kendra achonwa

Hi again! I came across an app called Career Karma, where you can get connected to a community of peers, mentors, coaches and resources in the tech industry as well as take free courses and coding bootcamps. It reminded me of your venture. Might be worth checking out. Cheers.

Hello Brian! I agree with Gregory that this is a great idea that has potential, but perhaps not within the current education market. As a principal looking to reduce some expenses, it is more appealing to have prospective teachers conduct mock lessons (in summer school or extracurricular classes) as opposed to purchasing expensive VR equipment and paying monthly subscription fees. Is a monthly subscription fee necessary? How often do schools hire new teachers? You did mention that InnerVision VR can also recreate simulated environments such as parent-teacher conferences, collaborative staff meetings, etc. which is an attractive feature as these scenarios are functions of a teachers role and it may be beneficial to witness during the decision making process before hiring a new teacher. However, I'm not sure that these features alone would help me truly ensure that I've hired the best candidate for the job. I think if, as Jessica mentioned, the software can also be adapted for professional development then teachers can maintain ongoing training throughout the school year and the monthly subscription fee would make more sense. I can visualize the use and successful integration of this technology for hiring purposes (or otherwise) in certain industries in the future. For example, as VR becomes more affordable for low/middle income families and schools have already acquired VR technology for everyday/teaching purposes, InnerVisions VR could connect out of province/state/country candidates with hiring organizations for virtual interviews and or role-play in simulated environments like classrooms. Perhaps InnerVisions VR could consider a direction of producing the largest database of simulated environments/settings/scenarios for various industries for hiring/training/professional development purposes. Just a thought :) Great job, I really enjoyed digging deeper into your venture.

Hello Carla :) I currently study in UBC's Adult Learning and Global Change program and recently finished a course called Work and Learning where we explored the changing relationship between labour and education due to globalization and other vast technological changes in our modern society. We focused particularly on Canadian, Swedish and South African national contexts as this is where students from our partnering universities are collaborating from. We read an article recently called "Steering South Africa’s knowledge economy" (https://mg.co.za/article/2017-12-15-00-steering-south-africas-knowledge-economy/) and other academic articles regarding trajectories of SA economy and labour market. It mentions in this particular article that the Science Forum of South Africa "is a forum working to advance pan-African co-operation in science and technology to advance regional integration, peace, social cohesion, inclusive development and global partnership ... that will move the youth of [the African] continent to exploit opportunities that exist in scientific careers”. This was just an introduction to basically say that, I can see the current market gap you are trying to address by joining in on the effort to promote Africa's growth and development in STEM fields. Kiota aims to "inspire and assist" in the development of passion and mindset for STEM in young learners. I agree that this is a key step in the movement, but perhaps it can even be further separated from the "mentorship" phase. I'm just thinking in terms of the fundamental differences between the ways children and adults learn and how older, more mature learners might benefit more from direct mentorship. However, I do see potential for Kiota to encourage a social movement and possibly even influence the reform of STEM curriculum for elementary aged children, I'd just like to know more about the types of resources that would be available to these schools. Are these mentors only requested by schools on an as-needed-basis? Are the scientist mentors volunteers? One barrier I noticed that you did not mention was how Kiota may overcome inequality as mentioned by Ashman (2018): “Today in South Africa, as elsewhere, education is embedded in hierarchies of power and implicated in reproducing those hierarchies of power... and that the education system fails the poor, primarily” (p. 101) due to lack of investment in education for the majority. Lastly, you mentioned some organizations that you will approach for funding, and I feel that this is a more suitable direction rather than approaching private investors as it is very difficult to visualize a ROI for this venture. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed your work, great job!!

Hello Gregory, thank you for sharing your venture! I found your idea particularly interesting because it reminded me of a business leadership program I attended in my last semester of high school where we studied outside of the traditional classroom, took trips to Toronto and New York, and completed an end of the year project where we were to design a fundraiser for a cause of our choice. The structure of our fundraiser had lots of similar elements to the Market In The Middle program (including developing skills such as communication, critical thinking, financial planning and decision making). The potential for grade 8 students to gain practical, real-world knowledge through MITM is crystal clear. I wonder if this program may be better suited for high school students? I mention this because as an EVA I see an opportunity to expand this venture even further. As Anouk mentioned, the program could be designed for multiple levels, beginning with beginner in grade 9, providing students the opportunity to take the program each year, ending with advanced business in grade 12. Whether the students are in grade 8 or 9-12, would this be a compulsory course? Extracurricular? An elective? I can definitely see many students getting excited about a class like this, however, if it was compulsory, I can think of some students that may not enjoy the front-line marketing work. You did mention that an investment may result in an increase in student participation and larger groups could be divided into different roles, with some focusing on the website while others focus on the creation of the product. I think this is a great idea for meeting different interests of different students. Maybe those who are interested can give speeches on why they think they should be the CEO of the term! The main thing I would like to know as an investor would be, how much would these things cost me: 3D printers, laser engraver/cutter, storage and organization systems, and training programs for educators (which I think will be necessary in order to expand across school boards)? The program sounds excellent but I can't invest just yet until I know how much my ROI is and where it would come from! Also, if it is in anyway possible, I would recommend transferring some information from the "elevator pitch" to the MITM website/venture pitch, it took me a bit longer than 1-2 to get though the first Prezi. I know I had lots to say but I see great potential in this. Thank you! Great job. PS, what do students do with the money they make!?

Thank you for bringing up such a thoughtful discussion in this thread! As others have mentioned, in light of the current situation, there has been a drastic increase in the use of virtual technology and facilitation of online education due to closures across K-12 schools all the way to higher education institutions. In addition to studying for my masters online, I have been working online in ESL/EFL training for the past year as well, so I am fortunate that my situation has not been drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, you asked how we can share our skills as online educators to help others, and I thought I would share some information passed on from some friends and fellow colleagues... some of them have been offering their assistance to parents who are homeschooling/remotely/digitally educating their children if they are in need of clarification about anything that has been assigned to their child(ren), or if these parents are in need of any more resources, they would be happy to provide them and answer any other questions as best as they can. For example, they have backgrounds in ECE - grade 6 with specialization in reading, so they are providing literacy resources to maintain/improve young learners reading levels at home. It is very inspiring to see others stepping up during these times and doing anything they can to help!

Hi James, we appreciate you taking the time to give us some valuable feedback! We will definitely be making some changes including rewording some of the content. We are glad that you found it useful for your own professional practice. Cheers!

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Hi Amanda! I can appreciate your observations because for me personally, I enjoy learning via videos because I'm more of a audio-visual kind of learner. We tried our best to implement different forms of microlearning (videos, infographs, quizzes) for demonstration purposes and because various forms has the potential to reach a more diverse range of learners!

Hello Mel! It's interesting to hear your comment about how the motions of Prezi made you feel. In editor mode, we are able to adjust the transition motions of the presentation, however, this is not an option for viewers. Seems like you've pointed out a drawback of Prezi technology itself and might even be worth letting them know about! Glad you enjoyed the OER, and hope you're feeling better.

Hello Manize, we are glad that you enjoyed the OER! Thank you for your suggestions for improvement. In regards to the Docebo report, I had to sign up on their website in order to download it (and everyone else would have had to as well if I linked it), and I tried to input it as a PDF on Prezi but had some difficulties with that. But it's good to hear others experiences so we know exactly what works and what doesn't so we can make the necessary changes. Thank you!!