Learning Apps Have Boomed in the Pandemic. Now Comes the Real Test. (nytimes.com) 9
Startups hope there's no turning back for online learning, even as more students return to the classroom. From a report: After a tough year of toggling between remote and in-person schooling, many students, teachers and their families feel burned out from pandemic learning. But companies that market digital learning tools to schools are enjoying a coronavirus windfall. Venture and equity financing for education technology start-ups has more than doubled, surging to $12.58 billion worldwide last year from $4.81 billion in 2019, according to a report from CB Insights, a firm that tracks start-ups and venture capital. During the same period, the number of laptops and tablets shipped to primary and secondary schools in the United States nearly doubled to 26.7 million, from 14 million, according to data from Futuresource Consulting, a market research company in Britain. "We've seen a real explosion in demand," said Michael Boreham, a senior market analyst at Futuresource. "It's been a massive, massive sea change out of necessity."
But as more districts reopen for in-person instruction, the billions of dollars that schools and venture capitalists have sunk into education technology are about to get tested. Some remote learning services, like videoconferencing, may see their student audiences plummet. "There's definitely going to be a shakeout over the next year," said Matthew Gross, the chief executive of Newsela, a popular reading lesson app for schools. "I've been calling it 'The Great Ed Tech Crunch.'" Yet even if the ed-tech market contracts, industry executives say there is no turning back. The pandemic has accelerated the spread of laptops and learning apps in schools, they say, normalizing digital education tools for millions of teachers, students and their families. "This has sped the adoption of technology in education by easily five to 10 years," said Michael Chasen, a veteran ed-tech entrepreneur who in 1997 co-founded Blackboard, now one of the largest learning management systems for schools and colleges. "You can't train hundreds of thousands of teachers and millions of students in online education and not expect there to be profound effects."
But as more districts reopen for in-person instruction, the billions of dollars that schools and venture capitalists have sunk into education technology are about to get tested. Some remote learning services, like videoconferencing, may see their student audiences plummet. "There's definitely going to be a shakeout over the next year," said Matthew Gross, the chief executive of Newsela, a popular reading lesson app for schools. "I've been calling it 'The Great Ed Tech Crunch.'" Yet even if the ed-tech market contracts, industry executives say there is no turning back. The pandemic has accelerated the spread of laptops and learning apps in schools, they say, normalizing digital education tools for millions of teachers, students and their families. "This has sped the adoption of technology in education by easily five to 10 years," said Michael Chasen, a veteran ed-tech entrepreneur who in 1997 co-founded Blackboard, now one of the largest learning management systems for schools and colleges. "You can't train hundreds of thousands of teachers and millions of students in online education and not expect there to be profound effects."
None of it does any good (Score:4, Insightful)
Spending all of that money on better nutrition or ensuring students have a good home life would likely do far more to improve academic performance than whatever piece of shit is going to get foisted upon the school system and bought up by the fools who control the purchasing.
None of it does any good-parents. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parental involvement has been one of the biggest of indicators of academic success regardless of what tools are used.
Re:None of it does any good-parents. (Score:4, Interesting)
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There's a giant industry devoted to supplying the education market with new materials, techniques, and other gadgets to improve student learning. Almost none of it is actually properly validated and what little empirical evidence does exist shows that none of it does a damn thing. There is no silver bullet that will magically enhance student cognition.
Spending all of that money on better nutrition or ensuring students have a good home life would likely do far more to improve academic performance than whatever piece of shit is going to get foisted upon the school system and bought up by the fools who control the purchasing.
As someone that has served on a school board, I completely agree, parental involvement and a stable home life is key to allow kids to learn. We can keep throwing money at virtual, in-school, whatever, but kids who's parents are not providing food, are incarcerated, are doing drugs in the home, are doomed. There are exceptions, but with our current culture, it can be tough for kids to break out of whatever stereotype they are in.
I would also say that curriculum adopted by our school district went through a r
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Sounds like you are focusing on K-12 education, which is good because that is certainly needed and in need of serious help.
But you are leaving out higher ed. Sure, we've been teaching online since 1998 and in January 2020 70% of all of the courses at the college I work for were using the online delivery system (Canvas) to some degree - from announcements and hand outs to full blown online classes.
But while we have Office365 (and therefore Teams) just our college has paid just over $100k for Zoom use, and w
No turning back? (Score:2)
You can't train hundreds of thousands of teachers and millions of students in online education and not expect there to be profound effects
Well, many students hated it, and want to go back to the previous situation.