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A Technologist Spent Years Building an AI Chatbot Tutor. He Decided It Can’t Be Done.

Edsurge

Instead, he co-founded a new AI company, called Merlyn Mind, that is building other types of AI-powered tools for educators. Meanwhile, plenty of companies and education leaders these days are hard at work chasing that dream of building AI tutors. The assets of Knewton were quietly sold off a few years later.) They’re tools.

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Who is the Theranos of Education?

Edsurge

Over the last few months, biotech company Theranos has re-entered the conversation due to a slew of newsworthy happenings—the Elizabeth Holmes trial finally came to an end with four of 11 charges of fraud, and Hulu announced The Dropout’s debut while Apple Original Films’s Bad Blood is currently in production. Money came flowing. No kidding.”

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US Edtech Funding Already Nears $1 Billion in First Half of 2019

Edsurge

For the first half of 2019, the industry saw $962 million raised across 65 deals, the highest amount of funding at the halfway mark since at least 2015. By comparison, in the first six months of 2018, companies raised $750 million across 62 deals. Some companies count their accelerator funding into their subsequent seed rounds.

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Digital Courseware Provider Top Hat Gets $130M and a New CEO

Edsurge

Another balding founder of a tech company is passing the baton off to a successor. No, this is not the same shellshock as Jeff Bezos’ resignation letter, nor is the company anywhere as big as Amazon. His successor will be Joe Rohrlich, who previously served as chief revenue officer for Bazaarvoice, an e-commerce analytics company.

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Pearson Signals Major Shift From Print by Making All Textbook Updates ‘Digital First’

Edsurge

The biggest education company in the world is moving away from a production model that has been one of the main drivers in the rising cost of textbooks. The average price for a Pearson digital textbook subscription for a semester is $40, according to the company. But the company is not cutting the cord with print. “We

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Global Ed-Tech Funding, Propelled by Big Deals, Reaches New Record

Marketplace K-12

Overall, funding for global deals in the digital space jumped by 58 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to research from CB Insights , a New York-based market research company. Another China-based company, 17zuoye , raised $100 million. The company’s name loosely translates into “homework together.”.

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With Eyes on Asia, Kidaptive Raises $19.1M to Grow Its ‘Invisible’ Adaptive Learning Platform

Edsurge

based company now touts itself as a provider of adaptive-learning technologies for educational content providers. The company has refocused its business and research around what it calls its “Adaptive Learning Platform.” But as those partners pulled out , the company has since pivoted to competing with them.