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Coverage for the next generation of young edtech companies

Building on Maria's link from GeekWire, here is another article about a bubble forming in ed tech...and building on Jason's comment about not wanting to investmenting in ed tech, it seems like a lot of wealthy people aren't worried about it! This article goes into the numbers a little more on trying to show the bubble effect, such as the number of investment rounds and startups. It also talks a bit about Christensen's "innovator" profile and how a lot of the ed tech folks now are mission-driven people who are innovating like Christensen describes. Not sure if what they are doing will work, but trying because they are passionate about it

Can Ed tech start-ups be classified into those driven by a desire to improve education and children's lives or those simply seeking to make a lot of money? Or are motives and intentions always impossible to judge and inextricable from behavior.

Thanks for sharing. I liked the last message of this article. "But as long as we remember that it takes both the tool and the teacher to create success, the mission-driven innovators will outnumber the market-driven copycats. And innovation will outshine the bubbles.". EdSurge is one of my favorite source too. One of my former client at Hedge Fund in HK messaged me earlier this month ''btw u might be spot on on this education stuff. this should offer a sizable business opportunity in coming years u should go grab some" - def. he is one of those guys out there who might contribute to the bubble in the future...

The gender imbalance in the startup world, and more specifically the development world, is a frequent topic here and elsewhere. Last week I learned of a new meetup in Cambridge aimed at getting more women to become Ruby developers by simply bringing in women to teach them. Also, read the group's blog here- http://www.railsbridgeboston.org/blog/2012_aug_recap

Not only do we need technologists but some of the best teachers to work together so that great ideas to come to fruition. I would love to see some sort of match up system (kinda like there is for finding co-founders) for teachers and tech people. 

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge, a former public school teacher and Ph.D. candidate in urban schooling, stood on the stage in a small auditorium in the America Online offices here one recent afternoon as three Silicon Valley investors told her how to best communicate with teachers.

A new project named Instapaper is developed to solve the time and space difference problems in reading on computers.

This is a group based in Silicon Valley, CA.

Twitter founder Biz Stone talks about his foundation which focuses on education and conservation.

I was struck by the city government question. Seems to be a parallel of how the government can interact with the people they represent using technology and how teachers can interact with their students using technology. (People centered government and student-centered learning.)

This is not online what we saw in the microsoft video

This article is really informative. I guess I knew much of the article intuitively but I didn't have hard facts. My biggest question is his depiction of middle class Americans as viewing education as an expense as opposed to an investment. Our non- Univ of Pheonix college students mostly hail from middle class families who are worried if their child doesn't have a degree. His evidence for his viewpoint is that 50% of peope don't have a degree. However, what percent went to college and dropped out? I remember that in 1990's that 25% of Americans had college degrees. Sounds like there is some growth. Regardless, his views on the Asia market and servicing struggling districts is food for thought. Thank you.