Loving to Teach Those Who Think Like an Entrepreneur

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Loving to Teach Those Who Think Like an
Entrepreneur
Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education Forum
Charleston, South Carolina
November 4, 2007

• Cynthia Greene
• Education Consultant and Author
• Cengage/Southwestern Publishing Company

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What are Our Learners Like?

• Generation M Learners
• Born 1982-1991
• Do they think the same?
• Do they value the same things?
• Do they learn in the same ways?
• Do they want the same type of training?

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Media exposure
By age 21, the average person will have spent

• 10,000 hours playing video games
• 200,000 emails
• 20,000 hours TV
• 10,000 hours on a cell phone
• Under 5,000 hours reading

Prensky, 2003
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Gen M students versusBaby Boomer
Instructors Comfort zones differ
Students
Instructors
Multitasking
Single or limited tasks
Text
Pictures, sound, video
Random access
Linear, logical, sequential
Interactive and networked
Independent and individual
Engaging
Disciplined
Spontaneous
Deliberate
?adapted from Himes, 2004
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What can you do to adapt to Gen M?

• Make learning interactive and experiential
• Consider peer-to-peer approaches
• Utilize real-world applications
• Emphasize information literacy in courses
• Encourage reflection
• Create opportunities for synthesis
• Use informal learning opportunities

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The Challenge - Simply Put

• Our kids are spending 6 ½ hours per day using
  some form of media.
  
• Thats 44 hours a week plugged in.
• Equivalent to a full-time job plus a little
  overtime.
  
• How does the typical teacher engage, motivate,
  communicate with, entertain, and instruct a
  generation of kids raised on 40-plus hours a week
  of media recreation?
• A good teacher will design lessons that include
  three or four different activities instead of
  lecturing all period or giving kids handouts to
  complete. But how can that compete with a world
  in which students have their attention shifted
  every three seconds by the change of a camera
  angle, or swerving action of a video game,
  accompanied by swings in plot, color and music?

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How Entrepreneurship Can Motivate Todays Learner
Why should entrepreneurship and small business
receive more attention in the classroom?
Two-thirds of college students intend to be
entrepreneurs at some point in their careers
Most business school textbooks stress large
rather than small firm examples
Individuals with more education are more likely
to become entrepreneurs, and they are more likely
to open a business employing more people
Classrooms are filled with potential innovators
Key is to provide necessary skills that will
allow them to foster these talents and start new
businesses
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Why Study Entrepreneurship?

• Small businesses
• Total approximately 23 million in the United
  States
  
• Approximately 75 have no employees
• Represent 99.7 of all employer firms
• Employ half of all private sector employees
• Pay 44.3 of the total U.S. private payroll
• Generate 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs
  annually
  
• Create more than 50 percent of non-farm, private
  gross domestic product
  
• Are employers of 39 of high tech workers
• Made up 97 of all identified exporters and
  produced 29 of the known export value in FY
  2001
  
• Two-thirds of new firms survive at least two
  years 49.6 percent for four years

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Need for Hands-On Entrepreneurship Education

• Gallup Poll Results
• 85 of high school students said nations schools
  should do more to teach about entrepreneurship
  and starting a business
  
• 70 of high school students surveyed expressed a
  strong interest in starting and running their own
  business
  
• To be my own boss
• To earn lots of money
• To use my skills and abilities
• To overcome a challenge
• Help community/provide jobs
• To build something for the family
• Only 27 reported taking a course that taught
  about business or entrepreneurship
  
• Highest scores on a test of entrepreneurial
  knowledge
  
• Description of an entrepreneur, example of a
  franchise, and supply and demand
  
• Lowest scores on a test of entrepreneurial
  knowledge
  
• Typical way to raise capital, purpose of profits,
  and small business and job creation
  

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Students Say They Learned Little or Nothing About
. . . .

• How Business works 85
• Compared to other subjects
• U.S. History 24
• Science 16
• English or American Literature 16
• Mathematics 7

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Put Your Ideas into Action

• Focus on central concepts and principles of
  entrepreneurship
  
• Involve students in problem-solving
  investigations and other meaningful tasks
  
• Culminate in realistic products

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Why Put Ideas in Action

• Motivate students by engaging them in their own
  learning

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A Successful Entrepreneur Should Be Three People
in One
--From THE E-MYTH REVISITED by Michael E. Gerber
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Typical Small Business Owner
From THE E-MYTH REVISITED by Michael Gerber
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What does all this mean for business education?

