Edtech Insiders

Send us a textIn this week's Week in Edtech, Ben and special guest co-host Hailey Carter:1) Talk to Salwa Muhammad of Fourthbrain.ai about the upcoming 3-day workshop with Andrew Ng and other AI Education leaders2) Discuss "Study Hall", new Youtube/ASU/Crash Course Collaboration (Youtube Blog)3) Take note of a recent survey that expresses doubt about Edtech leaders (Edweek)4) Compare Recent Reports on the State of Edtech Funding- Reach Capital (US)- Brighteye Ventures (Europe)- Inc42 (India)5) Explore the Push for the $60K Minimum Teacher Salary in the US (Edweek)6) Look at the Race to Adapt to a ChatGPT World (Forbes, NYTimes) and Quill and CommonLit's Free Tool to Detect Cheating 

Send us a textLaurel Taylor is the founder, CEO, and driving force behind Candidly (previously known as FutureFuel.io). Her mission is to address the unmet — and urgent — market need for smart solutions that support individuals and families through every step of the planning, borrowing, and repayment experience. Candidly works towards this goal by creating trusted, intelligent and comprehensive solutions that enable Americans to reap the rewards of that investment so they can build financial wellness and wealth.About Candidly:Candidly exists to crush student debt for America's 44M borrowers. On average, Candidly shave $15k and half of a decade off of a user's student loans, through a personalized Student Debt FinHealth platform that optimizes repayment plans, automates the management of unruly student loans, and gamifies rewards points and spare change across the household.Resources:- Get Candidly Blog on the Secure 2.0 Act (which Laurel calls "the most important workplace innovation since the 401(k)"

Send us a textOn this Week in Edtech:We speak to Mateo Elvira of Elvira Media about Edtech content marketing, and how to utilize storytelling to stand out from the crowd, as well as...ChatGPT: We discuss both the prediction that ChatGPT will create a new Edtech boom......and the backlash to tech, including mass bans of both ChatGPT at large school districts and Tiktok at universitiesBig Tech: We discuss the controversial layoffs at Google and Microsoft and whether it might breed new entrepreneurs in edtech ......and Reed Hasting's one-two punch of donating to Minerva University and then stepping down as Netflix CEOXR/VR/ARPrisms VR launches in the Meta StoreASU-incubated Dreamscape Learn gets $20M in funding2023 Predictions from our friends at TranscendThe 2023 predictions from Transcend founders Alberto Arenaza and Michael NareaFunding RoundsHack The Box raises $55MSana raises $34MDreamscape Learn raises $20mWorkIndia raises $12MSupermom raises $6MEqualture raises $2.7MMergers and AcquisitionsNoodle acquires Hubble Studios

Send us a textVadim Polikov is the CEO of Legends of Learning, online educational games for teachers and students with 2,000 fun, curriculum-aligned, math and science games created to engage students and assist teachers using hybrid learning, blended learning & distance learning models.Vadim loves to learn and build. Bold new ideas excite him and he wants to put them into practice. He sees his career as a series of ideas built to fruition and scale. He wants to make an impact and believes creating self-sustaining for-profit businesses is the best way to make an ongoing impact. He believes entrepreneurship is an incredible process that creates value, ideas, jobs, and products. It is a big reason why he thinks the US is such an amazing country.He has built three successively larger businesses and is now focused on building the next one, a really exciting Ed Tech startup that uses games to help teachers teach in the classroom. He also acts as an angel investor on the side.He is incredibly thankful for Duke University, which provided his undergraduate and graduate education, and for the Baltimore community, which provided a fantastic childhood. He hopes to be able to give back to both communities.Recommended Resources:MatthewBall.vcThe Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball

Send us a textWelcome back to our Weekly Round-up of Edtech news across the industry! Guest: Natalia Kucirkova of Wikit, ASOur top stories this week:1) Companies Becoming Platforms through Consolidation- HMH acquires school testing non-profit NWEA- Instructure (maker of the Canvas LMS) acquires evidence platform Learnplatform - Zoom launches 'Essential Apps' including Kahoot! and Prezi- Jack McDermott of Chegg on consolidation in Edtech  2) Edtech Winter creating CEO turnover- Upgrad CEO Arjun Mohan resigns- Newsela CEO Matthew Gross leaves, Pep Carrera from Nearpod takes helm- Udemy CEO and Board Chair retires, is replaced by Head of Udemy Business- Inspera changes CEO3) Seattle schools suing big tech- Seattle schools are suing TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube for causing mental health crises 4) Student Financial Aid Startup Frank Being Sued by J.P. Morgan Chase- JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and co are now suing the company, alleging that Frank invented 4+ million fake users to close the sale. -  Ben: "the FTX of Edtech."5) Edtech Conference Season is Underway- GSV announces its "GSV 150" and the "Elite 200"- SxSWEdu announces its launch contest participantsFunding RoundsLEAD School becomes Unicorn, acquires Pearson's K-12 Business in IndiaToddle raises $17 millionEduvanz raises $12.6M

