Applications are being accepted to the ‘Disney Dreamers Academy‘ from now until October 31, 2014 for the 2015 class of Disney Dreamers. What is a Disney Dreamer? It is a 9th - 12th grader that has a dream for their future. It may be to accomplish a civic duty, hold public office or attend a […]

Pearson announced a strategic partnership with Chicago-based startup hub and incubator 1871. Two of the ten edtech startups in Pearson’s latest Catalyst batch joined to the program over recommendations from 1871. Other partners in the startup hub and incubator space include RocketSpace, 1776, LearnLaunch, MaRS and Makerversity. Pearson announces edtech partnership with Chicago incubator 1871 July 21, 2014 Chicago, Illinois - July 21, 2014: Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, today announced a strategic partnership with 1871, Chicago’s entrepreneurial hub for digital startups. 1871 is the largest startup hub in the U.S. with more than 250 member companies at the present time. Pearson has long-standing relationships with many K-12 and higher education institutions in the area, such as Chicago Public Schools and Chicago City Colleges, and this partnership will enable the company to further collaborate with local education technology startups. "At 1871, we’re bringing together Chicago’s brightest digital designers, engineers and entrepreneurs who are shaping new technologies, disrupting old business models, and resetting the boundaries of what’s possible," said Howard A. Tullman, CEO of 1871. "We think Pearson’s deep experience in the education industry and global reach will be extremely valuable to the startups in our community. As a former college president and as an education entrepreneur in my own right, I have worked with Pearson for more than twenty years and look forward to continuing to grow and expand our relationship. " "We’re committed to addressing some of the biggest challenges in education and believe that partnering with the startup community is vital for stimulating greater innovation in the industry and improving learning outcomes," said Diana Stepner, VP of Innovation Partnerships and Developer Relations. "Two of the startups selected for our edtech accelerator Pearson Catalyst for Education, announced last month, were recommended by 1871 and we look forward to working more closely with other startup talent in the area as well." Pearson Catalyst participant Learnmetrics, which provides real-time analytics for educators, will be one of the first digital startups to be working in the newly expanded 1871 2.0 space, which is growing by 50 percent at its Merchandise Mart location this year, thanks to a $2.5 million state grant. "We’re excited to be partnering with Pearson as part of the 2014 Catalyst class," said Julian Miller, CEO of Learnmetrics. "Given that it’s a virtual program, we’re able to continue working with the tech community in Chicago at 1871, while also connecting and collaborating with our Pearson mentors and sponsors from across the globe. It’s the best of both worlds." Pearson works with individuals and organisations of every size to explore smart ideas and technologies that can make education more effective and improve learning outcomes. This means collaborating with developers, global startups in the Catalyst and Edupreneurs accelerator programmes, and a growing community of innovation partners, such as 1871, RocketSpace, 1776, LearnLaunch, MaRS and Makerversity. .... For more information Please contact: Erin Farber / erin.farber@pearson.com / +1 (917) 697-2027 Laura Clark / laura@1871.com / +1 (330) 715-0687 About Pearson Pearson is the world's leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 70 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning. We provide learning materials, technologies, assessments and services to teachers and students in order to help people everywhere aim higher and fulfil their true potential. We put the learner at the centre of everything we do. www.pearson.com About 1871 1871 is an entrepreneurial hub for digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, the soon-to-be 75,000-square-foot facility provides Chicago startups with programming, access to mentors, educational resources, potential investors and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that help them on their path to building successful businesses. 1871 is the flagship project of the CEC. www.1871.com

Currently, Texas has the lowest number of adults over the age of 25 that have a high school diploma. Out of all 50 states, Texas has the fewest adults that graduated high school. There are a number of reasons for this. Texas, as do other states, has a large influx of illegal aliens and migrant […]

Music teachers often have great difficulty finding free sheet music - especially due to copyright issues. The Mutopia Project was formed to help alleviate this difficult and provide free sheet music that can be downloaded from the Internet. The Mutopia Project describes itself as, The Mutopia Project offers sheet music editions of classical music for […]

