Part 1 of my Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012 series
Last year when I wrote about the top 10 trends in ed-tech, I saved “The Business of Ed-Tech” for the penultimate post. I’m starting my series there this time around. There’ll be plenty of opportunity throughout these year-end posts of mine to discuss the ways in which technology has shaped teaching and learning in 2012. But I want to recognize from the outset much of what we’ve seen this year is how technology will shape the business of education.
The (Story of the) Business of Ed-Tech
It's been a major story this year: broken educational institutions under seige by Silicon Valley.
Last year I noted the uptick in journalistic coverage of ed-tech (most notably with the launch of Edsurge), and the topic appeared in the media with increasing regularity in 2012. Much of this focused on the most notable ed-tech trends: iPads, Khan Academy, social media (the good and the bad), online learning, and MOOCs. The “age old” dilemma of whether kids still need to learn cursive. The usual.
Increasing interest in ed-tech was particularly evident in the trade press. The long-running publication Education Week launched a new blog, Marketplace K–12, for example, to focus on “business trends and emerging models in education.” Investor Tom Vander Ark also began blogging there with a regular column on “Innovation.” For its part, the ed-tech blog upstart Edsurge raised $400,000 in funding from the Washington Post Company and New Schools Venture Fund.