In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. AIChegg, Duolingo, Coursera Stocks Swoon as Goldman Warns of Threat From AICoursera’s CEO announced that Coursera users signed up for an AI course every minute of 20232. EdtechIt’s a good time to invest in early-stage edtech, investors say Byju’s seeks new funding at less than $2 billion valuation, a 90% drop3. K-12National Ed-Tech Plan Outlines How Schools Can Tackle 3 Big Digital InequitiesMichael Bloomberg donates $250M to open 10 healthcare-focused high schools in Boston, Charlotte, Durham, Houston, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Demopolis, and Northeast Texas4. Higher EdOpenAI announces first partnership with a universityNortheastern partners with Multiverse, granting transfer credit to apprentices who complete Multiverse’s analytics program5. Big TechMicrosoft makes its AI-powered reading tutor available for free. Will integrate it with CanvasGoogle announces new AI-powered features for educationSpecial Guest:Jacob Kantor and Brett Roer, EDLIT: Empowering Districts through Learning, Innovation, & Technology

Ryan Craig is a Managing Director at Achieve Partners and was formerly an MD at University Ventures. Ryan’s commentary on where the puck is going in education and workforce regularly appears in the biweekly Gap Letter, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education. He is the author of the book Apprentice Nation: How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America (2023). He is also author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College (2018), which describes the critical importance of last-mile training and the emergence of bootcamps, income share programs, staffing and apprenticeship models as preferred pathways to good first digital jobs and was named in the Wall Street Journal as one the Books of the Year for 2018. Ryan’s first book was College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education (2015), which profiles the coming shift toward competency-based education and hiring. Ryan is a co-founder of Apprenticeships for America, a national nonprofit dedicated to scaling apprenticeships across the U.S. economy and is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.Previously, Ryan led the Education & Training sector at Warburg Pincus. His prior experience in higher education was at Columbia University. Ryan also founded and built Wellspring, a national network of boarding schools and summer camps for overweight and obese children, adolescents, and young adults. He began his career at McKinsey & Co.Ryan received bachelor's degrees summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, and his law degree from the Yale Law School.Recommended Resources:Gap LetterApprenticeships for America

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. AIDuolingo Sheds Some Human Workers As AI Threatens To Upend The $65 Billion Translation IndustryMoral Panic of “Will Chatbots teach your children” is starting up:“Will Chatbots Teach Your Children”Your Child’s Favorite Teacher May Soon Be a Chatbot Two of Your Predictions for 2024 and Why They Are Probably Not Correct 2. EdtechHolonIQ Removes 13 unicorns from its Edtech Unicorns listFETC is next week!3. WorkforceIndian Company Upgrad Education to Acquire Udacity for $80 Million, According to Local Media   Special Guest:John Rogers, Partner at TPG Rise Fund  

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. AIGPT Store Opened.  What does this mean?South Korea's MathGPT Sets a New World Record in Mathematical PerformanceUS Congress Introduces “AI Literacy” Bill2. PreK12As Enrollment Declines, Districts Consider Closing Schools3. K12Skipping School: America’s Hidden Education Crisis4. Higher EducationClaudine Gay & Higher Ed’s Crisis.  Is it just PR & Politics or is it a deeper issue?The new FAFSA is meant to make applying for college aid easier, but not everyone can access it yet 5.  OtherImmerse Raises $5M, Goes on “The View”Special Guest:Anna Iarotska, Co-founder & CEO at Robo Wunderkind

Louise Baigelman is the founder and CEO of Storyshares, a mission-driven literacy organization focused on engaging and empowering readers and writers of all levels. Before starting Storyshares, Louise was a reading and writing teacher, middle school EL coordinator, and literacy specialist, working with students from preschool through high school. Louise was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, the International Literacy Association’s 30 Under 30 list, and she has received awards from the Library of Congress, Teach for America, Milken Penn GSE, and Reimagine Education for her work with Storyshares. Louise holds a B.A. in English & Psychology from Cornell University, and an M.A. in Education from Boston University.Recommended Resources:Sold a Story podcastFuture of Education by Michael Horn

