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

9 points by noahc 16y ago

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: Assumptions: 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. Class 1. * 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. Class 2. * 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. Class 3. * Form Partnerships, Give out Shares to Advisors, etc, etc. * Write Marketing/Business Plan, Conduct Market Research. * Start to build their content based business. Class 4. * 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. What am I forgetting, what should I include, what should I leave out? If you were doing this how would you do it?

bl4k 16y ago
52 weeks of work experience
Mz 16y ago
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")?
bwh2 16y ago
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.
AmberShah 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.
Scott_MacGregor 16y ago
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.
- LeBlanc 16y ago
  I agree about having the students create a real business venture instead of learning about theory. Theory is useful if you are experienced, but boring and uninformative if you are in high school. In high school I made $2000 building and repairing computers for people. This is something that HS students could easily do. Building an eCommerce site is another one. Doing web design for local businesses is also a great idea because most rural businesses have terrible web presence.
anamax 16y ago
(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.
giffc 16y ago
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.