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How EdTech Companies Can Persevere Through Superintendent Turnover

When top management turns over in a school district, your company empire can topple, unless you are prepared to weather the possibly rough transition. School superintendents have one of the highest turnover rates of any position in the school district. In fact, the average length of time a superintendent stays in a place is five years. Transitioning from one district leader to another can be a costly experience for school communities, especially if the district has to buyout an ex-superintendent’s contract while bringing onboard the new superintendent. That can leave you in limbo when wondering whether your vendor contract will …

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6 EdTech Companies That are Disrupting Early Childhood Education

It’s never too early to think about the best way to help children learn. Children start learning from birth, and it is important to be able to keep their natural curiosity alive while encouraging new skills. Here are six edtech companies that have tried to harness the spirit of youth, and disrupt early childhood education for the better. Future League Coding may seem like a challenging concept best left to students in high school or college. Future League, however, thinks otherwise and instead offers coding, robotics, and engineering workshops for grades K to 8. Through the lessons, children learn important …

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5 Ways That Edtech is Democratizing Education

Technology permeates every aspect of our lives today. So it’s not surprising that these advances are now revolutionizing our educational system, too. The results are more far-reaching than anyone could have predicted. Here are some of the ways in which edtech is levelling the playing field, making quality educational experiences available to all. The best educators in the world are now available to everyone. Online platforms such as MIT OpenCourseware, Coursera and even YouTube grant access to some of the best instructors in the globe. A student living in an isolated rural area, or even in the far reaches of …

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What District Leaders Want from Companies at Conferences

If you are surrounded by your company banner, brochures, products and boxes full of swag, you are probably packing up for an education conference. Armed with the best of what you have to offer, your goal is to sell to district leaders – the administrators who make the decisions for their districts. What do district leaders want from companies at conferences? Let’s start with these four tips. Be ready with specific answers Knowing your product price and hidden costs give district leaders what they want from companies at conferences. While it’s critical that you send company representatives with educational experience …

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How to Pilot Your Edtech Product

Putting together a pilot program for your edtech product may seem like a daunting task, but it can be both manageable and enjoyable if the pilot study is well-planned and well-executed. Better than beta testing Edtech companies routinely beta test products as part of their product development process. The challenge with beta testing is that companies are often working with their MVP – minimum viable product, and the results can be one-sided. Product piloting, on the other hand, offers a give and take. The pilot site benefits from using the product, and you benefit from their feedback. Take these eight …

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What Happens When School Buses Get Wi-Fi?

Ask what students do on their bus ride to school every morning and you’ll get a variety of answers: texting friends, chatting with neighbors, listening to music and sometimes – completing unfinished homework. Depending on where a student lives in relation to school, their bus ride may be twenty to forty minutes long. And what’s accomplished during the morning or mid-afternoon rush? Chatting and texting and snacking and scribbling to complete worksheets. What if we treated school buses as an informal first period? What if our students’ school days started the minute they stepped on their bus and took a …

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For Edtech to Actually Work, it has to Embrace Neuroscience

In the growing world of educational technology, the question is often explored whether these applications work for students. The answer is, they can when they take into account how people learn. Products designed with the understanding of the cognitive mind will outperform their competitors. What do edtech developers actually need to consider to succeed? The Science of Learning Neuroscience is the study of how the human nervous system develops, its structure, and function. The subcategories of computational, cognitive, cultural, linguistic and developmental neuroscience focus on different pathways in learning. We can derive a greater understanding of how our minds develop, …

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6 EdTech Companies That Are Disrupting Higher Education

There was a time when community colleges, online universities and learning annexes were the only options for individuals looking to broaden their skill set without committing to a pricey four-year undergraduate or graduate program. Now that almost everyone is technologically literate, tech companies have found their place in the higher education market and are slowly but surely changing the way we approach self-improvement. Looking to better yourself after high school or in between jobs? There’s an app for that. 1. CodeAcademy: According to recent reports and corporate executives, coding is the single most important skill for job seekers in an …

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Why Neuroscience Should Drive Personalized Learning

While personalized learning is a growing market, we have long looked to how the mind works to inform education. The biggest problem with this practice has been the propagation of myths and misinformation. However, new research and focus on how the mind actually works can dispel the false ideas which hinder the progress of personalized education. What does this mean for individual learning? Teachers and parents can help students succeed through new technology and methods which are supported by science. Applying verified ideas to personalized education can help students advance, and teachers make a real impact. For these dreams to …

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What Does a “Future Ready” Educator Look Like?

As new technology emerges and most work is done online, it is more important than ever to teach students how to adapt in the ever-changing digital world they live. This is where “Future Ready” schools and “Future Ready” educators become essential. The Alliance for Excellent Education describes, “Future Ready is a free, bold new effort to maximize digital learning opportunities and help school districts move quickly toward preparing students for success in college, a career, and citizenship.” As school districts invest in developing Future Ready schools, educators must also make sure they are preparing to embrace digital learning to be …

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