Edtech Insiders

James Grant is co-founder of MyTutor, the UK’s leading online tutoring platform, working with hundreds of thousands of students and 1,500 public schools across the UK and US. Their vision is to make life-changing tutoring available to all. They are the largest partner on the UK’s National Tutoring Programme, have a carefully vetted, 20,000 strong tutor community and have raised $40m in funding. MyTutor’s programs are proven to deliver 2.5x the progress for students in their tutored subjects. James was recognised in Forbes 30 under 30’s 2018 list for MyTutor’s social impact.

Recommended Resources:
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley PhD

Get ready to explore the future of education! Join Edtech Insiders for a virtual conference featuring 30+ of the top voices shaping the future of Al + Education. A full day of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking!

Register now here: AI+EDU Virtual Conference

Bodo Hoenen is the founder of Dev4X, and a cofounder of NOLEJ, a generative AI for education. He is a collective intelligence scientist and serial entrepreneur whose previous startup’s include an LMS that he sold to Google. Since then, he’s been developing a Super Collective Intelligence, an AI-Human collaboration engine to rapidly accelerate the rate at which we can learn and innovate.

Recommended Resources:
Lex Fridman podcast
ChatGPT
Bard
Bing

Get ready to explore the future of education! Join Edtech Insiders for a virtual conference featuring 30+ of the top voices shaping the future of Al + Education. A full day of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking!

Register now here: AI+EDU Virtual Conference

This episode features interviews with 

• Johann Malawana of Medics Academy
• Jen Mendelsohn and Mara Koffmann from Braintrust Tutors

Check out the Edtech Insiders AI+EDU Conference! 

We also cover:

• UNESCO's AI Competencies for Teachers
• Byju's effort to repay repayment through selling acquisitions
• Flint raises money for edu-LLMs, and Imbue for agents
• Americans losing faith in College ROI
• K12 Literacy Scores forcing shift to Science of Reading

John Failla is the CEO and co-founder of Pearl, a research-based tutoring platform that streamlines operations, reports actionable data, and improves outcomes for Pearl’s many tutoring partners. Pearl works with states, districts, and private tutoring companies. John is also a Founder-In-Residence at University of Richmond - Robins School of Business and was the Founder & CEO at Trilogy Mentors.

Recommended Resources:
Blog by Pearl
National Student Support Accelerator
Illinois Tutoring Initiative

Get ready to explore the future of education! Join Edtech Insiders for a virtual conference featuring 30+ of the top voices shaping the future of Al + Education. A full day of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking!

Register now here: AI+EDU Virtual Conference

Kimberly Nix Berens, Ph.D., is a scientist-educator and Founder of Fit Learning.  She co-created a system of instruction based in behavioral science and the Technology of Teaching, which has transformed the learning abilities of thousands of children worldwide.

 Fit learning programs use virtual instruction to target areas a wide range of skills: early learning skills, basic classroom readiness, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, comprehension, inferential language, basic and advanced mathematics, logical problem solving, grammar, and expressive writing.  

From her early beginnings in a broom closet at the University of Nevada – Reno, Dr. Berens has helped grow Fit Learning to an organization with more than 30 locations worldwide.

She recently published her first book, Blind Spots: Why students fail and the science that can save them.

Recommended Resources:
Project Follow Through
Peak by Anders Ericsson
Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

Get ready to explore the future of education! Join Edtech Insiders for a virtual conference featuring 30+ of the top voices shaping the future of Al + Education. A full day of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking!

Register now here: AI+EDU Virtual Conference

In 2022, Heather Combs was appointed CEO of StraighterLine, one of edtech’s fastest growing companies and the leading provider of high-quality, affordable, online courses that helps learners earn college credit and meet their professional goals. Heather has led the company through its first acquisition of ChildCare Education Institute, one of the largest online training providers for early childhood education professionals. This acquisition is the company’s first step to significantly expand its course offerings and grow the company.

Heather brings more than two decades of experience in scaling high-growth companies. Before StraighterLine, she served as chief commercial officer and chief operations officer of the digital product development company 3Pillar Global, where she led operations, marketing, and strategic growth initiatives. Before 3Pillar, she led revenue strategy and product management as the chief business development officer at the HR Certification Institute, was the chief sales officer at Hanover Research, and spent 13 years at Corporate Executive Board, business advisory firm that was acquired by Gartner in 2017.

