I was checking about the home decor on my favorite site, Zulily.com, and came across the plaque to the right. We just moved households and are still in the clean up process. I was looking for items that might look nice in the new house and came across this saying. While the plaque is very […]

Yik Yak, an anonymous local messaging app for college and university students, raised a $10 million Series A led by DCM with participation of Azure Capital Partners, Renren Inc. and Tim Draper. Alan Masarek, co-founder and former CEO of Quickoffice, and David Chao of DCM, join Yik Yak’s board of directors. The startup previously raised a $1.5 million Seed Round from Vaizra Investments, DCM, Azure Capital Partners and several other angels in April. Key Takeaway Founded in late 2013 by Brooks Buffington and Tyler Droll as a local communications app for their alma mater Furman University, Yik Yak quickly attracted users beyond the campus and beyond the target demographic. The app became very popular among high school students, leading to all sorts of problems ranging from bullying to bomb threats. The Yik Yak team answered by geofencing every high school in the US, making it unavailable outside of college and university campuses. The team recently launched PEEK, a feature that enables users to access conversations and updates in their local universities or communities from outside of the local radius in order to stay connected. Yik Yak and its investors see a shift towards anonymous, private and unfiltered forms of social networking and communications with the app being in the center of this shift. The new funding will be used to expand the team, further develop the Yik Yak iOS and Android apps as well as for international expansion. Further Reading Yik Yak Raises $10 Million to Grow Hyper-Local Social Networking | Marketwired Yik Yak Raises $10 Million to Move Beyond Being a Gossip App | WSJ Yik Yak, A 7-Month-Old School Gossip App That's Spreading Like Crazy, Has Raised $10 Million | Business Insider Anonymous Social Messaging Discovers That Location Matters | TechCrunch Anonymous messaging app Yik Yak grabs $10M to be the ‘Twitter of your college campus’ | VentureBeat Related Links Yik Yak, Geofencing and the Future of BYOD | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Yik Yak raises $1.5 million Seed Round | EDUKWEST Links yikyakapp.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase | AngelList

Although I didn’t get to go ISTE this June, I am so touched by those who saw my husband and sent greetings to me through him. He told me about all of the people he encountered (thanks so much to everyone who took time to talk to him) in the vendor hall and throughout the […]

In today’s EdTech Funding News we have two seed rounds with Myagi raising $500k AUD for an online training portal and TeachBoost raising $1.5 million for teacher assessment. In the Series A range we have Bulb raising $1 million for a publishing and portfolio service. $1.7 million in follow-on funding goes to StudyBlue for its collaborative learning portal. Myagi raises $500k AUD Seed Round Myagi, a Melbourne-based edtech startup that offers an online platform for customer service product, sales and compliance training, raised a $500k AUD Seed Round from a group of local and international investors reports Startup Daily. According to Myagi’s CEO Simon Turner, only one in four consumers in Australia feel that they had a good customer experience while shopping. Myagi aims to streamline and refresh old forms of training through its online training platform that is also accessible via mobile devices and features incentives for employees as well as real time data analysis for employers. Further Reading Melbourne startup Myagi closes $500,000 funding round | Startup Daily Links myagi.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase TeachBoost raises $1.5 million Seed Round NYC-based TeachBoost, an observation, evaluation and feedback platform for school administrators and teachers, has raised a $1.5 million Seed Round led by Cue Ball Capital, with participation from Swift River Investments and the EdTech Fund reports EdSurge. TeachBoost is currently used by 20% of New York City schools, 25% of KIPP schools, and more than 300 schools across 20 states and five countries. Founded in 2012, TeachBoost aims to engage teachers and administrators in an ongoing, evolving dialogue that fosters the development of effective educators and improved student outcomes. Through the platform administrators can schedule and track the observation process whereas teachers can set and track their personal development goals. Further Reading TeachBoost Gets $1.5M To Simplify Teacher Feedback | EdSurge Video Links teachboost.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase Bulb raises $1 million Series A Bulb, a Fort Collins-based publishing tool for creating and sharing learning resources, closed a $1 million Series A from a group of angel investors. Founded in 2011, Bulb can be used for creating and publishing student portfolios and projects, as well as a delivery platform for courses, lectures and flipping a classroom at any grade level. The funding will be used for further product development and marketing. Further Reading Bulb, an app for publishing your work, secures more than $1M in financing from angels for growth | PR Newswire Links bulbapp.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase StudyBlue raises $1.7 million Madison, Wisconsin-based StudyBlue raised an additional $1.7 million from existing investors Great Oaks Venture Capital, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), and StudyBlue chairman Steve Wallman reports Xconomy. Founded in 2009, StudyBlue is a collaborative online learning platform, enabling students to create and share learning material like flashcard decks. To date over 200 million pieces of content have been created by the StudyBlue community that counts 5.5 million members in higher education and K-12. According to StudyBlue CEO Becky Splitt, over 1 million users have joined the platform in the past year alone. The startup raised more than $20 million in funding to date. Further Reading Wisconsin Edtech Startup StudyBlue Raises $1.7M | Xconomy Related Links Becky Splitt and Matt Messinger of StudyBlue | EDUKWEST review:ed #19 Interview with Becky Splitt of StudyBlue | EDUKWEST Video Links studyblue.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

