Is It Time To Shake Your Apple Watch?

Is it time to tell time?   If you have an Apple watch, you'll need to give it a shake when you want to see the time.  Does it bug you that the time is not always visible?

Interesting perspective from Professor Kano on three types of product attributes:  delightful, linear and hygienic features.  http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/21/why-youll-hate-the-apple-watch-and-the-important-business-lesson-you-need-to-learn/?ncid=rss&cps=gravity_1462_-3442289070699822020#.zq0tn1:9q29 

LinkedIn plus lynda.com

Professional Network & Courses For Career Advancement

LinkedIn is the premiere professional networking platform. Now with lynda.com and its skill-building content and scalable delivery platform, LinkedIn could possibly morph into something new and possibly disruptive..

Does 1+1 = 3, 4 or 5?

Is LinkedIn plus lynda.com an example of 1 + 1 = 3 (or 4 or 5)?  The combination has the potential to deliver graduate and working professional readiness, skill-building, career growth and differentiation.  I often hear cases where students in college pursue what appear to be "in-demand" areas of study only to find that four years later when they graduate, they do not have the skills and knowledge the workplace needs then.  Wouldn't you rather hire a graduate who has supplemented typical degree requirements with cutting edge, high demand professional know-how that may not be offered in colleges -- yet?

LinkedIn University?

Perhaps LinkedIn with lynda.com will grow outside the box and launch a LinkedIn-branded accredited degree and certificate-granting academic institution.  Would "LinkedIn University" help graduates close the grad vs. job market skill gap?  Would a seamless connection from certificate, credential and other skill-building programs to one's LinkedIn professional profile provide an easy way to differentiate job candidates and provide more targeted human capital searches?  Would it encourage (or create a sense of urgency) for LinkedIn members to enroll in more courses?

LinkedIn could become the ultimate "alumni" network and recruiter.  Think of the typical college "Career Center" on steroids!  LinkedIn University could provide internships, shadowing, job placement, HR search, recruiting and more. 

Differentiated Learning

In my experience developing and launching companies that enhance the skills and careers of working professionals globally (see www.avagmah.com), I have found the best certificate programs are designed for long-term learning.  Effective programs provide ample opportunity for students to apply what they have learned, use technology to deliver as-good-as-being-there hands-on work, enable students to engage in lively/interactive discussions and group or team learning.  Too often, MOOC and other large scale courses are too short to make a lasting and substantial impact.  avagmah.com focused on longer term (1-2 year certificate programs and full MBA degree programs).

There are some great hands-on but still online technology, coding and IT programs (for example,www.learningtree.com) that serve as a model for eLearning which is as good (or better) than a typical live face-to-face course.

Online learning can provide excellent just-when-needed help and mastery.  I created the first online tutoring systems at Sylvan Learning Systems in 1995 and have nurtured and grown the market since then (see www.tutorvista.com) to provide high quality, low cost and convenient tutoring for students worldwide.  

Individualized / Personalized Learning

I see the value of LinkedIn + lynda.com though differences in student interests, what "clicks" for one but doesn't move the needle for others, delivery styles, etc. suggest the need to adapt and re-position courses for localized markets and provide for individualized and personalized courses of study.  Online degrees and courses are popular for good reason, though in some countries off-site learning isn't as accepted.  LinkedIn would do well to engage local (e.g. country, subject area, etc.) experts in their respective eLearning markets.

Shopping List

There are a lot of benefits and opportunities for the LinkedIn and lynda.com combination.  There are also likely a few areas where Lynda could use, buy or may want to develop better assessment systems, hands-on simulations, serious games (and game-based learning) and patents.  When designed properly, online learning can be replicated and scaled.  Also, programs and courses can collect ongoing data that can be used to build intellectual property (IP) and more successful programs over time.  We can identify a student's learning style, cultural differences, ways to analyze what's needed for different jobs in different parts of the world as well as the most effective use of mobile and other tech platforms for just in time, verifiable learning.

Will we see a LU (LinkedIn University) any time soon?

I welcome your thoughts. 

John Stuppy, CEO

EDUMETRIX INC.

Waiting for Superman? We need about 4 MILLION Supermen and Superwomen

The recent documentary, “Waiting For Superman,” paints a discouraging view of our school system and our ability to give students what they need. Get your child into a first rate school -- private or public -- with great teachers, sufficient resources, and a supportive environment at home and school and you have it made. If not, don't expect much.

To the defense of schools, James Gurthrie opined in 'Waiting for Superman' to reform education? He's already here. that superman has already arrived. He argues that we have a better sense of what works now, lots of public pressure and understand that we must make hard choices in the face of dwindling school resources.

But it ultimately comes down to resources and scalable and replicable models. Revered KIPP founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that "the actual proves the possible." It's true that when the "four minute mile" was achieved, it opened the way for other to do the same. But as much as I can see and admire what LeBron James can do, there aren't many people who can do the same.

