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Teachers working with young students who are learning English as a second language already have to fight through several barriers. The COVID-19 pandemic added another.
Whether educating in person or virtually, as so many are because of the coronavirus, Istation bilingual professional development specialists Julie Robinson and Michele Kimball see plenty of challenges ahead for teachers in the young school year.
One question teachers have is how students are progressing. While, in person, a puzzled look may come across a studentâs face or a child may ask a question to show they donât comprehend the material, thatâs less likely over an online platform.
âI think some of the biggest struggles will be as an educator going, âOK, do they understand what I asked them to do? How can I really do those checks for understanding?â,â Robinson said. âWhen Iâm in my classroom, I can see that look on their face that theyâre lost or get a thumbs up or thumbs down or where are you at on this scale ⊠Itâs really hard to do that when youâve given them an assignment or are expecting them to work offline.â
Istationâs platform can help teachers gather and utilize data to help with something that may be lost in translation.
âWhen we do trainings for teachers around Istation ⊠weâre also building teachersâ structural capacity to support them, so when they get to looking at their data, they have a set of guiding questions that will help them make instructional decisions on where to start and where to go next with each child,â Kimball said.
That would include, for example, looking at how each child is progressing through the five critical areas of English reading for which Istation screens.
Itâs a resource that can help during a time when all aid possible is necessary.
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Back-to-school season this year is unlike any other. With the pandemic forcing schools across the country to rethink the way they educate students, the spotlight is on differentiation and how educators will reach students at an individual level through online or socially distanced class learning.
Megan Axtman, Reading Specialist at Taft Elementary, Boise, ID, shared some of the best practices her schoolâs developed to meet studentsâ needs in this unprecedented time in education.
âFor the first three weeks of school, our school district will be entirely online,â Axtman said.
And the school district will evaluate the situation and make in-class recommendations based on the coronavirus status after that point.
The online program was not something the school district had in place before the pandemic, and it worked over the summer to develop a full-time online curriculum.
âFrom the teacherâs side, we now have a little experience under our belts in how to handle online learning and a little more time to prepare,â Axtman said. âIn the spring, we couldnât guarantee that all kids had equitable access to what we wanted them to have in terms of online. For the fall, all kids in our school have internet access and can log in to get the online learning they need.â
Assessing student progress and needs can be a challenge in an online environment. Axtman said Taft elementary employs various tools, such as Istation Reading, to help with these assessments.
âIstation is our stateâs main assessment tool for reading and all the categories within reading,â Axtman said. âWe use it many times a week for self-paced instructional learning lessons the kids are working through based on their assessment results.â
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The way the world learns is changing. The use of video and the internet have been part of this evolution. Now the urgency is even greater. Adams Smith, founder of Ally XR, has a long history of connecting technology with learning.
This journey started with creating TeacherTube with his brother, an educator. âMy brother came to me with the idea of having a platform to upload teacher videos as a professional development tool. I found some open source code and reengineered it,â Smith said.
That small idea caught fire. Soon, it was the YouTube for teachers. âWe started getting more and more users. Schools and educators were using technology to enhance experiences. Yet, as the need for digitalization has become urgent, it seems many were unprepared. Smith added, âInfrastructure is the issue and the lack of budget to improve it.â
Taking what he learned from TeacherTube, Smith began a new enterprise, incorporating augmented reality.
âAlly XR was something we started in 2012 when we were working with Staples at TeacherTube. I learned augmented reality through a game builder platform. Now, itâs part of the learning model,â Smith shared.
Now the product is helping many different industries. Smith commented, âWith education at heart, we came up with ways to train, collect data, and assess people. It makes sense when training is in hazardous roles. Fire, EMT, and police can use it for virtual, immersive training. Itâs safer and less expensive,â
Next up is a project with Major League Baseball. âThis was a pre-pandemic issue, but itâs escalated quickly. Weâre capturing angles in 360 to provide vantage points like no other. Itâs not new. Itâs how you implement it,â Smith remarked. -
Need another negative for this forced migration to remote learning? Students become even more vulnerable to the dangers of what Advait Shinde calls the âmodern Internetâ. On this episode, the co-founder and CEO of GoGuardian talks about how his company is adjusting its products and services to these new scenarios and offers some hopeful insights for moving forward.