For the third year in a row, Google is hosting a free online Maker Camp. The camp is based on the premises of traditional maker faire and maker-movements but this is an online event designed for teens. The Google + social network is how the camp will be hosted. According to the online article by […]

Editor's Note: This post has first been published on edcetera - straight talk on edtech. Constant distraction is the bane of the digital age. Most of us are now connected 24/7, the Internet is just a click away for the good and for the worse. Especially education, or better the way we acquire and retain information, is shaped by mobile devices that can come up with answers and relevant information when and where we need it. Another factor is the fast pace of the technology space in general. Not only does it incessantly throw new gadgets and matching applications at consumers, but it also demands workers with skills in the latest programming language, social media product or design software. This environment seems to call for education solutions that drastically cut down the time spent to learn a skill in order to make sure that employers can access a pool of employees with the latest set of skills needed. What can one learn in 30 days? One Month started as One Month Rails, an online coding course that promised to teach anyone the popular coding language Ruby on Rails in one month to an extent where the learner would be able to launch a fully functional web application at the end of the course. The course became hugely successful, according to the founders Mattan Griffel and Chris Castiglione it is still one of the best-selling programming courses of all time. With a fresh round of seed investment One Month is now extending its courses into other verticals, implementing its accelerated learning philosophy. "We think that when it comes to learning a new skill, the first 30 days are the most important to determine whether someone is going to quit or not." states Mattan Griffel. Micro-Learning and Micro-MOOCs Coursmos, another edtech startup that announced new seed investment this week, aims to condense educational content even more. With micro-learning topics are chopped into 3 minute lessons with a maximum of seven lessons forming a micro-course. Of course, there is only so much you can teach in 21 minutes but Coursmos aims to link multiple micro-courses together, forming knowledge clouds. As the lessons tend to be around a video, Coursmos could be described as a media enhanced encyclopedia. When I look something up on Wikipedia, I tend to spend more time on the site reading related articles. The same could work for Coursmos as learners look up a certain subject and then get deeper into the subject, or a related topic, through the interlinked courses. Stackable Credentials On the other end of the scale of accelerated learning one can find nanodegrees. I already touched upon them in last week’s article about the partnership between AT&T and Udacity. Nanodegrees aims to teach a certain topic up to a credential within six to twelve months. Again, the product clearly caters to the needs of employers in the tech space. Those nanodegrees cover a very defined subject but also aim to be "stackable" meaning that the learner will be able to combine different nanodegrees in order to advance in her career. Risk and Advantages The advantages for employers and employees are clear. Accelerated learning will not only cut down on the time commitment but also cost to acquire a new skill. The One Month courses are priced at $99 which is a very compelling offer based on the premise that learners will be able to create a working product after 30 days. Nanodegrees are priced at $200 per month, again a good value as Udacity also hopes to get its learners into paid work after completion. To my mind the biggest risk in this way of learning is that people are more and more trained out of retaining knowledge in their memory. Internet connected technology and accelerated learning might lead to a mindset of outsourcing when it comes to learning. People might think they don’t need to remember information and also don’t need to cross reference in their minds anymore as Google Now or Siri do a much better job which I think is a rather chilling development.