2023 was an amazing year for Edtech! In this super-sized episode, Ben and Alex review top trends from the year that was and make some predictions for 2024. Also, we asked some of our favorite guests (and Edtech C-suiters) to give their thoughts on what we can expect to see in 2024. Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl VenturesJomayra Herrera, Partner at Reach CapitalSunil Gunderia, Chief Innovation Officer at Age of LearningHanna Celina, Co-founder and CPO at KinnuAmit Patel, Managing Director at Owl VenturesGemma Lenowitz, Program Director at Samvid VenturesShiren Vijiasingam, Chief Product Officer at InstructureSohan Choudhury, Co-founder & CEO at Flint

Dr. Yenda Prado is an edtech researcher, educator, and author, whose work focuses on exploring the social uses of emerging edtech to support children’s inclusion across complex learning environments.She has written and advised on inclusive technology use in education and media for diverse organizations including the U.S. Department of Education, PBS Kids, and the University of California.Dr. Prado also serves as a Ready to Learn Consultant Advisor for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In this role, she has advised on various projects including research and development for Lyla in the Loop – a children’s animated series highlighting critical and computational thinking skills - which will debut February 5 2024 on PBS KIDS.As the former Emerging Technologies Impact Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Prado supported the development of national edtech policy and investigated emerging technology trends for the Office of Educational Technology. In this role, she developed the EdTech Evidence Toolkit to amplify policies, practices, and resources that support evidence-building activities for effective edtech adoption in schools.She is currently finishing writing a first-authored book for MIT Press titled “Voices on the Margins: Inclusive Education at the Intersection of Language, Literacy, and Technology” - which will be released Spring 2024.Previously, Dr. Prado served as a research fellow with PBS KIDS, an education researcher with the UC Irvine Digital Learning Lab, and as an ESL teacher and reading interventionist in California libraries and schools.Yenda holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Irvine, an Ed.M. in Education from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University.Recommended Resources:Voices on the Margins: Inclusive Education at the Intersection of Language, Literacy, and Technology By Yenda Prado and Mark WarschauerCommon-Sense Evidence by Nora Gordon and Carrie ConawayCAST

Kai Frazier is a former educator and the founder and CEO of Kai XR, designed to close the opportunity gap in under-resourced communities. The KaiXR platform, which uses AI and metaverse technologies, is being used by kids in grades 5-8 in schools, as well as juvenile detention centers, to take virtual college tours, learn about advances in science like CRISPR, and teach kids about historical figures like the late Dr. Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party. Before creating Kai XR, Kai worked with several museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation. Kai also served as an entrepreneur in residence at the Kapor Center for Social Impact Techstars' Social Impact cohort sponsored by Cox Enterprises, and T-Mobile's Immersive Accelerator. Her work has been featured by Forbes, The U.S Department of Education, NBC, the Steve Harvey Show & more.Recommended Resources:LinkedinTransition from Teaching to Your New Career Opportunity by Kai FrazierSnapchat

In this special episode of Edtech Insiders, Phuong Do interviews eight edtech companies at the Edtech Asia Summit 2023 held earlier last month in Bali, Indonesia.Adriel Yong from Ascend Angels John Tan from DoyobiMinsam Kim from RiiiDRaphael Nolden from Amy.appRyan O'Hare from Keypath Education Ruby Nguyen from Curieous Sandeep and Gaurav from Kaizenvest Vu Van from ELSA

Kenzie Butera Davis is the CEO and founder of Maro, a pediatric mental healthcare and education app. She recently won the ASU+GSV Pitch competition.As a veteran of the startup industry, Kenzie has supported 70+ healthcare, consumer and B2B SaaS startups from launch to growth acceleration to funding. Prior to founding Maro, Kenzie spent 4+ years composing an academic thesis on the implementation of health education in the US while conducting customer discovery. Her current venture, Maro, is one of the leading companies in pediatric healthcare innovation, as awarded by Oracle Cerner and Children's National Hospital.Recommended Resources:Rock HealthDigital Health Buzz Chalkbeat Edweek Market Brief