Heather was named a  2018 “female disrupter” of the software development world by Medium and is dedicated to women in leadership. She is a founding member of Chief, a network to connect and support women executive leaders, and a member of the advisory council for STEM for HER, an organization that empowers girls and young women to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

StraighterLine provides high quality, low cost online courses that prepare students for success. StraighterLine combines a $99 a month course subscription with guaranteed credit pathways to accredited degree programs to save up to 60% on the total cost of a degree. 

Recommended Resources:
Using ROI for Strategic Planning of Online Education by Kathleen Ives and Debroah Seymour
What We're Reading by Whiteboard Advisors
Jeff Selingo books
EdTech Thoughts by Matthew Tower

Other Notes:
StraighterLine gets to the point where they can offer "courses for credit" not "accredited courses". Technically their courses are not "accredited" but they transfer for college credit at accredited institutions.

Get ready to explore the future of education! Join Edtech Insiders for a virtual conference featuring 30+ of the top voices shaping the future of Al + Education. A full day of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and networking!

Register now here: AI+EDU Virtual Conference

Guests: Dr. Deepak Sekar and Maria Walley of Prof Jim

• Prof Jim Launches Reelbooks 2.0 - AI Now Achieves Parity with Human Instructors

AI  Edtech Companies Rising

• Atypical AI raised $4M in pre-seed to continue shaping the future of learning and assessment
• Sizzle AI raised $7.5M in seed for their tutoring chatbot for middle and high school STEM courses, led by Owl Ventures 
• Course Hero Launches "AI Academy" to Help Educators Navigate Role of AI in the Classroom
• Q2 Earnings Roundup - EdTech Generative AI (GSV)

ChatGPT in Schools

• More schools want your kids to use Chat GPT. Really.
• Kids Are Going Back to School. So Is ChatGPT

K12

• Gen Z’s Declining College Interest Persists — Even Among Middle Schoolers
• The rise of the virtual teacher: the remote trend that some US parents aren’t even aware of

Higher Ed

• The charade of ‘test-optional’ admissions
• University of Michigan to offer AI tools to U-M community

Additional Funding and M & A

• Creatively Focused Raises $3M to Keep Special Educators From Leaving the Classroom
• MagicSchool Raises $2.4M to Fight Teacher Burnout Using Artificial Intelligence 
• Layoffs from Cuemath

Marco DeRossi is the CEO and founder of WeSchool, a leading Italian EdTech startup

Founded in 2016, WeSchool is an online collaborative learning platform that is designed to be easy to use- it already enables 1.7 million students and 230.000 teachers to amplify their learning experience by leveraging digital tools.

WeSchool recently closed a 6.4M€ Series A funding round to scale their technology and enter new markets.

Recommended Resources:
Visible Learning by John Hattie

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

1. Edtech Investment Cooling

• EdTech investment cooling in 2023 but growth outlook remains strong
• It’s been a bumpy 6 months for Edtech — are smoother roads ahead?

2. K12: Private Schools, School Choice and ESAs + Edtech vs. Burnout

• Private School Choice is Booming. Here’s What It Means for Education Companies
• Florida teachers are worried new policies could get them fired — or even criminally charged
• New Survey: Majority of Teachers Cite Edtech as Key to Supporting Diverse Learners While Reducing Workloads

3. HE: Online Here to Stay, Legacy Admissions on the Chopping Block?

• Lawmakers urge Education Department to help end legacy and donor admissions
•  Public Higher Education Is Becoming More and More Inequitable
• Two-thirds of colleges are adding online programs, survey finds

4. AI Beat

• Code.org, ETS, ISTE, and Khan Academy Launch Free AI Professional Learning for Teachers
• Who Should Be Regulating AI Classroom Tools?

5. Rounds and M & A

• ClassWallet Closes $95 Million
• SchoolStatus Announces Acquisition of ClassTag

Dr. Satya Nitta is the CEO and co-founder of Merlyn Mind, a deep tech generative AI company working on natural language interfaces and voice computing. He was previously the global head of AI solutions for learning at IBM Research and led teams in the development of conversational systems, speech recognition, and natural language understanding. 

Dr. Nitta received his PhD in Chemical Engineering and holds over 100 US patents, as well as having published over 40 publications and received over 5,000 citations of his technical work. He was named as the IEEE Ace "Innovator of the Year" as well as one of the “top 50 movers and shakers of Education” by WISE and has received several technology awards for his work.

Recommended Resources:
Dissociating Language and Thought in Large Language Models: A Cognitive Perspective by Kyle Mahowald, Anna A. Ivanova, Idan A. Blank, Nancy Kanwisher, Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Evelina Fedorenko