EdTech Funding by the Apollo Education Group
The EdTech Weekly brought to you by STEMconnector
Monday September 22, 2014
Start Ups
MasteryConnect Collects $15.2 Million So Teachers Can Teach To Students And Not To Tests (Tech Crunch)
MasteryConnect has raised $15.2 million to further market its software that it hopes will help enable educators to teach to their students, and not teach their students how to take tests. �We�ve created a platform that lets teachers identify a student�s level of understanding against any set of standards, in real-time,� says chief executive Cory Reid. �It�s a backlash against high stakes testing or standardized testing,� Reid continues. �Our DNA is belief in the teacher and the classroom.� The Salt Lake City-based company�s software was developed by a serial entrepreneur and a former teacher and principal to ensure that students in a classroom were all understanding the material they were being taught. The software prompts teachers to administer quick checks for understanding that can be distributed on a mobile device, as a quiz, or through a browser.

Tiggly, An iPad Learning Toy For Babies And Toddlers, Raises Series A (Tech Crunch)
Tiggly, an educational app designed for iPad�s youngest users � babies! (oh, and toddlers, too) � has raised a Series A round of funding led by Habermaass GmbH, a Germany-based early play and learning company, and owners of the toy brand HABA, which is now entering the U.S. edtech market. Though the startup won�t disclose the size of the round, it had previously raised $1 million in seed funding from May 2013 to January 2014, and the additional funding now brings its total raised to $5 million. So you can do the math. As a parent myself, I know from personal experience the draw that mobile apps have for ever-younger users. Though I worked to limit technology�s use when my daughter was small (no baby chairs with iPad holders were in my home!), I did let her �fingerpaint� on iPad before she turned one, and introduced a small selection of educationally focused toddler apps as she grew older.

Investments in edtech nearing record-levels (St. Louis Business Journal)
Investor interest in education tech companies has grown more than 200 percent between 2009 and 2013. That pace is expected to continue this year, as more than 175 deals have already taken place in the first half of 2014. That�s according to a new report out from CB Insights, a New York-based company that analyzes venture capital. The first quarter of this year, in particular, has seen a surge in funding, with 95 deals being completed worth $432 million in the United States. That would be the highest on record, according to CB Insights data. Most of those deals are coming from New York and California, but St. Louis � and Missouri � also have a fairly active edtech community with startups like CodeRed Education, CrazyForEducation and Varsity Tutors.



Integration
Sifting Through the 802.11 Alphabet Soup (EdTech Magazine)
IT history is defined by rapid advances in performance, value and capability that bring better, faster and cheaper technology, and Wi-Fi is no exception. The original 1997 IEEE 802.11 standard specified just 1 megabit per second to 2Mbps of throughput. Now we have wireless technologies capable of 7 gigabits per second, with even higher throughput on the way. Today�s 802.11ac products are rapidly replacing the 802.11n systems that deliver 300Mbps to 450Mbps � rates that only a few years ago seemed astounding. But effective throughput is about half that rate, and the swelling ranks of mobile users have stretched many 802.11n systems to the limit, making current 802.11ac solutions the way to go.

One District�s Quest to Transform Learning through Technology (Ed.gov)
What does it mean to be a �Future Ready� school district? More than 160 teachers, parents, students, and business and district leaders from across Tennessee recently gathered at the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools� Martin Center to discuss the answer to this question and talk about the upcoming Future Ready District Pledge. The Pledge establishes a framework for districts to achieve the goals laid out by the White House ConnectED Initiative. Some of these goals include: upgrading high-speed Internet connectivity, providing access to educational devices and digital content, and preparing teachers to use technology effectively to improve student learning and their own professional development.



The Future of EdTech
Digital Literacy Is the Key to the Future, But We Still Don�t Know What It Means (Wired)
The entrance to GitHub is the most Instagram-able lobby in tech. It�s a recreation of the Oval Office, and the mimicry is spot-on but for the rug. Instead of the arrow-clutching eagle that graces Obama�s office rug, it shows the code-sharing site�s Octocat mascot gazing into the digital future, just above the motto: �In Collaboration We Trust.� One recent morning, just past this presidential decor, representatives of the tech industry (Google, Palantir, Mozilla, Github) and academia (UC Berkeley and digital education nonprofit Project Lead the Way) sat on massive leather couches trying to figure out how to give more people the means to participate in that future. The theme in play was �digital literacy,� the idea that the world�s citizens, and kids in particular, will benefit if they�re skilled in the ways of information technology.