Send us a textDr. Deepak Sekar is an inventor and entrepreneur. Over the last decade, he has been granted 192 patents, making him one of the more prolific inventors in the world today. You may know him from his role as Founder and CEO of Chowbotics, which built the world's first fresh food-making robot named “Sally.” Sally now operates in over 250 locations worldwide. Under Sekar’s leadership, Chowbotics was named among the food trends of 2019 by The New York Times and listed as one of the world’s most innovative companies by Fast Company. Chowbotics was acquired by DoorDash in 2020. Around that time, Sekar watched his daughters grapple with pandemic-induced online classes and felt something should be done about it. So, he co-founded Prof Jim to help transform e-learning. When he’s not in Silicon Valley coercing his family to test his latest brainchild, he’s most likely climbing some distant mountain in a quest to push his limits (or at least, get out of the house!). He holds a B. Tech. from IIT Madras, and a M. S. and Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, all in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Send us a textIn this episode, we ask some of our favorite guests (and Edtech C-suiters) to give their reviews of Edtech in 2022 and what we can expect to see in 2023. Karl Rectanus, CEO of LearnPlatform on Edtech Evidence in 2023 (2:54)Sarah Mauskopf, CEO of Winnie on Childcare and Teaching in 2023 (20:22)Maria Barrera, CEO of Clayful on SEL and COVID funding in 2023 (29:46)Sunil Gunderia, CIO of Age of Learning on Early Childhood Edtech (46:58)Anthony Kim, CLO of Scholarus Learning on AI and Learner Engagement in 2023 (59:24)Norma Padron, CEO of EmpiricaLabs on Workforce Development in 2023 (1:19:34)

Send us a textMichael Preston, PhD is the Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a pioneering thought leader at the intersection of technology, media, and children’s learning. He leads the Center’s efforts to explore new frontiers and new literacies, support and translate research into action, and guide the field toward better opportunities and outcomes for kids.Previously, Michael co-founded CSforALL, the hub for the national Computer Science for All movement; after launching a 10-year partnership with New York City to provide high-quality computer science to every student in the nation’s largest public school system. CSforALL now helps other cities and regions across the country replicate the progress made in New York.Prior to his work with CSNYC and CSforALL, Preston designed and led digital learning initiatives at the New York City Department of Education, including programs in middle and high school computer science, personalized learning, and digital literacy. Zaza Kabayadondo, PhD brings over 15 years of learning experiences design across the entire education ecosystem.Zaza has worked with clients such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IEEE, edX, and the Association of Asia-Pacific Rim Universities. Highlights from her career include work in the three-sided upskilling marketplace, developing multi-partner coalitions, and working directly with career-seeking learners. Zaza was a consultant at Entangled Solutions and on the B2B Learning Marketplace at Guild Education where she helped attract partners for employer-driven innovation in the talent pipeline. Zaza was formerly Director of Industry Partnerships for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the research and innovation arm of Sesame Workshop. She built a roadmap for creating a new business unit focused on leveraging Sesame IP to support youth-friendly digital designers; and helped broker the unit’s collaborations with global brands and early startups. Zaza holds a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford University, and she is a co-author of Taking Design Thinking to School and a speaker on the future of learning.Recommended Resources:Center for Scholars and Storytellers by UCLAJason Yip’s research on kids Innovator’s Compass by Ela Ben-Ur Age-Appropriate Design Code in CAPlayful by Design Making Child’s Online Safety a Reality by 5 Rights Foundation

Send us a textSteve Grubbs is the CEO and Co-Founder of VictoryXR, one of the world leaders in virtual reality educational product development. He founded VictoryStore.com, ChalkBites and Victory Enterprises. Steve is also YPO Member. Early in life, he served as Chairman of the House Education Committee in the Iowa House of Representatives and passed the largest technology funding bill in state history. More recently, he chaired the YPO Technology Network for two years. Steve is now working to create a place for virtual reality curriculum in schools. He has degrees in business and law from the University of Iowa.Recommended Resources:Google NewsMetaversity Disruption by VictoryXR

Send us a textKris Jagasia is the co-founder and CEO of Off2Class, responsible for directing company strategy and vision. He has built the commercial teams at the company including, sales, marketing and customer success.As the son of immigrants, Kris grew up with a keen appreciation for the benefits of learning – his parents investing the lion's share of their resources in his own multilingual education. He saw the power of education to create limitless opportunities. That background would inform the founding of Off2Class and his own life choices, as he would later work to teach English to four students: his nephews living in Switzerland, and two Syrian refugees in Toronto.Along with his co-founders, Kris led the launch of Off2Class’ initial beta to 300 teachers and, over the next nine years, grew it to a curriculum, assessment, and professional development tool used by ELL district teams across America while also being used by thousands of individual ESL teachers as part of their education infrastructure, to tutor online and in-person, in over 120 countries.Kris is a graduate of McGill University (Bachelor of Commerce) and has been certified as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and is a proud testament to the Canadian newcomer dream.