Send us a text With the holiday break just around the corner, join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell for a timely look at the latest developments in education technology. From exciting AI advancements to shifts in curriculum policy, this episode captures the key trends shaping the future of learning. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:16] 🧠 OpenAI's New AI Tool "Sora" Makes Waves in Video Generation [00:06:01] 🎥 The Era of Multimodal AI: Google, Meta, and Microsoft Compete on Video an...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Send us a text As CEO and Co-Founder of Learnosity , Gavin Cooney still talks about the company he helped build over a decade ago with an infectious zeal. It’s easy to see why: what began as a project in a garden shed (a cliché maybe, but 100% true!) has matured into an internationally renowned tech company with a 200-strong crew of problem-solvers. Since Gav believes that all social ills can be remedied through education, his modus operandi is pretty simple: give education the standard of techn...
Dec 16, 2024•27 min
Send us a text Trish Sparks leads Clever as CEO. Previously she was VP of Customer Success and Sales. Trish came to Clever with a wealth of executive leadership experience at companies such as LinkedIn, where she scaled a global customer success organization, and at DemandBase, where she was Chief Customer Officer. As a North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholar, she started her career as a middle school teacher in Wake County Public Schools. Trish holds BS degrees in Business and Education as well...
Dec 09, 2024•19 min
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell in this Thanksgiving edition of "Week in Edtech" as they explore the latest developments in education technology, from groundbreaking AI innovations to edtech controversies and funding milestones. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:16] 🧠 Edtech Insiders publishes AI tool market map with 300+ tools across 60 use cases [00:05:39] 🌐 Google AI Summit recap featuring LearnLM and Gemini’s memory feature [00:14:57] 🎥 OpenAI’s leaked Sora vide...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Send us a text Laura K. Ipsen is president and chief executive officer of Ellucian , the leading technology solutions provider for more than 2,900 higher education institutions in more than 50 countries. She has more than 25 years of experience as a technology executive in Silicon Valley, driving transformation in the public and private sectors and spurring adoption of comprehensive solutions in high-growth industries at Oracle Corporation, Microsoft and Cisco Systems. Earlier in her career, Ips...
Dec 02, 2024•48 min
Send us a text Matt Given is an experienced education technology leader and the CEO of Seesaw , a groundbreaking learning experience platform designed for PreK-5 students. With over 20 years of experience in education and edtech leadership, Matt has held executive roles at Kaplan, Catapult Learning, and EdisonLearning. Known for his expertise in universal design for learning and his ability to bridge the gap between home and classroom, Matt is a driving force behind Seesaw's mission to crea...
Nov 25, 2024•45 min
Send us a text Arman Jaffer is the founder and CEO of Brisk Teaching . Brisk is an AI tool that helps educators personalize their instruction and save hours of time on administrative tasks. Emily Bennett currently serves as a Principal investor at Owl Ventures . 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How Brisk Teaching’s AI tools streamline teacher workflows and enhance instructional efficiency. The vision for AI in edtech, focusing on student-centered, adaptive learning through tools like Br...
Nov 18, 2024•35 min
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell for a post-election edition of "Week in Edtech," featuring insights from Anna Edwards and Ben Wallerstein of Whiteboard Advisors . ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:02:16] 🇺🇸 New trends in education policy post-election [00:04:42] 🏛️ Why state policies will shape the future of K-12 education [00:08:10] 💸 The looming financial gap for districts as ESSER funds expire [00:10:57] 🏢 Republicans’ potential plans to restructure or abolish the...
Nov 13, 2024•2 hr 43 min
Send us a text Chuck Cohn is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Nerdy (parent company of Varsity Tutors ). Chuck founded the company in 2007 during his junior year of college after experiencing frustration finding the personalized help he needed for a calculus course. He spent his early career working in energy & power investment banking at Wells Fargo Securities (Wachovia) and healthcare private equity at Ascension Ventures, an $800M AUM private equity fund. Chuck bootstrapped Nerdy before ...
Nov 11, 2024•52 min
Send us a text Mark Miller is the founder and Managing Director of Good Harbor Partners (GHP) , a boutique M&A advisory firm specializing in the education technology and publishing sectors. With over 20 years of experience as an edtech entrepreneur and advisor, Miller has a proven track record in guiding Pre-K-12, Higher Education, and Workforce clients through strategic growth, fundraising, and successful exits. A co-founder of LearnLaunch and a dedicated member of Cornell’s Entrepreneurshi...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 8 min
Send us a text Libby Hills co-leads the Jacobs Foundation ’s global EdTech investment portfolio, focusing on the intersection of technology, research, and education. With over 15 years in education, including roles in teaching, tech leadership, and charity boards, she also co-hosts the Ed-Technical podcast. Libby holds degrees in Education and Social Business from Oxford and LSE. Owen Henkel is an AI in Education researcher at the University of Oxford, specializing in natural language processing...