Todd Mahler is the Chief Product Officer at Edmentum. For over 25 years Todd has led the development of educational technology products for the nation’s leading publishers and is proud to have impacted the lives of millions of students. As Chief Product Officer for Edmentum, Todd drives product strategy for Edmentum, ensuring their solutions meet the needs of the educators and students they serve. Prior to Edmentum, Todd served as Chief Product Officer for Apex Learning and has held senior leadership positions with McGraw Hill Education, Redbird Advanced Learning, and Six Red Marbles. Todd holds a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Villanova University.Dr. PJ Caposey is a dynamic speaker and a transformational leader and educator. PJ began his career as an award-winning teacher in the inner-city of Chicago and has subsequently led significant change in every administrative post he has held. PJ became a principal at the age of 28 and within three years was able to lead a small-town/rural school historically achieving near the bottom of its county to multiple national recognitions. After four years, PJ moved to his current district, Meridian CUSD 223, as superintendent and has led a similar turnaround leading to multiple national recognitions for multiple different efforts.PJ is a best-selling author and has written 10 books for various publishers. His work and commentary has been featured on sites such as the Washington Post, NPR, CBS This Morning, ASCD, Edutopia, the Huffington Post, and was featured in a Global Leaders Forum thinkpiece alongside the likes of General Petraeus and General McChrystal. He works in the Education Department of three universities, including within the Ivy League, and in a myriad of capacities with the Illinois Principal's Association including Principal Coach and author of the first complete stack of MicroCredentials offered in Illinois.Recommended Resources:Academic I - Ground Rules on AI by EdutopiaInstitute for Educational Innovation

Chris Parrish is Co-Founder and President of Partnerships at the leading experiential learning company, Podium Education. At Podium, Chris led the launch of The Global Tech Experience, an industry redefining digital program that enables students to build skills and experience by working on projects directly with organizations like Intel, The Grammy’s and charity:water. Podium currently partners with 55 universities across the world and will support 10,000 students in 2023. His work has been featured in Fortune Magazine, Forbes, InsideHigherEd and TechCrunch. Chris and Podium are based in Austin, TX.Recommended Resources:Jeff SelingoETCH by Matt TowerHigher Ed Trades

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. Big Tech:Gemini - Google’s largest and most capable AI model.2U faces upcoming existential changes - Helpful analysis from Phil Hill on the financial challenges 2U is up against as their stock continues to get hammered in the public markets. 2. Assessment:States are radically changing testing requirements in both red and blue statesAll Yale students get As3. Politics:University Presidents royally blow it in CongressOakland Educators Hold Unauthorized Teach-in Supporting PalestiniansAP African American Studies4. Legacy of Paul LeBlancSouthern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc to Step Down after Transformative 20 Years of Leadership5. Future of WorkNolej raises a $3M SeedCarnegie Learning Announces LiveHint AICurriculum Associates Expands Student-Focused AI Capabilities with Purchase of SoapBox LabsSpecial Guests:Jared Grusd, Co-founder of EthiqlyGavin Cooney, CEO of Learnosity

Märt Lume is the co-founder of Futuclass, a company building curriculum-aligned Virtual Reality games to enrich natural science education for secondary school students.With a 15-year journey across Vancouver, Denver, Lviv, Berlin, and Tallinn, Märt has designed gaming, enterprise, and educational software. Notably, in Vancouver he was the first employee of Glitch game, which eventually became known as Slack.A pivotal moment in 2017 introduced him to VR, sparking the realization that immersive technologies, coupled with learning via layered game mechanics, hold the key to transformative human learning experiences. This revelation fueled the inception of Futuclass, which now elevates chemistry and physics classes in over 10% of Estonian schools, earning praise from students and educators alike.Drawing wisdom from years of close collaboration with schools, Futuclass has expanded its offerings into the comprehensive Futuclass School Kit. This turnkey solution equips schools with hardware, software, teacher onboarding, mentoring, and best practices, igniting students with excitement for learning through VR. Futuclass School Kit is also launching partner apps, seamlessly integrating VR lessons into subjects like art, design, social studies, music, and physical education.Märt's recognition includes the "Friend of Education 2022" title at Estonia's esteemed Teacher's Gala, acknowledging his contributions to numerous EdTech startups and initiatives. He is also an advisor and angel investor to 20+ companies at the moment, with a focus on EdTech and XR.Recommended Resources:The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball“We Met in Virtual Reality” documentaryEdtech EstoniaVR Chat

