Edtech Insiders

We speak with legendary Edtech investor Jennifer Carolan, Managing Director of Reach Capital, and cover topics like:

ASU GSV Takeaways

• Ben and Alex discuss some of the big takeaways from ASU GSV: Gen AI, Skills-based hiring and assessment +  shorter runways & potential for consolidation

AI Tools continue to Proliferate in Edtech: 

• Edtech is going crazy for AI (Josh Bersin)
• Chegg announces CheggMate, the new AI companion, built with GPT-4
• Schoolytics: Building an AI Co-teacher for every classroom
• Brainly Announces Beta Access to New AI Features
• HiLink Unveils AI-Powered Lesson Planning Feature Purpose-Built for Educators
• Labster Announces Automatic User Experience Upgrade to its Virtual Science Lab Simulation EdTech Platform
• Workera launches Generative AI and ChatGPT benchmarking

The Edtech Websites That Power LLMs Like ChatGPT

• Inside the secret list of websites that make AI like ChatGPT sound smart
  
  
• We unpack, via WaPo, which Edtech tools are being used to train Large Language Models

1. Wikipedia (#2)
2. Scribd (#3)
3. Coursera (#12)
4. Instructables (#15)
5. Wikihow (#41)
6. Edweek (#91)
7. Youtube (#104)
8. Edweek Blogs (#182)
9. Quizlet (#1,447)
10. Udemy (#5165)
11. Skillshare (#14,528)
12. Course Hero (#15,996)
13. Pearson (#16,709)
14. Unacademy (26,507)
15. Chegg (75,565)
16. Kahoot (133,209)
17. Byju’s (330,315)
18. Duolingo (#507,900)
19. Khan Academy (#570,781)
20. Edx (#646,320)

Guild Rebrands and Expands

• Guild Unveils New Brand and Product, Evolving Beyond Education to Accelerate Career Mobility for America’s Workforce

Lori Stirling is the Senior Vice President of Advancement Strategy at Affinaquest, a SaaS solution that empowers higher education and non-profit organizations to boost revenue and fundraising, enhance constituent engagement, and drive operational efficiencies through data.

Advancement RM is Affinaquest's CRM software built on the Salesforce platform to meet the complex needs of Advancement teams. It is designed to improve fundraising and build stronger relationships by creating a seamless donor experience. 

Jason Palmer is General Partner at New Markets Venture Partners, one of the nation’s leading education-focused venture capital firms. As a double-bottom line investor, New Markets focuses on innovative, high impact, early and growth stage edtech companies that improve student outcomes while building profitable organizations.

Jason brings twenty years of experience as an education technology entrepreneur, executive and investor, and focuses on fund strategy, supporting portfolio companies, and leveraging deep connections with industry leaders. Prior to his current role, Jason served as Deputy Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading postsecondary innovation efforts to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged college students by investing in colleges, universities and entrepreneurs pursuing digital and adaptive learning, student coaching and advising, financial aid innovation, and employer pathways. 

Prior to the Foundation, Jason founded and grew three investor-backed technology and services companies before holding a series of executive positions at Microsoft, SchoolNet, Kaplan, and StraighterLine. 

Recommended Resources:
GSV N2K Daily Newsletter
The Future of Education by Michael Horn
Village Capital Newsletter

On this Week in Edtech, we discuss:

1.ChatGPT Beat

• ChatGPT Will Not Replace Teachers But Could Act As A Teaching Assistant *
• NetEase Youdao Launches ChatGPT Model for Educational Scenario
• Why We Need to Ban ChatGPT in Elementary Schools *
• Is AI-enabled ChatGPT a boon or a bane for the edtech industry? *
• Why some college professors are adopting ChatGPT AI as quickly as students 
• Ed tech experts urge caution on ChatGPT’s student data privacy *

2. K-12

• These States Have the Most 'Underqualified' Teachers Stepping in to Fill Open Positions
• Governors Are Pushing for New Spending on K-12. Here’s What’s in Their Plans

3. Higher Ed

• 2U sues Education Department over third-party guidance
• Americans Are Losing Faith in College Education, WSJ-NORC Poll Finds
• How America Started to Fall Out of Love With College Degrees
• More than a third of community college students have vanished

