Mary S
After completing degrees in English and Law 20 years ago, and spending 15 years working in adult education, I have joined the MET program to pursue multiple personal and professional interests.
Critters – the Citizen Science Platform
My original concept is a platform that will make citizen science more readily available for not-for-profits and the public. I am pitching it to a corporate sponsor, something like a auto company or other large entity that might need a bit of “greening.” Some of this is imaginary, of course, since I don’t have any […]
Re-Post from Sept. 30. Gideon Stein, Lightsail.
Gideon Stein, Founder and CEO, LightSail LightSail seeks to engage readers in K-12 and to accelerate literacy growth with a tablet-based approach that combines multiple features for both student and teacher. LightSail has over 80,000 popular titles in its library, and each reader has access to a personalized library based on his or her reading […]
Week 12 -Activity 3. How to Work with Developers
This is my first attempt to make an infographic – it seems pretty basic compared to some! It was a good exercise, as I expect it is a skill I will need to develop. I used Piktochart to create a basic flow chart for working with a software developer. It was quite easy, if occasionally […]
Week 9 – Activity 3
I was interested to see such a low score on the “provides assessment and evaluation” criteria. In our group we have discussed formative assessment apps as a possible topic as there a quite a few out there. With the advent of big data and ever broader analytics, I expect the technology for assessment is going […]
Safer Ocean Systems, Nanaimo BC
Safer Ocean Systems (“SOS”) is one of several providers of Transport Canada approved marine safety and maritime operations courses on Vancouver Island. Their courses are all provided face-to-face, which is mandated by Transport Canada at this point—it avoids the problem of someone “sharing their password” to have someone else do the work. Most of their […]
Analyst Report – Citizen Science
Hi Everyone, I went a bit of a different direction and evaluated a part of the non-profit sector involving citizen science applications. I approached it essentially as if I was advising a corporate donor of some sort . In terms of reflections, I found this to be a difficult approach. First it is rather […]
LightSail-Gideon Stein
Gideon Stein, Founder and CEO, LightSail LightSail seeks to engage readers in K-12 and to accelerate literacy growth with a tablet-based approach that combines multiple features for both student and teacher. LightSail has over 80,000 popular titles in its library, and each reader has access to a personalized library based on his or […]
More Ideas for Opportunity Activation
Hi everyone, This summer I spent some time helping a non-profit trying to do some capacity building–only to find there is very little support out there for a non-profit to do so. In any event, while much of my research was around grants, here are two more potentially helpful sites: Charity Village: as it sounds, […]
Hello from Courtenay!
I just starting the program and am very excited, though a bit nervous to be starting with two electives. Briefly, I completed my degrees in English and Law at UBC and practiced law for a little while before happily ending up in adult education. I taught at private colleges for 15 years, spending the last […]
6 Dec
FEEDBACK: Laurie, a great idea. Secure sharing is going to be an increasing concern. Perhaps even a demand in these days of hacking and privacy concerns. I think there is a viable business here.
6 Dec
FEEDBACK: I like your product. At the college I taught at for many years our only option was traditional paper lesson plans (Paper!). Having a product that would help me both plan and deliver lessons would have been brilliant! That said,I think competition is brewing, We need to get this out quickly before the moment is lost - I'm in!
6 Dec
REVIEW: Cathy, great product. Timely and, it seems, necessary. Mu biggest hesitations are around privacy and permanence. Who moderates the portfolios? Is it another job for already busy teachers? I think your biggest challenge will be adoption. If you get BC to buy in, then you are away.. I think a school by school approach would be too fractured and not sustainable. Overall, I like it, but I don't think I will invest my 522 dollars.
6 Dec
FEEDBACK: Hi David, your idea was fun an exciting. I enjoyed the videos and the concept of immersion in history is a great one. Your own personal Tardis I guess. Like everyone, I was worried about the "on hiatus" part. If this project is really looking for investors it would need to show some progress, I think. I would at least want to know that there was a developer ready to go ahead and that there was a plan mapped out.
6 Dec
FEEDBACK: Great idea Laura. As a bilingual country, we are not very fluent. I am not sure that an LMS will be a quick fix, but I think it will be a great start for supporting and promoting Francophone language and culture across Canada. You have my imaginary charitable donation!
6 Dec
REVIEW: I am interested in your product. While things were sometimes vague, on the whole it sounds a bit like what many community colleges teach (e.g. Executive Assistant Certificate), but presumably less expensive and more focused on a particular employer. I think there is room out there as employers are less and less willing to spend money on training. However, I think there is a lot of competition and you will need to move quickly to grab a market share. There seems to be a good team in place and a plan....let's go make some money!
6 Dec
FEEDBACK:I have little knowledge about the k-12 market and the new BC curriculum, but I think there is potential here. As previously mentioned, I believe it is a few years off, but VR is on the horizon. No, you can't learn to ride a horse (ours are shuddering at the thought), but I think VR could be a good introduction to the real world which students don't get a lot of anymore. Is there any budget for field trips these days? I would need to know more to invest, but there is certainly interest.
6 Dec
FEEDBACK.. This is a hard one. I think it is very worthy and should have due consideration. A not-for-profit model might suit this best, which would then allow the government(s) to get behind it. There has been a fair amount of coverage recently (in Canada) of the high prices of food in the North. This would be a great time to get things going.
6 Dec
FEEDBACK: I can certainly see the benefits of the app, Like Osayma, though, I wonder why it is iOS exclusive.I think BYOD is only going to increase in these days of tight educational budgets. With any app I would deploy it across all markets...I just read this morning that windows phones are on the increase. It is hard to guess where things will go next.
6 Dec
REVIEW:: I loved the excitement your pitch generated. I think it is a great product. As and EVA, though, I would want to know what kids think of their teacher wandering around in a slightly scary pair of glasses. Would that float? And would teachers be ready to make the admission that they can't remember everyone's reading level or behaviouoral problems? Let's get a focus group or two together and I will consider investing.
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