As announced last week, education startups Top Hat and Boundless have formed a partnership. As part of this partnership Top Hat will integrate content from Boundless including textbook chapters, PowerPoint slides, discussion questions and interactive exercises into its cloud based teaching platform for higher education. Through the integration more than 300,000 students at more than 400 universities including Harvard, UCLA, Duke and MIT will gain access to the Boundless’ library of 21 introductory college-level subjects. In May Top Hat announced a $10 million Series B and its expansion plans in other verticals including corporate training. We took this latest announcement as an opportunity to catch up with Top Hat’s co-founder and CEO Mike Silagadze to talk about the future of free content, acquiring competitors and the startup’s expansion plans. Kirsten Winkler: Last week you announced a partnership with Boundless. What can Top Hat users expect from this? Mike Silagadze: On Top Hat’s leading teaching platform, which increases student engagement and encourages active learning, we are now adding full digital textbooks that are customizable by the professor. Professors, our core customers, consistently ask us for great content on our platform. This partnership helps us get there and positions is to fulfil our goal to become the default classroom teaching platform for all professors. KW: Boundless went through some tough times very early on; being sued by leading publishers right at the beginning surely would have been the end for many edtech startups. Why do you think Boundless was able to survive? MS: Lawsuits like the one Boundless went through are typically death sentences for early stage companies. I believe that Boundless stayed true to its vision, was able to communicate that vision effectively and prove to the publishers that it was doing nothing wrong. In the end, justice won out in this case. KW: Is this partnership exclusive, or might Boundless partner with other providers as well. MS: Both Top Hat and Boundless are open to partnering with others. However, there is very little overlap between the capabilities Boundless and Top Hat have, which makes this a great fit. By adding great content to an amazing platform, our partnership plays on the strengths of both companies. KW: How important are products like Boundless for the future of higher education, and what is your take on OER. Is free educational content a viable alternative, or should we rather focus more on paid but affordable content. MS: At the end of the day, I believe there will be markets for both paid and free content. However, OER will change the way the market thinks about what to pay for. In the future, nobody will pay for the "text" portion of a textbook. Rather, payment will come for value-added products beyond this. KW: The space you are in with Top Hat is heating up, startups now are able to raise significant funding rounds and also seem to get decent traction. Do you think this is going to be a winner takes all market or will several players hold a share of customers. MS: For a peer classroom engagement solution, it’s not winner take all. We serve the professor, an individual decision maker. Each professor will choose the platforms and textbooks that he or she wants to use in the classroom. Ultimately, however, the winners in the space will be the ones whose products are most "sticky" for professors and meets the most needs. For us, this partnership helps us meet more needs of our customers, which will help us succeed. KW: MasteryConnect just acquired fellow Imagine K12 alumnus Socrative. Is this a sign that there are already too many edtech startups in the same vertical, a sign that there is enough money in the ecosystem so even startups can afford M&A, something else? Are we going to see this more frequently, and are you planning to acquire smaller competitors down the line as well? MS: Socrative primarily competes in a different area. It focuses on K-12, a harder ecosystem to sell into and one where there is much more competition. Socrative had not yet figured out a way to monetize its product, so acquisition by a larger startup in the space made sense. Top Hat plays in a different market with a different approach. Rather than take a user-acquisition oriented growth strategy like Socrative did, Top Hat is aiming to build a product that meets a broad set of needs for a specific customer, the university professor. As such, we are moving well beyond student response and polling and do not see the providers of those types of services as our real competitors. Rather, we're defining a new market segment as a professor-focused teaching platform. To this end, I would not rule out acquisitions of other startups down the road but this is not something we will be prioritizing in the short to medium term. KW: Back in May you said that Top Hat might expand into the corporate training market but that an entrance in the K-12 space is unlikely. Can you explain to me why you don’t consider K-12 as relevant to Top Hat? MS: Fundamentally we are trying to change higher education. We want to be the default platform used by professors in the classroom. Before we think about corporate or K-12, that is our primarily goal. Regarding K-12 vs higher ed specifically, professors have fundamentally different needs than K-12 teachers - including research, publishing and engagement of larger groups of students. We are focused on meeting professors' needs right now. Our product is still relevant to K-12 teachers, but we are not focusing on selling it into school boards right now. We'd rather stay focused on higher ed, where we still have lots of room to grow. KW: When talking about online education K-12 certainly gets lots of exposure both in North America as well as worldwide. But is there too much competition, is it too complicated to sell to schools and districts? MS: There is a ton of competition in the K-12 space. Our vision is to make teaching fun and effective. We will need to move into the K-12 space eventually but not any time soon. There is so much room in the higher education space and we are in better position to add value and have impact in higher education. KW: Which international markets do you think are next in line to adopt cloud based and mobile learning solutions. Might countries like India or Brazil leapfrog more established markets like Europe for instance? MS: Sure, Europe is ahead right now but countries like India and Brazil are able to ramp up development curves faster than ever before. We are not looking beyond North America right now, but when we do we will be looking at emerging markets and developed markets alike. Wherever teachers are teaching, students are learning and you can get cell phone reception and/or wifi, we could have a market for our platform. Further Reading Boundless Partners with Top Hat to Bring Collaborative Educational Content to 300,000+ Students | Boundless Related Links HEDLINE: Top Hat raises $10 million Series B | EDUKWEST Links tophat.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase | AngelList

The Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teachers is scheduled for next week. I was scheduled to speak on Wednesday, July 23rd at 2:30pm CST but will not be able to attend to present. Several weeks ago, I began having knee pain and it has increasingly worsened so that I cannot walk or stand for […]

