exist in different forms (eg: family controls/sharing, screen sharing...), so the idea seems like it could potentially work. While I am not a teacher, the pain point seems real to me just from observing my children at home. I can't imagine wrangling a multitude of children on devices and trying to keep them on task. Beyond the basic concept and the clear identification of the need, the strengths of your pitch were the roles you identified for your core team and fact that you were looking forward and were able to identify how the tool could evolve and provide more functionality. You did a good job with this, Gary. Many thanks for sharing. Regards, Esther

Gary, I love the idea of Sentinel and see it flourishing in the classroom. There were a few reservations that I had about the functionality of the program. Specifically, how does the student turn off the service? I am sure you considered this, but I didn't see it anywhere in the pitch. For example, if a student wanted to use their device in class, would they need to launch Sentinel and then I, as the educator, could see it and limit access? I think this is an important item to address for parents, teachers, administrators and investors - privacy is such a hot topic and any bad press could sink a great idea. I liked how you opted to use a subscription model as this not only continues to generate revenue for you, it gives the user ease of mind as the cost is kept relatively low (easier for budgeting) and I think the product is priced right. Great work!

Gary, great idea to improve the use of existing devices through cross platform classroom management app designed for teachers! The video and website layout both make it easy to understand exactly what you are looking to do. As others have mentioned in the comments, there are a lot of other apps out there which perform similar functions (both google and apple have classroom apps now). Emphasizing your apps strengths such as being cross-platform, as well as any other features that distinguish it from the crowd will be keys to success. It is clear that you put time into your PowToon video, it is very easy to understand and uses relevant examples. Your reflections demonstrate that you took a lot away from app creation as a thought exercise. Very interesting model, well done!

Feedback I think the layout of your pitch and your beginning elevator pitch were really well done. I want to thank you for also showing me about ‘Guided Access’ on my iPhone, never knew that the functionality existed. One of the biggest pluses for me in your venture pitch was that your product was device agnostic. I know there are different solutions for things like viewing students screens but usually, they are for one device or another (like Air squirrel or Apple tv), not all the platforms out there at once. As an EVA and a teacher, the ability to access students screen at will using sentinel makes me a little nervous. You don’t clarify if the functionality of Sentinal is only available during class or if one could access student’s screens at any other time to see what students are doing. This raised some cautions for me. Restricting access to one or two apps on a student device also may not be an effective way to limit students accessing other apps. This may work with school controlled devices, but you may have issues with student-owned devices resulting in some pushback from pupils over who has control over the device and what they do with them. I agree with others in this forum that educating students on proper etiquette and digital citizenship would be a more effective approach. That being said, as an EVA I would need more clarification on your ask as I don’t necessarily see Sentinal as the prize but rather the technology to have a device agnostic way to share screens and information from a user’s device to the teacher screen or LCD. I think you have something here.

FEEDBACK: Hello Gary. You present a very interesting venture, which theoretically solves a lot of the concerns expressed by teachers as they attempt to integrate technology into the classroom. The Sentinel app seems like a very useful tool, however it has some direct competition from Apple with the Release of iOS 9.3.1, which introduced Classroom (https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/classroom/id1085319084?mt=8), an app designed for teachers to share and monitor student work on Apple devices. I currently run a 1:1 iPad program and will be introducing Classroom in September. Where we have run into difficulty is in our senior level grades where we use a BYOD model for technology. It would be great if Sentinel could function across platforms and monitor different types of devices at once. I like your idea and would be interested in learning more.

FEEDBACK: I liked your video and I thought the concept was pretty cool. I would like to have this app to monitor and use it as classroom management when students go on their devices in my classroom. My students start gaming when they should be working on their Canada Food Guide Project. It can be incredibly frustrating at times. Having an app to control and monitor what the students are viewing during class time is a fantastic idea.

On the surface this app looks like a great idea and i can see a market for its use, albeit limited to the early ages I suspect. Gaining control of students personal devices through an app may be tricky and may raise some privacy concerns. I suspect this is why some schools chose to provide students with mobile devices which makes it easier to control what apps are on the devices. However, I can see how monitoring the students’ activities would be easier with such an app and would make it easier to keep students on task. As an EVA I would want to know how this app would block other activities and how the privacy concerns would be addressed.