Reflection

How did EA Assist become a concept for development?

When brainstorming for this assignment I tried to think of some of current and past experiences to decide if there was an idea that could really help and make a difference in education. Having been a Special Needs teacher in the past and having seen how difficult the job of an Educational Assistant is, I thought an App to help EAs in their job would be a interesting idea. My wife who is an Autism specialist also told me that many EAs that she has encountered seem to be very overwhelmed in their jobs and lack the necessary skills to implement the support strategies she is provided them. I was also really intrigued by the concept of Microlearning and mobile learning from my fellow classmates OERs and thought that this type of learning would be a great fit for EAs who are really busy and don't have a lot of time on their hands to keep up their training. This is basically how the EA Assist app idea got started.

What are the strengths of this product?

The intentions for this product is that it will be an easy to use and very accessible application. In a dream scenario, I think the app would be great if EAs had access to it 24/7 because it could really be a handy tool for them. There is so much that EAs need to know and on many occasions teachers don't have the time to instruct EAs on what they need to do. I think EAs often end up trying to just figure stuff out on their own but this is makes it really challenging especially if they are not seeing much success. This app can give EAs quick access to information that they can use on the go even when they are having difficulties during the school day.

Another strength of this product is that there is not many products like it out there, specifically when it comes to products for EAs. Yes, an EA could just search the internet for answers to their questions but it can be really difficult to search through all of the information that's out there to find the best advice. Having the best strategies and information in a centralized location would makes things much easier.

EA Assist is also relatively inexpensive for school districts to purchase and being able to collaborate with the experts in child development will help make sure that the information is accurate and the proposed strategies will work.

What are the weaknesses of this product?

This was a challenging assignment and I think this product has a few weaknesses. Being a product that lacks competition might seem good initially but it might be hard to sway investors into a new idea. This also makes it difficult to put a price on the product and service because it doesn't have anything to compare it with. As a company we wouldn't want to start off undervaluing it because it is often times difficult to adjust the price in the future.

Overall Thoughts

This was a difficult assignment because there are so many Ed Tech products out there which makes it difficult to come up with an original idea. However, I was able to finally find a venture that I think could do well if there was a good team to develop the product. I think as educators we often have good ideas for new products and services but it is challenging to get started and initiate out own ventures especially when we are so busy focusing on our students. They say that it sometimes just takes a good idea and a bit of luck to have a successful venture but it really takes a lot of time and effort. Its not impossible though, as there are many success stories out there. This course has definitely provided me with quality information and a couple of useful tools that if I was to start my own venture I think I would be at a good starting place.

Note: This website was developed by Grant MacLeod as an assignment for the course ETEC 522 Ventures in Learning Technologies in the MET program at the University of British Columbia,Canada. November 2020.