"The Blog of Bill Gates" has a post that lists 6 tools that Bill Gates feels should be used by educators in the classroom. The following are the six tools including excerpts of the blog post he wrote interjected with my comments. Gates starts out by saying, Technology has changed a lot about the way […]

Our EdTech Funding Coverage is brought to you by Digital Education. In this Asia edition of EdTech Funding News we cover rounds that took place in June and July. Fliplingo, a translation service for Twitter raised a $150k Seed Round. PhilSmile, an education payment service for Filipino overseas workers raised an undisclosed amount of seed investment. Chinese test prep platform Wanxue raised an undisclosed Series C, probably in the tens of millions range. Yuantiku, another Chinese test prep platform, raised a $15 million Series C. Last but not least, Taamkru, a developer of web and mobile apps for pre-schoolers out of Thailand, raised a $620k Seed Round. Twitter Translation Service Fliplingo raises $150k Seed Round Though translation startups are not 100% edtech we at EDUKWEST have always counted them into the bigger realm of language learning. Fliplingo is a service dedicated to translating tweets into multiple languages, enabling brands or personalities to engage with their fans and followers in their native language. The startup offers everyone a free report, showing how international ones followers are and which languages they speak. Fliplingo supports 30 languages and tweets are translated by a human within 15 minutes and then scheduled to make the most impact among the followers who are targeted. According to Tech in Asia, Fliplingo will relocate to Europe later this year which was the petri dish for other startups in the space like Babelverse or Transfluent. Fliplingo raised $150k internally from its team members. Further Reading After lengthy beta and now with seed funding, Fliplingo launches Twitter translation service | Tech in Asia Links fliplingo.com | Twitter | Facebook Education Payment Service PhilSmile raises Seed Round Giving the next generation better opportunities through good education plays a major role in remittances; according to Tech in Asia about 5% of the $25 billion USD send home by Filipino workers was spent on education, which is around $1.3 billion USD. Related: Read our report on the multi billion dollar remittance market. The startup raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Eric Barbier, the founder and CEO of remittance service TransferTo. Through PhilSmile, overseas workers can pay for the school fees of their children or other family members directly, removing the need of a third party payment provider. Payments can either be made for a whole year or in small weekly chunks. Through the investment, PhilSmile will be able to tab into TransferTo’s network of merchants who offer more than 200.000 points of sale in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, the US, the UK and Dubai. Further Reading Filipinos living overseas now have a more convenient way to pay for their families’ education back home | Tech in Asia Links philsmile.com | Twitter | Facebook Test Prep Platform Wanxue raises Series C led by Baidu Chinese test prep service Wanxue, also known as Universal Education Group, has raised an undisclosed Series C led by Baidu with participation of HAO Capital and Doll Capital Management. Yicai.com estimates the round in the tens of millions of dollars. Founded in 2006, Wanxue specializes in test prep for different exams like the China Graduate Admission Test and civil service exams. Wanxue previously raised two $20 million rounds in 2008 and 2011. With the latest round, Wanxue moved to a new domain under Baidu’s education portal reports TechNode. Further Reading Baidu invests in test prep site as China’s internet giants vie for quality education content | Tech in Asia Test Prep Service Wanxue Education Takes in Series C Funding Led by Baidu | TechNode Links wanxue.jiaoyu.baidu.com Exam Database Yuantiku raises $15 million Series C Yuantiku, another Chinese edtech startup in the exam and test prep space, raised a $15 million Series C from existing investors Matrix Partners China and IDG. Founded in 2012, Yuantiku has over 1.5 million users who learn through its smart database that features questions from previous exams and other related content. Besides catering the K-12 market, Yuantiku offers test prep for civil servants, postgraduates and a variety of job placements. The startup previously raised a $2.2 million Series A in 2012 and a $7 million Series B in 2013, reports TechNode. Further Reading Online Smart Exam Database Yuantiku Lands US$15M of Series C Funding | TechNode Links yuantiku.com E-Learning Startup Taamkru raises $620k Seed Round Taamkru, an edtech startup out of Thailand that creates web and mobile apps for pre-schoolers, raised a $620k Seed Round led by 500 Startups and participation of M&S Partners, IMJ Investment Partners, Ookbee, and Red Dot Ventures. The startup aims to improve the ‘disgracefully bad’ education system in Thailand which ranks 8 out of 10 in Southeast Asia. According to Tech in Asia, the startup has 100.000 active monthly users. Through the apps children can participate in competitions and parents can monitor their learning progress and compare it with data gathered from other regions. Further Reading Taamkru plans to fix Thailand’s ‘disgracefully bad’ education system, raises seed money | Tech in Asia Thailand’s Taamkru raises US$620K in seed funding led by 500 Startups | e27 Links taamkru.com