Today Kaplan announced the twelve edtech startups that will take part in its second accelerator program. The Kaplan EdTech Accelerator is in partnership with Techstars and takes place in New York City over the course of three months. The participants were chosen out of a total of 500 applications which is 50% more compared with last year’s batch according to Ed Hanapole, CIO at Kaplan. Eight of the twelve participants come out of New York City. Each startup, with one exemption, will receive $20k from Techstars in return for equity and an option for a $150k convertible debt note from Kaplan. The exemption is Grockit which was acquired by Kaplan in 2013. It is the first Kaplan team to join the company’s accelerator. Like last year the startups will receive mentorship from Kaplan executives as well as external industry leaders and investors including Brad Feld and Techstars founder David Cohen. The demo day for the class of 2014 will be on October 22nd. Branching Minds Branching Minds is an online tool to help identify, understand, and address students’ cognitive strengths and weaknesses while tracking and reporting data across grade levels, classes, and the home-school divide. Links branchingminds.com | Twitter ClassWallet ClassWallet is a digital wallet and e-commerce platform letting donors easily give and track donations to K12 classes and also giving teachers decision-making power over budgets and purchases for their classrooms. Links classwallet.com | Twitter | Facebook Cognotion Cognotion teaches students language and career skills through story-telling, using online video narratives, gamification features, live simulation, and social media tools. Links cognotion.com | Twitter | Facebook CreatorBox CreatorBox helps children ages 7-12 years old develop their creativity and practical science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills through a monthly series of engaging building projects. Links creatorbox.com | Twitter Edvisor.io Edvisor.io aims to increase access to global educational opportunities by seamlessly connecting schools and educational travel agencies via a worldwide distribution system with integrated web tools. Links edvisor.io | Twitter Grockit Grockit is an online tool using adaptive learning, peer-to-peer learning, and game-like motivational features to help students prepare for standardized exams; originally founded in 2007, Grockit was acquired by Kaplan in July 2013. Links grockit.com | Twitter | Facebook Lea(R)n Lea(R)n runs cost-effective pre-clinical and clinical trials to validate emerging education technologies’ impact on learning outcomes. Links learntrials.com | Twitter | LinkedIn reKode reKode teaches computer coding skills to children and young adults—including those with learning challenges and disabilities—in a face-to-face environment, emphasizing peer-to-peer learning, positive development and creativity. Links rekode.com | Twitter | Facebook RobotsLab RobotsLAB creates robots as in-classroom teaching aids that help K-12 educators bring to life abstract math and science concepts in fun, engaging ways. Links robotslab.com | Twitter | Facebook SmartOn SmartOn teaches "new economy skills" in areas such as coding, data science, social media, and design. Links smarton.co | Twitter | Facebook Story to College Story To College offers online and in-person courses that leverage the neuroscience of storytelling to help students write impactful, effective admissions essays. Links storytocollege.com | Twitter | Facebook TuvaLabs TuvaLabs teaches data literacy skills by engaging students through the exploration and use of real data related to students’ own favorite topics and interests. Links tuvalabs.com | Twitter | Facebook Further Reading Presenting the Accelerator’s Class of 2014 | Kaplan

Gaming in the classroom is becoming a big topic for trends in the classroom. Most teachers use gaming to teach content at some point or another. Gaming is being used to teach programming and more advanced concepts versus used to just fill time. PBS Learning Media is offering the following gaming resources to help start […]

September 17 - 23, 2014 is Constitution Week commemorating one of our country’s most notable and important documents. The Daughters of the American Revolution website shares, The aims of the Constitution Week celebration are to: Emphasize citizens’ responsibilities for protecting and defending the Constitution. Inform people that the Constitution is the basis for America’s great […]

