Edtech Insiders

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

1. AI

• Chegg, Duolingo, Coursera Stocks Swoon as Goldman Warns of Threat From AI
• Coursera’s CEO announced that Coursera users signed up for an AI course every minute of 2023

2. Edtech

• It’s a good time to invest in early-stage edtech, investors say 
• Byju’s seeks new funding at less than $2 billion valuation, a 90% drop

3. K-12

• National Ed-Tech Plan Outlines How Schools Can Tackle 3 Big Digital Inequities
• Michael Bloomberg donates $250M to open 10 healthcare-focused high schools in Boston, Charlotte, Durham, Houston, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Demopolis, and Northeast Texas

4. Higher Ed

• OpenAI announces first partnership with a university
• Northeastern partners with Multiverse, granting transfer credit to apprentices who complete Multiverse’s analytics program

5. Big Tech

• Microsoft makes its AI-powered reading tutor available for free. Will integrate it with Canvas
• Google announces new AI-powered features for education

Special Guest:

• Jacob Kantor and Brett Roer, EDLIT: Empowering Districts through Learning, Innovation, & Technology

Ryan Craig is a Managing Director at Achieve Partners and was formerly an MD at University Ventures. Ryan’s commentary on where the puck is going in education and workforce regularly appears in the biweekly Gap Letter, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education. He is the author of the book Apprentice Nation: How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America (2023). He is also author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College (2018), which describes the critical importance of last-mile training and the emergence of bootcamps, income share programs, staffing and apprenticeship models as preferred pathways to good first digital jobs and was named in the Wall Street Journal as one the Books of the Year for 2018. Ryan’s first book was College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education (2015), which profiles the coming shift toward competency-based education and hiring. Ryan is a co-founder of Apprenticeships for America, a national nonprofit dedicated to scaling apprenticeships across the U.S. economy and is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Previously, Ryan led the Education & Training sector at Warburg Pincus. His prior experience in higher education was at Columbia University. Ryan also founded and built Wellspring, a national network of boarding schools and summer camps for overweight and obese children, adolescents, and young adults. He began his career at McKinsey & Co.

Ryan received bachelor's degrees summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, and his law degree from the Yale Law School.

Recommended Resources:
Gap Letter
Apprenticeships for America

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

1. AI

• Duolingo Sheds Some Human Workers As AI Threatens To Upend The $65 Billion Translation Industry
• Moral Panic of “Will Chatbots teach your children” is starting up:
  • “Will Chatbots Teach Your Children”
  • Your Child’s Favorite Teacher May Soon Be a Chatbot 
  • Two of Your Predictions for 2024 and Why They Are Probably Not Correct 

2. Edtech

• HolonIQ Removes 13 unicorns from its Edtech Unicorns list
• FETC is next week!

3. Workforce

• Indian Company Upgrad Education to Acquire Udacity for $80 Million, According to Local Media   

Special Guest:

• John Rogers, Partner at TPG Rise Fund

Lauren McCann is the head of Figma for Education. She started her career in the classroom, as a middle school English teacher in Hyderabad, India. Before joining Figma, Lauren led product marketing for Google’s core education products including Google Classroom, Google Meet, Google Workspace for Education (Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drive, Jamboard) Google Assignments, Read Along, and more. At Figma, Lauren and her education team are working to bring Figma into more classrooms globally.

Recommended Resources:
Tactically, Figjam by Alice Keeler
Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things by Adam Grant

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

1. AI

• GPT Store Opened.  What does this mean?
• South Korea's MathGPT Sets a New World Record in Mathematical Performance
• US Congress Introduces “AI Literacy” Bill

2. PreK12

• As Enrollment Declines, Districts Consider Closing Schools

3. K12

• Skipping School: America’s Hidden Education Crisis

4. Higher Education

• Claudine Gay & Higher Ed’s Crisis.  Is it just PR & Politics or is it a deeper issue?
• The new FAFSA is meant to make applying for college aid easier, but not everyone can access it yet 

5.  Other

• Immerse Raises $5M, Goes on “The View”

Special Guest:

• Anna Iarotska, Co-founder & CEO at Robo Wunderkind

Dr. Maria Armstrong is the Executive Director of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS). Her career in education includes serving as a teacher, school counselor, assistant principal, principal, director of English Language Learners, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, superintendent, and as an educational consultant for the Puerto Rico Department of Education leading the department’s Hurricane Maria Recovery efforts. Prior to working in education, Dr. Armstrong worked in the Biotech industry and is committed to ensuring that students are college, career and life ready.

