Did you know this? I had no clue until I went to the Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale last month. Watch the interview I participated in to hear my take on the future of EdTech and what it means for the education industry.
Here’s a partial script from the vlog interview:
Anjilla Young: Hello, I’m with Suzanne Klein who recently returned from the Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona. She’s going to share what she learned from the conference and how the EdTech industry is booming. Suzanne, what was one thing that stands out that you learned from the conference?
Suzanne Klein: That education is a 7 trillion dollar industry. I knew it was huge, but not that huge! There is so much potential to tap into this. EdTech companies are in a great position right now to not only make a difference in education, but to also get their products on the market and help in a meaningful way.
One thing I find surprising is the fact that people who are not in the education sphere are getting involved in the EdTech landscape. For example, Ashton Kutcher has taken an interest in the funding of EdTech space. He teamed up with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and others to invest $4 million to Panorama Education, a Cambridge firm that seeks to help K-12 schools improve through data analysis. He has also invested in an EdTech company called Clever, which aims to solve the problem of moving student data into any of the applications bubbling out of the high-tech community and how to ensure that the data is accurate and current.
Anjilla Young: You mentioned that education is a 7 trillion dollar industry, but what exactly does that mean?
Suzanne Klein: To put it on a scale, it means it’s 7 times larger than the global mobile industry. That is huge! One thing that we need to be aware of is the change in the industry and how going digital is key for companies in the education field. The future of education is shifting towards digital. Any company that doesn’t follow this will be left in the dark.
It’s a chance to really reflect on our practices and how we are best meeting the needs of schools and ultimately to affect schools in a positive way. To our viewers out there, to learn more about what we’re doing go to our website at WriteStepsWriting.com. Thanks for listening and watching!