Nikil Ragav is the CEO and founder of inventXYZ.Nikil studied Electrical Engineering & Business at Penn/Wharton and interned at Intel, Google, Microsoft before starting inventXYZ. In college, he ran inventathons for middle and high school students to learn to build and code real products. He worked with schools in rural PA then remotely across the US to teach CS and electronics.For his work, Nikil was awarded Penn’s President’s Innovation Prize to start inventXYZ. NFL player Travis Kelce tweeted he was sponsoring a STEM lab for underserved kids in Kansas City. Nikil tweeted at him, and eventually inventXYZ moved to KC to help design and run the STEM lab.Now, inventXYZ makes it painless for middle and high schools across the country to teach 100% of their students Computer Science and AI even if they don’t have a dedicated teacher.Nikil has published a paper on teaching AI in K12 w/ Johns Hopkins researchers: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nai/ti/pre-prints/content-22.4nwRecommended Resources:inventXYZ: Preparing Students for the Future of Workinventxyz.comEvaluation of Evidence-Based Practices inOnline Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies by US DOEBite-sized Way to Understand Learning Science

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. Big Tech:Meta launches “Seamless” LLM for speech-to-speech translation.  Multi-modal innovationMeta’s Instagram also made news in all the wrong ways2. Higher Ed:StraighterLine Partners with Acadeum to Offer College Course Sharing3. In Other News...U.S. Department of Education Holds Off On New Rules for Third-Party Servicers… For NowCurriculum Associates Acquires SoapBox LabsParentSquare Acquires Remind2U finances unveiled by Phil Hill, doesn't look goodPortland Teachers Strike Ends after a month and nobody is happyCongress (Tom Cotton) pushing a ban on cell phones in schoolSpecial Guests:Sara Mauskopf from Winnie discuss Early Childhood EducationCandice Faktor from Disco discuss Community Powered Learning

Maria Barrera, is a Stanford-educated engineer and founder & CEO of Clayful. She is committed to addressing the youth mental health crisis. Born in Colombia and understanding the pressures of adversity, she leverages her experience from her pioneering role on Nearpod's founding team to create impactful solutions in education.Through her tireless research and collaboration with a diverse team of experts, Maria developed Clayful, offering accessible, preventative mental health resources to families of all socio-economic statuses. Her dedication to training a diverse mental health workforce and establishing partnerships with schools has already impacted thousands of students across the country.Recommended Resource:Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Dan and Chip Heath

Per Borgen is the CEO and co-founder of Scrimba (YC S20), an interactive code-learning platform with over a million users worldwide. He’s also a web developer and coding instructor. Per's passion is to help people change their careers and lives through learning how to build software, just as he did at age 29.These days, he leads Scrimba's AI Engineering initiative. The company has partnered up with Hugging Face and LangChain to create tutorials and courses that help web developers learn how to build AI-powered apps. Through these partnerships, Per get a front-row seat at how these AI infrastructure companies lay the groundwork that the rest of the industry builds on top of. Recommended Resource:Latent Space: Rise of the AI Engineer

Anurupa Ganguly is the founder & CEO of Prisms. She founded Prisms to scale a new world teaching model where students learn core math and science concepts spatially, physically and steeped in important real world contexts. Prisms targets bottleneck topics that are often memorized in lieu of deeply understood -- leading to huge gaps and drops offs over time in STEM. Anurupa and her team are transforming math education in the US by rapidly deploying the next generation of spatial computing devices across US K-12 districts, training teachers to integrate problem-driven learning with VR into core curriculum, and working with district leadership to rapidly improve joy, confidence and proficiencies in the modern math and science classrooms. She began her career as a math & physics teacher and later served in leadership roles across the Boston Public Schools, NYC DOE, and Success Academies. She holds degrees in EECS from MIT, and an EdM from BU. Her life's mission is to empower an equitable workforce in STEM.Recommended Resource:Experience on Demand by Jeremy Bailenson

This is a special episode focusing on two major leader ship changes in technology and their ramifications for Edtech: Sam Altman being released from OpenAI and hired by Microsoft, and Chip Paucek being replaced as CEO of 2U.

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:Artificial Intelligence:Executive Order on AI includes mandate that Education Department roll out guidance on the way schools should use AI technologiesOpenAI launches Agents (“GPTs”)OpenAI introduces custom AI assistants called “GPTs” that play different rolesMy North Star for the Future of AIForget ChatGPT — Extractive AI Is the Real Game-Changer for Teachers, StudentsRosalyn Launches StableSight, an Exam Proctoring AI That Counters Generative AI Use and Cheating RingsK-12:Home Schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest growing form of educationInstructure acquires Parchment for ~$800MByju’s in Talks to Sell US Unit Epic for $400 Million to JoffreTeachers and K-12 EducationHigher Ed:The False Binary in Higher EdChanges to university research Carnegie ratingsUniversities can’t accommodate all the computer science majorsFacing Pressure on Enrollment, Will Colleges Support More Transfer StudentsThis Obscure College Major Commands $100K Within Four YearsWorkforce:Udemy 2024 workforce trends reportSpecial Guest:Johann Zimmern, Education Strategy Lead at Zoom featuring Zoom One for Education