But KIPP plays with a stacked deck. Students can't attend KIPP unless they agree to do their homework every night, attend school for an extended daily schedule, go to Saturday and summer classes, and not disrupt class. In short, KIPP students have parents who want them to do well in school, will drive them to succeed -- literally and figuratively motivating, punishing and rewarding them as well as making sure they physically get to school on time.

But this reminds me of statistics class in business school the night the professor talked about wanting to see how fast cats run. He said he could catch a bunch of cats and time them running a certain distance. The only problem is he said he would likely only catch slow cats! KIPP has "fast cats."

And if you ignore for a moment that KIPP attracts and admits only SuperKids with SuperParents and employs only SuperTeachers and SuperAdministrators, KIPP gets a lot of financial support not available to most schools.

I volunteered for a sweeping reform program in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in the 90's called Project LEARN. It was based on site based management, shared decision-making and teacher, parent and student support. To participate in the program you needed 80 percent of all stakeholders at a school to support the program. The first year around 30 schools had the votes and participated. The next year over 100 schools participated. But as the program moved along year by year, the number of schools left over with sufficient teachers, parents and students willing to put in the hard work dried up. It wasn't a sustainable program. Not enough Supermen and Superwomen (or SuperKids).

I created an automated diagnostic and prescriptive assessment, student management and instructional delivery system 15 years ago. It helps teachers at all levels in their professional development become better. An approach like that coupled with national standards and hared proven practices would help.

But teachers need to be fresh, energetic, positive, encouraging and they must believe students can learn. Administrators must create an environment that is conducive for learning -- safe, forward thinking, respectful and supportive. Parents and community members have to do their part.

So is SuperMan coming? I hope he comes with 4 million colleagues who care, share, dare, repair, and fare well!

Yes - creation of national learning standards and assessments. keeps great teachers from sharing ideas, inhibits innovation, and prevents meaningful comparison of student, teacher, and school performance. Rather than there being 50 different standards, Obama could unify the country around a common vision for the kind of teaching and learning our children need.

Fourth, we should assess teachers on their demonstrated impact on student learning, not whether they hold traditional teacher certifications. BUT you can't control things outside the classroom

Kipp doesn't appear to scale.  Is that how you see it?

 Gregory Korte, USA TODAY6:29 a.m. EST December 11, 2015

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law Thursday, largely replacing the No Child Left Behind Act that was a hallmark of his predecessor's domestic agenda.

Lawmakers have touted the new law as a more flexible approach to student testing and school accountability, once again making states responsible for fixing under-performing schools.

Here's what's changed in the two laws:

The Problem

No Child Left Behind:

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, signed by President Lyndon Johnson, was a civil rights law that provided education funding to states and attempted to ensure that every student had access to an education. The law would expire every three to five years, requiring Congress to reauthorize it. In 2001, Democrats and Republicans in Congress became increasingly concerned by the growing achievement gaps that left poor and minority students in failing schools, and devised a system of testing and accountability to fix it. "The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or not every child is learning," President George W. Bush said in the Jan. 8, 2002, signing ceremony.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law tries to preserve the spirit of No Child Left Behind, while fixing what were widely perceived as its one-size-fits-all approach."The goals of No Child Left Behind, the predecessor of this law, were the right ones: High standards. Accountability. Closing the achievement gap," Obama said Thursday. "But in practice, it often fell short. It didn't always consider the specific needs of each community. It led to too much testing during classroom time. It often forced schools and school districts into cookie-cutter reforms that didn't always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see."

Testing

No Child Left Behind: The law required states to test students on math and English every year in the third through eighth grades, and then again once in high school. It also required at least one science test in elementary, middle and high school.

Every Student Succeeds Act: States must still test students in the same grades but will now have flexibility in how and when they administer those tests. For example, a single annual assessment can be broken down into a series of smaller tests. There's also an emphasis on finding different kinds of tests that more accurately measure what students are learning.

Common Core

No Child Left Behind: The 2002 law did not address the Common Core standards specifically, since they didn't emerge until later that decade. And they emerged not from the federal government, but from a state-led effort to define what the states should be teaching and how it should be taught. But the Obama administration did play a role in expanding Common Core through waivers to No Child Left Behind requirements that encouraged states to adopt the standards.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law allows states to adopt Common Core but does not require it. In fact, it requires the Education Department to remain neutral: "The Secretary shall not attempt to influence, incentivize, or coerce State adoption of the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or assessments tied to such standard."

Accountability

No Child Left Behind: One of the fundamental principles of the 2002 law — indeed, the principle that gave the law its name — was that schools had to improve the performance of all students. To do that, it required school districts to break out test scores and other measures for minority subgroups to make sure they were making progress each year. In practice, many states found that goal to be unrealistic and got around them by either creating "super subgroups" that lumped all disadvantaged students together, or changing to more subjective measures like parent/teacher involvement.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law leaves accountability goals almost entirely up to the states. States must submit their accountability plans to theDepartment of Education, which still has a limited oversight role. And there are "guardrails" defining broadly what the accountability goals need to include, and test scores and graduation rates must be given "much greater weight" than the more subjective measures.