This week two education projects serving underprivileged children in India received funding. Hippocampus which operates 128 learning centers raised $2.4 million and Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions received $50k from the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund for its pre-schools in Hyderabad. Hippocampus raises $2.4 million for Learning Centers in Rural India Hippocampus Learning Centres, a startup that brings quality education to schools in rural India, has closed a $2.4 million round of equity funding led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), existing investor Unitus Seed Fund and new investor Khosla impact fund. Founded in 2011 Hippocampus Learning Centres previously raised $ 1.5 million from Acumen Fund and Lok Capital in 2012 and $600,000 from Unitus Seed Fund, Lok Capital and Acumen Fund in early 2014. Hippocampus Learning currently operates 128 centres with 7,500 students in the state of Karnataka. The new funding will be used to expand and establish 7,600 learning centres in villages across Karnataka and India by 2016 according to the startup. Further Reading Hippocampus raises Rs 14.4 crore in fresh round of equity funding led by Asian Development Bank and Khosla Ventures | Economic Times Links hlc.org.in | Twitter | Facebook Sudiksha gets $50k from Pearson Affordable Learning Fund for Pre-Schools in Underprivileged Areas Similarly to Hippocampus Learning Centres Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) has invested $50,000 in Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions which operates pre-schools in underprivileged areas of Indian city Hyderabad. The PALF investment is part of a larger round of funding with co-investors Ennovent, Opes Impact Fund, Village Capital, and Mr. Sadeesh Raghavan. Previous investors in Sudiksha include The Eleos Foundation, First Light Ventures, and the 1to4 Foundation. Founded in 2010 the startup currently owns and manages 22 pre-schools run by local women in the area. It will use the money to open more schools in and around the city. As EDUKWEST previously reported PALF also works together with Village Capital on an incubator program for early stage edtech startups in India. Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions was one of the two winners in the inaugural ‘Edupreneurs’ program. In May 2014 we wrote about PALF’s investment in Indian Zaya Labs which has been one of the focal markets for the fund according to the press release. In India 60% of its children never complete primary school and 90% of students never reach college which led to an explosive growth of the private education sector from an estimated $40 billion in 2008 to $70 billion by 2012 while private school enrolment of primary school students rose from 19% in 2006 to an estimated 29% in 2013 according to the Annual Status of Education Report. Further Reading Low-cost pre-school chain taps into women entrepreneurs to provide quality education to underprivileged in India | Pearson Links sudiksha.in | Twitter | Facebook Picture License  Some rights reserved by World Bank Photo Collection

It’s that time again - time to submit presentations for the K12 Online Conference! As part of the K12 Online Conference organizational team, I wanted to share the news with everyone. The theme for this year’s conference is "Igniting Innovation" and video presentations are broken down into the following four strands: Week 1 Gamification Stories […]

In this week’s edtech funding roundup we take a look at the hugely successful crowdfunding campaign for Reading Rainbow which brought in over $5 million from more than 91.000 backers. In classic funding news we got a $600k seed round for student housing startup Comfy, $3 million for data management solution provider STI and $9.7 million for Galvanize Ventures, the investment arm of co-working and learning space Galvanize. Reading Rainbow now most backed Kickstarter Campaign The Kickstarter campaign by Levar Burton to bring back Reading Rainbow was a juggernaut from the start with reaching its official goal of $1 million in just one day. In the end Reading Rainbow got support from over 91.000 individual backers, pledging over $5 million which means that the new version of Reading Rainbow will be developed for all devices and over 7500 schools are going to receive free subscriptions. Further Reading Reading Rainbow Has More Backers Than Any Kickstarter Campaign Ever | TechCrunch Links readingrainbow.com | Twitter eHarmony for Student Housing Comfy raises $600k Seed Round Austin-based Comfy, a startup that runs a platform that aims to simplify the interaction between apartment complex managers and students who are looking for a place to live near a campus. The startup has raised a $600k Seed Round led by Dominion Ventures partner Mike Lee and with participation from Austin Ventures and a group of angel investors reports VentureBeat. The service is currently free to use for both students and managers. Further Reading Student housing startup Comfy makes property managers come to you | VentureBeat Links rentcomfy.com | Twitter | CrunchBase Data Management Solutions Provider STI raises $3 million STI, a provider of data management solutions in K-12, announced that it has raised $3 million reports EdSurge. Part of the funding was used to acquire three edtech startups, namely Chalkable, Learning Earnings and Spiral Universe (more about that in our EdTech M&A roundup). STI aims to grow beyond its current offering of administrative software into student and teacher centric tools. Further Reading STI completes new raise, continous string of recent acquisitions | Press Release Links sti-k12.com | Twitter Galvanize raised $9.7 million for its Seed Investment Fund Galvanize, a network of co-working and learning spaces for digital innovators and entrepreneurs, raised $9.7 million for its seed investment arm Galvanize Ventures reports The Denver Post. The company had just closed an $18 million Series A led by University Venture Fund to expand its campuses into three additional cities by 2015 as well as growing its staff and launching new course offerings. Further Reading Galvanize Venture Fund raises $9.7 million | The Denver Post Related Links Co-Working and Learning Space Galvanize raised $18 million Series A | EDUKWEST Links galvanize.it/venture | Twitter

I was unable to present this session scheduled for July 23 at 2:30pm due to a severe knee injury (keeping fingers crossed for MRI results this Friday). Anyway, I wanted those who were interested in using cell phones or global projects in the mathematics classroom to have a copy of the presentation I would have […]

