Introduction: Welcome

Welcome!

Introductions and Origin of The Entrepreneurial Educator…

Welcome to The Entrepreneurial Educator! This course is the realization of a vision of a number of people, including faculty, deans, and staff at Sonoma State University. This vision arose out of mutual conversations between individuals in our Schools of Business and Education about entrepreneurialism and began in the minds of Mark Nelson Links to an external site., the SSU Entrepreneur in Residence at Sonoma State University, and Bill Silver Links to an external site., the Dean of the School of Business and Economics.

It grew with the imagination and excitement of Paul Porter Links to an external site., Professor of Educational Leadership and Carlos Ayala Links to an external site., Dean of the School of Education. We believe this is the first such MOOC focusing on infusing entrepreneurial thinking into schools via a joint effort by education and business, or Edupreneurialism, a term we coined to capture the interdependent skills and concepts of business and education...and we are very excited. We invite you to join this movement!

The concept of this course began as we noticed that something was missing in our public school and college graduates as they exited school and entered the workforce. These graduates were still living in a paradigm long passed. They still were holding onto some myths, such as:

My college or high school education will land me my first job.
School is over and now I can learn how to function in the world of work.
I will find a job and stay in this job of the rest of my working life.
I have accomplished my goal. My education is finished and how I can reap the reward of my hard work.
Schooling was schooling…now I look for work.
Career preparation comes in my senior year.
My employer will take care of me.

We are also sobered by some of the data about the 21st century in which we live:

Private industry cannot find enough skilled talent, yet 54% of recent college grads are under or unemployed
Three million parents have grown children living at home
33% of College graduates secure a job they could have secured right out of high school
Individual will have an average of 15 jobs and up to seven careers
30% of workers are engaged at work; 41% report they hate their jobs
17% of workers report playing to their strengths daily
Career education is often a topic first approached in the final year or two of high school or college with the approach: “Now let’s look at what careers might be possible…”
For more statistics and citations, visit the Entrepreneurial Educator's Diigo webpage for Statistics on 21st Century Careers and Work Force Links to an external site.. *Diigo Links to an external site. is a social booking tool for collectively researching and annotating the Internet.

We came to the conclusion that our students need to think of themselves as entrepreneurs much earlier in their lives. Not merely in a monetary sense but in a sense of investing in themselves, investing in their future, investing in their skills, and investing in the belief that they are responsible for their own future. Career and technical education are doing some great things but our schools need to be injected with an entrepreneurial spirit! In today's world, young adults must internalize and carry forth relevant work and life skills into the next stages of their lives. Thus, the teaching of entrepreneurial thinking must begin earlier in our K-12 environments and after school settings.

The days of the world of education and the world of business being seen as separate and even competing entities is gone. There is so much that education can learn from business based entrepreneurial thinking and there is so much that business can learn from education and philosophies of learning. In fact just referring to these fields separately is, in itself, limiting and quite an outdated notion. Truly successful people understand their passions and talents and have the ability to see themselves as having unlimited potential.

At the same time they must align themselves to the realities of the world economically. This course, and the Entrepreneurial Movement here at Sonoma State University Links to an external site., is striving to demonstrate the interdependency among education and business and create teachers and students ready to discover and integrate their dreams with economic realities. Entrepreneurial education is a key aspect of 21^st century learning and helps to actualize the kinds of skills our youth must have to succeed in school, in work, and in their daily lives; it is the application of critical thinking and adaptability; it is learning about responsible risk taking and problem solving using your most precious resource...yourself!

Key Concepts

In launching this initiative we believe in several key concepts:

Every student in our schools must have a chance to develop their entrepreneurial spirit. Not with regard to or about money or business per se, but about seeing themselves as lifelong learners, constantly reflecting and improving.
Every student needs to view their education and other learning experiences as an investment in themselves and must take an active role in nurturing this investment.
There is an artificial separation between education and business. Highlighting the overlaps and synergistic relationships contributes greatly to both fields and society in general. Business must be run like learning institutions and schools should pay attention to the lessons of business.
Students must learn to navigate between multiple worlds; it is a critical skill of the 21st century.
As adults and educators, we fail our students if we do not enable them to think like entrepreneurs and engage in entrepreneurial activities.
Focusing on one's career(s) should not begin during late adolescence, as a senior in high school or as a college student. This core competency must be developed throughout one’s life. Start identifying your passions early.

What is an Edupreneur?

An #edupreneur Links to an external site. is an educator who understands how the concepts and principles of entrepreneurial thinking can be integrated into education for the betterment of students. They realize that a new way of thinking about learning and life preparation must emerge in our schools where students, beginning at an early age, constantly invest in their own learning, look at risk differently, and align their inner passions with the economic and social realities of the world.

The Course Overview

Following is an overview of the topics or modules that we will be exploring. Each module has written information, videos of the instructors, clips of educators discussing how they have put some of these concepts to work, and opportunities for you to engage in activities to support your own and your students’ growth as edupreneurs.

Week 1 Introduction and Overview of The Entrepreneurial Educator
Week 2 Awakening Relevant Purpose
Week 3 Becoming an Economic Unit of One
Week 4 Rethinking Risk
Week 5 Adaptability and Agility
Week 6 Building a Life Portfolio
Week 7 Wrap Up; Tying It Together

We hope you are excited by these ideas and look forward to your participation in the course.

Unleash your edupreneurial spirit!

Mark Nelson and Dr. Paul Porter

The Entrepreneurial Educator Course Instructors

To advance through modules, click the "Next" button (below)

Creative Commons License The Entrepreneurial Educator by Mark Nelson and Paul Porter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.