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Government
Obama to Host Ed-Tech Summit for Superintendents (Education Week)
Hoping to call attention to district leaders' role in promoting the use of educational technology and build upon his ConnectED initiative to improve schools' broadband infrastructure, President Barack Obama will host a White House summit of superintendents and other educators on Wednesday, according to administration officials. The goals are to encourage the sharing of ideas and best practices when it comes to the digital transformation of schools, highlight the work of exemplary superintendents, and get system leaders to sign on to the department's "Future Ready District Pledge." During the summit, President Obama is also expected to host a digital ceremony in which more than 100 superintendents sign the pledge.
Industry
Google Is Driving A Bus Across Bangladesh To Help 500,000 Students Learn About The Internet (Tech Crunch)
Google is literally hitting the road to promote the potential of the internet in Bangladesh. The company today launched �Google Bus Bangladesh�, an educational program aimed at teaching key digital skills to more than half a million students in the South Asian country. There are some outlandish programs to help connect the world�s population � including Google�s balloons, SpaceX�s forthcoming satellites, and Facebook�s drones � but Google is going back to basics with this roadshow across the world�s eighth most populated country. It plans to visit some 500 educational campuses across 35 locations over the next 12 months, bringing with it instructors who can teach students about important tools to help them make the most of the internet.
Ed-Tech Vendors Often in Dark on District Needs, Study Shows (Education Week)
Educational technology companies trying to do business with schools often have only a vague sense of district officials� specific buying needs, according to a new study that delves into vendors� and K-12 leaders� frustrations with the procurement process. The study, based on surveys and interviews of district leaders and ed-tech company officials, finds that many business officials regard the district buying process as cumbersome and confusing. Districts administrators, for their part, say they�re often overwhelmed by the vast number of ed-tech products peddled to them, which they lack the time and resources to evaluate thoroughly, the study says.
Users, Data And Research: What We Can All Learn from the DILA Organization Winners (edSurge)
The education technology marketplace is a complex one, and many entrepreneurs and developers are asking themselves what practices and design principles will make for a quality product that users love and has real impact. EdSurge and Digital Promise designed the Digital Innovation in Learning Awards precisely to suss out excellent examples of five core principles of successful education technology organizations. Entrepreneurs and developers, consider these suggestions from some of the best products and programs out there...
Start Ups
Course Hero raises $15M for crowd-sourced study help (San Jose Business Journals)
Course Hero raised $15 million to help it tap into the wisdom of the crowds, or at least the megabytes of class notes being taken daily by high school and college students. The Redwood City company, founded by Andrew Grauer in 2006, said that the Series A funding was led by GSV Capital and IDG Capital. Seed investors SV Angel and Maveron also participated. The company said it has more than 5 million users, with about 80 percent of them in college. It claims to have amassed more than 7 million class notes, study guides and practice tests from 8,900 schools in 60 countries. Course Hero also offers tutoring and Q and A services, added when it bought Cardinal Scholars in 2012.
In The Classroom
A Third Grader�s Plea For More Game-Based Learning (Mind Shift)
Third grader Cordell Steiner makes a pretty convincing argument for using video games in the classroom in this TEDx talk. He describes feeling more motivated to learn and master new skills because of his eagerness to beat his own high score or finish before the clock runs out. He says he used to be bored in class when his teachers had to slow down to explain concepts, but now each student plays games intended to help him or her with specific skills they�re trying to master. He even gives examples! Check out his call to teachers, administrators, parents and students to think differently about education.
School Districts Are Really Bad At Buying Technology (BuzzFeed)
School districts that spend billions of dollars every year on the latest educational technology are using antiquated buying processes that shut out teachers and leave tech companies frustrated, according to a new report by the national nonprofit Digital Promise and the Johns Hopkins School of Education. The education technology industry is booming, buoyed by nationwide pushes such as �one-to-one� initiatives, which aim to give one device, such as an iPod or Chromebook, to every student. Venture funds pumped $452 million into ed-tech startups in 2013, according to data from the New Schools Venture Fund. Last year, school districts spent almost $10 billion on education technology.
Florida
Florida education leaders explore technology in schools (TampaBay.com)
Technology is here to stay. The question, state Sen. John Legg says, is how to make it work best for students and teachers in Florida's classrooms. Hoping to amp up the conversation, Legg brought together close to 300 education and technology leaders on Thursday for a half-day symposium all about the issue. "Unfortunately, when many students enter school, they have to power down," Legg said. "They actually have to step back in time." Schools need to keep up, he said, and not just by buying gadgets. They must focus on how to integrate the tools with the lessons. "We're aiming for the students," he said. "We're aiming to make education better." Over the course of five panel discussions, some key elements to achieve this goal came through.
Higher Education
At Liberal-Arts Colleges, Debate About Online Courses Is Really About Outsourcing (Chronicle)
Lifetime residents of Maine tend to look askance at people who are �from away,� an epithet reserved for transplants, summer vacationers, and college students. Such people might mean well, the thinking goes, but ultimately they do not belong. Bowdoin College, a 220-year-old institution in Brunswick, Me., takes a similarly protective view of its curriculum. At a time when online education has blurred campus borders�and institutions face growing pressure to train students for specific jobs�Bowdoin and many other liberal-arts colleges have held the line. When I matriculated there, a decade ago, Bowdoin didn�t even have online course registration. (The college finally added it last year.)
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Echo360 Raises $18 Million to Accelerate Growth of SaaS Active Learning Platform
 Echo360, the global leader in digital technologies that improve learning, today announced it has closed a Series C growth equity round co-led by Duchossois Capital Management and a private family office. The financing will be used to accelerate deployment of the newly launched Echo360 Active Learning Platform, a SaaS learning and analytics solution for higher education. �We believe Echo360 is poised to make a significant impact by improving education with learner analytics generated by the Active Learning Platform,� said Rohit Seth of Duchossois Capital Management. �Echo360 has the scale and product to make a difference, with 625 universities and colleges as customers, and over two million students using their digital learning platform.� Higher education�s economic and delivery model is undergoing drastic change built around the core tenets of disruption: online media, mobile access, SaaS software, cloud storage, big data analytics, and social networks. These trends have driven the reinvention of the classroom led by the products from Echo360 including multimedia lecture capture, flipped classes, blended and distance learning. Realizing that critical needs are not being met, especially as all students are now digital-centric, investment in educational technology is estimated to increase dramatically from its $13 billion last year.
New WestEd Study Shows Education Technology�s Impact on California Students
 Just one year of education technology in classrooms can move a school that was performing at the 50th percentile in the state up to the 66th percentile in the state according to a study released today by the independent education research firm WestEd and the nonprofit MIND Research Institute. WestEd measured the impact of MIND�s ST Math� program in 209 second through fifth grades � including more than 19,980 students at 129 California schools across California � that fully implemented the program in a blended learning environment. The report used several models to measure ST Math�s impact. Those grades using ST Math for one year exhibited 6.3 percent more students scoring proficient or better on the CST, compared to those at similar schools without the program. Getting students to score proficient on the state test meets the No Child Left Behind requirements. Remarkably, the study found that almost all of the improvement was reflected in increases in students scoring advanced, not merely proficient, on the tests. Students in those classes using ST Math exhibited advanced CST math scores at a rate that was, on average, 5.6 percentage points higher than others.
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