Edtech Insiders

In this episode, we ask some of our favorite guests (and Edtech C-suiters) to give their reviews of Edtech in 2022 and what we can expect to see in 2023. 

• Karl Rectanus, CEO of LearnPlatform on Edtech Evidence in 2023 (2:54)
• Sarah Mauskopf, CEO of Winnie on Childcare and Teaching in 2023 (20:22)
• Maria Barrera, CEO of Clayful on SEL and COVID funding in 2023 (29:46)
• Sunil Gunderia, CIO of Age of Learning on Early Childhood Edtech (46:58)
• Anthony Kim, CLO of Scholarus Learning on AI and Learner Engagement in 2023 (59:24)
• Norma Padron, CEO of EmpiricaLabs on Workforce Development in 2023 (1:19:34)

Michael Preston, PhD is the Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a pioneering thought leader at the intersection of technology, media, and children’s learning. He leads the Center’s efforts to explore new frontiers and new literacies, support and translate research into action, and guide the field toward better opportunities and outcomes for kids.

Previously, Michael co-founded CSforALL, the hub for the national Computer Science for All movement; after launching a 10-year partnership with New York City to provide high-quality computer science to every student in the nation’s largest public school system. CSforALL now helps other cities and regions across the country replicate the progress made in New York.

Prior to his work with CSNYC and CSforALL, Preston designed and led digital learning initiatives at the New York City Department of Education, including programs in middle and high school computer science, personalized learning, and digital literacy. 

Zaza Kabayadondo, PhD brings over 15 years of learning experiences design across the entire education ecosystem.

Zaza has worked with clients such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IEEE, edX, and the Association of Asia-Pacific Rim Universities. 

Highlights from her career include work in the three-sided upskilling marketplace, developing multi-partner coalitions, and working directly with career-seeking learners. 

Zaza was a consultant at Entangled Solutions and on the B2B Learning Marketplace at Guild Education where she helped attract partners for employer-driven innovation in the talent pipeline. Zaza was formerly Director of Industry Partnerships for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the research and innovation arm of Sesame Workshop. She built a roadmap for creating a new business unit focused on leveraging Sesame IP to support youth-friendly digital designers; and helped broker the unit’s collaborations with global brands and early startups.

Zaza holds a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford University, and she is a co-author of Taking Design Thinking to School and a speaker on the future of learning.

Recommended Resources:
Center for Scholars and Storytellers by UCLA
Jason Yip’s research on kids
Innovator’s Compass by Ela Ben-Ur
Age-Appropriate Design Code in CA
Playful by Design Making Child’s Online Safety a Reality by 5 Rights Foundation

Steve Grubbs is the CEO and Co-Founder of VictoryXR, one of the world leaders in virtual reality educational product development. He founded VictoryStore.com, ChalkBites and Victory Enterprises. Steve is also YPO Member.

Early in life, he served as Chairman of the House Education Committee in the Iowa House of Representatives and passed the largest technology funding bill in state history. More recently, he chaired the YPO Technology Network for two years.

Steve is now working to create a place for virtual reality curriculum in schools. He has degrees in business and law from the University of Iowa.

Recommended Resources:
Google News
Metaversity Disruption by VictoryXR

Kris Jagasia is the co-founder and CEO of Off2Class, responsible for directing company strategy and vision. He has built the commercial teams at the company including, sales, marketing and customer success.

As the son of immigrants, Kris grew up with a keen appreciation for the benefits of learning – his parents investing the lion's share of their resources in his own multilingual education. He saw the power of education to create limitless opportunities. That background would inform the founding of Off2Class and his own life choices, as he would later work to teach English to four students: his nephews living in Switzerland, and two Syrian refugees in Toronto.

Along with his co-founders, Kris led the launch of Off2Class’ initial beta to 300 teachers and, over the next nine years, grew it to a curriculum, assessment, and professional development tool used by ELL district teams across America while also being used by thousands of individual ESL teachers as part of their education infrastructure, to tutor online and in-person, in over 120 countries.

Kris is a graduate of McGill University (Bachelor of Commerce) and has been certified as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and is a proud testament to the Canadian newcomer dream.

2022 was a consequential year for Edtech. Join us as we review some of the top trends of the year!

In this super-sized episode, Ben and Alex review top trends from the year that was and make some predictions for 2023. 

We discuss:

• The "Edtech winter" for startups worldwide, with a renewed focus on profitability
• The crash in Chinese edtech and the continued rise for India, Europe and other regions. 
• Increasing consolidation in the sector through mergers and acquisitions
• The rise (and fall?) of the online tutoring sector
• The politicization of k12 schooling in the US
• K12 staffing shortages and their effect on Edtech
• The opportunity to address pandemic learning loss
• The ROI crisis for university degrees and the rise of industry credentials and college alternatives
• Sea changes for higher ed, including enrollment decreases, closures, focus on adult learners, the rise of test-optional policies, and more
• OPMs expanding their reach and competing to be the lifelong learning solution
• Workforce learning on the rise
• How the Education-as-a-benefit model survives an economic downturn and evolutions of the talent war
• The past and future of the educational multiverse, VR/AR/XR, AI, and Web3.0

In Part 2, several of our top guests from the year weigh in on their reviews and predictions! Stay tuned.

