Gordon Chiu

Hi Jordan! AR and Pokemon are definitely the hot topic of our time. I certain think that you are on to something here with LBL but overall I think the scope of the project is too wide and does not hit it out of the park for me. First of all, with regards to Pokemon Go, although its mechanics are GPS and AR, many people stop using the AR feature because it drains batteries too quickly. This is another challenge that you may or may not have mentioned that will affect the usefulness of AR. Secondly, thinking like a teacher, I'm not sure if I would really want to search through VR to find lesson plans. Time is money as they say and most teachers simply want fast access to quality plans. As an EVA, I think the part about VR for field trips has the most potential out of all the functionalities.

Hi Sheila! I must say that was infinitely impressed by your pitches. They were both very concise and utilized helpful graphics. Your concept certainly has potential to make learning more experiential and interactive. However, your presentation did raise a couple thoughts in my mind. Besides the companies you mentioned, I think QR codes offer competition to your concept and they extend more readily to the real world. I don't think I know anyone who has connected their device to a similar beacon type device to receive information, but QR codes have become ubiquitous in society and are easy to generate and manage. As for the implementation and test of your EduBeacon concept, I totally agree testing it in a school board would be a good move. Although, the TDSB would not be my first choice. I would more likely approach more well funded or technology minded boards/schools like the YRDSB or an independent like CIS Ontario.

Hi Briar! I rather enjoyed your elevator pitch and proposal. I also have experience in online conferences and event management so this presentation did catch my attention from the get-go. However, a couple major points kept gnawing at me as I read your pitch. First of all, I am curious why would you intentionally restrict your services to only one market (Journals)? For me, less is not more, especially when you are just starting a business. You have a lot of experience with online conferences, why not open it up to as many educational organizations and sectors as possible. Secondly, I did not see any mention of your competition. Are there any other companies that offer consulting services similar to your concept? It would be interesting to see how you would differentiate yourself from any other companies that may exist.

Hi Mark! To start I must say that I thought your pitches were very well crafted with appropriate graphics. In terms of your Notepound concept, I find it a little difficult to get on board. You mention there is no other product on the market that has the functionality that you mentioned for mobile devices. I would agree, but I'm not sure how many students would prefer taking notes, drawing images, making annotations, moving objects, on the screen and interface of a mobile device. Cell phones are obviously not ideal for these tasks, but even iPads and tablets are seldom used by students above Grade 6 as they eventually get frustrated by the speed/power and the lack of a decent keyboard interface. If we move Notepound to a laptop environment, applications like Microsoft OneNote can do all the functions that you mentioned in your presentation including audio annotations and layering. For me, an application that seemlessly integrates mobile devices with Microsoft OneNote or Google Docs with the functionalities that you mentioned would be more interesting to me. I think you were alluding to that in the end of your presentation.

Hi Michael! Thanks for you venture pitch on YourText. I must say that there are some parts of your concept that I like a lot. This includes the dynamic content, the differentiated text, the integration of other forms of media, and the incentive model base on YouTube. However, your concept seems to have some sticking points that may cause issues. First of all, I'll have to agree with Erin the the OER nature of your concept will introduce issues around quality, bias, integrity, and plagiarism. The last point could be disastrous as publishing companies could be ruthless with your budding new venture and drag you through court system. Secondly, I must agree with Noan that the competitive analysis is somewhat lacking. Besides, Opentextbook, Livemargin, and Socialbook, some big players like Apple and Amazon are also battling in the digital textbook space. For instance, Apple has their iTunes U, iBooks and iBooks Author products and has a substantial hold over the educational market share. Ultimately, I do think you are on to something here but there just needs to be some refinements and tweeks here are there.

Hi Jesse! Thanks so much for you venture pitch! I can associate with your pitch because our school is undergoing a lot of infrastructure changes including the implementation of a new 1-to-1 program in the Middle School and a new LMS for the entire school. There are a couple points in your pitch that I would like to address and offer some constructive feedback. First of all, in terms of your competition, there is an LMS that is quite similar to your concept called Edsby. The interface of Edsby is similar to Facebook, it has course management functions similar to Edmodo, and its pricing structure is around $5 per student per year. You may want to check out their website and YouTube videos. Secondly, when talking about a software based, device agnostic, cost effective and highly mobile tool for the classroom, one cannot deny the presence of Google Apps for Education. Many of the functions that you mentioned could be handled using a combination of their free and integrated tools. It would have been interesting to see how you would position SchoolBook to a GAFE school.

Hi Cole! Thank you for sharing your real-life venture pitch with us! Like the others have commented, your passion on this venture is readily apparent. I appreciate that your ideas do not focus solely on textbooks and incorporate other methods and modes of learning. Textbooks are gradually disappearing from our schools as technology, inquiry, problem, and project-based learning become more popular. In terms of your target market, certainly Canada has a population of over 36.2 million, but your actual market would be Canadian K-12 schools which would be substantially smaller. As well, I'm not an expert EVA, but I don't think a $10,000 investment would be enough to start a small publishing company. Anyhow, thanks again for your pitch!

Hi Chris! Thanks for putting into your pitch, the thoughts that I have always had about Google Classroom. You touched upon the functionalities that I love about Google Classroom, and also many of the opportunities to improve the application. Since your were acting as an intrapraneur for Google, it would have been nice to hear you discuss how the time and money spent on development of Google Classroom would help Google succeed and grow their business. According to some sources, Office 365 is now surpassing Google Apps for Education in K-12 schools in the United States. Perhaps the new and improved Google Classroom could be incentive for these schools to turn back to Google.

Hi Aaron! Let me start of by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed both your elevator and long pitches. Both were very refined and truly made me understand your concept very quickly. From my interactions with teachers and students, I totally understand your feelings about homework and the challenges in making it engaging, fun, and authentic. From the standpoint of an EVA, I would have some difficulty investing in your concept for a couple reasons. The feature set of the Framework app seems somewhat lacking; teachers assign concepts and students respond using pictures and video. Learning Management Systems and some of the more advanced assessment/ePortfolio apps can do the exact same things and then some. Most educators that I talk with are looking for tools that either "do it all" or have strong LTI integration. That being said, your strategy to offer it free for the first year is a smart strategy to create interest. But as an EVA, I could not invest in Framework until the results of the first year are known.

Hi Noan, thanks so much for your feedback. The IP issues did cross my mind but I opted to exclude them in the end; As a role played Chief Product Officer, I though it was a separate issue and not completely relevant for my pitch to Netflix. As for the per student model, I also considered that idea but decided on the per teacher model as my concept was teacher focused.