Remedies

No Child Left Behind: States that wanted their fair share of federal funding were required to fix schools that failed to improve test scores adequately. Those "interventions" started out with softer measures, but after five years the school had a limited number of dire choices: fire the principal and most of the staff, convert to a charter school, lengthen the school day or year, or close down the school entirely.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law is much more specific about which schools need intervention but much less specific on what those interventions should be. Schools at the bottom 5% of assessment scores (as defined by the state), high schools that graduate less than 67% of students, or schools where subgroups are consistently underperforming would be considered failing and could be subject to state takeover — although the law doesn't say what the state needs to do.

Spending

No Child Left Behind: The education law sets policy, and does not spend money directly — that's done through annual spending bills. The original law authorized up to $32 billion in spending in 2002 dollars, but Congress never spent anywhere close to that, appropriating just $23 billion in 2015.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The law authorizes the spending of $24.9 billion in 2016, again subject to the spending bill now being finalized by Congress. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that cost would grow to $25.8 billion in 2020.

Bipartisanship

No Child Left Behind: The architects of the 2002 law were on opposite sides of theCapitol and on opposite ends of the political spectrum: Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio (later the House speaker), and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. The vote on final passage was 381-41 in the House and 87-10 in the Senate. Bush signed the bill into law at a high school in Boehner's congressional district.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The lead sponsors in the Senate were Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash, and in the House were Reps. John Kline, R-Minn., and Bobby Scott, D-Va. It passed the House 359-64 and the Senate 85-12. Obama signed it into law Thursday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Finally - Game-based learning that's really fun and effective

One of ISTE's most popular articles of 2015

Like many educators, I've long been searching for game-based learning that's both FUN for students and EFFECTIVE for teachers.  I'm pleased that this piece I co-wrote with James Pike was one of ISTE's ten most popular articles of 2015.  Using Minecraft with James' MathcraftPLC.com lesson plans and support network, teachers now have an engaging way to teach COMMON CORE MATH STANDARDS that kids really love.  Teachers are seeing seeing spectacular  results. https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=558&category=In-the-classroom&article=

Students play video games for hours. They "play" with Mathcraft with the same vigor -- and learn math concepts too. 3rd graders learning Algebra? Check it out!

John Stuppy Ph.D.

CEO, EDUMETRIX

Part 2:  Some pilots can get you where you want to go – with the right navigation

In Part 1: "Why Education Pilots Don't Usually Get Off The ground," I shared a common lament – that most pilots don't often work out like you would hope. Whether it’s to secure future sales, funding from a VC, or other purpose, free pilots don’ often benefit your business as much as paid trials.

By “pilot” I’m referring to programs where you supply your product for free in the hopes you'll sell the product when the pilot is over. Or maybe you are hoping to get funding from VC's because you've signed up several -- even high profile -- free pilots.

While paid programs are better than free ones by a wide margin. the tips below on how to run a more successful pilot also produce better results for paid, normal product implementations.

Keep these things in mind when running pilots or paid implementations.

          1. A funded pilot can produce tremendous profitability and credibility. These are generally NOT free pilots. We have helped clients find PAID programs where you can leverage positive measurable results in one state, district or schools into expanded / additional programs and sales opportunities paid for by legislation and earmarks.

          2. Unless you have solid program evaluation and statistical bench-strength in your company, You should engage a researcher to set up the study, do an appropriate research design, collect the right data and analyze results. You can engage a professor at a school of education), a degreed (Ph.D.) consultant or other resource who can make sure the study is reasonable in terms of gains, measurement, time to see results, training materials, proper controls, etc.

          3. You should have BOLD and meaningful goals in mind. Teachers won't give a pilot the proper time and attention if there isn't a solid, impactful answer to the question "What's in it for me?"

          4. Have a clear, well thought out sense of what you believe the pilot will demonstrate including how that will be measured. Does your assessment directly measure what you are hoping to change? You should probably collect several types of data. For example, consider using student and teacher surveys to show ease of use, enjoyment and other things that can be measured quickly. Your evaluation should produce actionable feedback and show positive short-term goals and benefits. This can be encouraging to those who are implementing or promoting the pilot or trial.

          5. Have a reasonable idea in mind of how long (number of months, time used per day, etc.) it will take for your pilot to produce benefits. If it takes 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week and a teacher only uses it 3 times a week then you won't expect to show the benefits you would expect. What results can you show in the time you're given?

          6. Make sure you monitor the usage of the product and ensure everything is done "by the book" so you don't end up with lackluster results because the product has not been used properly. Sit in on classes where teachers are piloting your product. Do instructional supervision. Make sure they are using the product correctly and note rough areas that should be improved. Be sure to continuously monitor and improve, ask teachers for their feedback and improve your product throughout the pilot.

          7. It's best if you have a technology component that ensures best practices are followed, the right data is easily tracked and reporting is up-to-date and insightful. In some cases it's alright to give users some "constrained flexibility" -- letting them not follow product recommendations in some areas -- but evaluating whether a teacher's changes to what's normally prescribed producers better or poorer results.

Have you run pilots that produced long-term financial windfalls? What other steps or tips did you use?