Embracing the Digital Learning Paradigm (Huffington Post)
With four children at different educational crossroads, I am fascinated by how wireless technology is transforming teaching and learning. From our preschooler who expertly navigates through early learning apps, to our middle school daughters who rely on their smart device to track assignments at home, and collaborate on group projects on Google Drive in class, today's students are astute, digital natives. Our nation's community of learners has enthusiastically embraced mobile technologies as an onramp to untold blended educational opportunities and enhanced learning environments. Mobile Future's new infographic - EdTech + Mobile = Learning - showcases just how essential mobile devices have become in education and the tremendous promise wireless technologies offer both students, parents, caregivers, and educators.

Education Technology: Could it Be Different This Time? (EdSurge)
During my thirty-five years as a Silicon Valley software entrepreneur, I�ve seen multiple technology revolutions occur, many of which have given rise to dozens of mega companies from Microsoft and Oracle to Google and Facebook. Education, however, has been a puzzle. There has been no mega-breakout companies in the education technology space. Neither has there been a transformation of education itself that has been as extensive and as far reaching as we have seen in the rest of our economy. I�ve devoted the past year to investing in, and participating as an advisor to, young startups in this space. And most recently, I've asked myself two fundamental questions: What is unique about the education industry that has in the past made it so resistant to the impact of technology? And is this state of affairs likely to persist--or is it going to be different this time?



Game-based Learning
A Lesson in Digital Learning from Minecraft (Huffington Post)
How might today's technology eco-system further meaningful, progressive education? This question was posed by Dr. Mimi Ito during her plenary, The Digital Revolution, at The Future of Learning Institute this past July at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As Dr. Ito pointed out, most learning technologies reinforce traditional models of instruction. They may seek to teach, but they do little to foster purposeful learning. Dr. Ito has spent over a decade examining the sources of change and innovation in the learning of youth outside of traditional schooling. She has found that while youth engage with media for an average of over seven hours per day, the quality of this engagement may vary greatly from student to student.



Industry
Udacity's Thrun drums up $35M more for online education (San Francisco Business Times)
Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun has $35 million in new funding as he focuses his online education efforts on technical training for big companies and their workers. His Mountain View startup said in a blog that the latest cash infusion was led by Ohio-based Drive Capital, which was founded by former Sequoia Capital partner Mark Kvamme. Also new to the company as international investors are German media giant Bertelsmann, Japanese human resources company Recruit and Valor Capital in Brazil. They are joined by Cox Enterprises and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $55 million.

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100 Diverse Corporate Leaders in STEM - Byron Jones of Apollo Education Group
The 100 Diverse Corporate Leaders in STEM Blog Series features a new business executive Monday-Friday and the exemplary work his or her company is doing to support 21st Century STEM learning and workforce development- particularly for women, minorities and under-represented groups. Learn more and download the whole copy at STEMConnector.org/100Diverse. Follow the conversation on Social Media using #100STEMLeaders. Today's Diverse Corporate Leader is Byron Jones, Chief Financial Officer of the University of Phoenix, an education brand of Apollo Education Group. Byron Jones was appointed Chief Financial Officer of University of Phoenix in 2013, after joining Apollo Education Group in 2012. Byron leads the finance functions for the University, working closely with Apollo Education Group leaders to provide clear oversight of its financial operations, an area that is essential to the University�s success. Byron has more than 20 years of experience in corporate and divisional finance in industries spanning from airlines to technology. He was the Chief Financial Officer at Coda Automotive, as well as Vice President of Corporate Finance at HD Supply, Inc. former wholesale distribution arm, Home Depot, a department he built from the ground up. Byron has held finance leadership roles at Delta Airlines, Cendant Corporation and Ryder Corporation. He earned his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and his bachelor�s degree in accounting from Tuskegee University.



Pearson Partners With NBC Learn to Provide Video Resources to Classrooms
Pearson, the world�s leading learning company, today announced a partnership with NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBCUniversal News Group, that will provide students and teachers exclusive access to more than 17,000 premium education videos. NBC Learn�s vast video library, including original content developed exclusively for the partnership, is now available through Pearson�s Realize, a next generation learning management system, and its Online Learning Exchange (OLE) platform, a searchable K-12 digital library of standards-based learning resources. One of the largest news archives in the world, dating back to the 1920s, NBC Learn�s collections are updated with current events daily, featuring stories from such celebrated programs as �NBC Nightly News,� �TODAY,� �Meet the Press� and �Dateline NBC.� NBC Learn is staffed by veteran NBC News producers, who have created scores of original stories and Town Hall events around the country, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and others. The award-winning collections include Chemistry Now, Changing Planet, Science of NFL Football, Science of the Winter Olympic Games and Finishing the Dream.