Shiren Vijiasingam is the Chief Product Officer at Instructure, the leading learning platform and maker of Canvas. Shiren has built global software products for millions of users, for over 2 decades, with more than half of his time in education. He previously served as Chief Product Officer, both at Newsela, a K-12 content platform, and before that at General Assembly, the pioneer of career transformation education. He has a master’s degree in interactive media from Quinnipiac University and a bachelor’s degree in communications from St. Cloud State University.Recommended Resources:Instructure.com/aiDr. Jordan Nguyen’s website

In this special episode of Edtech Insiders, Sarah Morin interviews seven founders of AI education companies at the AI Founders Forum held earlier last month in San Francisco.John Danner, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Project ReadCatalin Voss, Co-Founder and CTO at ElloChristian Byza, CEO and Co-Founder of Learn.xyzCourtney Monk, Co-Founder and COO at SchoolyticsGautam Thapar, Co-Founder and CEO of Enlighten AIShweta Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO of Strived.ioBrandon Grusd, Co-Founder of Ethiqly AI

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. AI + EDU Conference Replays held last October 26, 2023 are now live on the Edtech Insiders Youtube Channel.2. Stanford Accelerate Edtech Impact Summit3. Biden's AI Executive OrderFor AI in generalData PrivacyEducation4. Edtech Noon closes $41 million Series B - Wamda5. Interview with guest Christian Byza of Learn.xyz6. Funding Rounds/M&AsSlooh raises $5M Instructure acquires Parchment for $800MBibliu acquires Texas Book CompanyVector Solutions acquires PATHWAYos Rise In acquires Blockbeam

Today we’re speaking with Yvonne Soh and Jim Wagstaff, the co-founders of Noodle Factory, an AI-powered teaching and learning platform based in Singapore. Before co-founding Noodle Factory, Yvonne Soh spent many years in adult education, working closely with different companies to incorporate technology to improve learning outcomes. Previously, Yvonne worked in product, product marketing, and solution development roles at Dell Technologies and F5 Networks. Dr. Jim Wagstaff co-founded Noodle Factory, is also the co-founder of Jam Factory and a founding board member of Up 2 Speed–companies that focus on corporate training. Jim began his career at Dell Technologies, Brocade Communications, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in various sales, pre-sales, sales management, channel management, general management, and executive roles. Most recently, Jim was Vice- President and General Manager of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s data storage business in the APJ region.Jim earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Liverpool (UK). His ongoing research focuses on how organizations harness the power of digital capabilities to better serve customers, students, and users. Jim has also earned his post-doctoral diploma in academic practice from the University of Liverpool in coordination with the Fellowship for Higher Education in the UK, where his ongoing work includes action research concerning the use of generative AI in teaching and learning.Recommended Resources:Techcrunchlearnprompting.org

In this episode of Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex discuss:1. Recap of the Edtech Insiders October Events:AI+EDU Conference 730+ Registrants and 70%+ Attendance Rate held virtuallyEdtech AI Founders Forum and Happy Hour in San Francisco2. Biden's AI executive order coming Monday, October 30th.Sweeping new Biden order aims to alter the AI landscape3. Edtech Events:AI dominates Educause conferenceASU+GSV Air Show on April 13-15, 20244. State of AI Report 2023: a 160+ page report covering trends across research, industry adoption, politics and safety of AI. Nathan Beinach’s director cut (a snapshot of key themes and ideas) here.5.  American Federation of Teachers partners with AI identification platform, GPTZero6. DALL·E 3 is now available in ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise7. Blueprint Prep Introduces the First and Only AI-Powered MCAT Tutor8. K-12:Dozens of states sue Instagram-parent Meta over 'addictive' features and youth mental health harms9. Higher Ed:Undergraduate enrollment up for the first time since 2020Undergraduate enrollment increases after years of decline10. Big Tech:Slack takes week off for upskillingMultiverse cuts jobs in move away from school-leaver apprenticeshipsDuolingo Previews Its Multi-Subject Future at Duocon 2023Snap partners with edtech company Inspirit to bring its AR tech to 50 US schools11. Interview with guest Erin Mote, CEO of InnovateEDUSIIA puts out AI principles

