

Ask HN: How would you design a Technology/Entrepreneur class for high school? - noahc

I am trying to design a Technology/Entrepreneur course for a rural high school.  I know HN focuses more on building businesses using technology, than building content businesses, but I'm not sure teaching every kid how to program would work.  I have a few kids, that I will be working with separately and will probably follow the traditional HN path with.  For everyone else I have this as a rough outline:<p>Assumptions:<p>1a. Rural America suffers from brain drain where talented people leave to find economic leverage elsewhere.
1b. Rural America can cheat and bring economic leverage back to rural America by using technology and the internet (this post is an example of that).
2. College doesn't make sense for an increasing number of students.  Schools must provide options for those students for whom college doesn't make sense and working in a factory doesn't make a lot of sense either.
3. Rural America needs entrepreneurs to build sustainable, technology driven businesses with global reach to remain viable.<p>Class 1.<p><pre><code>   * Develop and Design a website that supports the school and other organizations and groups in the community.
   * Learn Wordpress, become familiar with online writing, develop a better understanding of how internet publishing works.
   * Create Link Bait(?)
   * Briefly touch on css/xhtml as is needed in their work.
   * Learn how to find information they need on google, and use that to be productive.

</code></pre>
Class 2.<p><pre><code>   * Study Business Models (pay per click, impression, affiliate marketing, etc)  and Economics through the lense of the online world. 
   * Do case studies on online businesses. Wine Library, Gizmondo, lifehacker, etc, etc.
   * Read the books Crush IT and Rework
   * Brain storm ideas and then get involved in communities/forums about what they think their business will be tangentially related to.  Develop relationships.

</code></pre>
Class 3.<p><pre><code>   * Form Partnerships, Give out Shares to Advisors, etc, etc.
   * Write Marketing/Business Plan, Conduct Market Research.
   * Start to build their content based business.
</code></pre>
Class 4.<p><pre><code>   * Hopefully, a few students have worked on it over the summer (probably have a meeting once a week for students that want to keep keep moving) and this will motivate the others who didn't.
   * They should now be able to contact sponsors, build advertisment, write link bait, etc, etc.
</code></pre>
What am I forgetting, what should I include, what should I leave out?<p>If you were doing this how would you do it?
======
Scott_MacGregor
Have them come up with an idea that they believe they can implement on their
own, but with your guidance and advice. Something that will bring real money
in the door quickly. Even if it is only $20, it is better than lofty goals
that a high school person might not have the maturity to follow through on.

Do not let them try to build a Google competitor or something similar. It is
unrealistic for them. Have them engage in some kind of e-commerce and use
something like PayPal where there is a chance that money will actually come in
the door. Have you local newspaper do a story on you and the class
participants, maybe following their efforts over time in the Sunday edition.

Form groups of 5 students and have them come up with ideas that you put on a
list. When you have 50 money making ideas on the list, break into groups of 2
and let them try to implement the ideas they think will work. If more than one
group of 2 chooses the same idea, that is called market competition.

I think they need to learn to bunt, before learning how to hit home runs. If
you think they will all hit home runs and work to make no money, I think they
will be discouraged and it will be a negative experience for them. Probably
not what you want.

Maybe some will discover that this industry is not for them and go on to own a
restaurant in your town. I think that the lessons learned can be applied to
any business.

I think you should include some examples of companies like Zappos that sells
shoes as well as companies that develop and sell software or provide SAS.

Also instead of case studies (that’s a lot for kids to focus on and digest) do
PowerPoint lectures and also "make them earn" the privilege of learning how to
use PowerPoint to make a Pitch Deck on a special Saturday lecture at the end
of the course. But of course they can all attend, it's just a ploy to get them
to focus hard on the course work that you can dangle over them during the
semester. The carrot works better than the stick.

Also, you should have one lecture about, accounting, taxes and legal entity
formations where a CPA comes in and answers questions. Also explain what a
Corporation is and why Delaware might be a good choice.

~~~
noahc
I think your google point is spot on. I wanted to stay away from this and
thought that the content creation route might help mitigate this.

Would you agree that there are three types of online businesses:

1\. Businesses that rely on engineering(twitter, Facebook, google). These are
businesses that you for sure want to stay away from.

2\. Businesses that are basically e-commerce. Zappos, Amazon, etc. This would
be tough to do because of the need for inventory.

3\. Content businesses lifehacker, wine library, etc. These are ideal because
they require little/no capital and only hand work put in by the students. This
handwork can then spread over 4 years and hopefully they have something at the
end of 4 years to show for it.

As far as home runs vs bunts and thinking they would all be successful, I'd be
happy with 1% success rate.

Thanks for the awesome input.

~~~
Scott_MacGregor
I think spreading the work over 4 years is too long. I would focus on getting
something workable together and online before halfway through the semester.
Push them to stay up late and code and hit a deadline. They won't melt if they
lose a little sleep. Then have them work on iterating the design and the
business based on feedback from adult relatives who login to the sites.

Also, maybe some of the students want to do e-commerce. Maybe you could offer
them some flexibility in this area.

Will the PTA flip out if you involve the students with selling wine? Maybe you
could work a deal with some local business where the students websites act as
a reseller but carry no inventory. Farm supplies, or something. The customers
can be local, if the newspaper does a story on this it is free advertising.
Maybe somebody's mom cans preserves or something. Be imaginative. It is just
to learn and maybe make some money, not corner the market.

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AmberShah
Definitely not any of this (sorry). Who cares if you know affiliate marketing?
Young kids pretty much already "get it" in the same way that you didn't need
to touch our parents about how grocery stores work.

If I were teaching a class on technology/entrepreneurship, I would have teams
of 2-3 people come up with a real idea, implement it and market it over the
semester/year. Sure, they'd learn things in the lessons along the way, but
applying it is what makes it meaningful.

~~~
noahc
You're right.

I think after the first year of wordpress/community sites you put them in
groups and let them come up with the ideas themselves and they'll learn
whatever is relevant to their project.

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anamax
(1) Hand each student $20-$50. (2) Tell them to go to any store they want and
buy something that they can sell for more. Give some examples (flowers by the
side of the road, cupcakes at the local hospital, etc.) The only restriction
is that they can't do whatever it is that their parents do for a living. (3)
Tell them that you want your money back plus $10 within the next {interval} -
they get to keep the rest.

If they decide to do a web-based biz, great. The important thing is doing a
biz.

They can worry about accounting and the like after they've demonstrated
traction.

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bwh2
It seems the purpose of the class shouldn't be to give concrete tools. The
purpose should be to spark their interest in technology so that they stick
with it and think about how to leverage it in their setting (rural America).

Specifics are hard, but here are some guiding principles I would follow:

* Creating beautiful things should be easy

* Introduce them to new technology using content they already understand

* Focus on actually building stuff, not case studies, lectures, papers, papers, reading, etc.

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giffc
The best way to learn is to do. Start by getting them out of the building, and
help them understand that entrepreneurship means getting outside of your
comfort zone and focusing on things people actually want.

The lean startup machine weekend just held in NYC was like a 2.5 day customer
development bootcamp and it was amazing. People pitched ideas, teams formed
around the best ideas, and they had to get out and learn as much as possible.
The creativity behind all the different ways to test and disprove ideas, and
then evolve and improve those ideas, was quite something. Reach out to Trevor
Owens who organized it, because he might inspire some great ideas for you.

------
bl4k
52 weeks of work experience

------
Mz
I read lots of business books and the like over the years. It never resulted
in a business. What do these kids want to DO (other than "make money")?