In this edtech merger & acquisitions roundup we take a look at Dev Bootcamp, a pioneer of the coding bootcamp model, being acquired by Kaplan. Along with raising a fresh $3 million, STI announced the acquisition of Learning Earnings and Spiral Universe. And Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s acquisition of e-portfolio startup SchoolChapters, after an initial investment in the company a bit over a year ago. Kaplan acquired Coding School Pioneer Dev Bootcamp Test prep giant Kaplan acquired Dev Bootcamp, which pioneered the coding bootcamp model. Founded in 2012, Dev Bootcamp offers 9-week programs in San Francisco, Chicago and New York and has graduated more than 600 students to date. The employment rate of Dev Bootcamp graduates is at 85% four month after finishing the program. Further Reading Kaplan Acquires Dev Bootcamp, Founder and Leader of the Software Developer Bootcamp Industry | Businesswire Kaplan to Buy Software-Development School Dev Bootcamp | WSJ Kaplan goes coding, buys Dev Bootcamp | ZDNet Links devbootcamp.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase STI acquires Learning Earnings and Spiral Universe Along with raising a fresh $3 million investment round, STI announced the acquisition of three edtech startups. Learning Earnings offers teachers a platform to manage in-classroom rewards to increase student motivation and engagement. Students who earn reward points in the classroom can redeem those points for school supplies, snacks, clothes, music, games, movies and other perks. Links learningearnings.com Founded in 2007, Spiral Universe is a school management platform that includes a cloud based learning and teaching environment among other features. I interviewed the founder Reuben Kerben back in 2010, link below. Links spiraluniverse.com | Twitter | CrunchBase Chalkable, the third startup mentioned in the press release already got acquired by STI back in September 2013. Chalkable is a hybrid between teaching platform and app store, giving teachers access to features including gradebook, calendar and messaging while offering a broad choice of compatible apps and content from across the web which can then be used in the classroom. Links chalkable.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase Further Reading STI completes new raise, continous string of recent acquisitions |Press Release Edtech sales are nearly impossible, so Chalkable sold itself | Pando Related Links Reuben Kerben of Spiral Universe | EDUKWEST Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired e-portfolio platform SchoolChapters Inc. HMH announced the acquisition of SchoolChapters, an educational solutions provider that offers tools for learning portfolios, personalized education and parent teacher engagement. HMH previously invested in SchoolChapters in April 2013. Further Reading Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquires SchoolChapters Inc. | HMH Links schoolchapters.com | Twitter | Facebook

For the month of August, educators can try the engaging vocabulary development web based program called, "Words and Their Stories". Educators can get a single student license to try the program for only 99 cents for the month of August! You can try the program and see how motivating and engaging this award winning program […]

Following last year’s program in India, Pearson Affordable Learning Fund and Village Capital are looking for their next batch of edupreneurs in Africa. The edupreneurs program will operate in South Africa but education entrepreneurs from the entire continent are invited to apply for the incubator program. Pearson and Village Capital are looking for startups that serve students in low-income communities. Projects need to be for-profit but not necessarily tech focused. The program will start in fall, hosting up to 15 startups. The two winners, which will be selected through peer review, will receive up to $75k in seed funding. Applications for the program are now open and close end of August with the selected participants being announced end of September. The program starts in October and runs through early January. Pearson and Village Capital fund second education entrepreneurs incubation program in South Africa July 09, 2014 London, UK - 9 July 2014 - Today Pearson (www.pearson.com), the world’s leading learning company, in conjunction with the investment firm Village Capital (www.VilCap.com), announces its second "Edupreneurs" programme. The 2014 programme will support and invest in education entrepreneurs across Africa that are serving some of the world’s less privileged students and solving the world’s most pressing educational challenges. Two winners will be selected through peer review by fellow education entrepreneurs, and will be offered up to USD $75,000 in seed funding. The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, established by Pearson to invest in low-cost private schools and other affordable educational solutions, will once again work with Village Capital to offer African entrepreneurs the chance to receive seed investment. Building on a successful first run in India, Edupreneurs 2014 will welcome up to 15 start-ups and small businesses to participate in workshops this autumn in South Africa. Here they will complete tailored modules in business and education topics, and receive mentoring advice from other entrepreneurs, investors and professionals. These entrepreneurs will then assess one another against twenty-four criteria, co-developed by the sponsoring partners, with the top two ranking companies eligible to receive up to USD $75,000 each—drawn from USD $100,000 and USD $50,000 of capital committed by Pearson and Village Capital, respectively. "We will bring experience and mentorship from our existing seven portfolio companies to help young, innovative businesses from across the continent in tackling the affordable learning market segment. We hope to bring the best minds from leading entrepreneurial and education organizations, as well as Pearson internally, to work with our cohort. We're excited to scout across southern Africa for this unique incubation model and to continue bolstering the global ecosystem supporting education entrepreneurs," says Ember Melcher, Program Manager for Edupreneurs at the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund. Although the programme will be operating in South Africa, applications are open to ‘edupreneurs’ operating across Africa who serve students in low-income communities and intend to scale their businesses to make a positive impact on the future of learning. Seeking market-based solutions to major problems facing education for the less privileged, Edupreneurs is intended for early stage start-ups operating for-profit models in African nations, with or without technological components. "Nurturing South Africa's emerging entrepreneurs is key for Pearson, as it enables us to develop the small business sector and grow the education ecosystem that we operate in", says Riaan Jonck, CEO of Pearson South Africa. Jonck says its through programmes like Edupreneurs and their potential for success in the future that have led to small business sectors being key economic drivers in the fight against unemployment and poverty. "Enterprise Development is a key component of our transformation strategy, and we are looking forward to seeing innovative ‘edupreneurs’ emerge from this programme", he adds. Find out more about the Edupreneurs programme and apply to join the incubator. The 2014 applications will close at the end of August and selected edupreneurs announced by the end of September. The workshops will begin in October and run through early January. Identifying the best small businesses for investment is a difficult and cost-intensive process for investors. Village Capital, based in the U.S., specializes in using the power of peer support and mentoring to build investment-ready companies and to allocate capital through peer selection. Inspired by microfinance ‘village banking’, participants coach each other over the course of a programme in order to prepare companies for investment. Village Capital has operated 27 programmes globally serving more than 400 entrepreneurs. "We’re looking to build great companies that improve the quality of education for millions of low-income children across the world, and believe that entrepreneurs can see opportunities that larger players have overlooked. From the quality of entrepreneurs we can recruit, to the caliber of the technical assistance we are able to deliver to programme graduates, to the value-add assistance in helping companies grow, there’s no one we would rather be working with than PALF," says Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital. The second Edupreneurs programme is just one element of Pearson’s open innovation strategy and efforts to work with the global start-up community to solve some of the biggest challenges in global education. The Pearson Catalyst for Education programme announced its second intake of start-ups in June, with companies paired with Pearson sponsors to work on pilot projects that tackle specific education related issues. ENDS Contact Emilie Colker +44 207 010 2329 Emilie.Colker@Pearson.com Rob Lalka rob@vilcap.com About Pearson Pearson is the world's leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning. For more information, visit www.pearson.com. About Pearson Affordable Learning Fund The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund makes minority equity investments in for-profit companies to meet a burgeoning demand for affordable education services in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The fund was launched in July 2012 with $15 million of initial Pearson capital. The purpose of the fund is to improve access to quality education for the poorest families in the world. We invest in private companies committed to innovative approaches and improving learning outcomes. For more information, visit www.affordable-learning.com. About Village Capital Village Capital uses the power of peer support to enable entrepreneurs to solve the world's largest problems. Over the past five years, Village Capital partner programs across the world--in the US, UK, Kenya, China, India, and Brazil--have recruited over 400 entrepreneurs solving pressing problems in education, health, energy, agriculture, financial inclusion, and more. In Village Capital's programs teams help each other with product design, customer development, and financial sustainability, aided by best-in-class mentors along the way. At the end of each program, top teams receive seed investment through a democratized model that changes the way innovation happens - entrepreneurs themselves decide who gets funded. Village Capital enterprises, to date, has helped over 400 entrepreneurs who have created 6,000 jobs, served 6 million customers, and leveraged $80 million in investment capital. See more at www.VilCap.com Picture License Some rights reserved by United Nations Photo