4. ASU GSV is next week!

Ope Bukola was a product manager at Amplify Education and a product lead for Google Classroom for four years before branching out as an entrepreneur in 2020. She founded a company to build African tech talent, was a founding member of Level, a multiracial network that invests in businesses led by Black women, and joined the Board of Zeta, a network of high-performing charter schools in the Bronx. Most recently, she is the co-founder and CEO of Kibo School, which offers affordable, high-impact Computer Science degrees to students in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ahva Sadeghi is a passionate social entrepreneur and co-founder & CEO of Symba, an award-winning and women-founded tech startup using technology to democratize access to the workplace through internships and apprenticeships. Ahva is an economist and researcher focused on workforce development and is a member of the Forbes Human Resources Council. 
Prior to launching Symba, Ahva worked at the US Department of State in the Human Rights Bureau and completed a civil rights fellowship with Congressman John Lewis in Atlanta. She was recently named Forbes 30 Under 30, a Global Entrepreneur Scholar by the US Department of State and is a Tory Burch Fellow. 
Ahva completed her studies at the London school of Economics, Georgetown University, and the University of Arizona Honors College. In her spare time, Ahva enjoys playing the cello.

In 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 Pull

• Call for a pause on AI training met with skepticism
• Ed tech experts urge caution on ChatGPT’s student data privacy
• Italy blocks ChatGPT over privacy concerns
• Hello Dolly: Democratizing the magic of ChatGPT with open models 

Higher Ed's Price Hikes in the Face of Uncertainty

• Ivy League tuition costs over $80K
• A look at trends in college consolidation since 2016
• Rising Tuition? It’s Not About Sticker Prices
• Why are prices rising more for lower-income college students than their higher-income peers?
•  The Power of Microcredentials and America’s Higher Education Dilemma

TikTok Ban Debate

• TikTok hearing: CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before US Congress amid looming ban – as it happened

Luben Pampoulov's Evaluation of Public Edtechs

• Learning with Copilots

Big Haircut for Byju's Valuation 

• Some Investors Cut Byju's Valuation (from $22B to $11B)
• Byju's Raising $700M on Original $22B Valuation

Junaid 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

Join us at ASU GSV!

This week on the pod:

1) Big Tech Goes All in On AI

• Launch of Google Bard
• Adobe launches Firefly generative A.I., which lets users type to edit images
• Microsoft 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) ChatGPT

2) Pearson sells OPM Division/OPM Regulation

• Pearson 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 Pandemic
• New Mexico terminates 1:1 online tutoring contract with Paper
• 5 pandemic-era technologies schools don’t want to give up

4) Skills-Based Hiring On the Rise

• Accredible Announces the Launch of Skills Pathways 
• REPORT: How Skills Are Disrupting Work 
• Global Survey of 37k School Students Reveals Desire to Modernize Education

5) The Myth of Education as an Equalizer: Book Review

• The Myth of Education as Equalizer 

Funding/M&A:

• BREAKING: Workera's $23m Series B
• Glider AI raises $10M 
• Almentor raises $10M 
• Trala Raises $8 Million
• AG5 raises €6 million
• Upduo raises $4M
• Maqsad Secures $2.8 Million
• VitalSource Acquires Akademos
• Quottly Joins Parchment 

Jess Weems Thibault is the VP of Growth at HireEdu, a talent recruitment firm dedicated to the Edtech industry. 

Jess is also an educator, marketer, and entrepreneur, who has an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, a master’s degree in Secondary Science Education and a Bachelor of Science in Resource Economics and Plant & Soil Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Before moving into marketing and growth leadership, Jess spent over a decade working with middle and high school aged youth in various capacities and giving herself a crash course in small, creative business management.

Recommended Resources:

• To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink
• Lindsay Reno's Transitioning Teachers (into Edtech) 
• GSV N2K Newsletter
• Matthew Tower, Edtech Thoughts

ChatGPT 4

• Hear from Kristen DiCerbo, Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy, about Khanmigo
• Duolingo Max
• Readlee
• Paper
• Barnes and Noble
• PhotoStudy

Global Edtech

• LEAD Completes Acquisition Of Pearson’s India
• upGrad crosses 22,000 job placements
• Edtech startup uLesson starts an Open University
• The Rise of EdTech In SEE