• Even if students dont start their own business,
  they probably will work for a small business.
  
• Small businesses want entrepreneurial skills
• Ability to engage in creative problem solving and
  critical thinking
  
• Flexible workers who can take on responsibility
  and learn new things

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Ideas in Action

• Basic business
• skills

Career interests
Development of a business plan
Brings together writing, math, speaking,
teamwork, technology use, data analysis and
global awareness
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How to Educate Students

• Teach an Entrepreneurship course
• Integrate in existing business courses
• Integrate in other courses

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Entrepreneurship Course

• Teach a one- or two-semester course
• Teach basic information students need
• Have students develop a business plan for a
  business idea
  
• Let students start the business

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Businesses Are Built With Ideas

• Business Plans Build the Foundation for Success
• Take students step-by-step through the entire
  process of owning their own business

Create a business plan as students learn about
components

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Get Students Ready to Run Their Own Businesses

• Businesses are Built with Ideas
• Students need to learn how others took ideas and
  turned them into action
  
• Use Examples with Real-World Content
• Successes
• Failures

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What to Include

• Should You Become an Entrepreneur?
• Entrepreneurs in a Market Economy
• Develop a Business Plan
• Identify and Meet a Market Need
• Market Your Business
• Distribution, Promotion, and Selling

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What to Include

• Select a Type of Ownership
• Locate and Set Up Your Business
• Plan and Track Your Finances
• Operations Management
• Human Resource Management
• Risk Management
• Management for the Future

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Ways to Enhance Learning

• Provide learning opportunities that reinforce and
  expand lesson concepts
  
• Emphasize teamwork activities
• Highlight the pitfalls of real entrepreneurs and
  include critical thinking questions to help
  students analyze the situations

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Assess Student Learning

• End of Lesson Exercises
• Help students go beyond lesson content with
  questions that really test their knowledge
  
• Provide opportunities for cross-curricular
  reinforcement of lesson concepts
  
• Ask students questions that test their
  understanding

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School-Based Enterprises

• Precious Memories--personalized calendars
• Advertising Advocates--marketing the video
  yearbook--enrolled in Media Tech
  
• Accessories--purses, jewelry, etc.
• The Bead Company--bracelets
• Fan Fanatics--customized t-shirts
• Events--Memorable Machines and Vendor Fair

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How to Get Started

• Start-up cash from fund raiser
• Charge for services (copying, printing, etc.)
• Prepare a business plan
• Weekly Work Reports and Work Plans
• Presentations for principal
• Make prototypes
• Grand Opening
• Weekly financial reports
• End of Semester Report and Presentation

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Integrate in Existing Business Courses

• Units in courses
• Accounting--Set up books for a business idea they
  have
  
• Computer Applications--Design letterhead,
  business cards, and fliers for a business
  
• Computer Applications--Design a multimedia
  presentation about a business idea for a space in
  a local shopping mall
  
• Desktop PublishingDesign a magazine cover that
  features a famous entrepreneur

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Integrate in Existing Business Courses

• Marketing
• Make a business plan for a school store
• Design a web page for a business on the Internet
• Cooperative Education Program
• Teach entrepreneurship to elementary students
• Complete a unit on entrepreneurship and market a
  product

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Entrepreneurial Stories

• Gadgetsleeves
• Katelin Shea
• New York

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Entrepreneurial Stories

• Jx2 Productions
• Andrew Jensen
• Massachusetts

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Entrepreneurial Stories

• LogicLotus
• Omar Faruk
• New York

LogicLotus Formerly BlueStreamCorp
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Entrepreneurial Stories

• Alps Technology
• Alps Lawn Company
• Joseph Pascaretta
• Michigan

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Inspire Your Students

• Look for stories in your community.
• Share them with your students!

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What Students Say About Studying Entrepreneurship

• How to start a business
• Learned the importance of differentiating their
  product/service
  
• Improved computer and presentation skills
• Learned how to find and use resources

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Loving To Teach Those Who Think Like an
Entrepreneur