Advait co-founded GoGuardian to provide K-12 schools with new technologies that enable students to engage in a better learning experience. His dedication to help unlock student potential in education is made clear through his mission of using the internet in an open, but safe way. In his role as CEO of GoGuardian, Advait brings his passion for using data and technology to solve problems in education.
Based on his accomplishments in education and technology, Advait was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Education in 2016, as a finalist for Los Angeles Business Journalâs CTO of the Year in 2017, as a finalist for Ernst & Young's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Greater Los Angeles in 2018, and for Los Angeles Business Journalâs 20 in Their 20s in 2019.
Before co-founding GoGuardian, Advait worked at Google as an engineer, combining innovation with the power of scale and helping to launch key products, such as Google Pay (formerly Google Wallet). Advait holds a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA.
GoGuardian believes that education is the highest point of leverage for improving society and that digital learning can meaningfully advance educational outcomes for every student, school, and district. GoGuardian helps thousands of K-12 schools and districts maximize the learning potential of every student by providing solutions that enable more productive and safer digital learning. Its products help educators identify learning patterns, protect students from harmful and distracting content, and support mental health. To compile data on how educators can use technology to improve learning outcomes, GoGuardian has invested in a Research and Insights team, composed of psychology, advocacy, and education research specialists. Read about their study on the factors that influence student engagement in the State of Engagement 2019 Report. -
Brady Colby, founder and CEO of Thirty Two EDU, joined the show to talk about the growing importance of micro-credentialing and the potential downfall of many universities.
Online learning has taken a front and center role in the world of education in light of the pandemic. While some universities and higher education institutions have met the challenge with scalable hybrid programs, others are scrambling to rise to the demand of remote learning. Brady talked about how some of the most successful schools have been smaller institutions that had already offered hybrid programs, while some of the bigger schools are the ones that are suffering. âThese schools that you would never expect are really the ones that are able to scale because of the opportunities provided here,â he said.
Host JW asked for Bradyâs thoughts about the future of education and how micro-credentialing fits into it. Brady pointed out that most employers donât feel that people are coming out of higher education with all the necessary skills for employment, which is where the opportunity for micro-credentialing really came from. âItâs really about understanding the local and national employment situation and what skills are necessary for employment and moving up the ladder,â said Brady. With micro-credentialing, workers can obtain hyper-focused skills at a much faster, and more affordable, rate than taking full courses at a university, and those skills can be more immediately relevant to their role.
Brady talked about how the current curriculum lengths for degrees are possibly outdated. âThereâs some underlying assumptions about how things have to work in higher education that we have to challenge and we have to talk through before we come out on the other side with a real clear idea of the mission. I think the hand has kind of been forced on that now,â he said, musing on the seemingly unspoken, and maybe unnecessary, agreement on a 120 credit-hour bachelorâs degree.
One thing is for sure. With the rise of micro-credentialing, JW said it best: âColleges arenât the only game in town anymore.â -
What is the difference between remote learning and online learning? Carol Ribeiro, President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VHS Learning, can tell you. She has over 20 years of experience in online education management and systems development. In this episode, Carol addresses the big picture issues schools need to contemplate during this mass disruption.
Prior to becoming President in 2015, Carol served as the Chief Operating Officer of VHS Learning and was responsible for overall management of operations, including school services, finance and accounting, technology services and support, and human resources. She has designed and delivered online courses and has been with VHS Learning since its inception. Prior to her work in online education, she managed systems development for UNUM. Carol holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University and an MBA from Clark University. She is also a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI) and a licensed MA educator.
The Virtual High School is an online learning pioneer. Since 1995, the nonprofit organization has been setting the standard for quality online education. VHS provides courses taught in global online classrooms for secondary school students and online professional development in 21st century teaching for educators. The organization also meets the unique educational needs of schools through custom course development, individualized course offerings, and support for blended learning initiatives.
VHS' design and delivery standards was the model used by the National Education Association in their recommended standards for online learning. The organization has won numerous awards, including the Stockholm Challenge Award for Global Excellence in Information Technology and is a three-time winner of the United States Distance Learning Association's (USDLA) award for Excellence in Programming and Excellence in Best Practices. -
Voices of eLearning host, JW Marshall, spoke with Harris Goodman, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Achieve 3000, a 20 year old education software provider focused on K-12 literacy and other edTech products and services.
Marshall kicked off the conversation with the topic of data interoperability. âThereâs a lot of data being generated by teachers and students,â said Goodman. Connecting information from different sources and syncing them together is a significant challenge. Being able analyze data on the whole can help determine where the student is coming from and where the student is going. Goodman also spoke of his work to promote open API platforms to improve data collection and analysis.