I have read many books and blog posts about strategies for getting the new school year off to a great start and increasing student achievement throughout the school year. My five personal recommendations for a successful, high achieving classroom are shared below. 1. Set procedures and routines.  It is important that students have procedures and […]

DataWind, the company behind the low-cost Aakash tablet, raised $30 million CAD ($28 million USD), in its IPO at the Toronto Stock Exchange last week. The money will be used to expand the implementation of DataWind’s products in emerging markets. Key Takeaway "Our IPO on the TSX represents a major milestone for DataWind and gives us the resources to implement the next stage of our vision to bring the internet to billions of unconnected people in the developing world." states Suneet Singh Tuli, President and CEO of DataWind in the press release. DataWind first made headlines when it introduced its plans to build a $35 tablet about four years ago. Though the company wasn’t able to deliver on its promise with the first version of the Aakash which was priced at $50, DataWind subsequently managed to set the price at $40 for the retail version of the Aakash 2 that it introduced in November 2012. Students were able to purchase the device for $20. DataWind is currently working on the Aakash 4 which will support 4G networks and is expected to launch this year with a $35 price tag according to NDTV. The company offers its devices with a low-cost Internet browsing solution called Internet Delivery Platform which bundles the device with a prepaid 2G Internet service plan. "The world suffers from an internet infrastructure deficit, however, we believe our patented cloud based web delivery technology can effectively leverage existing cellular telephony networks to deliver affordable internet to 93% of the world population. Our technology holds the potential to help bridge the digital divide - effectively and in the most affordable manner." states Raja Singh Tuli, Co-Chairman and CTO of DataWind. Further Reading DataWind Inc. Opens Toronto Stock Exchange | Marketwire Datawind raises Rs 168 crore via IPO, lists shares in Toronto | Economic Times Aakash 4 tablet development given go-ahead by HRD Ministry, due in 2014: Report | NDTV Related Links It is Reality: Aakash (India's former $35 USD Tablet) launched today | EDUKWEST Aakash 2 unveiled - Price now at $21 for Students | EDUKWEST Links datawind.com | Twitter