Here is our weekly rundown of the edtech news covered by our sister site EDUKWEST Europe. This week we got news from TES Global, announcing that the next version of TES Resources will introduce paid downloads. Learning Technologies Group merged Epic and LINE Communications into a new brand: LEO Learning. ABA English, an English learning platform from Spain raised €2.5 million. Next Version of TES Resources will introduce Paid Downloads Louise Rogers, CEO of TES Global, shared that the next version of TES Resources will enable teachers to charge for their uploaded content. According to the letter posted on the company’s website, the TES Resources community has grown to over 5.9 million members from across the globe and some of its contributors asked for an option to be rewarded for their content. Continue reading → LTG merges Epic and LINE into LEO Learning UK-based Learning Technologies Group (LTG) launched LEO Learning, the new education brand that combines its acquisitions Epic and LINE Communications, earlier this month. Preloaded, the gaming studio that has been acquired by LTG in May, will now operate as LEO Preloaded, the company’s division for games with purpose. Continue reading → ABA English raises €2.5 million from Nauta Capital Barcelona-based English learning platform ABA English (ABA stands for American & British Academy) raised €2.5 million from Nauta Capital. The funding will be used to grow ABA English’s customer base in new markets and for the launch of mobile learning components. Continue reading → To stay on top of the latest happenings in the European EdTech market, make sure to follow EDUKWEST Europe on Twitter.

There has been great debate on Lisa Nielsen’s, aka the Innovative Educator, facebook page about an email she received from a parent questioning the use of Twitter for an eighth grader. Lisa posted the question from the parent as follows: "Our daughter who is in 8th Grade wants to have a Twitter account. I am […]

According to venture capital database CB Insights there are currently 1686 tech startups at risk of becoming "seed orphans" in the United States. Over 60 of these startups are in the education and training sector, scoring the vertical a spot in the top 5. CB Insights put those startups at risk that did raise angel or seed funding in the past 13 months but did not manage to raise a seed extension or Series A yet. 13 months is the usual timeframe in which this follow-on funding takes place based on research by the analytics firm. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that all of the 60+ edtech startups will eventually crash and burn. Some will manage to raise additional funds, some will find a business model and grow off revenue, some will be acquired and some will find another incubator to join. To me incubators and accelerators play a big role in this and I wouldn’t be surprised when in upcoming lists edtech didn’t rank even higher. Last year I wrote about the era of the flipped edtech startup, startups that are created with a fast exit in mind. Solve a small problem, get traction and sell to a bigger player in the space. This also seems to be part of the game plan of the investors. In an interview about the acquisition of Socrative by fellow imagine K12 alumnus MasteryConnect for Venturewire, Jennifer Carolan of NewSchools Venture Fund stated that the deal could be a harbinger of more consolidation to come for early-stage education tech ventures and that "We see this in other sectors all the time--acquisitions or acqui-hires are a sign of a more robust and healthy ecosystem that has more dollars flowing in at all stages." Socrative raised a $750k Seed Round in August 2013 and was acquired eleven months later. For Edshelf, another imagine K12 participant, the future looks less bright. Having only received a $20k investment from the incubator, Edshelf announced that it has to shut down. There is currently a crowdfunding campaign going on to save the startup, or to keep it alive a bit longer, but overall shutting down will be the consequence for many of those seed orphaned edtech startups. Further Reading Seed Venture Casualties? 1686 Pre-Series A Companies at Risk of Being Orphaned (Have Raised a Total of $1.06 Billion) | CB Insights Ed-Tech Startups Socrative, MasteryConnect Join Forces in $5M Cash-and-Stock Deal | Venturewire Edshelf, a Review Directory for Education Apps, Closes Shop | EdSurge Related Links Are Investors Reluctant or do Edtech Startups not need the Money | EDUKWEST Incubating the Era of the Flipped Edtech Startup | EDUKWEST All is well in Edtech Land | EDUKWEST Picture License  Some rights reserved by danielmoyle

Tomorrow is International Children’s Day. Chalk.com and the organization, "Our Future World" are asking educators around the world to visualize their dreams and ignite passion for those dreams in a class activity. Ask students what their dreams are for the future and share their dreams on Twitter in a massive global discussion. Students and/or educators will be able to find, respond and be inspired by the dreams of young people around the globe. If you would like to participate, ask your students to write, draw or create some type of depiction of their dream of the future. Ask your students, "What do you want your future to look like and what role do you want to play in it?". Once completed, tweet a photo of their dream with the hashtag #TweetADream and join in the conversation. Take a few moments out of your school day and imagine the future and share it out with the world!

