And more on Edtech Insiders+, upcoming events, Gauth, AI Reading Tutors, The Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute, and TeachAI Policy Resources
Between the new AI Revolution (AIR) Show and the usualsummit programming, this year’s ASU+GSV Summit in sunny San Diego was one for the books! We are still soaking in all the amazing conversations, panels, and presentations from our few short days together.
This year, we had three members of the Edtech Insiders team on the ground in San Diego, and we had the chance to contribute to the summit in our own ways! With that being said, here’s the Edtech Insiders Rundown of ASU+GSV 2024!
Key Summit Takeaways
LAUSD Dives in “Ed” First
Los Angeles Unified School District came out swinging during the summit to promote and launch Ed, a collaboration with edtech platform AllHere that provides a unified system of communication and learning for both students and parents by leveraging AI.
Edtech Insiders sat down with LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and AllHere CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin to get the lowdown on their ambitions for Ed. Look out for an in-depth review coming soon!
LAUSD’s Ed Mascot, flanked by AllHere CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, and the whole LAUSD crew.
Meta Pushes on VR in Classrooms
Nick Clegg, Global Head of Policy for Meta, announced that Meta is working on a major plan to put the Oculus Quest VR headset in classrooms. This entails a brand new set of education apps made by third-party VR and gaming companies, and brand-new teacher tools.
While new pricing, distribution mechanisms, and group discounts were not specifically announced (to our knowledge), history shows that getting VR devices into classrooms at scale has been one of the major barriers to entry. As Meta seems to be doubling down on its commitment to remove such barriers, we can likely expect some movement on the pricing front as well.
A screenshot of Jennifer Kingson's interview in the Metaverse with Nick Clegg and Matthew Sanders from Meta.
AIR Show Takes Off
One notable addition to this year’s summit was the first annual (we hope!) AIR Show which focused squarely on AI in the classroom. The AIR show was free for educators and attracted thousands in addition to the typical ASU+GSV audience. Given ASU+GSV’s steep price tag and exclusive status, it was great to see a more accessible experience available. Keynote speaker Bill Nye drew a standing-room only audience, and AI startups of all kinds (including many we’ve featured on Edtech Insiders) were there in full force.
Edtech Insiders also had the honor of hosting a session at the AIR show! We packed the house for Ben and Alex’s "AI in the Wild" session, talking through the Edtech Insiders database of 300+ AI in education tools and the many ways that AI is already being leveraged in the industry.
Ben and Alex whipping up the crowd around the “Cambrian Explosion of Gen AI in Edtech”.
Edtech Insiders on the AI Stage at the first annual AIR Show!
While the feel of the conference was light, it’s hard to ignore the ongoing macro market trends:
Venture investing is at 10% of the peak 2021 levels
K12 budgets are facing ~$65B revenue decline due to the ESSR funding cliff, declining enrollment, and increasing labor costs
Universities are facing existential enrollment declines, a donor exodus, and inflated costs
Corporate learning cuts due to economic belt-tightening are visible at most corporations
2. The Cambrian Explosion of AI in Edtech is Entering a Darwinian Moment
As much as we LOVE the founders of AI-enabled edtech tools, the AIR Show made it clear that the company to customer ratio is not equal. What seems to set some AI tools apart from the rest amidst a flurry of new releases includes:
The ability to acquire users at a rapid rate
The ability to keep users coming back on a daily basis
Product features that are designed for specific educational use cases, rather than features that happen to have educational applications
3. AI Tutoring Needs a Reset
Real-life tutoring is a guided learning experience where the tutor initiates a set of exercises targeted at a student learning gap. Entering a question into an AI chatbot and receiving an accurate answer is cool, but it isn’t tutoring.
AI tutoring will have to become more of guided experience in order to achieve meaningful outcomes and differentiate from open-ended chat interfaces.
4. Universities Are Vying for Top Spots at AI in Education Hubs
Over 100 major universities had senior leaders attending this year's summit… higher education interest in AI and edtech is surging.