The discussion then moved into the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has changed the mindset of eLearning companies and their willingness to work together to solve problems. Goodman spoke about companies being more open to interoperability as well as other challenges such as student authentication, authenticity, and creating a culture of anti-cheating in a home learning environment.
When asked about other challenges that have arisen from the pandemic, Goodman noted, âOne thing we all need to think about is the social and emotional welfare of our students.â The lack of regular play, interactions with friends, and other social activities can have adverse impacts on a child's learning and development as well.
âWhat has been your experience as far as helping facilitate that parent involvement in a brand new way?â asked Marshall, as parents are now more involved with a child's learning from home. Harris describes the challenges for parents and the importance of reaching the parents in a meaningful way. âThe research has shown this for years. The more involved the family is in the childâs education, the better off that child will be.â
The pair also touched on a number of other topics such as adult learning, career opportunities from eLearning, value of higher education opportunities, roles of universities in preparing students for the workforce, advice for entrepreneurs in the eLearning and technology space, startup mentorship, and insights into leadership. -
Dr. Christina Counts has her eyes on the prizeâmore flexible, collaborative learning spaces. In this episode VP of Strategy and Development for MiEN Environments shares her ideas on how to make that happen this fall while at the same time keeping both students and teachers safe. Plus: Rethinking learning spaces at home.
Dr. Counts has worked in education for over 17 years with experience as a classroom teacher, district instructional leader, school administrator, and digital and innovative learning designer. In her most recent position, Christina leads a team of professionals that support schools making the transition to a flexible, collaborative, & student-centered learning space. She holds a doctorate in K-12 Educational Leadership, National Board certified, and Google & Apple certified. Dr. Counts envisions a learning space in which educators are empowered to transform education through design, technology and innovative instructional pedagogy to create learners ready for any future.
Topics include:
The importance of surface materials in cleaning and disinfecting learning spaces in schools during COVID-19
Designing for healthy and functional learning spaces - really the idea around the 6 foot classroom and tips for district and school leaders that must be adopted as they shift learning space design related to learning in the time of a global pandemic
-And of course schools are opening - so what are some things districts can do to maximize learning in all areas of a school - from the cafeteria to makerspaces to media centers. -
From the history of personalized learning, to the prospect of parental pods, to the role of teacher unions in this new world of hybrid learning, there is seemingly no topic that Jaime Candee is afraid to touch. In this wonderfully candid episode, the President and CEO of the online learning platform Edmentum shares some provocative insights on how schools can manage through this yearsâ back-to-school madness and how the edtech industry can support them.
Jamie joined Edmentum in 2005 and began her career with the company in Human Resources, before working her way through nearly every department within the organizationâserving as Director, Sales and Service Effectiveness; Vice President, Product Development; Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing; and Chief Revenue Officer during her initial tenure.
Jamie rejoined the organization in 2017, to lead Edmentumâs strategic vision and long term growth plan as President, CEO, and Board Director, bringing her successful record of accomplishment as an executive with extensive experience in education technology, private equity, and policy.
Jamie was selected by Minnesota Business magazine as one of the 2015 (Real) Power 50, by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as a 2017 Titans of Technology honoree, and 2017 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist. Most recently, Jamie was selected as one of EdTech Digestâs Top 100 Influencers in EdTech and she was recognized by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal as a 2018 Women in Business honoree. She sits on the board of directors for Project Success, a MN-based education non-profit and serves as an advisory board member for Bethel Universityâs Department of Business and Economics.
Edmentumâs mission:
âAt Edmentum, a single mission guides and inspires us as it defines our core purpose and the contribution we make to society: Founded in innovation, we are committed to being educators' most trusted partner in creating successful student outcomes everywhere learning occurs. To help us work toward that mission while operating business, our key values guide our priorities and are evident in everything we do.â -
The "Voices of eLearning" Podcast provides business leaders with insights into current and future trends in eLearning. The "voices" on this show will include business leaders from a wide range of industries, eLearning professionals, technology experts and business professors, and they'll all use front-line experience to deliver an unmatched look at the evolution of eLearning and its role in our collective future.