Chegg announced a strategic partnership with book distributor Ingram along with its second quarter 2014 results on Monday. With results better than expected and a partnership that will immediately liberate $25 million of Chegg’s capital, shares were up 9% in afterhours trading. The second quarter results also once more indicate the ongoing transition of Chegg into a purely digital business as stated by Chegg’s CEO Dan Rosensweig in the press release. Key Takeaway Chegg will gradually transfer the ownership of its print inventory to Ingram starting with 10%. As part of the deal Chegg will earn 20% commission of each textbook related transition and will book this revenue as digital revenue according to re/code. "People care about our digital revenue, not our print revenue." - Dan Rosensweig, CEO Chegg Chegg will also control the pricing, customer service and retain the relationship with its students as the transactions still take place on the platform and the shipping boxes will remain Chegg branded. Nevertheless, print revenue was up one last time for Chegg, 5% compared to Q2 2013 as it reached $45.8 million. Digital revenue grew 54% year-over-year to $18.7 million and is now responsible for 29% of all revenues, which is 7% up from Q2 2013. According to TechCrunch InstaEDU has increased its digital sales by 15% since its acquisition by Chegg in June. Chegg also sees a 64% year-over-year growth in members who use two or more services out of its portfolio, mobile users grow 18% year-over-year. Analysis Textbook rentals play an ever decreasing role for Chegg. According to TechCrunch only 30% of Chegg users are still renting physical textbooks which is quite a difference compared to the situation four years ago when textbook rentals was a highly attractive market for Chegg. Steven Carpenter did a tear down of Chegg’s business model in June 2010 on TechCrunch linked below. Today Chegg and especially its investors can’t get out of this market fast enough, as it seems. In an interview Rosensweig confirmed "Investors would prefer that we not commit capital to something that won’t be around forever." Besides liberating capital from maintaining a stock of physical textbooks, the partnership with Ingram should also lead to other savings for Chegg. Though not explicitly mentioned in the press release, there will most likely be layoffs of staff currently working in the Kentucky warehouse and fulfillment of the textbook shipping in general. In the end, Chegg could also sell its infrastructure as soon as Ingram is responsible for 100% of the distribution. Further Reading Chegg and Ingram Form Strategic Alliance Accelerating Chegg's Transition to Digital Revenue | PR Newswire Chegg Reports Second Quarter 2014 Results | PR Newswire Chegg Finds Partner to Handle Its Textbooks | New York Times Chegg Will Unload Textbook Inventory to Give Investors What They Want | re/code Chegg Strikes Distribution Partnership With Ingram Books, Announces 15% Boost In Earnings From Digital Services | TechCrunch Chegg Shares Jump on Earnings, New Business Model | Fox Business TC Teardown: Chegg Is A Money Machine | TechCrunch Related Links The Future is Digital: Chegg Quarter 1 2014 Results | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Chegg acquires InstaEDU for $30 million | EDUKWEST Links chegg.com | Twitter | CrunchBase

Cross-published on EDUKWEST Europe. TES Global announced that it has acquired San Francisco-based edtech startup Blendspace, a platform that makes it easy for teachers to create digital lessons tailored to students’ needs. The amount for which the startup got acquired remains undisclosed. Blendspace was founded in 2012 and had investment from imagine K-12, NewSchools Venture Fund and Silicon Valley angel investors. It will join San Francisco-based Wikispaces, a company acquired by TES Global in February 2014. In fact, the acquisition took place to strengthen and enhance the Wikispaces brand and content library. Key Takeaway Blendspace built an interface that allows teachers to create lessons within 5 min following a drag and drop model. Moreover, the startup had also formed partnerships with digital content providers so teachers can choose from a variety of digital resources including videos, images, files and links. Blendspace claims that about half a million teachers have used their product within the past two years. As part of the deal Blendspace’s premium tools will now be available for teachers to use for free and allow everyone to collaborate on lessons. Louise Rogers, CEO of TES Global, says of the deal: "At TES Global, enhancing the reach and functionality of our resources platform is one of our top priorities and I believe the addition of Blendspace into our portfolio is a strong complement to the tools currently being developed, and will enable us to further expand our range of classroom technologies." TES Global currently has 5.9 million teachers from 197 countries as members on the platform who download 4.9 million resources from the site every week. Analysis The acquisition of Blendspace is part of a bigger push by TES Global into the resource space which is a growing market in K-12. As we reported the next version of TES Global will include paid downloads allowing teachers to charge for their lesson plans. This model is very similar to the popular US-based platform Teachers pay Teachers (TpT), the closest competitor and current leader in the vertical as some of its members earned up to $2 million from selling their content on the TpT marketplace. While, in May 2014, TpT announced its plans to cross the pond and make the platform more attractive to teachers in Europe, TES Global has already built a strong user-base in the US through Share my Lesson, its joint-venture with AFT which launched in 2012. Both companies seem to be willing to invest quite some cash into attracting and retaining content creators over the coming months. On the one hand, Teachers pay Teachers attracted some high profile investors for its venture round, which according to educational entrepreneur and investor Richard Taylor, was around $64 million. On the other hand, EducationInvestor reports that TES Global has plans to raise £300 million ($505 million). Further Reading TES Global Acquires Blendspace | PR Newswire Blendspace joins TES Global and Wikispaces! | Blendspace blog TES Global acquires Blendspace | EducationInvestor AFT and TES Connect Officially Launch 'Share My Lesson' with New Resources Aligned with Common Core State Standards | Press Release Related Links HEDLINE: Teachers Pay Teachers raises from Spectrum Equity, Tiger Global and True Ventures | EDUKWEST Next Version of TES Resources will introduce Paid Downloads | EDUKWEST Europe Links blendspace.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