Flipkart, India’s biggest online retailer, has apparently raised $1 billion in new funds which would make this the biggest ever investment raised by an Indian e-commerce company and one of the biggest rounds of 2014 worldwide. Given the amount of new investment reported by the Economic Times to be accurate, Flipkart’s total funding raised comes to $1.7 billion at a $5 billion valuation. The official announcement of the round is expected in the coming weeks. Update: Flipkart confirmed the $1 billion round on July 29th via Twitter. Massive milestone for us... we have raised $1 billion in fresh funding. Huzzah! @binnybansal @_sachinbansal pic.twitter.com/NDbIQCeEJl — Flipkart (@Flipkart) July 29, 2014 This latest Flipkart round has significance for the online education market on multiple levels. Founded in 2007 by brothers Sachin and Binny Bansal the Bangalore-based company crossed $1 billion in sales in March. Now, Flipkart supposedly felt it was the right moment to raise such a big round in order to cement its position on the subcontinent as its far from being the only company that eyes the lucrative Indian market. The ubiquitous Amazon launched its India operations last June and already has 25 product categories today. Tapping into E-Learning Homegrown competitor Snapdeal announced the launch of an education marketplace in February with the goal to reach its $1 billion turnover target. The company also raised an additional $100 million in new funds in May. According to Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal, the online education market in India is expected to reach $3-4 billion in the coming years and that the company plans to make 20% of its revenue from selling services. The fact that online education is a hot market on the subcontinent gets confirmed by the launch of a dedicated e-learning category on Flipkart this week. The new category enables learners to browse and search for online courses as well as physical products such as CDs or DVDs and test preparation or certificate courses. The learning itself happens of course through the websites of the respective course providers but the argument of convenience of browsing one website only instead of comparing offers from different websites might actually pay off for Flipkart. Nipun Mehra, senior director of retail at Flipkart, states "The availability of eBooks, certificate courses and online tests - all on one platform — will make the entire process of buying/accessing elearning material very easy for students who form a significant part of our customer base today." Low Cost Smartphones and Tablets Another strategy of Flipkart to get the attention of potential customers is to provide them with budget smartphones. Earlier this month the company introduced its own Android smartphones, priced at around $45. Like the idea behind the Amazon Fire phone and Kindle Fire tablets which encourage its owners to buy even more from Amazon, the Flipkart smartphones as well as the recently launched Flipkart Digiflip Pro XT712 tablet follow a similar concept. Undoubtedly, they are designed and priced affordably to animate even more Indians to shop online and use Flipkart’s different services like the new education marketplace.. It is also worth noting that Flipkart was faster than Amazon, Google and also Mozilla with the launch of a low cost line of smartphones for the subcontinent. It is obvious that nobody in the Android realm wants to miss out on the world’s fastest growing smartphone market. And again, we can make a conclusion for elearning. As so often, what establishes itself in the general consumer and e-commerce markets will eventually find its way into online education. Mobile Learning Learning on a smartphone is established in Asia for years, and mobile learning is becoming more popular in Europe and the US at a rapid pace. busuu co-founder and CEO Bernhard Niesner told me in September 2013 that the language learning startup already has more mobile users than web users. At the time busuu had seen more than 30 million downloads of its mobile apps, 62% of which were iOS and 38% Android users. Top countries are the US, Germany and Russia. Therefore, it is not far-fetched to imagine Indian providers and students alike quickly adopt a mobile strategy for learning when devices come at competitive prices and the content offer is there, too. Another interesting puzzle piece comes from language learning startup Duolingo which just launched its Test Center offering $20 remote proctored language exams this week. The test center being launched on Android and Google Chrome first clearly indicates that emerging markets like India are of high interest for the startup. If you are interested in the growing edtech market in India, we created a dedicated channel in which you will find all our coverage of this exciting region. Further Reading India’s biggest online retailer Flipkart sets a new benchmark, raises $1 billion in fresh funds | The Economic Times Snapdeal clicks on services space to hit $1bn | Times of India Flipkart’s new elearning category makes it as easy to search for courses as it is to find books | Tech in Asia Flipkart launches budget smartphones, beats Google and Mozilla to the punch | Tech in Asia

There are many link curation sites out there to compile a hotlist of links to create portfolios or a list for students to use when doing research or online projects. Below I share my top 5 list. The premises are all the same about compiling resources - the format and manner in which the links […]

