Edtech Insiders

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.

Send us a text2022 was a consequential year for Edtech. Join us as we review some of the top trends of the year!In this super-sized episode, Ben and Alex review top trends from the year that was and make some predictions for 2023. We discuss:The "Edtech winter" for startups worldwide, with a renewed focus on profitabilityThe crash in Chinese edtech and the continued rise for India, Europe and other regions. Increasing consolidation in the sector through mergers and acquisitionsThe rise (and fall?) of the online tutoring sectorThe politicization of k12 schooling in the USK12 staffing shortages and their effect on EdtechThe opportunity to address pandemic learning lossThe ROI crisis for university degrees and the rise of industry credentials and college alternativesSea changes for higher ed, including enrollment decreases, closures, focus on adult learners, the rise of test-optional policies, and moreOPMs expanding their reach and competing to be the lifelong learning solutionWorkforce learning on the riseHow the Education-as-a-benefit model survives an economic downturn and evolutions of the talent warThe past and future of the educational multiverse, VR/AR/XR, AI, and Web3.0In Part 2, several of our top guests from the year weigh in on their reviews and predictions! Stay tuned.

Send us a textThis episode features special guest Joshua Broggi of Woolf University,  the first global collegiate higher education institution that allows education organizations to join as member colleges and offer accredited degrees.In this episode we discuss:1) Higher Education's Sea Change (Axios)- Changes coming to higher ed from many directions- testing, rankings, enrollment woes, hybrid courses and more. How can Edtech best support HE in a time of great pressure and change?2) Credential Engine's Annual Report - In a world with over 1mm credentials available, how can Edtech help learners sort out which will work best for them?3) There’s a Reason There Aren’t Enough Teachers in America. Many Reasons, Actually. (NY Times)- The teacher shortage is leading to some new policy ideas, like a $60k minimum wage for teachers- Ben says it should be more like $100K.4) Edtech’s brightest are struggling to pass (TechCrunch)- Edtech stars like Outschool, Bloomtech (formerly Lambda School) and Pluralsight continue to shed jobs and seek profitability5) Course Hero creates parent company Learneo- Course Hero takes a page from Google/Alphabet and creates an umbrella organization to manage all its acquisitionsFunding and M&A:Mathspresso raises $70m Series C Sana Labs raises $34M series BUolo raises $22.5MCareer Foundry raises 5M EurosZeraki raises $1.8MMcGraw Hill acquires Medical Training platform Boards & BeyondLate Breaking news: Instructure acquires LearnPlatform (!) To be disc

Send us a textHeather Shen is the CPO and co-founder of Praxis Labs. As graduate students at Stanford, Shen and classmate Elise Smith, 30, bonded over their mutual interest in helping companies and institutions do a better job at diversity and inclusion training. They came up with the idea for Praxis Labs, a startup that can deliver diversity training using either VR headsets, mobile phones, laptops or desktops. Heather is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Education. Heather has also worked as a management consultant, an electrical engineer for Microsoft’s Hololens, and in Crew Systems at NASA. Heather holds a Master’s of Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.Mekayla Castro is the Head of Curriculum at Praxis Labs, where she drives curriculum and content development and partners with the product team to create immersive experiences and impactful learning tools and pathways. Mekayla was formerly a Senior Behavioral Scientist and Head of Learning Experience Design at Edtech Unicorn BetterUp, which provides coaching services to enterprise clients, and was the Director of Global Leadership and Learning at American Express. Mekayla earned her Ph.D in Social-Organizational Psychology from Teachers College Columbia University.

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