Welcome to Edtech Insiders!
Edtech Insiders is a newsletter about emerging trends, strategies and various happenings in the global Education Technology industry
What is this?
Education.technology.strategy (ed.tech.strat) is a newsletter for the global edtech community. It seeks to be a combination of business, strategy, learning science, and general Edtech gossip.
It will contain ideas about edtech trends, opinions on business strategy, interviews with edtech luminaries, and thoughts on learning science and how edtech can and should be more and more effective for actual- you know- education.
Who is this for?
If you’re an edtech business follower, idealist, founder, investor, journalist, or futurist, you’re in the right place.
If you work in the field as an educator at the K-12 or Higher Ed level, I sincerely hope you will find the ideas and interviews here interesting and edifying.
Note that Ed.tech.strat is not designed for those who are looking for particular edtech solutions, which it will not provide. And although the newsletter will primarily focus on the US market, there will be plenty of coverage of the exciting Edtech markets and movements around the world.
Who am I?
My name is Alex Sarlin and I’m a veteran Edtech product manager, speaker, writer and learning leader.
Although I do have a Master’s Degree in Instructional Design, my real qualification to write this newsletter is that I’ve had the great luck and pleasure to have worked at a wide variety of amazing Edtech companies and organizations over the last 13 years, including:
Skillshare
Coursera
2U
Trilogy Education Services
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Edsurge
Credly
Scholastic
Knewton
New York Times Learning Network
PBS Education
Facebook Education, ICouldBe & Openmind (as an adviser)
Current On Deck Fellow
You could think of me as the Forrest Gump of Edtech.
I don’t have a business degree, and I’m not an investor or incubator, but I’ve somehow managed to have a front row seat to many of the trends, promises and people involved in education technology:
Technical Bootcamps? Microcredentials? Blended Learning? Project-Based Learning? Been there.
Stackable Learning? Personalized Learning? Game-based Learning? Learning Engineering? Don’t get me started.
MOOCs? OPMs? CBCs? OER? LMSs? CMSs? LEPs? APIs? Just like many of you, I’ve been swimming in that alphabet soup for years.
Mind Reading Robo Tutors in the Sky! Don’t ask.
In my years in Silicon Valley, I got to meet legendary VCs like John Doerr, Reid Hoffman and Bing Gordon. I’ve been in the room while Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg talked about Facebook’s educational philosophy. I’ve worked closely with Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, and hosted Sal Khan, Al Gore, Kevin Carey, Ryan Craig, Bryan Alexander, and other luminaries as speakers at Coursera.
More importantly, I’ve designed learning programs to help educate parolees, museum-goers, kindergarteners, life-long learners, disabled learners, refugees, Instagram influencers, aspiring product managers, crypto entrepreneurs, creative writers, and learners of all ages in many subjects, all over the world.
I love the Edtech field, and it’s been amazing to see it grow up. Now I’d like to share some ideas with you all about how we can really get it to reach it’s full potential.
What can I do to get started?
Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.
In the meantime, tell your friends!