Marsden State High School - ICT Pedagogical Licence

Title of Item	My Venture: Cert II Business: Being an Entrepreneur
Portfolio Item	One
Developed by	Jessica Watt
Year level/ student context	This course was designed for a class of 20 year 11 students. Marsden is a multicultural school with a high percentage of Polynesian/ Pacific Islander and Maori students. Students in this district come from a varying socio economic background including low income and welfare dependent to middle class. Literacy and Numeracy among other indicators are of concern. Behavioural issues include: absenteeism, truanting and non completion of assessment. All of these factors are present in this class. The program was specifically designed to enable students to learn about themselves and develop life long skills which will allow students to think outside the scope of opportunity.
How the task was developed	This course was developed in cooperation with Marsden State High School, The Smith Family and primary sponsor: Ernst and Young. I am the author of the course design and materials. Named ?My Venture?, this course employs a unique pedagogy which encourages self planned and paced learning facilitated by the classroom teacher. Students are encouraged to form a relationship with an Industry Mentor who assists them in realizing their business dream. My Venture is designed to give students an opportunity to create, plan, launch and evaluate a new business venture, while attaining a Certificate II in Business. This journey is one of self development and reflection and aims to assist students in attaining confidence in their own ability and forming relationships with industry experts.
When the item was implemented	This is a one year course and comprises of a Certificate II in Business. The pilot program ran in 2006 and has run successfully throughout 2007.
Why are these items in my portfolio?	I have chosen to include this item because it is an excellent example of how ICTs have been extensively used to enhance the learning outcomes for students. As an IT teacher I wanted to choose a subject which did not inherently employ ICTs. ?My Venture? is a subject whereby students need to create marketing materials, prepare a business plan, prepare financial documents, create advertising, design business pitch and collaborate with industry mentors. While all of these tasks can be completed without the aid of computers it was decided that students could produce materials of a professional/ corporate nature using publishing programs and use software applications including Movie Maker and flash to produce high quality television advertisements, web development software including Dream Weaver was used to design websites and an online collaboration tool was used to facilitate communication with mentors. The integration of ICTs in this program was paramount to giving students the life skills that they required to be employable or own and operate their own business. The aim of the program was to create a strong link with industry which meant that students would need to learn software packages of an industry standard. An underlying focus of the course was to promote e-business and encourage our students to be technologically savvy when running a business. Using ICTs improved the ability of the course to be connected to the real world and improve access to learning materials and tools which industry has access too. Productive Pedagogies I endevour to incorporate the productive pedaggies when planning programs and lessons to use a wide variety of teaching strategies. This course is a good example of how I have incorporated the Productive Pedagogies. - I 'understand that knowledge is not a fixed body of information' and that students require different modes of accessing ideas whether it be from databases, the internet, through their mentor or online resources available on the public drive. This is why students were informed of their choices and were responsible for choosing how they learnt. - Through this program I wanted students to connect "with real, practical or hypothetical problems which connect to the world beyond the classroom". This is why it was important to include a mentor program whereby students could form an industry partnership.The use of online chat enhanced the students ability to work closely with their mentors and collaborate on key business decisions including; planning, designing, implementing and testing their business ideas. It assisted students in finding a communication medium in which they felt comfortable to engage in professional networking. - I wanted to promote a classroom environment with self-regulation, in keeping with promoting a "supportive classroom environment". Students were given an outcome which they could achieve at a pace they chose, using tools which they felt comfortable using. This is why many different IT tools were made available and flexible teaching approach was employed. - Recognition of difference was the underlying philosophy of this course. The Smith Family in partnership with Ernst and Young were committed to providing an environment which supported diversity of culture and ideas. It was hoped that through the flexible choices environment that students would be encouraged to think about their own values and what they wanted to achieve in life. This was reflected in the diversity of ideas and business concepts. The supportive mentor program facilitated innovation.
