Edtech Insiders

In this episode, Alex and Michelle discuss:

1. AI

• OpenAI is pitching Sora to Hollywood
  • on a Hollywood charm offensive before launching its Sora video generator
• AI May Be Coming for Standardized Testing
• Teachers Desperately Need AI Training. How Many Are Getting It? 

2. BigTech

• Spotify Throws Its Hat in the Edtech Ring

3. K-12

• K-12 Hybrid Schooling Is in High Demand
• Steve Daly from Instructure on “Learning Deserts”
• LAUSD bets big on AI chatbot “Ed"

4. Edtech

• GoStudent, now profitable
• McGraw Hill Introduces ALEKS Adventure

5. Higher Ed

• Universities Build Their Own ChatGPT-like Tools

6. M&A & Funding

• Packback Raises Funding From PSG Equity
• GG4L Secures $18M In Capital Funding
• Cornerstone Acquires Talespin
• Smartschool raises $1.5M for AI test prep

Special Guest:

• Betsy Corcoran, Lede Labs

Julia Dixon is the Founder and CEO of ESAI (pronounced [ES] + [AY] + [EYE]), the first-of-its-kind generative AI platform for college applicants and young professionals. As a former college advisor, Julia saw a major inequality emerging as only the wealthiest families could afford resources for their students to stand out and get into the most competitive colleges and universities. She created ESAI to help level the playing field, so students of all backgrounds and resources could have a fair shot at telling their unique stories. 

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Rebecca Jennings, Vox
Embedded by Kate Lindsay
Zine by Matt Klein

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Alex and Ben discuss:

1. AI

• OpenAI ChatGPT + Humanoid Robot = Figure01
• NVIDIA Launches Latest AI Chips and Software at Developer Conference
• Apple in talks with Google to embed Google Gemini behind AI features in the iPhone
• Apple Quietly Launches First Multimodal AI Model, MM1
• Elon Musk and xAI open-source Grok

2. K12

• Ed launches in LAUSD

3. Higher Ed

• The SAT Is Coming Back At Some Colleges. It’s Stressing Everyone Out.

4. Workforce

• Udacity is acquired by Accenture

Special Guests:

• Pat Yongpradit, Code.org & TeachAI
• Quinn Taber, Immerse

When Alejandro Gibes de Gac was 7, his family immigrated to the US seeking educational opportunities for their children. His parents’ tireless efforts enabled Alejandro and his sister to overcome their circumstances and pursue their dreams. Alejandro published two books by 14 and was admitted to Harvard by 16.

After graduating from college, Alejandro joined Teach For America and became a first grade teacher in Philadelphia. There he became frustrated that the school system treats marginalized parents as liabilities, rather than as assets. Alejandro founded Springboard Collaborative more than a decade ago to close the literacy gap by bridging the gap between home and school. Springboard runs out-of-school time programs that help teachers and parents team up to improve reading outcomes for 35K+ students across the country.

While continuing to lead Springboard, Alejandro recently co-founded the edtech startup Paloma. Paloma harnesses AI to unleash parents’ untapped teaching potential. Their mobile web app helps marginalized families build and sustain a habit: 15 daily minutes of short-burst tutoring at home. (Imagine parents sitting with their kids and engaging in curriculum-aligned instruction every night.) By the time students enter middle school, families that do their Daily 15 throughout elementary school will have given their kids the equivalent of an entire extra year of school!

Alejandro’s career is guided by a singular objective: to close the opportunity gap by making parent-teacher collaboration standard practice in American education.

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Andrew Sachs is a retired successful tech entrepreneur with a passion for wanting to make the world a better place for others.  With three wonderful kids and a teacher-wife, Andrew saw how school and university were not preparing our youth with the needed technical, soft and leadership skills they needed to thrive in today’s quickly changing world. Having benefited from excellent teachers and continuous learning in the context of high-performing global project teams in his professional career, he’s now dedicated to providing that same opportunity for aspiring youth all over the globe regardless of income or place of birth. Andrew founded Nobel Navigators which has grown from 6 youth leaders in 2019 to thousands across 142 countries in 2024.

Emine Naz Can is a change agent passionate about helping youth get the skills needed to succeed in work in life.  Co-founder of Paridoc Academy to help 100+ Turkish youth learn and grow during the pandemic.  Internship in Nobel Learning where she has developed sales, negotiation and networking programs to help youth around the world get free learning to the technical, soft skills and leadership skills needed in work and life. Halil Kale Science HS graduate, enrolled at Bahcesehir University as an aspiring engineer. Ready to change the world.

