edTech

Gartner Hype Cycle
EdTech 

Gartner Hype Cycle 2021 with Mike Palmer and Virtual Cohost Nancy

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As we kick off our 6th season of Trending in Ed, host Mike Palmer is joined once again by Nancy, our virtual cohost to a get sense of where our heads are heading into the Back to School season that is upon us now in the Fall of 2021. Mike shares his perspective as the parent of a toddler who is just starting in Universal 3K in New York City before we dive into the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technology 2021 getting Nancy’s takes throughout.

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Joanna Smith
K12 Education 

Driving Student and Family Engagement with Chatbots

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Joanna Smith is the CEO and founder of AllHere, an edtech company improving attendance and student success with mobile messaging powered by AI. Before founding AllHere, she taught middle school mathematics and served as Director of Family Engagement at a charter school in Boston.

Joanna joins Mike Palmer to talk about the problem of low student attendance in K12 and how she and team are building AllHere to create a scalable way to begin to address it. What’s the best way to design an ecosystem that is available 24/7 and allows its teachers to focus on the highest-yield human activities? How has the pandemic impacted this problem? How did the team at AllHere listen to the community to respond quickly to needs around food insecurity? In what other ways might chatbots help improve educational experiences for students and families?

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Robot hand
EdTech 

EdTech and AI from the ASU GSV Summit with Mike Merrill

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Mike Merrill joins Mike Palmer to talk about his experience at the ASU GSV Summit in San Diego. While Mike Merrill attended in person, Mike Palmer attended online. We reflect on the different experiences and how it connects to issues of access and equity as we muse about the future of conferencing in these challenging times.

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Tony Wan
EdTech 

Perspectives on the EdTech Investment Landscape with Tony Wan

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Tony Wan joins Mike Palmer to share his origin story beginning as an educator and entrepreneur before shifting to educational journalism as the Cofounder and Managing Editor of EdSurge. Tony has recently moved to a new role as Head of Investor Content at EdTech Venture Capital and Private Equity Firm Reach Capital.

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Clever
EdTech 

Making K12 EdTech Frictionless and Safe with Dan Carroll

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Mike welcomes Dan Carroll, the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Clever, which helps K-12 school districts, educators, and students navigate some of the complexities of the digital world. They begin by discussing Dan’s early career teaching for Teach for America, and then his move into educational technology administration. Frustrated by the speed he could launch new initiatives, with some friends he founded Clever to help teachers and students gain access to edtech easily and scalably.

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EdTech 

Combining Fun, Movement, and Learning to Code with Bryanne Leeming the Founder of Unruly Studios

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Mike is joined by Bryanne Leeming, CEO of Unruly Studios, and creator of Unruly Spats. Bryanne begins by explaining the origins of Unruly Splats. Her early exposure to programming was key, as was the entrepreneurialism of her parents and her childhood involvement in sports. After graduating from college, she worked in product development. Seeing the interesting but often passive experiences offered by many Edtech products, Bryanne founded Unruly Studios.

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EdTech 

Making EdTech Fun and Engaging with Sean D’Arcy

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Sean D’Arcy, VP of Kahoot! at School and Home, joins Mike to talk about what’s new and emerging from the interactive, gamified EdTech platform. We begin by getting Sean’s backstory as a technology, product, and marketing executive as we learn how he landed at Kahoot. Then we shift to the challenges and opportunities he’s seeing in this tumultuous year. We conclude with a conversation about Kahoot!’s recent integration with Bitmoji as we brainstorm better words for edutainment.

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K12 Education 

Microschools and Learning Pods with Brian Tobal

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Brian Tobal is the CEO of SchoolHouse, an education company that provides a home to microschools led by outstanding educators. On this episode, Brian joins Mike to tell the story of the series of successful education ventures and initiatives that he’s embarked on through his career. We conclude by diving into what led to his joining SchoolHouse to lead them through these tumultuous times.

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EdTech 

The Power of ASSISTments to Augment Teaching with Dr. Neil Heffernan

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Dr, Neil Heffernan, the William Smith Dean Chair Professor at Worcestor Polytechnic Institute (WPI), joins Mike to talk about how his career interweaves great teaching, computer science, and “ASSISTments” – a set of digital tools designed to make homework assignment and evaluation more efficient. Neil tells us his origin story which includes meeting his wife Cristina while teaching and doing research in K12 Education right through their creation of the ASSISTments Foundation for which Neil serves as the Chair.

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