Chris Quarrie

Hi Erin It's interesting that you mentioned "price". Currently, schools subscribe to GAFE for free; the profit for Google is due to the fact that using their services may lead to purchases of school sets of Chromebooks, or students deciding to buy Google Play/Google Music products or smartphones running Google technology. Surely, data collection is valuable, although according to the terms and conditions student information is private. ("Google does not share or reveal private user content such as email or personal information with third parties except as required by law, on request by a user or system administrator, or to protect our systems." from https://sites.google.com/a/d155.org/googleapps/faq)

Hi Dan, Thanks for your comments. We have actually discussed in our school (which uses GAFE) how to provide some sort of parent portal... at the moment GAFE only supplies students with @schoolname.ca login addresses (the only way to access GAFE sites / Drive / Docs etc), so I'm not sure how that would work. Perhaps it's something they will look at, though I'm of the opinion that parents really don't need to be as involved in the school lives of students (in Grades 8-12... it may be a different story for younger kids). We have a bit of a 'helicopter parent' issue at our school (where parents micromanage their kids to the point that they have no lives outside of school & academics: clubs, sports, cram school, tutors, lessons, etc... they barely get a chance to catch 5-6 hours of sleep!) so I'm not sure giving access to parents is a good idea. As for your suggestions as a corporation, I do believe that having the added features of a full LMS will attract schools into giving up Moodle/Blackboard etc as their preferred LMS and hop over to Google. The added incentives involved in becoming fully "Google" as far as revenue would likely come from the fact that students and teachers are more accustomed to working in the cloud-based environment and may be more likely to purchase, as a school, Chromebooks, or other Google-compabible devices (Google Cardboard, phones and tablets running Android), since at the moment, the GAFE subscription is free.

FEEDBACK: I had a difficult time assessing this venture, and I am sure it has to do with the fact that the world of mining (and its associated businesses) is very foreign to me. I’m not sure if I understand this correctly - your ficticious company (E-Mining) has already been on the market for 5 years. Doesn’t this mean that E-Mining is no longer a ‘venture’, but rather an established company? Perhaps I misunderstand. How is E-Mining different from a simple LMS? What does it offer than an LMS does not offer? I’m guessing that E-Mining provides pre-packaged, online *courses* that can be used for *currently existing* online learning platforms (like Moodle, Connect, etc), and these courses currently do not exist…? I suppose I don’t know enough about the world of mining to know how people are trained or certified in the first place. Perhaps more information on how training is currently accomplished, and how E-Mining would be a big improvement, would have been helpful for people like me.

FEEDBACK: I really like this venture, and can immediately see how I could use this in my own teaching profession. I work in a school with a 1-to-1 program, and do currently use paper for tests (it’s pretty much the only time we use a lot of paper!), due to the desire to maintain the integrity of assessments. The ability of BOLT to ‘lock out’ other applications during tests is its biggest selling point. Preventing copy-paste, and basically turning their laptops/iPads into digital ‘paper’ is an excellent concept. I do think that this would work best with iPads (iPad Pros, specifically, due to their paper-sized screens!), along with a stylus, as many of my tests require drawing diagrams, labeling pictures, and completing math equations (something that is very difficult to do with a laptop, unless they are using a peripheral device like an Intuos tablet & stylus). I also like the addition of time-sensitive questions, as it forces students to be more attentive when it comes to time management (although for some students, this could make their anxiety levels go through the roof!). The fact that students can perform tests digitally is a big step up from traditional paper-test writing, since you can add drag-and-drop features, animations, and other, more interative and engaging elements. This is one of my favourite ventures. Well done!

FEEDBACK: Your venture is intriguing… This course has really opened up some cool ideas on how virtual reality could be used in education. I have been using Google Cardboard in my ICT 9 classes for the last year or so. I had students build SketchUp models they walked around...but they had to be kept extremely basic (i.e. four walls, a door, maybe one multiple-polygon object). In other words, even with late model smartphones (e.g. iPhone 6S) the graphical capability for VR is currently severely limited. There is a lot of ‘lag time’ when a student swivels their head. Based on this experience, I have a hard time seeing how realistically-rendered environments in a fast-paced sporting environment could be displayed on the current generation (or even the next gen) of smartphones. More capable VR headsets might be capable of such graphical power, but this would require a deeper investment and may limit the ability for whole teams (of 15+ players) to participate collectively. While I do certainly see VR headsets being used in schools, and perhaps some day sports, perhaps your timeline is a bit too optimistic..? Costs just seem a bit too prohibitive for a realistic, interactive, sport-training environment at the moment (Maybe in the US, where NCAA has the $$$ to invest in such tech..?)

FEEDBACK: I found it difficult to review this venture, as the Elevator Pitch was very vague. How does CompanyCAVU make workers more motivated? What is it? How does it work? You use many statistics on your website (like “[a] statistic for employers is that nearly​ ​33%​ ​of​ ​hires​ ​look​ ​for​ ​a​ ​new​ ​job within​ ​the​ ​first six months of employment, but among Millennials, that percentage is even higher”. Where are your sources? Is it true that a greater number of Millennials look for work? In your “Competitors” section, you say that CompanyCAVU stands apart. How? What makes CompanyCAVE unique? Also.. what does “CAVU” stand for (according to a Google search, it’s used in the military to mean “Ceiling And Visibility Unrestricted”. Is this what you are trying to convey?)? Perhaps my lack of business acumen (I have no experience with the business world… I’m just a teacher!) has made this venture hard for me to penetrate or understand. I don't know what someone in Human Resources is looking for, and I don't know how new employees to a business are normally 'brought on board. For example, I’m not really sure what ‘onboarding’ really means. Also, I’ve never heard the term “microlearning” before (is it used in mainly business, or education?). After reading the website, unfortunately I’m still not sure what this venture is really about. Perhaps some screenshot ‘mock-ups’ would have helped convey what it is exactly that CompanyCAVU offers.