1. AI Tools Are Everywhere, But Transformative Players Are Yet to Emerge
The AI in education market remains highly fragmented, and there still doesn’t seem to be one company or idea leading the momentum. Magicschool.ai probably had the most conference room buzz, but the conversation was still pretty polarized.
I see this as a major risk for the AI edtech sector. If no exciting tools are defining the space and pushing the narrative forward, a handful of negative experiences may let the education zeitgeist revert to older narratives on AI: plagiarism, privacy risks, hallucinations, parent fears, and the overall feeling that AI isn’t worth the risk.
2. Educator Voices Are on the Rise
This year, the educator perspective seemed much more prominent than usual, and this was coming from two directions:
A growing number of “teacherpreneurs” who have turned their hands-on education experience as educators, administrators, principals, and school leaders into entrepreneurial visions designed to address real classroom needs.
A new generation of teacher advocates building communities to amplify educator voices, especially in the AI space. One such community leader called the AI revolution a great equalizer: innovative educators can do amazing things with AI models or freemium tools directly without waiting for any district permissions.
3. AI Could Address Ongoing Edtech Efficacy Struggles
One of my favorite conference conversations focused on edtech efficacy measurement. That is, despite a long series of well-intentioned, well-structured and often well-funded initiatives, mostly from the public sector and non-profits (such as the What Works Clearinghouse, EdReports, the ESSA Tiers of Evidence, product certifications from ISTE, Leanlab and Digital Promise, gads of academic studies, third party evaluators like WestEd), there is still no one reliably ROI-positive strategy that edtech companies can use to test and prove the efficacy of their products, nor for buyers to use to make truly evidence-based decisions.
There are many options for how this might be done using AI, from the mundane (much more efficient crunching of existing public learning data), to the incremental (AI could generate engaging, dynamic pre-tests and post-tests to sandwich interventions and measure learning gains), to the outré (let’s create AI-simulated students, put them in front of different edtech tools, and compare the results). However this conversation simply isn’t happening… yet.
4. Everyone is Edtech Now
This year, in addition to investors, entrepreneurs, educators, school leaders, university admins, non-profits, publishers, and operators from countless edtech startups and incumbents, there were some serious big tech companies in attendance like Meta, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon, Tiktok, and Canva. Additionally, a horde of management consultancies, workforce organizations, mental health orgs, and filmmakers were in attendance.
Edtech continues to expand as an industry category and everyone is getting involved.
There is still a strong focus on creating new pathways for upskilling. These credentials are most effective when they lie at the intersection of growing volumes of jobs, high enough salaries that there is a willingness to pay for learning experiences, and a recognized industry test or certification to provide a clear ROI.
Guild, Coursera, and Udemy discussed how AI has facilitated matching skills taxonomies which has been a big sticking point in the past. The rise of AI also means that upskilling will be increasingly important as employers try to figure out how to best utilize employee time that has become free due to automation.
With 400+ attendees showing up to connect, share drinks, and enjoy the beautiful San Diego weather, all of you who attended made this evening so special! Thanks so much for joining us and celebrating this unforgettable summit together.
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Edtech Insiders Live Events
Bay Area Edtech Happy Hour
Our next Bay Area Edtech Happy Hour will be held at the Salesforce Park in San Francisco on May 9! Join Edtech Insiders, Reach Capital, and Tuck Advisorsto connect, collaborate, and enjoy a drink together!
We will release an Eventbrite to our Edtech Insiders+ members shortly, and then we’ll open it up to our entire community! Save the date and keep your eyes peeled to snag a free ticket!
Edtech Night with the Oakland B's
Join Gold Talent, Workshop Ventures, and Edtech Insiders for a special evening celebrating the inaugural season of the Oakland B's, co-founded by edtech legend Paul Freedman! Let's come together to show our appreciation for Paul's dedication to both our industry and the Oakland community!