Classkick is an app that lets teachers see the work on assignments that students do on assignments. It has some unique features that I copied from iTunes so I wouldn’t let any out. It looks like an interesting app and lets you grade assignments paperlessly. The work is completed on the iPad and the teacher can give feedback in addition to students helping one another. Students can also help one another anonymously so there is no stigma if a student does not understand how to complete parts of a class assignment. The Classkick app was designed so students could receive feedback. Their notion is that students can perform better on assessments and assignments when given personal feedback that doesn’t embarrass or discourage them from trying challenging work. I think that a noble reason to create the app. An audio feature has been added so students can hear the feedback and see how to solve a problem at the same time. Math isn’t the only subject Classkick can be used with but it is ideal for using with math problems. The app also has the following features: TEACHERS… - CREATE paperless assignments using existing worksheets, audio, video or web content. - SEE every students’ work simultaneously. - GIVE instant feedback when it is most important. - FACILITATE peer-to-peer feedback and learning. STUDENTS… - WORK at their own pace and even on their own time. - ASK for help privately. - HELP their peers. USE IT… - in class or at home. - in traditional or flipped classrooms. - as a group together or on your own time individually. FOR… - assignments - quizzes - station work - do nows/exit slips - guided practice - independent practice - homework Check out the app and let me know what you think and how you use it with your students!

Chipmaker Qualcomm announced the acquisition of mobile learning platform EmpoweredU for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2011, EmpoweredU pivoted and changed names several times before settling on its current model, a mobile centered learning platform based upon the Canvas LMS. The EmpoweredU team will be integrated in Qualcomm’s other mobile focused education initiatives. The company also announced that it has invested in Wowo, a mobile edtech startup through its new $150 million strategic fund for China which focuses on Internet, e-commerce, semiconductor, education and health. Wowo is targeting the pre-school English market. At first glance these announcements seem to be a bit out of focus. Why does a hardware company want to be in the edtech space? Cheerleading Mobile Education Phil Hill from e-Literate interviewed Vicki Mealer from Qualcomm Labs and EmpoweredU CEO Steve Poizner to answer this question. In the talk Mealer pointed out that Qualcomm has had a philanthropic interest in education for years, donating over $240 million to various institutions. The company sees itself as a behind-the-scenes cheerleader with the aim of accelerating adoption of mobile in education through device agnostic products like EmpowerdU or Wowo. Offsetting Slowing Smartphone Sales In an article on The National, the reason behind Qualcomm’s growing interest in mobile education is the possibility to offset slowing smartphone sales by promoting the use of mobile devices in education. The company chose the Middle East and North African regions as testing grounds. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) the smartphone market will grow by only 19% in 2014, compared to 39% in 2013. Qualcomm has developed a strong footprint in the Mena region, especially in Dubai and the Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. Many among those governments are heavily investing in the development of mobile centric projects such as smart cities, mobile government, health and education solutions. A Blueprint for Mobile Education Through delivering a blueprint on how to best implement mobile devices in these different sectors, Qualcomm aims to initiate the need for new, dedicated devices and gadgets that will be powered by Qualcomm chipsets. Of course, there are big differences in the economic levels in the region. Whereas most students in the GCC and Dubai already own tablet devices and mobile phones, students in countries like Egypt will have to rely on government provided devices similar to the Aakash tablets that are available in India at subsidized rates. As Qualcomm’s chipsets can be found in a variety of different products from different manufacturers, a growing demand for mobile devices will eventually lead to more revenue. Qualcomm also owns a variety of patents for 3G and 4G technology which is another revenue stream that profits from a broader adoption of mobile devices. "The technology will be the same, our job is to line up the channels and create the right relationships in the market and provide the blueprint. We can’t do this overnight, but it will make us a lot of revenue." stated Ziad Matar, senior director of business development at Qualcomm in an interview with The National. Further Reading Qualcomm Further Enhances Commitment to 24/7 Mobile Learning with Acquisition of Silicon Valley-Based Learning Technology Company EmpoweredU | Press Release Qualcomm Commits Up To $150 Million to Strategic Venture Fund in China | Press Release Mobile-first learning platform EmpoweredU acquired by Qualcomm | e-Literate Chipset maker Qualcomm trains its sights on Mena mobile education | The National