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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!

A potpourri of articles about online education compiled by Union Square Ventures as part of their analysis of the education market.

Some quick "look fors" for schools when assessing what type of edtech venture to partner with.

Great post! We definitely need more discussion about how edtech ventures can partner with schools, districts, and CMO's. This post is right to the point- helpful to both the schools and the edtech companies.

Schools describe what is needed to build a strong relationship between startups and schools. 

Ok... maybe the tie in to education is not immediately obvious. Mostly, I just think this is so cool that I had to post it. But think for a moment about carpool, soccer practice, and sports as a starter. No longer does a kid's participation in extracurricular activities require them to get a ride from mom. Go a little further... field trips, classes that are only offered at the charter school across town, on-site science explorations. How many more kids could venture out of their neighborhood for educational opportunities? There was a time 20 years ago I never would have believed that elementary school children would be carrying their own phone, but now will they all get their own car in 2nd grade??

An intro course for those interested in an education venture.

The Aspen Ideas Festival has a host of videos, audio clips and transcripts from the 2012 and 2011 sessions on education and edtech. Topics range from "Will Technology Disrupt the Way We Learn" and Knowledge Exchange: Information's Beautiful Future" to "The MiT Media Lab...Seeding Innovation," "The Next Internet" and "Will Technology Truly Transform Education" a panel with Fiona O'Carroll is executive vice president of the New Ventures/Innovation Group at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Ted Mitchell,President/CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund." There's much more...

Very interesting resource thank you for sharing!

""No one's got the model that's going to work yet," said James Grimmelmann, a New York Law School professor who specializes in computer and Internet law. "I expect all the current ventures to fail, because the expectations are too high. People think something will catch on like wildfire. But more likely, it's maybe a decade later that somebody figures out how to do it and make money." "

Floating University, a profit venture, which takes a set of online courses taught by academic superstars (from Harvard, Yale, etc.), repackages and sells to Ivy League colleges and to anyone who wants to pay for them.

This builds on Emily's post from the weekend with s bit more detail on one of standford's alternative online platforms. The venture lab platform is not the standard mooc idea, but sounds like they built in more collaboration and teamwork features. So maybe now moocs can reach a wider audience with non-math / science interests?

This company has raised $7 million dollars in venture capital money to develop an online test prep web site that hopes to encourage students to spend time preparing for tests such as the SAT by eliminating deterrents such as scheduling conflicts and location issues and adding a social networking aspect.

Seems like a cool and useful product for teachers: aggregating the data gathered by the many apps and ed tech tools teachers use in the classroom in a single platform, with data visualization support

Their senior team includes recent HGSE graduate Andy Cahill.

Commentary on Reynol Junco's article on Venture Beat posted below

I usually do not venture into blogs. But, this data is so powerful and so supported that I could not resist.

Founder Institute goes global using technology and helps entrepreneurs create their own companies.

Maung, Thanks for sharing this article. I liked the basic premise but also agreed with the comment by Babson College President "the vast majority of ventures take more than that amount of time [ 4 months] to become operational businesses people can be proud of". I think this 4 month program can be nicely incorporated as a course in a formal entrepreneurship program.

Very few virtual schools have worked with students this young, so there are interesting questions about jumping from no virtual schooling all the way to this model.

There is a really fascinating and controversial policy story behind this. Through "legislative sausage-making" the states first virtual school is being run by a single district out in Western Mass., mostly as a result of the entrepreneurial spirit of the superintendent. There are big questions about what will happen as students across the state sign up for the virtual school and their districts are required to pay tuition to Greenfield. And Greenfield isn't really providing a school, they are just enrolling students to be taught by a for-profit company, K-12. There are quite a few very interesting policy issues that would be worth digging into as the state launches this new venture in an unusual way.

When I first read the article, I immediately thought "an idealist gone rogue." I wondered if there was even any research/method behind this decision, and you mentioned there is a fee. Did I understand correctly that the school district will have to pay this fee for the student like some sort of voucher? If I get a chance I'm going to look for more articles out there on this project. Thanks for mentioning it, Justin. Interesting, indeed.

To celebrate the importance of books and reading, Scholastic is launching You Are What You Read, a social networking site for readers around the world. Users log on to www.youarewhatyouread.com, list the five books that had the biggest impact on their lives, and connect with readers all over the world through these shared "Bookprints." The site also contains the Bookprints of more than 125 "Names You Know" - notable people from entertainment, academia, business, media, publishing, and more - including Scarlett Johansson, Al Roker, Sir James Dyson, Venus Williams, Jodi Picoult, Malcolm Gladwell, Judy Blume, and President George H.W. Bush... More links: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publishing-and-marketing/article/44983-scholastic-launches-social-networking-site.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scholastic-launches-social-networking-site-you-are-what-you-readcom-106024583.html http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/10/28/scholastic-launches-social-network-focused-on-reading http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/read-scholastic-launches-social-reading-website/story?id=12000023 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publishing-and-marketing/article/44983-scholastic-launches-social-networking-site.html http://www.bookpublishingreport.com/content/scholastic-continues-90th-birthday-bash-social-networking-venture http://www.galleysmith.com/2010/11/01/you-are-what-you-read/ http://www.tigertalesbooks.com/blog http://www.youthradio.org/news/scholastic-launches-facebook-for-readers