EdTech
Education Technology is a multi-billion dollar sector of companies innovating in both software and hardware for teaching, learning, and running schools, districts, and state and federal education departments. We document some of the most essential technical innovations and companies that support learning, teaching and more.
EdTech
JD Hoye Taking NAF to Next Level
Sandy Weill can be very persuasive. About three years ago, a consultant enjoying a Bay Area lifestyle found the former Citi CEO’s pitch good enough to convince her to commute to New York City every week. Sandy formed National Academies Foundation in 1984 (when I was still working in…
EdTech
Entrepreneur Thinking: What It Is, What It Ain't
My superintendent in the East Village apartment I rent would like me to believe that his solution for the cracks around the somewhat faulty plumbing in my bathroom ceiling and wall is entrepreneurial in its deployment and conceptualization. It most certainly is not. It is not Entrepreneur Thinking to “patch”…
EdTech
Rodel-Backed Plan Wins in DE
There were lots of people scratching their head about Delaware’s phase one Race to the Top win yesterday. It was not a last minute consultant generated application, it was the result of a decade of leadership from the Rodel Foundation–one guy that leveraged a small checkbook and a lot of…
EdTech
The Book is an Artifact
Those of you in the education innovation space will know what I am talking about when I say that the era of the book has come and gone. The book is an artifact. It’s a holdover from an era where knowledge was plentiful (relatively) but access to knowledge was limited.
EdTech
Online Learning Saves Education
The only way online education companies can respond to concerns about quality and age-appropriateness is if they are given the chance to experiment and win over students and parents. Government policies need to be tweaked, and companies need investment to grow. But for online education to really take off, we need to let the chalkboard in the little red schoolhouse go, and learn to love the glow of a child’s face lit by a laptop screen. -- Katherine Mangu-Ward, Washington Post
EdTech
Go West (to China), Canada, and Take Your Teachers With You
Two great stories surfaced in my Twitter feed today and they speak to the strange and illuminating practices in Chinese education industry. Some if it could be instructional for those of us in the Americas trying to make a business out of teaching. One was a story about Canada…
EdTech
Common Core, Day 2
It’s the dawn of a new era. America took a big step forward yesterday and you probably missed it. The nation’s governors and state school chiefs released Common Core State Standards to a decidedly mixed buzz—there is something for everyone to criticize. Before the carping, editing and adding reach a…
EdTech
NCLB a Rousing Failure, and McKinsey Offers Context
"McKinsey & Company found, for example, that if the gap between low-income students and the rest had been narrowed, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher, or 3 to 5 percent of GDP."
EdTech
CEOShare: My Idea Kicks Off at Dept of Ed Portal
CEOShare: My Idea Kicks Off at Dept of Ed Portal I was surprised this morning to have received a number of invitations to connect and emails about my project idea, which I had listed at the Department of Education’s Innovation Portal. At this stage, it is just an idea,…