Honorlock is an  online test proctoring service that combines AI software like computer vision with decision making of live test proctors.Paul Morales leads Honorlock’s software and operations technology initiatives with a “security-first” approach. Paul believes that Information Security and Privacy are of the utmost importance in both professional and personal environments. Jordan Adair is the VP of Product at Honorlock. Jordan began his career in education as an elementary and middle school teacher. After transitioning into educational technology, he became focused on delivering products designed to empower instructors and improve the student experience.Recommended Resources:MidjourneyKhanmigo by Sal KhanLex Fridman podcastRedditHacker News

Maia Glikman is a Los Angeles based producer whose body of work spans numerous areas of the entertainment industry. Highlights as an executive include several years at ABC Network, Lucasfilm and Sony Pictures Television. Maia is the CEO of GoKidGo, Inc. and Never Ever Productions, female led ventures developing exceptional IP for children and adults respectively. As a creative producer, Maia’s mandate is the production of high-quality content that resonates with today’s audience, most especially those that champion female and underrepresented voices. Most recently, R.L. Stine’s Story Club, produced by GoKidGo, has been selected as a Best of the Best finalist for "Best Podcast” at the 2022 Cynopsis Awards.Matt Hammersley is the Co-Founder and CEO at Novel Effect, Inc. Novel Effect is an award-winning mobile app that follows along during story time with interactive music, sound effects, and character voices creating magical moments when you read aloud with your child. They are on a mission to empower educators, parents, and kids to connect and engage with each other and books. Their unique form of storytelling brings the story to life, engaging and capturing the imaginations of children and their grown-ups. They believe every child is full of potential and that more well-read children in the world will create a better future for us all!Recommended Resources: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

Rebecca Kantar serves as Vice President of Education and Director of the Roblox Community Fund at Roblox Corporation (NYSE: RBLX), a technology platform bringing the world together through play. Rebecca is responsible for growing Roblox’s education vertical into a self-sustaining ecosystem of outstanding educational content creators, bringing deeper learning curricular materials to educators and students. Roblox Education connects educational organizations with extraordinary Roblox developer studios through Roblox Community Fund grants.Rebecca came to Roblox in 2020 when Roblox acquired Imbellus Inc., a simulation-based assessment technology company Rebecca founded and led. Rebecca founded Imbellus with conviction that better educational assessments would drive deeper teaching and learning and in turn, more students graduating ready for adulthood. In delivering operational, fair, valid, and reliable assessments at scale, Imbellus demonstrated the potential for simulation-based assessments to measure deep thinking skills in high-stakes workforce and educational contexts. Rebecca led Imbellus in raising over $23M, signing multimillion-dollar development contracts with Fortune 500 corporations and in completing successful M&A transactions with Roblox Corporation and McKinsey & Company. Prior to launching Imbellus, Rebecca founded an expert network that Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) acquired in 2012.Rebecca serves as a Vice Chair of the Museum of Science Board of Trustees, where she serves on the Campaign Cabinet and as Vice Chair of the Trustee Nominating Committee. Rebecca has served as an advisor to the Common Application and to the MA Common Start Coalition. Rebecca grew up in Newton, MA and currently lives in Massachusetts.Links:Roblox's educational partner site, for organizations or developers interested in building experiences in various subjects - including well-being, social/emotional learning on Roblox: https://education.roblox.com/partners/Recommended Resources:Whiteboard Advisors newsletterCOVID-19 Policy Update by John BaileyEmily in Your Phone newsletter to stay up to date on state of public school happeningsNice White Parents podcastGet 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

Ben Strouse oversees Gen-Z Media, the studio behind the biggest middle-grade and family podcast mysteries and adventures. Its slate of more than 20 shows includes “Six Minutes,” the most downloaded family drama in history and a big classroom favorite, the Peabody Award winning classic “The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel,” and its current hit, “Nightingale”, in which three teens with cancer find a portal in the hospital basement leading to another world. GZM Shows focuses exclusively on producing smart and purposeful digital programming created specifically to impact and engage tweens, teens and family audiences. Recommended Resources:gzmclassroom.comweareteachers.com list of podcastsGet 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