Evidence	Photos of Expo, Business Plan, Business Pitch, Online Chat, Television Ad
Task description	Product Launch Expo Students were required to launch their product prototype or service model at an expo type setting within the school. Students were assessed on the their ability to plan and prepare their product or service, market their concept and liaise with potential customers and investors. Business cards, pamphlets, customer database, data collation, television ad and advertising materials will also be assessed. (ICTs used include: Cameras, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS Access, MS Publisher, Movie Maker, Paint Shop Pro MS FrontPage. Dream Weaver, Black Board, IGNITE) - Business Plan Students were required to complete a Business Plan document. Competencies were assessed on the students overall presentation of the document and word processing skills. Content assessed included: SWOT analysis of business concept, mind map of business concept, competitor analysis, customer analysis, business name, logo, mission statement, roll-out strategy, cost/ price viability, budgeting and financial projections (ICTs used include: Cameras, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Internet search engines, email, phones, faxes, photocopiers, calculators, Online Chat) - Business Pitch Students were required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and were required to pitch their business to their fellow classmates, mentors and other vested parties. Competencies will be demonstrated by the student?s ability to create electronic presentations, pitch their business concept in a professional manor, choose marketing concepts appropriately and effectively communicate with the target market. - (ICTs used include: Cameras, MS PowerPoint, Paint Shop Pro, Video (VODCAST) Online Chat) Key activities included: o Understating the Workplace and Workplace Legislations o Personal Evaluation o Analysis of Potential Business Concepts o SWOT Analysis of Chosen Business Concept o Brainstorming and Mind Map of Business Concept o Competitor Analysis o Customer Analysis o Choosing a Business Name o Creating a Mission Statement o Brainstorming a Roll-Out Strategy o Maintaining a Project Journal o Creating a Logo o Researching Potential Suppliers o Evaluating Cost/ Price Viability o Budgeting o Developing a Prototype or Service Model o Designing Service or Product Delivery o Developing Marketing Materials o Launching and Testing the Business Concept o Creating a Customer Relationship/ Database o Seeking Customer Feedback o Evaluating the Overall Effectiveness of the Business Concept o Sourcing Funding o Financial Projections o Preparing a Business Plan o Pitching the Business Concept
Curriculum Links	Certification II Business Units BSBCMN202A Organize and complete daily work activities BSBCMN203A Communicate in the Workplace BSBCMN205A Use business technology BSBCMN208A Deliver a service to customers BSBCMN209A Provide information to clients BSBCMN211A Participate in workplace safety procedures BSBCMN213A Produce simple word-processed documents BSBCMN214A Create and use simple spreadsheets BSBCMN216A Create customer relationship GENENP101B Apply an enterprising approach in a team project BSBCMN301A Exercise initiative in the business environment BSBADM306A Create electronic presentations
Central focus for student learning	Students were required to launch a fully operational business. ICTs facilitated this learning process by allowing students to communicate with industry mentors more efficiently and frequently, produce documentation and marketing materials to a business standard, design and use databases and spreadsheets similar to industry and access online information to assist with decision making. Overall ICTs assisted students in accessing learning materials, making decisions and producing work to a professional industry standard.
Teaching and learning approach used and why	This course was delivered in a fully flexible mode. Students were informed about what they needed to achieve upon commencement of the course. They were then required to make all their own decisions and source information on their own accord. Students were encouraged to form relationships with industry mentors who could assist them in realising their business dream. My role was to facilitate student learning, demonstrating the use of tools which they could use to improve the quality of their business concept proposal. This flexible delivery/self paced course was only made possible with the use of ICT.
How the task was assessed	Students were assessed on their ability to complete a quality business concept proposal, prepare an impressive expo display and marketing materials, launch their business concept and pitch for finance. The task was assessed on a competency basis in accordance with VET guidelines. The overall basis for the assessment was for students to create an operational business which could be compared in quality and professionalism to a similar business in operation. Students were to present tasks using publishing tools. One of the competencies was based on the student?s ability to form relationships with other entrepreneurs. This was assessed based on online discussions using IGNITE.
Skills I developed by doing this task	The course required me to organise a chat room whereby students could be monitored yet have private conversations with their mentors on a one on one basis. Upon discussions with Zoe Wilkins from The Learning Place we decided to create online chat rooms using blackboard and the Java Chat. Through instruction with Jim Farmer and Zoe Wilkins I learnt how to create elearn classroom for my subject areas, add content, users and set up chat spaces for conversation. I was disappointed with the java chat as there were many loading issues from both the schools perspective and the mentors. In the end we needed to use the chat service provided by The Smith Family called IGNITE.
Why this task was worth doing	This task was enormously valuable to the students. Feedback from the students revealed that they had learnt a lot of information about how to operate their own business. Some business concepts were completed to such a high standard that a few students have decided to pursue their business and upon completion of necessary qualifications will use the marketing materials, business plan, business documents, databases and other related materials in the operation of their business. The integration of ICT and relevant computer software meant that students learnt valuable employment skills and were able to make their concept more realistic. Reflecting on how this course incorporated ICTs to improve student learning outcomes, it is my view that students developed many useful skills which were of interest to them. By allowing students to work at their own pace and choose ICT tools which enhanced the quality of their works, students were inspired at motivated. The overall connectedness of the course to the real world and the focus on diversity produced a rich learning task. Student feedback forms revealed a high degree of satisfaction in the course by the students and behavioural issues that existed with some students was dimished by the end of the project. The underlying focus of the course which was to improve prospects struggling students has proven to be highly successful. The mentor relationships in particular have resulted in employment and training opportunities for some students and ongoing relationships for others. This course was worth doing because students were empowered to make decisions about what they wanted to achieve, and through discovering themselves, they learnt that they could acheive on their own with the support of their peers, mentors and staff. ICTs improved the opportunities by allowing access to IT tools, communication mediums and 'on time' course materials.
Further details	Mentors involved with the program have identified that ICTs were of great value to the course. One mentor offered to provide the school with a colour printer to improve the quality and professionalism of the student work.