Each episode will allow guests to share their unique insights derived from their experience and knowledge, but "Voices of eLearning" will always look to cover current transitions in the world of B2B eLearning and thought leadership around future trends. This show will provide a roadmap for keeping your business one step ahead of the competition through education.
In the inaugural episode, Dr. Art Langer, Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, discusses the scalability of digital technology management, his non-profit work with the Workforce Opportunity Service (WOS) and how COVID-19 is effecting our educational institutions, our workforce and our society. -
If anyone can prognosticate the precarious state of testing and assessing students during COVID-19 and beyond, Jeffrey Elliott can. As Chief Operating Officer of UWorld, a company used by more than 2 million students from secondary through graduate and professional certification for high-stakes online learning tools, he can see clearly through the chaos. In this episode, Jeff talks about the barriers as well as the opportunities that this catastrophe presents.
UWorld is the worldwide leader in online learning to prepare for high-stakes exams. Since 2003, UWorld has helped millions of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students prepare for their exams. At the core of UWorld's mission is an obsession with quality so that students receive only the best in learning resources. Whether students are preparing for the ACT, SAT, CFA, CPA, MBE, MCAT, NAPLEX/MPJE/CPJE, NCLEX, PANCE/PANRE, USMLE, ABIM, or ABFM, UWorld ensures success by using active learning methods. With challenging practice questions that mirror the real tests and unrivaled explanations, students can efficiently and effectively prepare for every topic on their exams.
Prior to joining UWorld, Elliott was President of Voyager Sopris Learning where he led the companyâs efforts to provide innovative, evidence-based instructional solutions to help schools surpass their achievement goals. As President/CEO of Massachusetts-based Virtual High Schoolâan online learning providerâhe led the companyâs efforts to provide fully virtual and blended learning programs focused on career and college readiness, with a specific emphasis in STEM.
Jeff served as President/CEO of Oklahoma City-based Advanced Academics from 2003 to 2012; under his leadership, the organization grew into one of the countryâs leading providers of comprehensive, online learning models for public school students, and he led the companyâs pioneering strategy to serve at-risk students. Prior to his time at Advanced Academics, he oversaw three divisions of Wright Group/McGraw-Hill Education as Vice President of Business Development and successfully integrated and managed international acquisitions in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. -
Many schools realized they couldnât safely return to the classroom after spring break or simply a weekend because of the coronavirus pandemic. Most had to turn to online options to educate students.
But there were some frequent roadblocks to success, including getting devices to students and making sure they had access to the internet. In the rush to get up to speed, important factors to consider fell by the wayside. Now that administrators have had months to think about going back to school, however, thereâs time to develop a plan that David Waugh, Chief Revenue Officer of ManagedMethods, said needs to center on security.
âThere were a lot of lessons learned about, âOK, thereâs too much exposure, too much access.â It wasnât because of the schools doing or lack of doing, it was that many vendors that work in EdTech and suppliers were caught off guard, as well,â Waugh said. âGoogle, Microsoft, Zoom â there were a lot of deficiencies that were exposed, because they hadnât been explored yet.â
While Waugh applauds the efforts those companies have made to close loopholes and increase security, he noted that administrators still need to make sure they have a handle on everything that happens during the virtual school day, just like they would at a campus.
âIn everything you do, [think about if] thereâs a way to monitor and audit and control it,â he said. âBecause, if youâre trying to roll out something for the upcoming school year, but you canât explicitly say, âYes, I can monitor and tell you everything thatâs happening. I can provide you audit reports and we can control it,â as in we can stop it, shut it down, etc. â if you canât answer those questions, youâve really got to pause and think about it.
âYouâre then putting at risk the district, as well as the end users, which are the children.â
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In what will most likely be the most remote interview for Remote Possibilities, CEO Henjie Wand checks in from edTech software Kami headquarters in Aukland, New Zealand to dissect the massive disruptions in education, the rise of education apps in a distance learning scenario, and the changing role of his 10 million teacher/users.
Hereâs the Kami pitch:
More K-12 schools are shifting to Chromebooks and digital devices as part of the 1:1 initiative. Kami provide users with the essential tools to create an engaging and collaborative learning environment. With Kami as your digital pen and paper, teachers and students can achieve more together.
Learn
Students enjoy annotating text and editing documents using Kami. With our kid-friendly app, students can annotate on ebooks, publisher-supplied PDFs, worksheets and more.
Create
Kami tools boost studentsâ creativity by allowing them to draw freely and annotate with a selection of colors, shapes and text sizes. Students can easily complete tasks and save files with Kamiâs Google Classroom integration.