REVIEW: I like your videos! My students have used PowToon before (we have an education subscription) but I have not seen it used as effectively as you have here. Well done! As for your Netflix Education venture: In my school, we have AppleTVs connected to our digital projectors, and one 'app' that pops up, that students always ask me to open, is Netflix. While I sometimes indulge (such as during advisory periods, or lunch) and put on something that they're interested in watching (within reason!), I think the ability to load up educational content only, would be excellent. I really like the idea that the content will be curated as well (and subdivided into categories). The fact that ratings will come from only other educators as well will help curate the content globally. I have been saying for some time that movies, TV, and music will be increasingly subscription-based (like Spotify and Netflix), and it’s about time that educational content goes the same direction. The market is huge! I do wonder about the teacher-based payment system though: did I read this right? Schools pay based on the number of teachers? This could mean larger schools are shut out due to prohibitive costs...Wouldn’t a per-school account make more sense? I would also like to see the addition of student interactivity - one of my recent MET courses (ETEC 533) incorporated a commenting system into a video (a timeline appeared below the video, with little hashmarks showing where the instructor, in one colour, and students, in another colour, commented and asked questions. For student-created videos there was also a third section, so that the creators could respond). Perhaps Netflix Ed videos could be embedded into course websites (like an LMS) with the added ability for students to add comments or questions (at specific time-stamps in the video) in a separate section below/beside the video. This would add an element of interactivity and engagement and perhaps make lessons using these videos more student-centred.

REVIEW Hi Chris. I think you’ve managed to find one of the biggest ‘holes’ in the online learning ecosystem: assessment. I taught a blended ICT 8 class at my current school, and creating authentic online assessments was probably one of my biggest issues. The fact that students can log in at any time, and complete quizzes with a tutor (or parents, or classmates), makes the creation of authentic assessments difficult. The course currently has a ‘pass/fail’ system in place, and while this works for a Grade 8 class, it may not be sufficient for a course in higher education, where a more detailed level of summative assessment results may be required. While the venture you propose does solve some of these issues (the fact that new questions are being generated all the time, so ‘repeats’ are rare), if there are opportunities for students to ‘game the system’, they will. Perhaps questions could be sent out in a time-sensitive fashion (they must be answered in “x” minutes), and/or they must log in from a specific computer at a designated location (university computer lab, or a ‘polling station’-type place) to prevent multiple participants answering questions for one person. Of course, all of this adds to the ‘bottom line’, and one of the main reasons for this venture is its cost-saving measures. I’m not sure if there is a solution to this problem, but I’m not sure calculus and economics (courses that require mainly numerical responses) is the way forward. Perhaps essays (using turnitin.com, to reduce plagiarism) still need to be read and assessed by humans after all if we want authentic student evaluation...

FEEDBACK: While I think anything that cuts down on paper transactions between schools and parents is a good thing, I am concerned about possible privacy infractions that may be associated with such a system. What is to prevent unauthorized access to student grades, or health issues? You mention a parent ‘sign-in’ but many students at our school are currently able to access parent accounts (parents give their children passwords. Yes, you read that right). At my school, we are often faced with parents who ‘helicopter’ and micro-manage their children. An app like this would give them access to information that may be better kept between teachers and students (like homework), or between student services/counselling, and students (mental health, family abuse, etc). Opening lines of communication to parents is great, but sometimes there needs to be firm boundaries as far as information flow.

REVIEW: I think the biggest selling point of this venture is its ability to create a virtual reality for a low cost, using some of the newer technology available, like low-cost VR headsets and 360 degree webcams. It’s one thing to have students passively watch a live video feed from a far-off place, in which their viewpoint is constrained only to whatever the camera happens to be pointing towards. It is something else entirely to give someone the ability to look around and truly immerse themselves into the chosen environment. As a biology teacher and someone who is fascinated with the natural world, with a specific interest in evolution and Darwin, I proposed a trip to the Galapagos several years ago. The costs were prohibitively expensive, and I was not able to get enough students to sign up, so the trip fell through. If there were instead, a *virtual* trip, using your system, we would have been able to schedule a trip time, and have students ‘plug in’ to ‘visit’ the Galapagos from my school in Vancouver. While the real trip would have cost quite a bit more, there is one major factor that “Let’s Go There!” lacks: interactivity. Yes, students can ‘look around’. But part of the experience of going somewhere with a guide is the ability to ask questions. Perhaps a live ‘chat’ (which could be problematic if done by voice, due to lag issues or multiple participants speaking at once) could work. If students are plugged into headsets it would be tricky to have them type questions (voice-to-text?). Maybe a queued question stream via microphone & tour guide headset could be implemented?