Google announced the launch of the Translate Community with the aim to improve Google Translate through crowdsourcing better translations for the 80 currently supported languages and to eventually launch new language options with the help of its users. In the community members can vote on existing translations and generate new ones. Google also added a new feature to Google Translate that enables anyone to contribute directly even without signing up to the Translate Community. Over time Google wants to add features that show members the impact of their work and activity across the global community. Using crowdsourcing to translate educational web content has become an established option. Among the first to experiment with this was language learning community Livemocha which turned to its user base to translate the free courses offered on the site into different languages, though with mixed results. Duolingo, the current juggernaut of the language learning space, based its business model on its users translating the web while learning a new language. Given the close relationship between Duolingo founder Luis von Ahn and Google, he sold his previous company reCAPTCHA to the search giant in 2009 and just launched Duolingo Test Center exclusively on Android and Google Chrome, one might speculate that Google took some notes or even advice from him in this project. And I am still pretty sure that Duolingo will end up being acquired by Google. Another leading example for the power of crowdsourcing in the translation space is Viki, an online community that is built around translating and subtitling movies and TV series. The site has been acquired by Rakuten for $200 million in September of last year and there have been rumors that Google was also interested in acquiring the crowdsourcing site. Google also introduced crowdsourcing for one of its other main properties, YouTube. In May YouTube launched an effort to reach out to its creator talent by announcing a couple of new features requested by the community. Among these is the Community Caption Project which lets YouTube content creators tab into the global community to subtitle the videos. Sounds like Viki I hear you say? Well, if you can’t acquire it, clone it. via TechCrunch Further Reading Translate Community: Help us improve Google Translate! | Inside Search Related Links Sunday Review: $200m Viki acquisition, Textbook Scam and Socratic Labs | EDUKWEST Crowdsourcing in Education - How to make it work | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Duolingo Test Center brings Learners a $20 Version of the TOEFL | EDUKWEST Links translate.google.com/community

The movie called "The Giver" is currently playing and the movie is based on the book by Lois Lowry. I haven’t seen the movie so I am not going to offer a critique as to whether the movie is worth going to see or how closely it resembled the actual novel. If you teach young […]

For developing nations like the Philippines, remittances from oversea workers play an important economic role. According to data from the country’ central bank, remittances made through bank transfers surged 6.1 percent to $10.404 billion in the first five months of 2014 from $9.809 billion in the same period in 2013. And while this is already an astonishing amount in itself, we must not forget that still a large part of the population is unbanked or underbanked and therefore uses other ways of sending and receiving cash. There are currently around 10 million Filipinos working overseas, sending money home to their families in order to support them. Ayannah founder and CEO Mikko Perez told TechCrunch that 8 million of those workers are unbanked or underbanked. Back home around 70 million Filipinos in the country have no access to regular banking, meaning that services like Western Union, Moneygram, Trans-fast, and iRemit handle most of the remittances sent to the Philippines from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong where most Filipino overseas workers are. 5% of remittances are spent on education - in 2013 around $1.3 billion All in all the remittance market in the Philippines is estimated to be between $25 billion to $60 billion annually but currently this market is also very inefficient and costly for its users. A perfect industry for disruption. Let’s take a look at two startups out of the Philippines that aim to make the remittance process more efficient. Of course, this opportunity is not limited to the Philippines only but all developing countries with a growing overseas workers group, may it be in South America or Africa. Ayannah wants to become the Amazon of the next 4 billion Ayannah does not necessarily want to compete with the aforementioned payment providers or replace them but aims to add services around remittances. This ranges from allowing overseas workers to easily pay for virtual goods, digital goods, gift certificates and so on but also paying for health and micro-insurance for family members back at home through a mobile commerce product called Sendah. Ayannah also offers a B2B platform called Sendah Direct, enabling local stores and businesses to offer digital commerce and payment solutions with the goal to build the largest digital payment network in the Philippines and eventually becoming a major player in the space. The startup just announced a $1 million venture round, bringing the total funding raised to $4.5 million. Links ayannah.com PhilSmile targets the 5% of remittances spent on education 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. 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 directly for the school fees of their children or other family members, 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. Links philsmile.com | Twitter | Facebook Further Reading Ayannah Raises $1M To Serve The Philippines’ Rapidly Growing Remittance Market | TechCrunch OFW remittances hit $10 B in May | philSTAR Filipinos living overseas now have a more convenient way to pay for their families’ education back home | Tech in Asia Picture License  Some rights reserved by Kelvin Servigon