On June 12 at 5:35 PM, the Oakland B's will take on the Rocky Mountain Vibes at the historic Raimondi Park in Oakland. This event is an opportunity for the local edtech community to gather, network, and enjoy an exciting baseball game.
The Edtech Ticket Package, priced at $100, includes:
Tickets to the game
On-the-field access to meet and greet the team
Food and drinks
Your choice of an Oakland B's hat or shirt
Space is limited, so please RSVP soon to secure your spot if you’d like to join us! Bringing kids and family along is highly encouraged!
You're invited to join UC Berkeley's new edtech community – BELinnovators! Nestled in the heart of Berkeley, they are a group of passionate educators, technologists, and lifelong learners, united by our shared vision of transforming education.
Join their Slack community, and sign up for their upcoming launch event “Design the Future of Learning and Education” on May 2 in Berkeley, CA!
Amidst political controversy in the US, China, and beyond, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has an AI homework helper app called “Gauth” that is now the second most popular edtech app in the US, only behind the most popular app Duolingo.
With a surge in GenAI tools that are built to support K12 students who are learning to read, what works and what doesn't when it comes to coaching children to read? A new article by Natalia Kucirkova, a professor of reading and children’s development that specializes in children’s digital tools, covers what we know about reading development tools based on research.
The University of Maryland is launching a new institute that is set to focus on research and education around ethical AI development. The Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute is developing bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees focused on AI, and planning to offer AI certificates and workforce development programs for people outside of the UMD student body.
TeachAI has now launched a new series of resources developed to help education and policy leaders realize the potential benefits of AI in education while mitigating the risks.
We have had some amazing guests on The Edtech Insiders Podcast in the last few weeks. One of our stand-out interviews from this past week is with Julia Dixon, the Founder and CEO of ESAI (pronounced [ES] + [AY] + [EYE]).
Here’s a deep dive on our interview with Julia, and we encourage you to give the full episode a listen for more!
During our time together, Julia discussed the creation of ESAI, a generative AI platform designed for college applicants. ESAI aims to democratize the college application process, making premium advisory services accessible to all students regardless of economic background.
"As a former college advisor, I saw a major inequality... so I created ESAI to help level the playing field, so students of all backgrounds and resources could have a fair shot at telling their unique stories." - Julia Dixon
Challenges in the College Admissions Landscape
During our conversation, Julia elaborated on the disparities in the college admissions process, where affluent families often have a distinct advantage due to access to better resources. The conversation steered towards how technology, particularly AI, can be a great equalizer in educational opportunities by providing personalized guidance at scale.
"It became clear that only the wealthiest families could afford resources for their students to stand out and get into the most competitive colleges and universities… Technology offers a unique opportunity to provide high-quality guidance universally, breaking down the traditional barriers that have defined educational success." - Julia Dixon
Future Goals for ESAI
Julia discussed the future objectives for ESAI, which include expanding its reach and enhancing its AI capabilities to better serve students not only in the US but around the globe. ESAI hopes to continue to explore how AI can be leveraged to further equity rather than inequity in education.
"Our mission with ESAI is not just about improving college admission rates but also about fostering a more inclusive and equitable educational environment." - Julia Dixon
Curious to Learn More?
You can listen to our full interview with Julia, as well as interviews with many other edtech founders, investors, and thought leaders at The Edtech Insiders Podcast! Check it out, and as always, we’d love to hear what you think!
Our latest reporting on funding, mergers, and acquisitions comes from Matt Tower’s publication EdTech Thoughts. Matt does an incredible job of covering the latest funding, news, industry updates, and more! If you love Edtech Insiders, be sure to subscribe to Matt’s newsletter as well.
Abre raises $24M / US, School Software Infrastructure / PeakSpan Capital, JumpStart Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, Golden Angels Investors
EarliTech Diagnostics raises $21.5M / US, Special Education / Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, Venture Investors (not a typo, they really named their fund this)
