Knewton CEO Jose Ferriera has an interesting and revealing blog post up about “the coming adaptive world.” In part, it is a response to a report on adaptive learning by Education Growth Advisors. Jose writes, “Despite our constant protestations to the contrary, observers often confuse Knewton with the many adaptive learning app makers who are […]
edunomics
We’re from the Valley and We’re Here to Help
The other week I had the pleasure of attending the annual GSV Advisors Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale. For those who aren’t aware, the main purpose of the event is to help ed tech startups and investors find each other. After last year’s summit, I wrote a post called “What Are Ed Tech Entrepreneurs Good […]
The 2013 Ed Innovation Return on Education Awards
Well, it’s that time of year again. On April 15th, GSV Advisors‘ annual Education Innovation Conference will kick off. Reactions to the conference last year were a bit of a Rorschach Test, varying greatly depending on the person’s view of the role of venture capital in education in general (as well as whether they were […]
Data Envy
While we have occasionally written about college costs and budgets here at e-Literate, it mostly hasn’t been part of our brief as a site that focuses on technology-mediated education. That is changing, in large part because cost and budgets are increasingly becoming the drivers for change, in California and elsewhere. But I’ve been astonished at how […]
Interview with Mitch Kapor
I am delighted to share with you the rare treat of a conversation with famed entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist Mitch Kapor. Probably best known as the founder of the Lotus Corporation and designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the man is consistently so far ahead of the curve it is not funny. He told me that the […]
More Venture Capital for Higher Education: $10.75 million for rSmart
On August 16 rSmart Group Inc. announced securing funding from Asahi Net Inc., GSV Capital Corp., and private investors. GSV investment advisor Michael Moe expressed confidence in the firm saying “rSmart is helping universities realize lower total cost of ownership and higher quality products that are easy to use. Most importantly, rSmart’s customers are becoming […]
Blackboard’s New Platform Strategy
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the BbWorld conference and conduct a private interview with Chief Technology Officer and President of Academic Platforms Ray Henderson.1 What I learned is that the company is embarking on a fairly radical, high-risk/high-reward strategy of re-architecting both their platform and their business model. The implications […]