Collaborate
Teachers can markup, discuss and provide feedback using Kamiâs text, audio, and video annotation tools. These collaborative tools encourage active, real-time participation in the classroom. -
Berj Akian doesnât want to hear about going back to normal. As the founder and CEO of Classlink, he has long advocated for the removal of barriers between students and impactful education content. The way he sees it, the pandemic has created new opportunities to improve this dynamic even more. In this episode he discusses how the education industry can take advantage.
ClassLink solves the problem of too many passwords, and too many files scattered about. Itâs a one click single sign-on solution that gives students access to everything they need to learn, anywhere, with just one password. With more than 6,000 single sign-on connectors and comprehensive use of open technology standards, ClassLink is the most inclusive single sign-on platform in education today. The technology is accessible from any computer, tablet or smartphone, making ClassLink the ideal solution for 1 to 1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives. ClassLink Roster Server easily and securely delivers class rosters to any publisher using open technology standards. ClassLink Analytics gives decision makers the usage data they need. ClassLink OneSync automates account provisioning and reconciles accounts in real time.
ClassLink was recently chosen as the winner of the 2020 EdTech Digest Cool Tool Award for the Administrative Solution category.
Administered by EdTech Digest and celebrating their 10th Anniversary, the EdTech Awards are the largest education technology recognition program. The awards recognize people in and around education for outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere.
In addition to winning the Administrative Solution category, ClassLink was also chosen as a finalist in five additional award categories including:â
Cool Tool Awards
Classroom Management Solution
District Data Solution
E-learning, Blended, or Flipped Solution
Higher Education Solution
EdTech Digest Trendsetter Award
Product or Service Setting a Trend -
Zoom fatigue? Itâs a thing. Frank Weishaupt, CEO of OwlLabs, thinks he has an answer. On this episode of Remote Possibilities, he talks about the state of video conferencing in this world of remote working and learning. The pandemic has thrust the technology of video meetings into our faces. Listen how we can escape these daily squint-inducing reenactments of the Hollywood Squares for a better distance learning experience.
Each year, Owl Labs publishes the State of Video Conferencing report to share with business and IT leaders the collaboration challenges companies face most often, the preferred collaboration software and hardware tools to solve them, and how business and education can improve productivity overall.
96% of respondents agree that video conferencing is effective for improving the connectedness of remote team members, with full-time remote employees nearly twice as likely to feel strongly about this than those who work on-location. Most notably, the report uncovered that setting up and starting meetings are taking up respondents' dedicated meeting time. More than 50% of video conferencing users are wasting nearly 10 minutes per meeting on meeting setup, with 83% reporting that it takes more than 3 minutes to set up and start meetings.
OwlLabsâ Meeting Owl product line is designed to solve this issue. It is driven by its own proprietary intelligence system. While sitting in the center of the table, it uses vision and voice recognition to automatically shift the camera to focus on whoever is speaking. This creates a fully immersive and equalized experience for those who can't be on site. The device sports a high-quality, 1080p 360° camera that makes you feel like you're in the room â even if you're not.
Both products are compatible with all popular video conferencing platforms (i.e. Zoom, Google Meet, Skype for Business, Bluejeans, etc.) and accessible to nearly all businesses at a sub $1,000/device price point. Owl Labs' products are used by 35,000+ companies globally across a wide array of categories; including the likes of Home Depot, SoulCycle, Ro, Ogilvy, Andela and RXBAR.
Weishaupt previously served as SVP of Sales at CarGurus and played an instrumental role in the company's growth, leading to a successful IPO in October 2017. Prior to joining CarGurus, Weishaupt served as Chief Operating Officer at Jumptap, leading to an acquisition by Millennial Media. He also served in executive roles at Yahoo! and Criteo, which had a successful IPO in 2013. -
Even before the pandemic struck, new learning methods through remote technologies were exploding worldwide. Andrew Urodov, product manager at Practicum by Yandex, has tracked this phenomenon and shares his thoughts on where it is headed next in this latest episode of Remote Possibilities.
Practicum, which is a virtual training program to help people gain skills they need to jump start a career in tech, was born out of the NASDAQ-listed tech giant Yandex, operating across Russia and other countries in Europe, MENA and Central Asia. It is a new technology-based career advancement program which offers intensive 6 to 10-month training in three career tracks: Data Scientist, Data Analyst, and Web Developer.
