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Hannah Lesk

Union Square Ventures Publishes Its Internal Market Research on Ed Tech - 2 views

thenextweb.com/...ernal-market-research-publicly

online learning venture capital market research

shared by Hannah Lesk on 05 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Hannah Lesk on 05 Oct 12
     
    I've always wondered what drives VC investments in ed tech firms. Today, Union Square Ventures, a New York-based VC firm, began sharing its internal market research. Scroll down and click on "online education" to see what's caught their attention in the sector. It's very interesting to consider what is included--and excluded!
Tomoko Matsukawa

Is This School the Next Harvard or Just Another Website? - 5 views

mashable.com/...minerva-project

Mooc t561 vc undergraduate

shared by Tomoko Matsukawa on 10 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Tomoko Matsukawa on 10 Nov 12
     
    "Minerva..... is an entirely different pedagogical species. The San Francisco-based company aims at a soup-to-nuts undergraduate education, resulting in a traditional bachelor's degree, but all via the Web, and with all of the social cachet of the country's priciest sheepskin. ....Nelson, its 36-year-old founder, has no experience in education; .....But Nelson managed to not only score a huge investment from Benchmark - the same VC firm that backed the likes of eBay, Yelp, and Mint -but also persuaded a group of A-list luminaries, including former Harvard president Larry Summers, to be on its board of advisors.
  • Maria Anaya on 12 Nov 12
     
    interesting that the founder has no experience in education.... :/
Pearl Phaovisaid

Tech Start-Ups Find a Home on the Prairie - NYTimes.com - 4 views

www.nytimes.com/...-root-in-the-great-plains.html

tech prairie nytimes start-up geography apps des moines

shared by Pearl Phaovisaid on 23 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Pearl Phaovisaid on 23 Nov 12
     
    Emerging technology has had a strong geographical component. With Google Fiber up and running in Kansas City and tech start-ups burgeoning in Des Moines, we may see yet another wellspring of innovation in the Midwest. This could have significant implications on rural education and agtech.
  • Danna Ortiz on 23 Nov 12
     
    There were numerous communities in Colorado that tried to lure Google Fiber; it looks like it's paying off for KC. It would be interesting to see the tech start-up numbers in comparison to other US locales. I would like more details as to why only two regions increased their share of angel investors.
  • Pearl Phaovisaid on 24 Nov 12
     
    My guess is that insufficient momentum or critical mass exists in other regions, Danna. The article mentions the Southwest and Great Plains as two regions with an increase in angel investors. The Southwest probably represents spillover from Silicon Valley, while the Great Plains benefits from large metropolitan areas, good universities, and a concentration of young professional residents. I also think that tech start-ups and VC firm naturally promote the growth of one another.
Cole Shaw

Sale of McGraw-Hill's education division - 2 views

www.digitalbookworld.com/...ucation-technology-growth-wave

education investment McGraw-Hill

shared by Cole Shaw on 29 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Cole Shaw on 29 Nov 12
     
    For the business-type folks in the class, McGraw-Hill just sold its Education division to a private equity company. They think that education will continue to be a good investment.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Harvey Shaw on 29 Nov 12
     
    Interesting that they sold it to Apollo Group. The parent company of UPhoenix seems to be shifting their investments around, having just closed, what 40% of UPhoenix's brick-and-mortar campuses?
  • Cole Shaw on 03 Dec 12
     
    Yeah, I thought it was weird. I looked into that--I think the sale is to a different "Apollo" group. UPhoenix is something like "Apollo Group" whereas McGraw Hill sold their division to "Apollo Global Management". I think they are different entities, but it is hard to tell. If they are the same organization, it is definitely a weird sign of shifting investments.
  • Harvey Shaw on 03 Dec 12
     
    Cole, you're absolutely right, I missed that Apollo Global Mgmt is a VC firm.
Chip Linehan

Edtech startup Gradeable Takes Top Prize at MIT VC Conference - 2 views

venturefizz.com/...mit-venture-capital-conference

shared by Chip Linehan on 13 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Chip Linehan on 13 Dec 12
     
    Their senior team includes recent HGSE graduate Andy Cahill.
Harley Chang

The King of MOOCs Abdicates the Throne - 3 views

www.slate.com/...cessful_for_most_students.html

MOOC education technology learning educational_technology online

shared by Harley Chang on 21 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Harley Chang on 21 Nov 13
     
    Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity, has openly admitted that his company's MOOC courses are a lousy replacement for actual university class and instead will be taking his company to focus more on corporate training. I personally will reserve further judgement until after I finish the readings for next week.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Grif Peterson on 21 Nov 13
     
    I posted this article in G+ a day or two ago. Some of the better commentary surrounding this article below. Tressie McMillan Cottom: "Thrun says it wasn't a failure. It was a lesson. But for the students who invested time and tuition in an experiment foisted on them by the of stewards public highered trusts, failure is a lesson they didn't need." Rebecca Schuman: "Thrun blames neither the corporatization of the university nor the MOOC's use of unqualified "student mentors" in assessment. Instead, he blames the students themselves for being so poor." Stephen Downes: "I think that what amuses me most about the reaction to the Thrun story is the glowing descriptions of him have only intensified. "The King of MOOCs." "The Genius Godfather of MOOCs." Really now. As I and the many other people working toward the same end have pointed out repeatedly, the signal change in MOOCs is openess, not whatever it was (hubris? VC money?) that Thrun brought to the table. Rebecca Schuman claims this is a victory for "the tiny, for-credit, in-person seminar." It's not that, no more than the Titanic disaster was a victory for wind-powered passenger transportation."
  • Molly Wasser on 29 Nov 13
     
    Grif - where did the Stephen Downes quote come from ? I read the Rebecca Schuman article and don't really agree with her. To expand on the Schuman quote you posted - it's really interesting how she says the massive lecture format doesn't work but then provides two examples of massive technology that do work - texting and World of Warcraft. This relates directly to some of what we talked about earlier this semester. I don't think it's the 'massive,' as Schuman implies, that causes the failure of a MOOC. It's part of the design. Once the design is better and more engaging, then MOOCs may find that they have higher retention rates. Schuman: Successful education needs personal interaction and accountability, period. This is, in fact, the same reason students feel annoyed, alienated, and anonymous in large lecture halls and thus justified in sexting and playing World of Warcraft during class-and why the answer is not the MOOC, but the tiny, for-credit, in-person seminar that has neither a sexy acronym nor a potential for huge corporate partnerships.
  • Grif Peterson on 09 Dec 13
     
    The Downes quote was from OLDaily, which is a daily listserve of his that I subscribe too. I think the difference between texting/WoW and MOOCs is that, while both have many many users, the former two have means in which those groups are disaggregated into smaller units that are largely responsible for the UX/individual growth that goes on. I agree with you that massive is not necessarily the failure, in fact, I think it's the best thing they have going for them. However, until the design can leverage meaningful collaboration, like WoW and texting, the massive will remain a burden.
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