Pedro Martinez was named Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer in 2021, the first Latino in the city’s history to hold the position outside of an interim capacity. Martinez has more than 30 years of experience in the private, nonprofit, and public education sectors. He has previously served as superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District, superintendent in residence for the Nevada Department of Education, and superintendent of the Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada. Martinez was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and came to Chicago with his family at the age of five in search of a better life. He credits the education he received in Chicago Public Schools with changing the trajectory of his life

Recommended Resources:
World Education Summit
Not every Chicago school offers algebra in middle school. CPS is working to change that. by Chalkbeat
Virtual Academy by Chicago Public Schools (CPS)

Louise Baigelman is the founder and CEO of Storyshares, a mission-driven literacy organization focused on engaging and empowering readers and writers of all levels. Before starting Storyshares, Louise was a reading and writing teacher, middle school EL coordinator, and literacy specialist, working with students from preschool through high school. Louise was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, the International Literacy Association’s 30 Under 30 list, and she has received awards from the Library of Congress, Teach for America, Milken Penn GSE, and Reimagine Education for her work with Storyshares. Louise holds a B.A. in English & Psychology from Cornell University, and an M.A. in Education from Boston University.

Recommended Resources:
Sold a Story podcast
Future of Education by Michael Horn

2023 was an amazing year for Edtech! 

In this super-sized episode, Ben and Alex review top trends from the year that was and make some predictions for 2024. 

Also, we asked some of our favorite guests (and Edtech C-suiters) to give their thoughts on what we can expect to see in 2024. 

• Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
• Jomayra Herrera, Partner at Reach Capital
• Sunil Gunderia, Chief Innovation Officer at Age of Learning
• Hanna Celina, Co-founder and CPO at Kinnu
• Amit Patel, Managing Director at Owl Ventures
• Gemma Lenowitz, Program Director at Samvid Ventures
• Shiren Vijiasingam, Chief Product Officer at Instructure
• Sohan Choudhury, Co-founder & CEO at Flint

Dr. Yenda Prado is an edtech researcher, educator, and author, whose work focuses on exploring the social uses of emerging edtech to support children’s inclusion across complex learning environments.

She has written and advised on inclusive technology use in education and media for diverse organizations including the U.S. Department of Education, PBS Kids, and the University of California.

Dr. Prado also serves as a Ready to Learn Consultant Advisor for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In this role, she has advised on various projects including research and development for Lyla in the Loop – a children’s animated series highlighting critical and computational thinking skills - which will debut February 5 2024 on PBS KIDS.

As the former Emerging Technologies Impact Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Prado supported the development of national edtech policy and investigated emerging technology trends for the Office of Educational Technology. In this role, she developed the EdTech Evidence Toolkit to amplify policies, practices, and resources that support evidence-building activities for effective edtech adoption in schools.

She is currently finishing writing a first-authored book for MIT Press titled “Voices on the Margins: Inclusive Education at the Intersection of Language, Literacy, and Technology” - which will be released Spring 2024.

Previously, Dr. Prado served as a research fellow with PBS KIDS, an education researcher with the UC Irvine Digital Learning Lab, and as an ESL teacher and reading interventionist in California libraries and schools.

Yenda holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Irvine, an Ed.M. in Education from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University.

Recommended Resources:
Voices on the Margins: Inclusive Education at the Intersection of Language, Literacy, and Technology By Yenda Prado and Mark Warschauer
Common-Sense Evidence by Nora Gordon and Carrie Conaway
CAST

Kai Frazier is a former educator and the founder and CEO of Kai XR, designed to close the opportunity gap in under-resourced communities.

The KaiXR platform, which uses AI and metaverse technologies, is being used by kids in grades 5-8 in schools, as well as juvenile detention centers, to take virtual college tours, learn about advances in science like CRISPR, and teach kids about historical figures like the late Dr. Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party.

Before creating Kai XR, Kai worked with several museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation.

Kai also served as an entrepreneur in residence at the Kapor Center for Social Impact Techstars' Social Impact cohort sponsored by Cox Enterprises, and T-Mobile's Immersive Accelerator. Her work has been featured by Forbes, The U.S Department of Education, NBC, the Steve Harvey Show & more.

Recommended Resources:
Linkedin
Transition from Teaching to Your New Career Opportunity by Kai Frazier
Snapchat