Edtech Insiders

Send us a textIn this episode, we speak to special guest Kian Katanforoosh, whose company Workera just raised a $23.5M Series B. We also talk about:AI Push and PullCall for a pause on AI training met with skepticismEd tech experts urge caution on ChatGPT’s student data privacyItaly blocks ChatGPT over privacy concernsHello Dolly: Democratizing the magic of ChatGPT with open models Higher Ed's Price Hikes in the Face of UncertaintyIvy League tuition costs over $80KA look at trends in college consolidation since 2016Rising Tuition? It’s Not About Sticker PricesWhy are prices rising more for lower-income college students than their higher-income peers? The Power of Microcredentials and America’s Higher Education DilemmaTikTok Ban DebateTikTok hearing: CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before US Congress amid looming ban – as it happenedLuben Pampoulov's Evaluation of Public EdtechsLearning with CopilotsBig Haircut for Byju's Valuation Some Investors Cut Byju's Valuation (from $22B to $11B)Byju's Raising $700M on Original $22B Valuation

Send us a textJunaid Mubeen is a mathematician turned educator who has spent over a decade working on innovative learning technologies, reaching students of all ages and abilities from around the world as Head of Product and Director of Education at Whizz Education, and COO of Write the World. Junaid has a DPhil in Mathematics from Oxford and a Masters in Education from Harvard, where he studied as a Kennedy Scholar. Junaid is also the author of “Mathematical Intelligence: A Story of Human Superiority Over Machines”, and is currently working with bestselling science author Simon Singh on developing the world's largest online maths circle, parallel.org.uk. He once earned fleeting fame as a Countdown series winner.  Junaid's Recommended Resources:Parallel by Simon Singh (Online math universe for ages 10-16)The End of Education by Neil Postman

Jess Weems Thibault, VP of Growth at HireEdu, talks about transitioning from education to the Edtech industry. They cover different types of recruiting agencies, the current state of tech and Edtech industries, standing out in resumes, understanding revenue, working in nonprofits vs private sector, and transitioning from classroom teacher to Edtech companies.

Send us a textJoin us at ASU GSV!This week on the pod:1) Big Tech Goes All in On AILaunch of Google BardAdobe launches Firefly generative A.I., which lets users type to edit imagesMicrosoft launches Loop, a Notion competitor+ ChatGPT in Education:Where Is the ‘AI Conundrum’ in Education Headed?We Can’t Keep ChatGPT Out of the Classroom, so Let’s Address the ‘Why’Inside the Quest to Detect (and Tame) ChatGPT2) Pearson sells OPM Division/OPM RegulationPearson Sells Its OPM Business  (PhilOnEdTech)When universities slap their names on for-profit coding boot camps 3) How Has COVID Changed Public Schooling?Public School Enrollment Dropped by 1.2M During the PandemicNew Mexico terminates 1:1 online tutoring contract with Paper5 pandemic-era technologies schools don’t want to give up4) Skills-Based Hiring On the RiseAccredible Announces the Launch of Skills Pathways REPORT: How Skills Are Disrupting Work Global Survey of 37k School Students Reveals Desire to Modernize Education5) The Myth of Education as an Equalizer: Book ReviewThe Myth of Education as Equalizer Funding/M&A:BREAKING: Workera's $23m Series BGlider AI raises $10M Almentor raises $10M Trala Raises $8 MillionAG5 raises €6 millionUpduo raises $4MMaqsad Secures $2.8 MillionVitalSource Acquires AkademosQuottly Joins Parchment

Send us a textChatGPT 4Hear from Kristen DiCerbo, Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy, about KhanmigoDuolingo MaxReadleePaperBarnes and NoblePhotoStudyGlobal EdtechLEAD Completes Acquisition Of Pearson’s IndiaupGrad crosses 22,000 job placementsEdtech startup uLesson starts an Open UniversityThe Rise of EdTech In SEE