John Stuppy
CEO, EDUMETRIX
www.edumetrix.com 
john@edumetrix.com
410-935-0936

P.S. Are you looking for proven strategies to grow your education technology, products or services business? 

Use this link to schedule a phone call to discuss your goals and needs. http://meetme.so/JohnStuppy 

Let’s see what EDUMETRIX can do to help your business get funding, grow, dominate your market and/or sell for maximum value.

Why Education Pilots Don't Usually Get Off The Ground

Part 1: Education Pilots Don't Usually "Get you there"

I speak with a lot of education technology, products and services vendors who say they are going to do a pilot (free or low-cost trial) in one or more schools. They tell me they will place the product in the school, the kids will use it and the school promises that if it works, they will buy it on a large scale.

The vendors are usually excited by this supposed "win" and have visions of orders pouring in as a result. Those vendors looking to raise money or sell out are sure that pilots will be a valuable proving ground and investors and acquirers being impressed the vendor has teachers, principals, etc. willing and motivated to try it out.

 But then they are surprised when I tell them that the pilot won't prove what it's supposed to, they will get mixed results -- if they get any results at all, investors will yawn and not assign any value (or valuation) to the pilot programs, and they will waste their time, money and other resources. Pilots don't usually work the way they are supposed to.

Free pilots are most often a waste

My experience shows that pilots/trials are a bad idea for many reasons:

          (1) If a school or district isn't paying for it or paying very little,, they aren't likely to use the product as religiously or put in the effort required to get a new project off the ground

          (2) If you are hoping to get investors excited, free or reduced price pilots don't convince investors that there's a market (E.g. that people want the product enough to pay for it)

          (3) Pilots are typically run either at some start date or for a duration that might not give you enough time to collect data and show gains or other "proof of life"

          (4) Even if the pilot runs the whole school year you are waiting a long time to run the program, collect and analyze data and determine effectiveness. Do you really have a year to wait to demonstrate the product works and will work for others who the vendor is convinced will be "lining up" to buy once they see the pilot is successful? And when does this opportunity to move from pilot to paid happen in the budgeting and buying cycle? Probably not when they are allocating money to these products.

          (5) There are a lot of things that go into product success. The teachers have to use the product correctly, devote as much time as is necessary to get results and figure things out on their own because they are the "Guinea pigs." A lot has to happen to get a "thumbs-up" on the product. Very little has to happen (or not happen) to get a "thumbs-down."

          (6) Another important factor is "who wants and is driving the pilot." If a principal wants to do it s/he often tells a teacher "Congratulations! You get to pilot this in your classroom!" What the teacher hears is they have to learn a new tool (that probably isn't fully baked and documented," they won't get enough support, they don't get more time or relief in other areas to offset the additional time this trial will take and they are to be held accountable for student learning even though they don't know if or how the new product will work.

          (7) And best case -- and it still doesn't usually work out -- Pilots are often served up as free or reduced in price until such time as the product has proven itself and the teacher is happy -- then the vendor will expect to get paid and the teacher or principal is supposed to be a spokesperson and endorse and help sell the product to others. Guess what? The teacher or principal usually figures out that as long as they are unhappy about something, they get free use forever until the vendor gets anxious enough to demand payment. At that point -- I've seen it a 100 times before -- the teacher or principal is enamored with another product from Vendor 2 that they can "pilot" for free and the cycle (sans payoff for Vendor 1) repeats.

In short, PILOTS JUST DON'T WORK THE WAY VENDORS HOPE -- I don't usually see pilots paying off. The school doesn't have enough skin in the game, that moment where the school is supposed to pay never happens and it's often difficult to measure effectiveness with a new product that isn't totally worked out, or at the least, can't move the needle sufficiently in the alloted time to demonstrate it works.

Now FUNDED pilots are another thing! They do work! I'll cover that in Part 2..

"All you have to do is....R-U-N ! ! !"

I've heard it before. And the results were the same. In the education space companies make interesting technology, products or services that often require customers -- usually teachers -- to do something to fit the new thing into day-to-day operations. The story goes "All you have to do to use our new product is ____" (fill in the blank with things such enter students into the system, create questions, have students write things and post them into the computer, etc.).

The problem is that what you might think is a rather trivial number of steps to get the tremendous benefits of your product, may be something the typical user is just not willing (or capable given time, money and other resource constraints) to do.

Refer to the other blog post about giving away your product with the hope of winning over supporters and reference accounts. Users may be unwilling to do required steps whether the product is bought or free. It's best if you can anticipate the steps and eliminate them.

The Horrors Faced By the Little Shop (and Mega Store)

You know the story -- In You've Got Mail. The "Little Bookshop Around the Corner" is threatened by the Mega Bookstore. We see this today with tutoring. The respected guy or gal tutor around the corner competes with the larger tutoring center. And just as the Mega Bookstore is threatened today by the Internet Superstore -- a store without walls or limits -- the respected tutoring center seems threatened by online tutors. Online tutoring can come with all-you-can-eat fixed pricing, 24 by 7 access, no driving and a richer learning experience. Can the Mega Bookstore compete? Can the tutoring center compete?

