Reflection

Background

My primitive experience in entrepreneurship was a failed wallet business, otherwise I have always been happy to help others out in their business in what ways I could. Ten years in business operations and logistics taught me the importance of lean operations supported by strong infrastructure and well trained staff. Fast forward to my teaching days and I am able to apply my lessons learned in operations to my classroom, my school and my learning network. Part of my reasoning for taking the MET was to gain more knowledge in the use of educational technology to better understand the systems that could be in place to better support the network.

I have always had a love for technology and have found it incredibly powerful. While living overseas it represented my communication to family and friends at home, and in the classroom it connects students to resources that help them access the curriculum with confidence and independence. Many believe that the correct use of educational technology (Yeung, K.L., Carpenter, S., & Corral, D., 2021) can lead to strong learning outcomes, however the argument remains from many about the overall efficacy of technology in the classroom if used generically or without purpose. Throughout my career(s) I have relied on my own resourcefulness to find answers to problems or to analyze problems from different perspectives. However when it came time to develop an idea or situational content knowledge it was always beneficial to have a well studied colleague to discuss with in order to avoid unforeseen issues. My strength is in putting those resources together to get the best possible outcomes, not necessarily coming up with the original framework, but rather using the pre-existing one and building upon it. This is where the idea was born; bringing the three groups together in the design phase of the tool from the get-go, to give students the tools they deserve and need, through a platform that is symbiotic.

Weaknesses

Relying on my years in business operations where it was part of my role to analyze financials and systems to attempt to lean out the business, I attempted to build out a scaleable, lean venture that had minimal overhead. Without having better access to financial costs it was hard to come to a final break-even number, and as such the true profitability of the venture. I do however think that the pitch spoke to the venture capitalists' needs, to get to the data quickly and see where there is profitability.

Block chain is not new, but is relatively new to me and to the education industry, as such finding relevant costs and support was difficult, but I felt it was pertinent to one of the major questions about my venture; if teachers and developers are involved in something that isn’t at market, how do we know it won’t get copied? Through block chain, all stakeholders can take more comfort that their data is safe. To build out costs on something I wasn’t familiar with was quite difficult as was the implication into the concept.

Competition

It was challenging to find competitors in this space as I felt it was a rather unique idea, however there are communication based software that are quite popular like Slack, MatterMost and Nynja that give the capability of collaboration however they aren’t closed spaces nor manageable by a third party. Major tech conglomerates already serve larger school boards and so might be less inclined to join into this service, and I struggled with a way to make it impossible for them NOT to join up.

Final Thoughts

This was a challenging exercise. While I often think about tools that could support my students, it is usually from that perspective and not from the three perspectives I presented here, so thinking about how to stage this as a venture to someone who might invest in it was quite challenging. I recognize the importance of persuasion, but also the idea of understanding the market now, more than ever. It gave me great insight into why there might be the delay there is in creation of new tools and services for students that are designed specifically for them, there is just so much to consider! I found it interesting that as I began thinking about the project my responses in the courses started to reflect my concept more and more, and the idea of inter-sector collaboration is much needed and perhaps one of the main restraints we see in this industry.