What’s trending now in EdTech? What are you investing in? Why? With rising valuations, is EdTech in a bubble? What actually the EdTech is and what are the success stories, or all the failures‘ lessons learned? With such fragmented and diverse education models around the world, is there any way to make it better? Is the centralisation or decentralisation more effective? Shall we unite all systems and make it similar in all countries or just have it diversified and adapted to the society, culture and local preferences?
I haven’t been looking closely at EdTech but I’ve been thinking about all these questions for a while now not really knowing how to approach the innovation in the education space, where it starts and where it ends, if at all? This week, I attended the LearnLaunch Conference* hoping to have it a bit more clarified and learn about most recent ideas on how to teach and how to study to make the most out of the process and make it fun, attractive and as efficient as possible.
Here is what I’ve learned 🙂
What’s on the plate right now and what’s trending?
K12, SaaS, early childhood, analytics, intersection of school experience and out of school activities. VCs are trying to find out how to hybrid these area and startup founders are testing different solutions that can make it work and on the top of it connect parents, school representatives, current and prospective, upcoming students.
Early education (pre K12) is still quite difficult to tackle but there are quite successful players in the space already. The earlier we start to innovate, the better results and the less effort is requited later on.
Early Futures shows innovation + impact in early childhood and provides great resource of knowledge around early education and startups pioneering in the space.
How to close the skills gap, higher education access and increase the completion rate?
Let’s learn about EduNav – scheduling optimisation tool that let you plan your classes across the whole degree to combine study with working possibly. If the class you cannot attend is offered somewhere else you could join the class somewhere else. We may want to call it Impact Investing as it primarily touches lack of education problem and institutions are using financial instruments to drive positive change. This is brilliant idea brining a lot of flexibility, diversity when it comes to students, school, teachers and disruptive approach for schooling. Also, it makes the completion rate much higher as students do not have to choose, class on the other side of the city or work day.
How about the employers?
Nowadays, the very important role of the employer is to understand new generation. Gen Z (also Gen X) wants to be trusted and invested in and they really pay you back with the work they accomplish, projects they complete and initiatives they take on in the company. It’s no longer ‘check list‘ kind of work day. New generation is entering the workforce and the opposite side needs to be prepared to facilitate the change and attract them with meeting theirs needs as it’s strongly becoming employees driven market.
Haw about the Tech itself in Education?
There is still a lot of outdated technologies, new, disruptive tools should be encouraged to be used by brilliant minds, teachers, students, administration. Education space should be no different than all other companies on the market when it comes to the tech development infrastructure. They need tools that can make the process easier, facilitate the teaching practices and bring the joy to studying.
So why don’t we start from the very beginning and make sure we help students choose the best college for their particular needs and interests. Take a look at College Connect which is a mobile application that delivers a research-based, personalized and on-demand college counseling curriculum.
In EdTech space, on both VC and startup side, I met people who are strongly mission oriented and really care about making this space first, more accessible and second, more attractive, sustainable and innovative. All VCs have amazing thesis and support innovation but EdTech is one step before all other, they are making people educated, bringing broader access to institutions, tools that can be utilized by briliant minds and then they are who come up with further solutions to make our life and work easier. But it starts from education, knowledge, opportunities and equal access to the limitless knowledge and further, down the road, to capital.
2020 Across Boundaries Pitch Competition Semifinals
Over the course of the fall, more than 100 applicants from all over the country with burgeoning ventures in early ed, K-12, higher ed, and workforce ed competed in the pitch competition quarterfinals organized by LearnLaunch. Ten companies advance to the semi-finals at the Across Boundaries conference and I’d like to feature here 3 startups I found particularly interesting 🙂
- ForagerOne connects students with faculty for integrative learning opportunities, enables faculty to build their research teams, and equips administrators with data-based actionable insights.
- Beagle Learning is used to train and measure critical thinking and problem solving skills. It reawakens a learning mindset in students.
- CapSource enables collaboration between industry partners, universities and their students through exciting, custom experiential learning engagements.
If you want to learn more about the EdTech startups participated in the conference, take a look at ETS Accelerate & Breakthrough Cohort.
*LearnLaunch Across Boundaries Conference, now in its 8th year, brings together a community to drive innovation to transform learning. Educators, entrepreneurs, education leaders, investors, education companies & technology innovators from New England and beyond are all part of the community that attends this annual event.