I was intrigued by this article: Barnes and Noble...

How is Barnes and Noble competing in this era of online ordering, reviews and tips, low prices, fast shipping and social networking? B and N says it is using its physical locations and face to face customer interaction in the stores to educate and sell their own ebook device. They say they expect to capture over 25% of the market for eBooks, eTextbooks and Digital Newsstand by 2013, projecting over $1 billion in digital revenue by that time.

Can brick and mortar tutoring centers leverage their local presence to compete? Can they reinvent themselves and find new revenue sources and opportunities and not go the way of the little shop around the corner?

I give it away and like love, it's going to come back!

Several clients have tried an age-old strategy...but, sadly, one that doesn't work! They have given a few customers -- in this case, school districts -- free products and services in the hopes it will build overall awareness, produce outstanding "braggable" results, and compel sales from other customers.

The reason this doesn't usually work in the education space is too often these freebies go to (and are part of a deal with) the people who recommend, approve or buy products, but not to the people you need to make the trial a success. In education, you have BUYERS who make decisions and spend money on things and USERS who need to implement these things successfully in the classroom. Just because a principal or superintendent has decided to buy or accept a free product, it doesn't mean a teacher will want to use it, know how, or figure out how to incorporate the product in the typical school day.

If you give the product to the USER (e.g. teacher) and he or she is hot-to-trot to use it and knows how, you have a better than even chance something will come out of the trial. But then your user needs clear instructions and guidance to make it work. Results tend to be spotty at best and you lose a lot of time running studies and watching some teachers do things right and others barely trying to use the product.

ONE EXCEPTION! I happened upon a strategy which put the free trial in the category of a controversial but successful television event -- one that showcased the product in front of over 3,000,000 people as the solution to a large bi-partisan problem. With good positioning, credibility and timing, this produced startling measurable results.

Contact me at john@edumetrix.com and I'll be happy to discuss this example.

Face-to-face vs. Online Tutoring: A Rose Is A Rose

I recently presented at the Education Industry Investment Forum in Phoenix on the challenges and opportunities of online tutoring. An audience member asked if online tutoring is as effective as face-to-face tutoring. Jim Hermens, president of Educate Online (formerly eSylvan/Sylvan Online), said that Educate had determine that online tutoring was as effective as face-to-face as measured by post- vs. pre-test gains on standardized tests. I can vouch for that as I conducted the three year effectiveness study 1999-2002 at Sylvan Learning Centers (now Educate) which looked at the gains of over 500,000 students who took Sylvan center-based (face-to-face) tutoring in reading and math vs. online tutoring.

The good news is that online tutoring is as effective as face-to-face and the better news is that online tutoring is more convenient, flexible and affordable than face-to-face tutoring. It’s not surprising that online tutoring should be equally as effective when both face-to-face and online tutoring are conducted using the same instructional model.

Our goal now is to push the online environment further to go beyond what was possible in a face-to-face world. Rather than be tethered to books, worksheets and static problems, online tutoring makes it possible for students to use engaging electronic/eLearning tools such as simulations, animations, videos and virtual experiments. Soon we hope to demonstrate conclusively that online tutoring with its rich resources and tools is more effective than face-to-face tutoring.

Fix the Blame or Fix the Problem?

Elissa Gootmany in her NY Times article Passing Eighth Grade Gets a Little Harder describes how the Bloomberg administration won approval for a new policy that will not permit eighth graders to move to the next grade if they don’t have minimum basic skills in math and English. Parents were opposed to this new policy.

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein defended the policy – “In the end, passing kids through the system without making sure they’re ready for the next grade level is not a formula for success,” he said. “Our job is not to move a kid out of middle school; our job is to move a kid from middle school to high school, prepared for high school.”

Four years ago the Mayor announced tougher new promotion criteria for the third grade to end social promotion (moving a child from grade to grade with his or her peers regardless of their mastery of the current grade’s material or readiness for the next). That and subsequent policies for fifth and seventh graders resulted in fewer students being held back than before. Some students took and passed summer school.

Opponents of tougher policies claim that tougher hold-back policies is can frustrate and embarrass students so they more likely to drop out. Some parents believe this might be especially true for eighth graders who are not allowed to advance to high school. Others suggest that some students need the extra year to master the appropriate material.

We’re all into blame these days, aren’t we? The kids don’t know their stuff so who should we blame…the teachers? The administrators? How about we fix the problem and not the blame. Educators believe all kids can learn. What this policy rightfully proposes is that it can take some students longer to learn things than other students and they should be given that chance before moving on to the next grade where they are unprepared and start off the year behind and frustrated.

Dr. John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com

Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Ship Anchor…

You know the tale. A butterfly flaps its wings in China and it affects political events in the USA. We are definitely part of a global economy. Events there affect us here. In the article “Internet outage in Mideast, Asia felt in NJ” by Kelly Heyboer inThe Star-Ledger (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/internet_outage_in_mideast_asi.html) it describes how a ship’s anchor dragging across the sea floor damaged two underwater cables carrying vital internet traffic to parts of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The Internet disruption affected the Dubai stock exchange and posed a challenge for companies in India that rely on internet connectivity. At TutorVista we noticed it right away. On any given day, a particular tutor’s internet, power or computer can be down. You know how it is when you have a power failure or your cable TV connection is down because of a storm. These things can happen.