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Broken: How Our Social Systems are Failing Us and How We Can Fix Them by Dr. Paul LeBlanc

Edtech Insiders joined the first Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families hosted by Common Sense Media at Pier 27 in San Francisco on January 28–30.

The conference brought together advocates, researchers, youth leaders, policymakers, and other experts to take stock of America's kids and families and explore solutions to the most pressing issues across four core topic areas: kids and technology, youth mental health, early childhood education, and K–12 education. 

In this special episode (Part 2), Alex and Ben interviews: 

1. Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education
2. Rajen Sheth, CEO & Co-founder of Kyron Learning
3. Richard Buery, CEO at Robin Hood
4. Alex Briscoe, Principal at California Children's Trust

Special Episode: Postcards from Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families (Part 1) here: 

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Alex and Ben discuss:

1. AI

• Claude 3 Opus by Anthropic 
  • Inside the Funding Frenzy at Anthropic, One of A.I.’s Hottest Start-Ups
• Google partners with Reddit in AI content licensing deal

2. Big Tech

• Nvidia reaches $2T market cap
  • Nvidia Hardware Is Eating the World
  • "Don't Learn to Code, But Study This Instead..." says NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

Special Guests:

• Kelly Sia, President of Curriculum Associates
• Malia Burns, CEO of OpenSeat, Faiza Jackson, Clinical Advisor of Open Seat
• Erin Mayhood CEO of Mentor Collective

Tom Sayer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ello, the world's first virtual reading coach that works with real books.

Before Ello, Tom was the head of impact and adoption programs at Google for Education, where his team was responsible for ensuring that Google tools were used effectively in classrooms worldwide. He is on the advisory board of Education Reimagined, the movement builder of learner centered education. He has also worked as an intelligence officer, a product manager, founded an EdTech company (with Catalin), and has built a mini-golf course in Cambodia. Tom graduated from Cambridge University with first-class honors in maths and psychology and has an MBA and MA (Education) from Stanford. He has won the Lamor prize at Cambridge, the Queen’s medal at Sandhurst, the Intelligence top student award, and was a Siebel Scholar at the GSB. He loves running, rugby, and lives with his wife and son in Pennsylvania.

Recommended Resources:

1. GSV: AI & Education by Claire Zau
2. What is Learner-centered Education by Education Reimagined

Edtech Insiders joined the first Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families hosted by Common Sense Media at Pier 27 in San Francisco on January 28–30.

The conference brought together advocates, researchers, youth leaders, policymakers, and other experts to take stock of America's kids and families and explore solutions to the most pressing issues across four core topic areas: kids and technology, youth mental health, early childhood education, and K–12 education. 

In this special episode, Alex and Ben interviews: 

1. Nicholas Kristof, Author and New York Times columnist
2. Steve Youngwood, CEO of Sesame Workshop
3. Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta
4. John Deasy, President of the Bezos Family Foundation
5. Carla Small, CEO at EarlyBird Education

Special Episode: Postcards from Common Sense Summit on America's Kids and Families (Part 2) here: 

Max Azarov is an experienced entrepreneur in the IT industry. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) where he studied at the School of Physics and Mathematics, and he holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.

Max built his career in IT product management and software development across Russia and the USA, working for Cyber Vision, Digital 5, Google and LG Electronics. As a product manager for Google, Max was responsible for the global product as well as the Russian/CIS markets (Google Search and Google Maps). Products in his portfolio generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue. This experience was crucial for Max’s skills as a team leader and software developer, but he always wanted to use his IT knowledge to build his own business. In 2013, Max launched his first startup with Dmitry Malin: Cloudike, a cloud storage solution (white label) for carriers and service-providers, such as Vodafon, Vestel, and others.

His IT background, along with a passion for the EdTech industry gained from teaching English to his own children, led to the idea of a digital English learning platform. In 2017, Max co-founded Novakid in Silicon Valley (USA) with Dmitry Malin.

NovaKid is a Series B EdTech startup ($41,5M raise) and was ranked at #105 on the 2023 Inc 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in America (1st in the education category). This online English as a Second Language learning platform for children aged 4 to 12 has delivered over 14 million English lessons for kids since inception in 2017.

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