And indeed, according to my calculations too, the amount of money invested in education technology companies is up from this time last year and up from this time in 2015 as well. So far this year, there have been 95 investments in ed-tech companies, totaling $1.8 And yes, I do include student loan companies here. Here’s a comparison of what funding looked like in Julys of previous years: What Kind of Companies Are Raising Money? MORE

In addition, investment company Weld North Holdings acquired Performance Matters , a student assessment and data-analytics company that it will merge with K-12 ed-tech business Truenorthlogic, which provides data on teachers’ performance and tracks their professional development. Disclosed angel investors include executives from Apple, Dropbox, Blackboard, and Udemy, according to various news reports. MORE

The Ontario Curriculum (by the Ontario Ministry of Education): Maybe the best example of how to weave media literacy fundamentally into primary and secondary school curricula. Udemy : This video-based learning site has high-quality courses for just about anything students will need to know. Lesson plans and activities Advertisements and You (by Teaching Tolerance): This K-2 lesson helps kids understand what an advertisement is, and recognize that companies target kids for revenue. MORE

The key difference in the past few years, however, has been larger funding rounds and valuations across a fewer number of EdTech companies. For those EdTech companies that cannot access funds, or simply do not wish to raise large sums of venture capital money, their ability to maintain a first-mover advantage, or reach cash-flow positive without capital constraint, could be jeopardized by the presence of well-funded rivals. By Jon Thomas and Spencer Wu. MORE

Bust or not, companies across the tech sector, particularly those with high “burn rates” , faced tough choices in 2016: “cut costs drastically to become self-sustaining, or seek additional capital on ever-more-onerous terms,” as The WSJ put it – that is, if they were able to raise additional capital at all. The CEO of Safari Books left the company “ amidst massive layoffs.” These companies almost all share the same investors too. MORE

Our primary and secondary education systems formed around teachers imparting knowledge. Unicorns such as Coursera, Udemy, Varsity Tutors and VIPKid led the way with innovative solutions. We will see the acceleration of $1 billion companies created from about 20 unicorn transactions from 2015 to 2019 to more than 50 in the next five years, which will continue to increase as this next decade unfolds. Distance reduction allow companies to compete worldwide. MORE

I went on to develop the ICanLearnProgram as a company that encompassed the idea of developing children in their style of learning, motivating them to learn and inspiring them to be world leaders. I would love to partner with a company like Kano or Microsoft to develop learning in remote areas with apps that enhance learning and development. When children have learning difficulties that aren’t being addressed in the classroom or at home, they often have nowhere to turn. MORE

Additionally, two coding education companies raised money. The total amount raised will be used to extend and introduce new core functionality to the Schoold app in advance of the fall college application season, the company said in a statement. ” Earlier this year, the company closed a seed round of approximately $4.5 Naspers most recently invested $60 million in Udemy , a San Francisco-based provider of online courses. MORE

The bill will be a massive revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Ethics and Legalities The New York Times continues its investigation of education giant Pearson and ethics concerns surrounding lavish trips that the company''s foundation has sponsored for state education officials. Valve , the company behind the video game hit Portal, is working on an educational game. MORE