Edtech 17

 

Another day at the office in the business of education

The business of education is big, varied, international and the toughest segment is probably K12. I have invested in several edtech startups as well as having founded and sold a couple of my own, so I have some experience with raising money and being pitched to.   Just because it’s education doesn’t mean it’s all […]

6 months ago Education More
 

DfE’s new EdTech Leadership group & how to prevent groundhog day

Recently I saw a tweet from Professor Peter Twinning about the DfE’s new EdTech Leadership Group (also known variously as the EdTech Expert Group). I have met several people on the list and had the pleasure of chatting briefly to Caroline Wright at BESA’s recent event to launch the DfE’s new EdTech Innovation Fund. Some […]

9 months ago Education, Uncategorized More
 

My thoughts about the DfE’s new £4.6m EdTech Innovation Fund

A few weeks ago I attended the BESA event to explain the new DfE Edtech strategy. So popular was the announcement, BESA had to find a new venue. Ironically the same venue as my first-ever meeting, almost 20 years ago, when I was working for what was then called the Department for Education and Skills […]

10 months ago 2 Education More
 

Recruitment & discrimination in edtech

I recently attended a ‘Recruitment and Retention’ event hosted by Sophie Bailey of the Edtech Podcast. Three speakers gave their take on the issues: Jamie Brooker, co-founder of Kahoot @jamiebrooker on how to build a successful edtech startup; Dr Kristen Weatherby from UCL/IOE’s educate programme @KWresearch on the challenges of recruiting teachers for edtech projects; […]

1 year ago Education More
 

Should edtech and other startups spend money on IP?

Trademarks and the protection of intellectual property should be vital to any business, particularly those in tech? Wrong! Over the years I have seen too many businesses blow too much of their scare management and financial resources trying to register various types of IP. A few have managed to get trademarks, but I can’t think […]

2 years ago Education More
 

Edtech Exits

Exits in edtech are complicated. and vary widely from intra-investor share sales (often before Series A), share swaps (generally a bad idea), trade sales, listing (high unlikely) and occasionally there might even be some cash (normally tied to impossible earnout targets). Characteristics It’s generally a very illiquid market Changing priorities for investors (portfolios, time horizons […]

3 years ago Education More
 

The stupidity of crowds

Would you let a crowd decide how to operate on your cancerous lesion/child’s appendix, etc? Never, yet I constantly hear references in the tech community to ‘the wisdom of crowds’. When I was a young jackaroo I spent too much time (in my view) herding and counting sheep. Sheep can seem rather stupid and unpredictable, […]

3 years ago Education More
 

Does edtech really work?

I hear and read constantly that edtech doesn’t work. I agree, but for different reasons. First, let’s set the scene. My knowledge is about edtech in the UK; specifically England. In this market the government has spent (rather than invested) billions of pounds, most of which has been completely wasted. My metric for failure is […]

3 years ago Education More
 

Academisation

Education is a political football – as whoever is in office tries to push through reforms based on their ideological perspectives, irrespective of what’s gone before or the impact on schools. In edtech this has led (in the UK and elsewhere) to waves of edtech ‘revolutions’ most of which have failed dismally and at great […]

4 years ago Education More
 

ed-invent closed

One of the most interesting projects that I have developed over the last few years was ed-invent. Initially a JV with Cambridge Assessment I decided to closed it down in late 2015. The idea behind ed-invent was to try and change the discourse about and role of educators in edtech. My fundamental frustration was that […]

4 years ago Education More