#SharkTankEDU Starter Guide 1.0

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FOR A SMARTER EDTECH PIPELINE VERSION 1.0 FOR A SMARTER EDTECH PIPELINE VERSION 1.0 #SharkTankEDU Starter Guide

Transcript of #SharkTankEDU Starter Guide 1.0

Page 1: #SharkTankEDU Starter Guide 1.0

FOR A SMARTER EDTECH PIPELINE VERSION 1.0

FOR A SMARTER EDTECH PIPELINE VERSION 1.0

#SharkTankEDU Starter Guide

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A Starter Guide for Opening Dialogue between Educators & EdTech Developers

� #SharkTankEDU is a low-barrier event where edtech developers and education stakeholders like teachers, principals, students, and parents can test assumptions and validate whether edtech products meet authentic school needs.

� #SharkTankEDU is part of the iZone’s edtech ecosystem initiative for the New York City Department of Education, in an effort to build a smarter pipeline of effective technology for education that is aligned to the teaching, learning, and operational needs of NYC schools.

� We have created this starter guide to share our practices and encourage others to run their own #SharkTankEDU events with their stakeholders.

This guide is designed for districts, schools, and other entities that support schools with technology adoption. Use this as a model to design engagements that are responsive to the needs of your local education context.

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Running Your Own #SharkTankEDU !#SharkTankEDU is a safe space for education stakeholders to engage in critical conversations about technology tools. A typical #SharkTankEDU includes three edtech startups or developers and a panel of seven “sharks”—educators, students, or parents. The event is structured in three rounds with approximately 30 minutes devoted to each product.

In each round, companies start with a brief demo by showing how the “Sharks” can use their product to address a need or solve an education-related problem. Following the product demo, the “Sharks” lead a Q&A discussion with the presenter. Finally, the “Sharks” complete an online feedback form at the end of each round.

Edtech startups and developers can validate early stage products, prototypes, or ideas with their intended end-users in schools. “Shark” participants are encouraged to compare and contrast features, discuss user flows, and share ideas about effectively utilizing technology for education.

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� RESOURCES NEEDED ¤  Event space conducive to open

dialogue

¤  Facilitator with knowledge of local education context and tech community

¤  Tablets for each “shark” to provide feedback

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#SharkTankEDU Event Format

Product Demo 7 minutes Startups present a demo of their product for the shark panel

Shark Panel Q&A 20 minutes Sharks lead interactive discussion about product uses and functionality

"Shark Feedback Forms 3 minutes Sharks complete a short, online feedback form

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Understand the local context: The facilitator should have knowledge of policies, instructional practices, and operational considerations for schools choosing technology as well as an understanding of the edtech market. Engage and include: The facilitator’s main role is to engage with education and edtech stakeholders and enable a constructive discussion. The facilitator should be responsible for recruiting “Shark” panels and edtech companies to participate in #SharkTankEDU events. Guide and translate: During #SharkTankEDU, the facilitator is responsible for maintaining the event flow and structure. The facilitator should also be an active listener in the discussion, translating lingo between the “Sharks” and presenters when necessary.

Identify A Facilitator Who Can Liaise Between Stakeholder Groups

#SharkTankEDU Pro Tip

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Mobilize education stakeholders: The facilitator should actively identify and empower solutions-oriented educators, students, or parents that represent a diverse set of school communities—they are the experts. “Sharks” should be empowered with individual agency to drive an open conversation about real operational and instructional considerations for technology adoption in schools.

� Curate products that are relevant to local needs: The facilitator should meet with edtech stakeholders to demo their product prior to their participation in a #SharkTankEDU event. We host open Office Hours to provide entrepreneurs and startups with information about the local schools landscape and to filter products that might be a good fit for #SharkTankEDU or other programmatic engagements like pilots.

Identify “Sharks” and EdTech Participants

#SharkTankEDU Pro Tip

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Establish the rules of engagement: #SharkTankEDU is designed to be product focused, and not intended to convert to sales. Communicate the goals and purposes of the engagement with all participants prior to the event to to set expectations. Set the scene: Choose a neutral event space with WIFI and presentation capabilities. Local tech accelerators or community hubs work well. Make the engagement accessible by welcoming all participants with a positive and empowering tone. Focus on actionable feedback: During the Q&A portion, advise “shark” panel to ask probing questions and focus their comments on actionable feedback. Use an online tool like Google Forms to capture and share overall feedback post-event. Note: This also serves as a quick and easy archive.

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Set a Collaborative Tone for #SharkTankEDU

#SharkTankEDU Pro Tip

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ABOUT THE GUIDE #SharkTankEDU is part of iZone’s edtech pipeline for the New York City Department of Education. Preeti Birla designed and tested the first iteration of #SharkTankEDU in July 2013. Together with seven teachers and three edtech entrepreneurs, she developed the the current monthly event structure to enable smarter information flow and build empathy between product developers and NYC Schools stakeholders. Learn more about our work at izonenyc.org

SPECIAL THANKS � Thank you to ThoughtWorks for generously providing time and space to enable our monthly #SharkTankEDU events.

SUPPORTED BY #SharkTankEDU is supported by grant funding from the US Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

We Want to Hear from You! Please send us any questions or comments. Have you tried running a #SharkTankEDU for your school community? Share your story about the experience. We need your feedback to improve this guide.

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The #SharkTankEDU Toolkit is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

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