Edublogs is sponsoring a teacher challenge for personal blogs and classroom blogs. Each week 2-3 tasks will be sent via email to those who sign up and register for the challenge. You can do the personal blog challenge, the classroom blog challenge or both! The challenge will last for four weeks and is designed for […]

edX announced a new partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Based on the Open edX platform the Ministry of Labor will launch a MOOC portal with the aim to bridge the gap between education and employment in the Kingdom as well as the Arab world. Key Takeaway The new portal will launch with a pilot program to enhance educational opportunities for Saudi women, youth, the disabled and Saudi citizens in rural communities. Besides setting up the MOOC portal the multi-year partnership between edX and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labor includes a significant investment in Open edX in return for ongoing support from edX’s support team to Saudi instructors who will work on a curriculum based on localized content from international universities as well as newly developed courses for Arab speaking students. The partnership also includes a research component. "The private sector in Saudi Arabia is growing rapidly and skilled workers are needed now more than ever to meet the rising demands. Women and youth, in particular, are well-positioned to contribute to this need by having access to high-quality vocational training in areas such as IT, healthcare, retail and manufacturing. We expect the initiative to create job opportunities and economic empowerment in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Arab world." states Maha Taibah, Advisor to the Ministry of Labor on Human Capital Development in the press release. In May the Queen Rania Foundation launched Edraak, the first MOOC platform in the Arab speaking world which is also based on the Open edX platform and has a similar goal of providing quality education and help students to prepare for the demands of the job market. Open edX is used by several governments across the world to run MOOC platforms including France Université Numérique and China's XuetangX. Further Reading A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) portal created exclusively for Arab audiences will deliver vocational & employability skills to women, youth, persons with disabilities and citizens in rural communities | Press Release Related Links Queen Rania of Jordan launches Arabic MOOC platform Edraak | EDUKWEST France puts another 8 million Euro into its FUN MOOC project |EDUKWEST Europe Links code.edx.org

Scott McLeod, technology leader, blogger, author and online colleague is celebrating his eighth year of blogging by proclaiming Friday, August 15, 2014, as #leadershipday14. He blogs at "Dangerously Irrelevant" and has put out a call to all bloggers to write a blog post about leadership and share it on August 15th. He has done this […]

Scott McLeod is celebrating eight years of blogging at "Dangerously Irrelevant" (congrats Scott!) and has proclaimed today "Leadership Day 2014″ In honor of his eight year anniversary and Leadership Day 2014, I am sharing eight ways that ‘teacher leaders’ can demonstrate leadership skills that foster the use of technology in the classroom. Many administrators and […]

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about the MOOC movement (and hype) finally reaching India and the country’s first effort to bring some of its higher education online. At the time the three Computer Science MOOCs were still at planning stage, so let’s take a look at what has happened within the last year and the challenges India is facing. Where are Indian MOOCs one year later? Let’s start off with some positive news. IIT Bombay indeed launched three MOOCs this May, an Introduction to Computer Programming Part 1 and 2, the third MOOC is on Thermodynamics. The platform of choice is, unsurprisingly, edX with IITB being a member of the xConsortium as announced by edX in 2013. The three MOOCs by IIT are not targeted toward solely attracting an Indian audience, however, but learners worldwide. Programming Part 1 and the Thermodynamics course are both scheduled to start July 29, with Programming Part 2 starting September 23. So far, the three MOOCs combined have attracted 35,000 enrollments which is decent though far from outstanding taken the demand for MOOCs in India alone (and of course worldwide) into account. So where are the problems? The question is whether this can turn into a mutually beneficial relationship. We know that India is a very important market for both edX and Coursera. Coursera currently has more than 6.7 million learners worldwide, its second largest user base is in India. Of the 1.9 million learners on edX, 15% come from India which makes the country the second strongest user base for edX as well. Until now the US are the no.1 country for both MOOC providers. Of those two remaining major US-based MOOC platforms edX currently remains the non-profit one, but we can certainly see that also edX is now trying to figure out its business model. The March 2014 appointment of Wendy Cebula (formerly from Vistaprint) as President and COO clearly points toward a monetization strategy while Anant Agarwal will focus on the strategic direction, growth and partnerships. Agarwal told Business Line in March that "The response from India has been overwhelming. For MITx’s Circuits and Electronics course, more students enrolled from India (30 per cent) than from any other country, including the US (22 per cent). These numbers are increasing at a rapid pace as we add member institutions, improve access to videos, and increase our capacity to provide multi-language translations." His statement is quite telling. Even if we consider that Indian universities and institutions didn’t have the time to catch up with big US institutions and develop their own compelling MOOC offers, these numbers are a strong indicator that Indian students prefer MOOCs developed by renown foreign institutions. Although this distinction might only be of mild interest to edX, as long as the platform can charge Indian students the $25 for a certificate or monetize its platform in new ways in the future, one could say all is well. That said, it is hard to imagine that Agarwal himself wouldn’t have a particular interest in seeing India further advance and modernize its higher education system with respect to his own childhood and education before pursuing his studies and career in the US. For example, the effort made by the Australian National University in Canberra (ANU) to develop a MOOC in Hindi, called Engaging India which started on April 29, is a good and honorable one given the university’s expertise on the country. However, I must admit, I would have rather liked to see this come out of India itself rather than from an Australian institution (or US, European for that matter). A few of the many challenges Indian higher education faces Since my article last year India has seen a change in government. And as we all know, it is not very likely that a new government has a strong interest to continue and roll out plans initiated and voted upon by the old one. Even though the new Modi government sees online education as a mean for younger and working class Indians to further their education, the promise to set up MOOCs and virtual classrooms is a broad one, and if I may say sounds a bit unstructured - for now. While I’m not an expert on the Indian education system, I do see many of the buzzwords being used right now. This ranges from the flipped classroom, connected classrooms, video learning and MOOCs. I think, the real problem here is how to develop a meaningful solution tailored to Indian needs when there is not enough knowledge and education around how to pull it off. Teacher training is the main problem here, and this is true for K-12 and higher education alike. So far, I personally cannot see that India has already transitioned from being a consumer of educational content (predominantly created by others) to becoming a creator of content. Who can help make change happen? This is the tricky question. When it comes to online education I see quite a bit happening in the startup sector and ideas for educational businesses getting funded. If you are interested to learn more about Indian edtech startups, I invite you to visit our dedicated category on EDUKWEST where you can find all of our Indian funding news. Right now foreign providers are not allowed to establish branch campuses in India, and it is unlikely that this is going to change any time soon. The Modi government doesn’t like to see India as a mere source of revenue for foreign institutions which is more than understandable. But where can change come from? From what I hear, Indian higher education providers and institutions are more interested in selective online courses, so called SPOCS or SOOCs, rather than MOOCS in their pure, academic sense as Massive Open Online Courses with a big O for "open". This is, of course, not to compromise their business model. It will need a massive effort, lots of money, structure and skilled people to come up with an online education platform and coursework that will work for the masses that aspire towards education. Whereas I see lots of initiatives and advancements being made in the private sector, I don’t see the same be true in state higher education and lifelong learning. But maybe that’s because it’s not where the big money can be made right now. Picture License  Some rights reserved by Sudar Muthu