This episode features special guest Joshua Broggi of Woolf University,  the first global collegiate higher education institution that allows education organizations to join as member colleges and offer accredited degrees.

In this episode we discuss:

1) Higher Education's Sea Change (Axios)
- Changes coming to higher ed from many directions- testing, rankings, enrollment woes, hybrid courses and more. How can Edtech best support HE in a time of great pressure and change?

2) Credential Engine's Annual Report
- In a world with over 1mm credentials available, how can Edtech help learners sort out which will work best for them?

3) There’s a Reason There Aren’t Enough Teachers in America. Many Reasons, Actually. (NY Times)
- The teacher shortage is leading to some new policy ideas, like a $60k minimum wage for teachers- Ben says it should be more like $100K.

4) Edtech’s brightest are struggling to pass (TechCrunch)
- Edtech stars like Outschool, Bloomtech (formerly Lambda School) and Pluralsight continue to shed jobs and seek profitability

5) Course Hero creates parent company Learneo
- Course Hero takes a page from Google/Alphabet and creates an umbrella organization to manage all its acquisitions

Funding and M&A:

• Mathspresso raises $70m Series C 
• Sana Labs raises $34M series B
• Uolo raises $22.5M
• Career Foundry raises 5M Euros
• Zeraki raises $1.8M
• McGraw Hill acquires Medical Training platform Boards & Beyond

Late Breaking news: 

• Instructure acquires LearnPlatform (!) To be discussed next week)

Heather Shen is the CPO and co-founder of Praxis Labs. As graduate students at Stanford, Shen and classmate Elise Smith, 30, bonded over their mutual interest in helping companies and institutions do a better job at diversity and inclusion training. They came up with the idea for Praxis Labs, a startup that can deliver diversity training using either VR headsets, mobile phones, laptops or desktops. Heather is a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Education. Heather has also worked as a management consultant, an electrical engineer for Microsoft’s Hololens, and in Crew Systems at NASA. Heather holds a Master’s of Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Mekayla Castro is the Head of Curriculum at Praxis Labs, where she drives curriculum and content development and partners with the product team to create immersive experiences and impactful learning tools and pathways. Mekayla was formerly a Senior Behavioral Scientist and Head of Learning Experience Design at Edtech Unicorn BetterUp, which provides coaching services to enterprise clients, and was the Director of Global Leadership and Learning at American Express. Mekayla earned her Ph.D in Social-Organizational Psychology from Teachers College Columbia University.

Cherian Thomas is a senior vice president at BYJU’S who led the company’s acquisition of Osmo from BYJU’S and the company’s entry to the North American market—as its first international employee. A computer scientist by training and a self-proclaimed nerd through his college years and beyond, Cherian began his career as an engineer and quickly found his passion in the world of startups, including the gaming company Zynga. 

Prior to BYJU’S, Cherian founded his own startup, Cucumbertown—a network for chefs—that was acquired by Cookpad in 2017. Cherian leads business for some of BYJU’S key initiatives and is responsible for several hundred million in revenue per year that spans across 15+ countries. Currently, Cherian’s focus remains on Osmo from BYJU’S which builds a universe of hands-on gamified learning experiences validated by education experts to nourish the minds of children.

Recommended Resources:
TED, TEDx
Watch me play ... the audience! by Bobby McFerrin
EdSurge
Youtube

Dr. Yair Shapira is the founder and CEO of Amplio. Following two decades as an executive in successful start ups, he founded Amplio to help the millions of children with special needs maximize their potential, starting with his son, who stutters. His previous roles include executive positions in sales, marketing, business development and R&D. Dr. Shapira holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and speech processing from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Luann L. Purcell, Ed.D. was the Executive Director of the international Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc (CASE), a division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) for 18 years. Dr. Purcell has 48 years of educational experience, as a general education teacher at both high school and middle school level, teacher of students with emotional and behavioral disorders, and assistant superintendent for pupil services for 18 years in a school district with 27,000 students.

Judy Rich, EdD, CCC-SLP, is currently a speech-language pathologist (SLP) as well as an education consultant and lecturer at The University of Texas. She worked in public schools for 35 years as a campus SLP, program specialist for speech and language services, special education director, executive director, and assistant superintendent for student services.

Angelica Morgan was most recently a Senior Curriculum Engineer at 2U and a research intern at CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology working on the Center on Inclusive Technology in Education Systems (CITES) project. She will received her Ph.D in learning design and technology from North Carolina State University in December with a research focus on the use of technology for special education students.