If we don’t see a tutor in place and ready to go shortly before they are scheduled to do a tutoring session, we automatically activate an alternate tutor so the session goes off without a hitch. It’s part of the redundancies we build into our business. What else do we do? Our tutors come from 23 major cities across India and a half dozen other countries so a storm or other problem affecting one city or a group doesn’t affect all our tutors. We can easily transfer traffic from tutors in Mumbai, for example, to ones in the Philippines.

We’re definitely part of a connected, global supply chain. Things that happen in one part of the world do affect people in another. But this isn’t a new concept. We know that freezing weather in Florida can affect orange juice prices and availability across the US. I remember years ago when there was a peanut butter shortage for some reason.

We are one week into this internet disruption from the anchor. We continue to reassign tutoring sessions to tutors with good connectivity out of our vast workforce. But that’s consistent really with the power and design of the internet in the first place. There’s a zillion paths an internet packet or message can take. Disruptions and roadblocks along the way are a fact of life and the beauty of the internet is it’s designed to deal with that.

Today it’s a boat anchor. Tomorrow it might be a storm, a strike…who knows. But just like the mailman’s creed, “Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night shall keep me from my appointed rounds” the tutoring will happen!

Dr. John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com

Doing Something Different

In her article “The Call for Epochal Leadership” in Business Week, Shoshana Zuboff, retired professor of the Harvard Business School, describes how it takes new, industry-shifting leaders to enlighten and inspire us to adopt new beliefs and ways of looking at and doing things. Those new ways open up incredible possibilities. She mentioned that education is an area where consumers want to experience – need to experience – a new kind of renaissance or redefinition of how things are done, what they should cost, and where you get them.

To set the stage for this kind of transformation, Zuboff cites the example of the iPod and iTunes and the impact they had on the mass consumption of music….how they redefined a new model that completely shifts the relationship each of us has with music as a result.

In education, we at TutorVista.com have embarked on a journey to redefine where and how education services are delivered, and how much they should cost. Just like the Model T challenged notions of how vehicles should be made and that in turn led to a radical fractioning of the price resulting in affordable transportation for the masses, TutorVista believes that if you use technology to connect experienced, passionate tutors from around the world with students who need them, we can deliver better quality education, personalized service and convenience at a mass market price. Students talk naturally to a tutor a half-a-world away and write, draw and work on a shared virtual whiteboard – a kind of electronic piece of paper student and tutor share. We can provide unlimited tutoring, homework help, remediation and quiz preparation for a low, fixed price. This fundamentally changes education. It’s now more personal, available, accessible, convenient, affordable and timely.

But it isn’t enough that the light has been shined on a powerfully enabling global system of new possibilities. There are old, entrenched systems in place that are out to assert the status quo at every turn and undermine innovation and a more efficient new order. Look at supplemental education services. Instead of encouraging new models that will bring more and better help to students where and when they need it most, rules designed to ensure the same people are the only ones in the game doing the same things they always have serve to stifle innovation and lash us to the mast of the past, long after that ship has sunk.

It’s essential we break the molds that doom us to the ways of the past. Repeating that past isn’t going to do us any good. We need to do something different!

Dr. John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com

Selling Into The Future

When the transistor was first invented, it enabled television makers to replace vacuum tubes with devices that were a fraction of the size, many times less power-hungry, more reliable & durable. Did these new transistors get adopted right away? Did TV makers rush to incorporate the new technology into their products?

No, they didn’t. As described by Kevin Kelly in his book New Rules for the New Economy, one particular transistor made by Robert Noyce and his partner Jerry Sanders was all these good things. Problem was, the transistor was significantly more expensive to make ($100 each) than the vacuum tube that was being sold to TV makers for $1.08 each. The partners wanted to sell the devices to UHF tuner makers but they couldn’t sell a part that was nearly 100 times as expensive regardless of how small and efficient it was. They knew that as utilization and production rose, the cost to product the new part would drop to the point it would be more economical than a vacuum tube (not to mention the size, power and other advantages). But they also knews they couldn’t build traction for the adoption of the new part at the higher price.

What did the partners do to motivate people to use the new device and help it take off? They dropped the price to $1.05 each – a few pennies less than the vacuum tube! They dropped the sell price on the part despite the fact they had at the time no sales volume and hadn’t even built the factory to churn them out! As Sanders said, “We were selling into the future.”

How well did this work? UHF tuner manufacturers indeed bought transistors at $1.05 each. Within two years, the cost to manufacturer a transistor dropped so much, the partners could sell them for 50 cents each and still made a profit!