Many schools are moving to a 1-to-1 format where every student and educator has access to a laptop or iPad. Yet many of these programs are not implemented effectively or eventually fade away. There are several reasons the programs are not successful. It all comes to planning and training. 1. Initial training is limited or […]

Earlier this month Pearson launched its new Global Scale of English or short GSE. According to Pearson English "there has never been a globally recognised standard in English - no single way of recognising and quantifying the level of an individual’s English" which is, of course, something the company aims to change with its new product. The release states that GSE has been in development for the past 25 years and has been tested on over 10.000 students in 130 countries. The goal is to provide "one precise, numeric, universal scale for businesses, governments and academic institutions, as well as for the 1 billion plus people estimated to be learning English worldwide." And the timing could not be better as the giant in the space is currently stumbling. ETS Global, the company behind the TOEIC and TOEFL certificates got itself into some serious trouble after the BBC was able to uncover fraud in the UK student visa system from several ETS testing providers in the UK. The investigation proved that students with poor English competencies had passed the TOEIC exam which is needed to obtain student visa extensions. During one part of the test students were being replaced by so called fake sitters whereas during the multiple choice part of the TOEIC the correct answers were read out loud by the invigilator. The story is far from being finished and it is still possible that other countries that are currently still using the TOEIC and TOEFL as basis to issue visa will follow suit which would certainly help Pearson to get its new ESL products ahead of the competition. Pearson GSE replaces the very broad levels of beginner, intermediate and advanced with a granular scale between 10-90, enabling the learner to assess more precisely her current level of English. Along with it comes a new online test called gSET that measures speaking, listening, reading and writing against the GSE. Language learning community busuu was the first company outside of Pearson to implement gSET into its offerings while getting a four months exclusive head start in April. Through the implementation, busuu premium users are able to assess their level on an ongoing basis which I think is the real game changer if we want to use this word. TOEFL and TOEIC, much like most classic forms of certifications and credentials, are a static capture of a moment in time, namely the day of the test. In today’s ever changing, fast moving work place these certificates are anachronisms and Pearson’s approach makes much more sense. Of course, the lower price point of GSE / gSET compared to ETS’ offering, not including the books and tutoring lessons that are often involved, are another argument on the side of Pearson. But Pearson is not the only one challenging ETS’ leadership role in ESL testing and certification. Duolingo is working on its own version of online testing and certifications in the language learning space, aiming to release its product at the very affordable price point of $20. And Duolingo’s global footprint is growing rapidly. The startup just announced a major expansion into Asia with the launch of its free learning apps and website in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Video Further Reading Pearson launches world’s first global standard of English | Press Release Pearson English announces major partnership with world’s largest social network for language learning, busuu | Press Release HEDLINE: ETS Global suspended from offering English Tests amid Fraud Investigation | EDUKWEST Europe Duolingo brings free English language learning to 5 new Asian markets | Tech in Asia HEDLINE: Duolingo raises $20 million Series C | EDUKWEST Links english.com/gse | Twitter | Facebook