Nov 04, 2024•34 min
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the political and technological currents reshaping education, from college ROI and student loans to AI’s expanding role in higher ed. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:04:28] 🗳️ Election’s Impact on Education Policy [00:12:11] 🎓 Debating the Value of College Amid Rising Costs [00:15:12] 📉 Freshman Enrollment Sees Largest Drop Since Pandemic [00:18:02] 🛠️ SchooLinks Raises $80M to Expand Career Pathways [00:27:01] 🤖 Half of Higher...
Oct 31, 2024•53 min
Send us a text Roosh X is an investment arm of Roosh Investment Group. Nathan Maynard is the CEO and Founder of HighFive , a company using mobile technology to foster connected school communities and reduce recidivism for negative classroom behaviors. With over 11 years of experience as a youth worker, teacher, and school administrator, Nathan co-authored the best-selling book "Hacking School Discipline," and is a global thought leader in reimagining discipline practices in education. ...
Oct 28, 2024•49 min
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the latest in education technology, AI developments, and key edtech funding moves. ✨ Episode Highlights : [00:02:53] 🗽 Recap of New York EdTech Week, highlighting key themes and vibrant energy from the event. [00:04:37] 📈 Discussion on the rise of micro companies, with lower barriers leading to a surge in niche startups. [00:12:36] 🤝Convergence between philanthropy and EdTech, focusing on how partnerships can drive sustaina...
Oct 24, 2024•45 min
Send us a text Brian Shaw is the CEO of Discovery Education , a global leader in educational technology that reaches over 45 million students and 4.5 million educators across 100+ countries. With a background in finance and corporate strategy from his roles at Red Ventures and Time Warner Cable, Brian has extensive experience in M&A and business integration. At Discovery Education, he drives innovation through acquisitions and partnerships, delivering impactful digital learning solutions. 💡...
Oct 21, 2024•28 min
Send us a text Auditi Chakravarty is CEO of AERDF (the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund) . AERDF applies Advanced Inclusive R&D to find potentially transformative teaching and learning solutions that can scale, centering on the assets, strengths, and needs of Black and Latino learners and all learners experiencing poverty. Auditi also chairs the Board of Bottom Line, a national college access and success organization, and is a venture partner with LearnLaunch Accelerator. A f...
Oct 14, 2024•57 min
Send us a text Stephen Jull was the COO/CFO and co-founder of GeoGebra GmbH (acquired by BYJU’S in 2021), and a limited partner at Emerge Education. With a PhD from Cambridge and over two decades of experience in EdTech, Stephen has led transformative projects in mathematics, STEM education, and AI-driven learning at a global scale. He is also the former interim CEO of Epic! and a dedicated advisor to high-growth EdTech startups. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How AI, human tutors, an...
Oct 09, 2024•27 min
Send us a text Katie Kurtz is Managing Director and Global Head of Youth and Learning at YouTube where she is responsible for developing the ecosystem to engage, inform, and educate kids, teens, and adults. Katie joined YouTube in 2019 after serving as Chief Product Officer at Noodle Partners, an online program manager designing and building fully online degree programs for universities. Previously she was Senior Vice President and National Sales Manager for Higher Education at Cengage Learning....
Oct 07, 2024•26 min
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the latest in education technology, AI developments, and key edtech funding moves. ✨ Episode Highlights : [00:05:12] 👩🏫 OpenAI raises $6.5B and launches OpenAI Academy [00:09:05] 📚 Google’s $120M AI Education Fund and NotebookLM tools [00:15:03] 🦜 Duolingo’s AI strategy and record stock prices [00:22:05] 📉 Udemy lays off hundreds and shifts to lower-cost regions [00:25:40] 💰 Prof Jim raises $1.5M to expand AI-generated ...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Send us a text Oliver Page is the Co-founder & CEO at CyberNut . Starting his journey as a teenage founder of NutKase Accessories, Oliver scaled the business to 60 countries before transitioning to cybersecurity. Now, with CyberNut, he focuses on providing schools with gamified, easy-to-use cybersecurity training. He is also an Angel Investor, and Startup Advisor. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why schools are increasingly targeted by cyberattacks. The real cost of ransomware atta...