Can this apply to education? I think it can. Take the idea of doing tutoring over the internet. At first this is very costly to set up – hardware; software; technology infrastructure; recruit, train, certify & moderate tutors; build scheduling systems; design customer communication and relationship management tools; curriculum and education resources – this takes a huge investment. But instead of charging what it costs you come up with a price that you think makes sense in the long term. You hope they come and you anticipate the cost efficiency you expect to realize when the volume is there. You sell into the future! That’s what we’re doing at TutorVista.com with unlimited tutoring for a fixed price each month. Make the tutoring budget predictable and part of a simple subscription fee so a student doesn’t need one eye on the tutor and the other eye on the clock.

“If you build it, they will come!” It’s built! Time will tell, but the goal is to revolutionize and redefine what education services should cost and make quality, convenient and effective tutoring available to everyone. …And education for all!


Dr. John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com

"The Check’s In The Mail" or "Smart Money?"

A buddy called me – quite excited. “I don’t know how I won, but I won!” he exclaimed. Then he let out a “Whoo hoo!”

“Won what?” I asked.

“Some lottery or sweepstakes!” he replied.

I came right over to his house. He showed me a glossy, nicely printed letter that explained he had won $58,750 in unclaimed prize money and the enclosed check for $3,319 to assist with his “international clearance fee.”

Sounded a little weird to me, but then he handed me his check. It was everything a check should be and then some – a work of art – colorful, watermarked, MICR encoded account number, and was drawn on a company in Dallas Texas. There was quite a bit of very small writing on the back side. I thought, “Heh! That’s where they get you! You cash the $3,319 check and by endorsing it, you have agreed to buy swampland or you’ve taken out a loan at 25% interest or whatever. But the fine print (very very fine for my old eyes) simply said that the check had many features to ensure that its authenticity could be easily determined. It had a watermark, it had patented features like a place for fingerprints with the endorsement, and the real delight was it had special red ink with the patent numbers for this feature and if you blow on or rub the red ink, it disappears. Well I blew and where I did, the red ink disappeared!

“Looks very real, very authentic indeed” I thought.

So I read the letter again. He had won some unclaimed prize money from Readers Digest, Publishers Clearing House, Online gaming, or…” – it wasn’t specific on how or where he had been bestowed with this windfall but here it was. All he had to do is call the US Transfer Agent so-and-so at a particular phone number and take care of paperwork. There was a customer number printed on the letter and bar-coded (presumably) in the margin. My friend was to tell the Transfer Agent his special customer number to claim his prize. And he should definitely NOT reveal this number to anyone else before he collects his winnings lest they jump in line ahead of him and get what’s supposed to be rightfully coming to him.

I suggested we Google-around and see what we could find.

The name of the prize sweepstakes award company on the letterhead and check was “Henry S. Miller Interests.” Google found all kinds of entries for “Henry S. Miller” but nothing for “Interests.” It seems HSM is a long-standing, respected real estate company in Texas.

The bank listed on the check? Yes. It exists. They definitely have a branch office on Preston.

Strange though -- The area code for the phone numbers for the Dallas Texas bank and the US Transfer Agent wasn’t one I recognized. 705. It purported to be a Dallas phone number but I looked that up and it is an area code for Ontario Canada.

I called the number for fun. Got a recording that said their message box was full and to leave a message. More Googling. The phone number for the US Transfer Agent is a cell phone.

Well, by then we figured out (as you no doubt have by now too) that this was a scam. It was clever and different enough though it made a couple people who have been offered and failed to pursue hundreds of millions of dollars in variations of the Nigerian Scam really wonder if this is legit.

Later that afternoon I was at a meeting and mentioned this to a banker. She said it was an active, vigorously pursued scam these days. You call the US Transfer Agent and they tell you they overestimated the cost of the International Transfer Fee and would you please cash the check in your account and wire the difference to them. Of course you HAVE their $3,319 and you can cash the check first and are completely protected.

Trick is the US bank you deposit it into must, by law, give you access to the money you have deposited in a few days. But by the time this pretty, watermarked, special red ink that disappears check makes it’s way to the branch on Preston in Dallas and is discovered to be bogus (no firm of that name, no real account behind it) and back to your bank, you will have already wired the “difference” to the US Transfer Agent and maybe treated yourself to some goodies with what’s left.

Then – days later – your bank tells you the check is no good, charges you $6 for depositing a bad check, and by the way, please pay the bank back the $3,319 you have spent already. You won’t get back your wire transfer and well, you might as well enjoy the goodies you bought because, well, you did buy them and will have to pay for them when you make your bank whole for the money you took out. And the $58,750? Not a chance.

If you search for scams involving “International Transfer Fees” you will see lots of web sites with the always unfortunate tales of people who were bit by this variation of the Nigerian Scam. “I thought I would cash it and even if I didn’t call the guy up and arrange for the international transfer fee, at least I would have the first bit of money” and “I was so sure it was real I made my husband deposit it and then go straight to the travel agent so we could book our Caribbean cruise! He did and then…” Each story was sad and demonstrated how people who would never fall for the “Help me get my dead husband’s millions out of the country” fell victim to this one.

Why did they go along with it? It seems a real check in your hands for money you didn’t know was coming was a big inducement for checking reality at the door. One twenty year old on the web site describing similar scams said, “I understand all this discussion about how this works but I don’t get it…how can they afford to send out all these $3,000-4,000 checks?”

