Jonathan Nilson

Oooops...meant Scott!

Sigh....words are my downfall. Totally agree with the need to tighten things up and the use of finances! Thanks, Cassy

Hi Brian. Thanks for you comments! I was leaning towards a combination of systems. The nice thing about 360 videos is that they can be viewed fully immersed in a VR environment or can be accessed via just a device and YouTube-esque streaming services with the viewer just using the mouse to look around. The idea would be a kindergarten class with 10 iPads would be able to view the streams just as easily if less immersed than a high school class or home school student with a set of Google Cardboards and a personal device.

Hi Jessica. I appreciate your suggestions. I did consider subscriptions briefly, but this led me to conclude that there would be a need for a series of regularly scheduled events, occurring at set times throughout the year to ensure subscribers got their money's worth as opposed to a as "opportunity presents itself"model. While perhaps a minor detail, I was worried that I would not have enough supporting information to explain or justify this model (how much to charge, how to pay for presenters as opposed to pro bono participants, etc). I have to admit I struggled a bit with how much of this venture proposal needed to be fully justified and how much I could chalk up to role playing. But in turn, a line about the rationale for non-profit versus subscription would have been useful for the readers. Thanks for your comments! ~Jon

Hi Brian. Thanks for the comments. You raise an important issue about school/classroom/student equity and by extension how it might impact my venture. I will be honest that this was one of the areas I was debating about including in the pitch, especially as I personally think many people underestimate VR's accessibility, but I was concerned that I did not have enough space to include it. From my own experience, I know my school district has provided a set of Google Cardboards (33) for every single high school. When combined with the 94% rate of student device ownership by age 14 in our district (this is even with a significant portion of our schools being located in areas classified as economically challenged or "inner city"), the use of VR would certainly be possible on at least a class wide basis. Further, with the cost of Cardboards being so low (I've seen them as low as $15 each), we have received a commitment from our district that they will purchase more if we demonstrate their regular use. While this is just one urban district's experience, I would argue that this at least demonstrates the feasibility of this venture concept. That being said, your idea of providing hardware is intriguing. I know one of the sets of Cardboards our school received were labeled with "SESQUI" and were associated with Canada 150 project by that name. Part of the funding scheme could therefore include the offer of providing one base set of hardware, with space for advertising and sponsorship logos. Thanks for the ideas and discussion points! ~Jon

Hi Robert. You are absolutely right. A quick addition of how the streams and captured videos would be branded with the sponsors' logos or other information, such as a short commercial at the beginning as you would see on PBS, would have certainly made the funding portion more complete and given greater reason for sponsors to commit. Thanks for the idea! I will add that in before the end of week 13 for completeness sake.

Hi Jessica. I thought your presentation was clean, well paced and ticked the required boxes. You identified your target market, thoroughly outlined the current market potential for educational apps and clearly indicated how your product varied from its competitors. I was particularly impressed with how you linked your product to new curricular requirements in BC and in turn highlighted the investment opportunities presented by implementation funding for this curriculum change. You kept my attention throughout both the elevator and venture pitches and I understood what you were trying to sell and why. An area that stood out for me where I wished there was a bit more data was how your requested funding of $88,000 would be utilized. While you mention changes such as expanding your app to the android platform and becoming associated with a citizen science site, it wasn’t exactly clear how this would occur - maybe acquiring and maintaining new development and marketing/PR staff? I also wonder if your app was disruptive enough to the current market. While you clearly mention that it combines all the features of existing apps in one package, is the convenience of not having to use two apps enough to differentiate your product? Is there another element that currently does not exist that could be included, perhaps the ability to connect/disseminate the images, video and data collected with your app with others via social media or YouTube (although I recognize the FOIPPA concerns with this)? I thought you did a very good job overall and appreciated how concise and well produced your pitches were! Thanks, Jon Nilson.

Hi Dana. Both your elevator and venture pitch do an excellent job of immediately identifying the issues you wish to address with your venture. Further, the manner and degree in which you incorporate reference material to help identify the formal and informal obstacles first nations students face when being educated via a western lens was substantial and informative. You clearly establish a need and then provide a way to help address it. From a details point of view, you seem to hit all the major elements of a venture, from establishing your financial target to identifying your competitors and their relative definciences. Even as a non-profit, you identify how some revenue might be generated via advertising and speaking engagements – something I failed to do and am now face-palming over. The only area I have a question about is the efficacy of using just videos as a means of delivering your goal. While I think video has tremendous power to deliver a message, it often has to be a part of a broader program to elicit change. Considering the length of our assignment, developing something like that would probably be too ambitious, but maybe mentioning how your video could be incorporated into perhaps a mandatory BC-wide professional development day on First Nations learning, or become a mandatory part of teacher training programs might be useful. Overall though, I am very much enjoyed your pitches! Thanks, Jon Nilson

Hi Robert. I found your presentations to be quite engaging. In particular I appreciated your commitment to role-playing and taking on the persona of an entrepreneur/intrapreneur in both your elevator and venture pitches. The fact that your venture pitch appeared to be more of a live presentation (animation not withstanding) of your idea rather than a packaged presentation or description, showed an understanding of this assignment that may have escaped me. Further, your focus on the venture element, whether the investment numbers or the links to already successful parent ventures, added to the authenticity of the pitch experience. The financial side is clearly something you have spent time considering in depth. An area that I would have liked more detail on is why AppSheet Scholar is a disrupter in the LMS field. While I understood the argument that there is still plenty of space to grow in the LMS market with many schools not yet adopting them, I was still a bit fuzzy about how AppSheet Scholar is different. Is its capacity to create apps able to address problems that no other LMS can? What exactly are these problems, or are the apps simply another means to deliver content and illustrate learning, albeit in a custom manner? Perhaps a couple more sentences briefly, yet clearly outlining a scenario of where and how AppSheet Scholar could be used would fully tip investors over the edge. Thanks for a thought-provoking presentation! Jon Nilson

Hey folks. Thanks for a focused, meaningful week! I thought your choice of activities and means of delivering content were effective, relevant and ejoyable. I especially appreciate any opportunity to explore multiple tools and assess which is best for a particular context. I also appreciate the effort that went into scheduling our collaboration time and giving everyone a chance to contribute. My takeaway was influenced by this last bit: if I were now assessing which e-text/digital book creator was best suited for my context it would be the one that most easily allowed for collaboration, with real time updates and the ability to track changes. Once again, thanks for a great OER! ~Jon Nilson