"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

It is a thin line being a protective parent and becoming overly involved in your child’s life. For some time now educators have been dealing with those so called helicopter parents who pay extremely close attention to their children’s experiences and problems. What originally started at often high-priced higher education institutions and earned some parents from the baby-boomer generation notoriety has since turned into a phenomenon and is widely spread over the entire schooling of a child starting from pre-kindergarten, K-12 well into college. In 2011 Tiger Mom’s Chinese parenting style got everyone talking about, in 2012 we heard about the techie father who built a helicopter drone accompanying his son to the bus stop. While the cases mentioned aren’t rare individual cases anymore, the trend still largely depends on one’s own initiative, at least in the US and Europe. Now, some Asian startups see a lucrative market in assisting worried parents track their kids’ whereabouts on their commute to school, taking this whole phenomenon to the next level. Nugrean Thailand-based startup Nugrean helps parents track their kids’ whereabouts when on the schoolbus. The same is true for the kids’ teachers who can also log on and see where the bus is on a map either in the morning driving to school or on the way home. The startup believes that its service will help the safety and quality of life of the children and subsequently the parents as well. Nugrean CEO Shotiwan Wattanalarp already eyes potential internationalization of the app and says the team will add new features like students’ interests and behavior. Video Links nugrean.com BusBuzz BusBuzz, an app from Singapore, is based on a similar concept like Nugrean but was founded by a concerned parent based on personal experience with his child. BusBuzz wants to facilitate the communication between parents and bus operators. With BusBuzz bus operators have a convenient way to take attendance of every child, parents have peace of mind that their child is actually on the bus on the way to or back from school or receive a notification if their child is not in the pick-up zone for one reason, i.e if there is a change of schedule. Video Links busbuzz.com MyBusMate Singapore-based MyBusMate aims to give parents who wait for their children at the bus stop real time updates on their whereabouts so they don’t need to worry in case the bus is late. While children could certainly update their parents via SMS, MyBusMate also has features for school administrators and bus companies baked into the product. Parents benefit from real time tracking and push notifications, schools can message parents and bus operators as well as check student attendance, and bus companies get features like automatic invoicing and student manifest. Links mybusmate.com Although all three solutions are still fairly new and have to prove themselves, their usefulness and usability, but they surely illustrate a new trend in K-12 that, once enough data points are in, will catch the interest of parents and schools in other parts of the world. As protective parents face the same worries and challenges this might actually have the potential to catch on in the US and other countries as well given the infrastructure and organization of everyday life at school are comparable. Further Reading EdTech Startups Asia: easyuni, MyBusMate, SchoolofTutors and Mettl | EDUKWEST Track your kids’ whereabouts with BusBuzz! | e27 Thai startup plans to assuage the anxieties of parents as they track the whereabouts of their children when they’re on the school bus | e27 Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior | Wall Street Journal Helicopter parent: Techy dad builds drone to hover over kid (+video) | Christian Science Monitor Picture License Some rights reserved by Twix

At the end of the school year, past students often come by and make a special trip to see a teacher who has made a difference in his or her life. It is always heartwarming when you receive a card of thank you message from a parent or student as well. The end of the school year is always bittersweet as you look forward to vacation as well as the opportunity to hear from students you had in class in the past. I call those moments of remembrance, "Paychecks of the Heart!". Since I have been working with master’s level students, I have received a few of the special moments via email about how much they appreciate the guidance and feedback I have provided through the course assignments I facilitate. I appreciate those moments too. Please share below any special moment to remember that you experienced this year and share our paychecks of the heart. I can’t wait to read your moments to remember!