David Shacklette is the Product Manager for the Harvard Skills Lab, a Schmidt Futures funded research initiative and startup that designs performance-based assessment tools that can be used by universities, businesses, and individuals to provide a clearer picture of the foundational skills (sometimes called “soft skills”) required for individuals and teams to succeed in the labor market. Prior to joining the Skills Lab, David has held product roles at Fortune Magazine, where most notably he launched and scaled Fortune’s first education vertical (fortune.com/education) in partnership with 2U, and has previously held a variety of operational and leadership roles in venture capital and early-stage startups in the Bay Area. David holds a Master’s degree in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, where he focused on topics in the fields of Educational Neuroscience and AI.Recommended Resources:https://www.skillslab.dev/game-libraryForked Lightning by David DemingGet 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

Amanda Bickerstaff is the Founder and CEO of AI for Education. A former high school biology teacher and EdTech executive with over 20 years of experience in the education sector, she has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities that AI can offer. She is a frequent consultant, speaker, and writer on the topic of AI in education, leading workshops and professional learning across both K12 and Higher Ed. Amanda is committed to helping schools and teachers maximize their potential through the ethical and equitable adoption of AI.Recommended Resources:One Useful Thing by Prof. Ethan MollickGet 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 this episode, we discuss:AIPipeline Perspectives: Trends From 280+ Generative AI Edtech ToolsEdTech Companies Are Racing to Build a GitHub Copilot for TeachersTeachers Are Going All In on Generative AIK122023 SETDA State of Edtech Report Curriculum Associates Report: State of Student LearningCommon Sense: 2023 State of Kids PrivacyClever's Classroom of the Future ReportHigher EdAdmissions Officers Reflect on a Transformative YearByju'sByju’s hid $533 million in hedge fund once run from a Miami pancake shop, lenders allegeFunding:- Learn.xyz secured $3M in seed round, now posted on Product Hunt - Curipod raised $4.6 million in seed funding. - Correcto secured €6.5 million to elevate Spanish writing skills with AI- ELSA raises $23M - Mathpresso raises $8M - Swap Language raises $2.15M 

In this special episode of Week in Edtech, we speak to two leaders in the K12 space using AI to support teachers and learners:Deepanshu Arora, Founder and CEO of Toddle LearningToddle's  mission is to help teaching teams around the world do their best work. More specifically, Toddle is an end-to-end solution for all your teaching and learning needs. Teaching teams use Toddle for curriculum planning, assessments, student portfolios, projects, progress reports, classroom management, family communication and much more.Vivek Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder of Project ReadBuilt by teachers and AI experts from Stanford, Project Read is an ambitious effort to make personalized reading support accessible for all kids, regardless of income. Accessible in browsers on mobile, tablet or desktop.

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 WaitzkinLearning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley PhD

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 podcastChatGPT BardBingJoin us for a virtual event on AI + EDU: Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence on Oct 26! Learn about the future of EdTech and how Artificial Intelligence will shape the classroom! #AI #EduTech #EdTech #AIandEducation #AIinEducation #EduInTheAgeOfAI

This episode features interviews with Johann Malawana of Medics AcademyJen Mendelsohn and Mara Koffmann from Braintrust TutorsCheck out the Edtech Insiders AI+EDU Conference! We also cover:UNESCO's AI Competencies for TeachersByju's effort to repay repayment through selling acquisitionsFlint raises money for edu-LLMs, and Imbue for agentsAmericans losing faith in College ROIK12 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 PearlNational Student Support AcceleratorIllinois Tutoring Initiative

Guests: Dr. Deepak Sekar and Maria Walley of Prof JimProf Jim Launches Reelbooks 2.0 - AI Now Achieves Parity with Human InstructorsAI  Edtech Companies RisingAtypical AI raised $4M in pre-seed to continue shaping the future of learning and assessmentSizzle 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 ClassroomQ2 Earnings Roundup - EdTech Generative AI (GSV)ChatGPT in SchoolsMore schools want your kids to use Chat GPT. Really.Kids Are Going Back to School. So Is ChatGPTK12Gen Z’s Declining College Interest Persists — Even Among Middle SchoolersThe rise of the virtual teacher: the remote trend that some US parents aren’t even aware ofHigher EdThe charade of ‘test-optional’ admissionsUniversity of Michigan to offer AI tools to U-M communityAdditional Funding and M & ACreatively Focused Raises $3M to Keep Special Educators From Leaving the ClassroomMagicSchool Raises $2.4M to Fight Teacher Burnout Using Artificial Intelligence Layoffs from Cuemath