You want to believe the check is good and want to believe you can’t get stung if you deposit it and the bank tells you it’s good before you spend it.

Have you seen similar scams? Why is it the scams by mail have a particularly fresh appeal to people who are otherwise sufficiently hardened to the email scams? Or what’s the uptake on those email scams? I see so many in my inbox in any given week I can’t believe people fall for them, but they must. But this emailed check scam was costing the scammers some money – 90c Canadian in postage (the letter came from Canada and not from the purported Dallas bank), the cost of glossy paper and color printing, and that check was definitely an expensive bit of tom-foolery with its heat sensitive ink.

How do we stay ahead of these guys? And how do we educate people about these scams? Is self-education through web searches the order of the day? Or is this a case not of "Buyer Beware!" but "Casher Beware!"?

John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a safe, prosperous, healthy and happy new year!

Check out my guest blog in Education Week today . . .

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edbizbuzz/

John

Lions and Tigers and Elephants, (&) Oh Deer!

I’m in India – Two flights, 8500 miles and twenty-two plus hours and here I am. It’s my third trip. I feel I’m a pretty seasoned India traveler. For example, I know to put mosquito repellent on before I step off the plane. It’s past midnight so the repellant is designed to keep away the malaria-carrying night-time mosquitoes vs. the mosquitoes during the day that carry dengue fever.

One can take anti-malaria medicine in case some of the night-time mosquitoes find their mark despite the repellent. There isn’t an anti-dengue medicine as far as I know. I do know something about dengue fever, though. My father was an army doctor stationed near Pearl Harbor in Hawaii during WWII and was tasked with figuring out where and how soldiers were contracting an awful hemorrhagic fever (now known as dengue). He got out a map of Oahu and charted the route of soldiers who came down with dengue. He figured out most of them waited at one of the bus stops on the island near standing water. My father surmised mosquitoes were to blame and ordered all standing water drained out from flower pots, puddles on the ground, etc. The army was able to stave off the dengue-carrying daytime mosquitoes and hence the disease.

With mosquito repellant applied, I exit the plane and my India adventure resumes.

After a week of meetings and tutor-business stuff, I had the pleasure to travel with TutorVista CEO Ganesh and his family to the mountains of Coonoor, around 300 km from Bangalore. To get there we drove through Bannerghatta National Park that has lions, tigers, monkeys, deer, elephant, and panthers.

http://www.indiantigers.com/bannerghata-national-park.html

Thirty-six hairpin turns up the mountain (each numbered and labeled), we visit a wonderful town with a temple elephant decorated trunk to tail and flower-covered float.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/16/stories/2007121653390300.htm

Finally we end up in Conoor. It’s a nice hill stations in the mountains at an elevation of 1,800 meters known for its tea plantations.

http://www.coonoor.com/about.htm

It’s remarkable but even in this quaint town in the mountains past the lions, tigers, elephants and monkeys we have a TutorVista tutor! He tutors students who live 8,500 miles and 300 km away from the comfort and convenience of his home. This truly is a flat world!

John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com

Safe Tutoring

Child safety is a serious matter. The news frequently reports about teachers and others in authority who violate trust and act inappropriately with the children they are supposed to shepherd. Parents rely on coaches, teachers, tutors, and others to help guide and develop their kids.

But in today’s computer and internet world, how safe is your child if he or she works with an online tutor? We all know that on-line tutoring is very convenient. Mom and dad don’t have to drive the student to a tutor’s home or a business location. Students can go home after school and log in for their on-line tutoring session and no tutor physically comes to the house. But despite its convenience, is it safe? How do we ensure students are safe and secure while doing on-line tutoring?

There are ways to ensure child safety in an on-line tutoring environment:

1. On-line tutoring means your child is not physically with the tutor. Student and tutor are separated by distances as much as half-a-world away. For a tutor in India, it could cost a year’s salary for the tutor to fly where the student is or for the student to make the trip to India. And tourist visa’s and passports are required. This physical separation is a benefit for child safety.
2. Use steadily employed tutors rather than a tutor exchange or independent contractors. Avoid situations where predators can be connected with kids online under the guise of tutoring the way some predators hang out in chat rooms. Don’t use a tutoring exchange that lets anyone off the street post an ad and connect with kids.
3. Ensure your online tutor has passed a certification course that includes child protection.
4. Verify your online tutor’s qualifications and ensure he or she has had a professional, educational and personal background check.
5. Monitor student-tutor exchanges. Forbid your child from engaging in any student-tutor communications outside a tutoring session and monitor that communication in real time or through recordings. At TutorVista, students and tutors are required to interact with one another only during tutoring sessions and using our service delivery platform. Tutors understand this policy (it’s part of our certification process) and know too that violation of this policy will result in immediate dismissal.
6. Be involved in your child’s education – in school and online

Students using online tutoring can get safe, secure and protected educational help in a way face-to-face tutoring may not even support.

John Stuppy, john@tutorvista.com