The service, recently launched in the U.S., is a one-of-a-kind online learning platform that focuses on upskilling individuals wishing to pursue careers in technology by combining interactive training modules with the help of seasoned online tutors who already work for leading tech companies.
Practicum offers its students an opportunity to transition from careers that are becoming less relevant to those in tech where the average annual pay hit $94,000 last year in the U.S., according to the Dice Salary Report. In addition to accessible but rigorous tech training, Practicum also helps students develop relevant soft skills, such as effective communication and teamwork.
Practicum leverages its experienced team of tutors, who are all practicing industry professionals, to help students find their place in tech. Practicum is confident in its methods â so much so that it offers a full refund to students, who don't get a new job or a promotion within six months of graduating. This is perhaps especially relevant now, as millions of Americans are forced to forge new career paths in the economic downturn.
Priced at $1,000 per program, the service offers 24/7 access to learning support, a dedicated Slack channel for discussions, and real-life simulations incorporated into an interactive learning platform. The students have access to code-review sessions from Practicumâs network of tech professionals. As Practicum grows, it plans to introduce more tech focused career tracks, expand its network of tutors and attract more students across the US. -
In a normal world, it would have been one of the biggest edtech stories of 2020. After 14 years, Chief Education Evangelist Jaime Casap has left Google Education. In this exclusive interview with host Kevin Hogan, Jaime discusses his past successes, educationâs present priorities, and, most importantly, whatâs next.
Jaime evangelizes the power and potential of technology and the web as enabling and supporting tools in pursuit of promoting inquiry-driven learning models. He collaborates with school systems, educational organizations, and leaders focused on building innovation and iteration into our education policies and practices. He speaks on education, technology, innovation, and generation z, at events around the world, at least when there were events.
In addition to his role at Google, Jaime is also an author and serves on a number of boards for organizations focused on education, innovation, and equity. He teaches a 10th-grade communication class at the Phoenix Coding Academy in Phoenix and is an adjunct professor at Arizona State University, where he teaches classes on policy, innovation, and leadership.
Casap was responsible for launching Google Apps for Education (GSuite) into the university space in 2006. He signed Arizona State University, the first major university to switch from using their own email platform to putting it on the GSuite platform. He launched GSuite into the K12 market in 2010 by signing the state of Oregon to a statewide agreement for all their school districts and launched Chromebooks into education in 2011.
Says Casap: âI never wanted to be a vendor in the education space. I wanted to use my experiences and expertise to be a thought partner with universities and K12 institutions on building the future of learning together. Working with education institutions across the world, I am helping education leaders use technology and the web to level the playing field for all students. I believe education disrupts poverty. I believe education changes a family's destiny. I believe technology can help us do these things faster than it was ever possible before.â
Even before the pandemic, Casap has been an instrumental force in combating the issue of equity in education. To follow his next step subscribe to his Youtube channel. -
If anyone can help divine what happens next for edtech, Mark Schneiderman can. As the industryâs chief policy advocate for 15 years, his analysis is important for both executives and educators. In this episode, Mark breaks down his recent provocative post, where he provides a 3-point framework for the future:
Topics include:
The COVID-19 Disruptor
First, it is important to understand the evolving environmental impact. The K12 edtech sector has experienced quite a journey over several decades. In recent years, we made the fundamental shift from asking âifâ technology to instead a focus on âhow.â In these last few but very long three months, we have lived yearsâ worth of emotions as we moved through the stages of concern, excitement, fear, and opportunity about education and technology in the age of COVID-19. As a result, we are now at the cusp of what could be a generational leap for the sector.
COVID-19 Impact on School (Technology) Budgets
I expect that increased demand for remote learning and edtech will be outweighed by the difficult equation of other increased COVID-related costs plus decreased revenues and tighter budgets. In this COVID-19 budget environment, schools will again be forced to achieve more with less. Technology budgets may grow marginally, but certainly not nearly in proportion to the shift to remote or hybrid learning might otherwise warrant or suggest.
The Opportunity and Necessity of Industry Maturity
As a result, I expect many of the (too) many edtech products will ultimately lose customers and revenue and prematurely exit the market. Iâm concerned for my many industry friends and colleagues who have dedicated their careers to the mission of student success. But it is my hope and expectation that those surviving companies will grow and, more importantly, grow their impact. - Näytä enemmän