Oct 02, 2024•55 min
Send us a text Tal Havivi is the Managing Director of R&D at ASCD + ISTE , focusing on initiatives to improve the health and effectiveness of the EdTech market. He leads research around high-quality EdTech design, programs focused on improving evaluation processes in school systems, and supports EdTech providers. Previously, he led Education Strategy at Amazon Business focused on improving education procurement. He also has experience working at edtech startups and in K-12 administration. 💡...
Sep 30, 2024•32 min
Send us a text Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the latest developments in education technology, from AI breakthroughs to new VC investments and edtech reports. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:16] 🧠 OpenAI’s New Reasoning Model - ChatGPT o1 (Strawberry) [00:07:20] 📚 AI's Role in Education - Practical Use Cases [00:14:03] 👩💻 Common Sense Media Report on AI Use Among Teens: 70% of teens are using generative AI, with disparities in how different demographics use the tec...
Sep 26, 2024•56 min
Send us a text Jennifer Holland is the Director of Program Management at Google for Education. With over 17 years at Google, she has been a pivotal figure in the development of Google for Education and Google Classroom. Jennifer has played a key role in shaping the tools that have transformed teaching and learning in K-12 and higher education. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode : The history and inspiration behind Google Classroom and its early adoption in schools. How Google Classroom hel...
Sep 25, 2024•25 min
Send us a text ThinkHumanTV delivers evidence-based emotional skills training and assessment by integrating with major streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+. The platform employs a research-based training methodology and curricula developed by our founding team of Columbia cognitive scientists. The methodology involves explicitly teaching emotion science principles in a systematic manner and illustrating these concepts by leveraging popular media. ThinkHumanTV is one of the winners of the 202...
Sep 23, 2024•24 min
Send us a text Jomayra Herrera is a Partner at Reach Capital, where she leads investments in companies like Guild Education and Handshake. She is passionate about diversity in venture capital, serving on the board of SomosVC to promote Latino representation. Lyman Missimer is the former Head of M&A and Partnerships at Newsela, where he led key acquisitions, including Formative. Now at Owl Ventures, Lyman focuses on corporate development and strategic investments in EdTech. 💡 5 Things You’ll...
Sep 16, 2024•26 min
Send us a text Join Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell, as they explore the most critical developments in the world of education technology this week! ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:03:25] 💰 OpenAI in Talks for $100B Valuation, 200M Weekly Active Users, Considers Higher-Priced Subscriptions [00:15:18] 🖼 Google launches Gems and Imagen 3 [00:18:53] 🐝 Anthropic CEO predicts hive-mind AI, partners with Amazon for Alexa revamp; Claude for Enterprise: 500K context window, GitHub integration, and enterprise-gr...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Send us a text Join Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell, as they explore the most critical developments in the world of education technology this week: 🎯 Rumors about OpenAI's "Project Strawberry" 📰 ChatGPT now includes Wired, Vogue, and The New Yorker 🤝 New AI fund by GitLab Foundation, Ballmer Group, and OpenAI 🔊 Google launches Gemini Live to rival ChatGPT 👨🏫 Sal Khan says teachers matter more than tech at EduTECH 2024 🤖 California partners with NVIDIA to enhance AI education ⚠...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Send us a text Dr. Paul J. LeBlanc is the Board Chair for Human Systems, a new AI and Education company he co-founded with noted researcher George Siemens. Until June 2024, he served as President of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) . He remains at SNHU as a researcher, writer, and advisor. Under the 20 years of Paul’s direction, SNHU has more grown from 2800 students to over 250,000 and is the largest non-profit provider of online higher education in the country, and the first to have a ...
Aug 26, 2024•48 min
Send us a text Join Alex Sarlin and guest host, Matt Tower, as they explore the most critical developments in the world of education technology this week: 🧠 OpenAI's ChatGPT 5 is Coming 🚪 High-Level Departures at OpenAI 🚫 AI Detection Technology Still Unreleased 🦙 Meta Launches LLAMA 3 and AI Studio 🤝 Google Hires Character.AI Co-founders 🎓 Community Colleges Band Together on AI Education 🔗 Instructure Canvas Integrates AI Across Platform 👩🏫 Heeyo's AI Chatbot Aims to Be Kids...
Aug 22, 2024•55 min
Send us a text Prashant Raizada is a serial entrepreneur deeply committed to changing the status quo in education, future of work & sustainability. He was part of the founding team of Infosys BPM, playing a key role towards a $2B exit. Later, he built EnglishUp as Brazil's 3rd largest but most loved online English learning platform as a flagship corporate venture of Macmillan-Holtzbrinck group. Leveraging his tenure at McKinsey & Co, Prashant has advised multinational corporations g...
Aug 19, 2024•52 min
