Five Popular Posts Of The Month

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Invest in EdTech and disrupt K12 education.

Invest in EdTech and disrupt K12 education. Yes, it is possible.

There are people who want to make the World better. They make clean the environment, they feed the poor, they bring textbooks to schools, and do much more. I admire those people. But this project is for those who want to make the World different.

This is a culmination of previous publications about Ed Tech and  EdTech.

People go in EdTech for money. They have a very primitive view about education - what it is, what it is about, what it is for, how it is done (an actual education). That is why they all stop short of what is needed, and that why they fail

But that does not have to be a case. Hence, this post.

Instead of reading, there is a short video with this presentation.
Also, links to PDFs:
Hi everybody. I’m Dr. Valentin Voroshilov.

I have a wide and deep experience in different areas of the field of education. You don’t need to read this slide, it is an excerpt from my generic resume available online.


In this presentation, some slides will be followed by a page like this one, taken from the text of my proposal. You don’t have to read it, this is be a link to the PDF of the full text.


As you know, there are many tutoring services available online.


They all suck. They show no vision, they are too narrowly focused. There is a way to conquer this market and to become the dominant company.

Phase 1. Developing an app. Say, you have a question, you start the app, it connects you with a tutor and starts running. When you are done your card is charged based on the number of minutes, or even second you spent with the tutor.  
 
This is a relevant page from the full proposal.

What makes tutoring expensive? People. Replace 70 % of tutors with AI and drop your prices and the market is yours.
 
Another page.


Now you have a large pool of customers. Offer them new services, offer them courses in demand – prerecorded and streamed live.

  And one more page.
You know how to teach, and you have data that proves that. Schools will be happy to use your help tutoring struggling students and managing classes based on your data.

A page with more details on phase 4.

With your experience in helping teachers to teach you enter the field of teacher professional development.
With the vast amount of learning content already adjusted for many different students, and with the experience in teacher preparation, the next step is to open an online high school where the content will be structured to accommodate individual features of students.
The next natural step is opening an online middle school.

And then – a college for teachers.

Adding reviewing and consulting services makes the company an “Amazon of Education”.

Of course, all phases should begin their development at the same time, but different time periods will require different focus.


Thank you. One may wonder why would I send this project in the open? To everyone?

Well, for about two years I’ve been trying to reach out to different organizations like funds and venture capital firms, as well as individuals.
I would send a letter asking for a 10-minute face-to-face meeting. And only once I was able to get a “thank you, but no” response. All others just ignored me.
I’m an experienced professional in the field, with the evidence that I’m smart and inventive. But, evidently, those people have no curiosity. And I decided that I do not want to work with people like that. Because people who have no curiosity also have no vision and not capable of taking a risk. With this video I am fishing for a person who has a vision. If you think you are such person, feel free to contact me.

Bye, everybody.

And thank you, World, for our existence. 
Dr. Valentin Voroshilov

Open Classroom Initiative: changing the science and practice of education

Open Classroom Initiative: 
changing the science and practice of education. 
Some people write what they think about education. 
I write what I know about it.


There are people who want to make the World better. They clean the environment, they feed the poor, they bring textbooks to schools, and do much more. I admire those people.

And this project is for those who want to make the World different.
The only people who can disrupt and transform teaching are teachers! This simple, I'd say "trivial" maxima is the guiding principle for everyone who is deeply and truly concerned about education.

In this post you find the slides and transcripts of this video presentation, that would take 5 minutes 20 seconds of your time :)

The full description of the project has been posted in a different post here.
_______________
Hello, I'm Dr. ValentinVoroshilov           

I have a wide and deep professional experience in different areas of the field of education. And I believe that being a teacher is in my genes.


I am a good physics teacher. And it is not just my personal opinion. I have a solid proof for this statement. For example, this is a quote from one of the recent student evaluations: “I hated physics before taking this course, and now after taking both 105 and 106 with Mr. V, I actually really enjoy it. He is one of the best teachers I've ever had. Thank you".

I've got about 10 more pages of positive feedback from my students. This web link leads to that feedback: https://www.cognisity.how/2018/10/AtoZ.html

I also have an experience in the field of teacher professional development and educational consulting.

In that capacity, I firmly believe that no matter what new technologies will bring to classrooms, the quality of education has been, is, and always will be defined by how many good and highly qualified teachers teach our students.

 One of the strongest motivators for a teacher to grow is to have his or her classroom open for observations to the parents of his or her students, to administrations, to fellow teachers, and basically to anybody who has time and interest to watch his or her lessons.

That is why I invite everyone who feels the same to join or support my “Open Classroom” initiative (https://www.cognisity.how/2018/12/school.html). All teachers participating in the initiative will allow their lessons to be captured and posted online, or even viewed streamed live.

The initiative will need some hardware, such as web cameras, servers, Wi-Fi routers, DVRs, and also various processing and editing software, Internet and cloud services. The initiative needs to form a team for helping teachers to be better prepared for their classes, helping them with purchasing materials for their lessons, with consulting on the best practices they can use to help students learn.

From every participating teacher, it is not just recorded videos of lessons that will become available for viewers, but also the teaching materials they prepare and use, comments and analysis of what worked and what didn't work, and recommendations on how a teacher could improve his or her teaching practice.


 
To address privacy concerns a special software will be used to blur the faces of students (and some teachers).
The “Open Classroom” initiative will lead to the development of a library of lessons with the corresponding materials useful for every teacher anywhere around the world. Teachers from any country can participate and join the Open Classroom initiative.

But the benefits of the initiative will go beyond just teachers who participate. Every teacher will be able to compare his or her practice with the practices of fellow teachers teaching the same subjects in the same grade. The library will become an open source of the invaluable research material for every scientist in the field of education.


A group of parents, teachers, principals, or district administrators need to join together to help propelling this initiative. Anyone who is interested can contact me:
Email: valbu@bu.edu



And for me, it would be hypocritical to call on teachers to open their classrooms but hide my own lessons. That is why for the last two years I have been posting my own lectures on YouTube. All the videos are free, as well as all the materials I used for the course (except the exams). Soon I begin my regular Summer semester, and all my lectures (M-F 8:30 to 10 am) will be streamed live via the Periscope (on Twitter), and then posted on YouTube.

Thank you, and thank you World for our existence. 
____________________
From this links you can also download pdf files of the texts:

slides:  http://www.gomars.xyz/openclassroom.pdf

narration: http://www.gomars.xyz/openclassroompresentation.pdf

a full physics course: 

https://www.cognisity.how/2019/01/physics.html