Send us a textJohn Gamba is a serial entrepreneur and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, John Gamba, Jr has been dedicated to transforming education for most of his career. In 1999, John co-founded PACE – The Partnership for Academic and Community Excellence. PACE was the first school-to-home communications network, connecting thousands of schools to millions of homes nationally and was eventually sold to Blackboard, an international industry leader in education. John currently serves as Entrepreneur in Residence and Director of Innovative Programs at Penn’s Graduate School of Education. In this role, John mentors education entrepreneurs, helps incubate new EdTech ventures and oversees the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition, which has awarded millions of dollars to world-wide education ventures.Thaddeus Reichley has over twenty years of teaching and leading in public, charter, and independent schools. He has designed curriculum, led faculty through challenging times, done strategic development, and built highly productive teams. Thaddeus is completing an EdD at USC and is in the midst of writing his dissertation about student engagement in online environments.Recommended ResourcesAlan November, Who Owns the Learning?John Doerr, Measure What MattersStanford + Emeritus' Collaboration

Send us a textVarun Gulati is the CEO and co-founder of Koalluh, a startup which makes reading & writing more engaging by empowering kids to make & share quality, illustrated children's stories using AI.Varun is a former public school teacher, and a product & engineering leader. He co-founded, scaled, and sold his first company, UClass as CTO & Head of Product. Most recently, Varun led the Product & Growth teams at Mystery Science, the fastest-growing K-12 science supplemental in the U.S.. The products he has built have reached tens of millions of students. Varun is also an ex-Googler and former Teach For America corps member. Recommended ResourcesBen's Bytes on Substack on AIEducation and The Significance of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurthi

Send us a textJohn Edelson founded homeschooling platform Time4Learning in 2013 in his living room and remains the president today. Over 360,000 students have now benefited from Time4Learning. He also created Time4Writing, VocabularySpellingCity, and Science4Us. His company was run independently until joining Cambium in 2018. He has extensive expertise working with various educational software, diversified entertainment, and technology companies. He was the producer of the Sony PlayStation game, Croc, Legend of the Gobos, which went Platinum. After college, he spent two years in West Africa in the Peace Corps. He is a proud father of three. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard.  

Send us a textIn this special, UNEDITED version of Week in Edtech, Ben, Alex and special guest co-host Matt Tower discuss:1) The sudden demise and federal takeover of Silicon Valley Bank and what it means for Tech, Banking and Edtech.News:Jenna Smialek and Alan Rappeport of NYTEric Wallerstein et al. of WSJDaniel Taub of BloombergTakesKevin Roose of NYTMatt Levine of BloombergNoah Smith of Noahpinion2) Discuss the rumors of ChatGPT4 launching next week with AI-created videoMicrosoft will launch ChatGPT 4 with AI videos next week | Digital TrendsNew Study Reveals Only 1 in 10 Global Workers Have In-Demand AI SkillsGrammarly expands beyond proofreading with AI-powered writing3) Herald the Launch of Non-Profit ai.edu with 50 partners across tech and edPartners include Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Verizon, Intel, TFA and many more4) Unveil the (secret) purchase of top Education App Photomath by GoogleMatt reports on this in Edtech ThoughtsYou can also read about it in Croatia Week5) Discuss the on-the-ground happenings at SxSW EDU

Send us a textDepartment of Ed launches new OPM RestrictionsInsider Higher Ed on thisPhil Hill on this (here too)U.S. Department of Education Launches Review of Prohibition on Incentive Compensation for College RecruitersTeen girls in mental health crisis, blowback toward big techNPR: 10 things to know about how social media affects teens' brainsNearly 1 in 5 Teen Girls ‘Engulfed’ In Wave of Sexual Violence; Many SuicidalRecord Levels of Sadness in Teen Girls, CDC Reports - The New York TimesCovid Relief fund cliff is comingTime Is Running Out for Colleges to Spend COVID-19 Relief FundsChatGPT- Things are moving faster than we can anticipateMost sites claiming to catch AI-written text fail spectacularly | TechCrunch