3 ms·

I'm curious what proportion of edtech is geared towards teaching how to code. It seems that a lot of companies in the space (or at least the ones I hear about)

I'm curious what proportion of edtech is geared towards teaching how to code. It seems that a lot of companies in the space (or at least the ones I hear about) are geared towards this one topic, and only a notable few are tackling other areas of academia or infrastructure issues around education. On surface it makes sense - tech companies geared towards education are probably going to focus on technology as the subject. It's also relatively cheap to source material, employees have first-hand experience in the field, and there's high demand with straightforward business models available. I certainly noticed all these things when I launched Bento (http://bentobox.io/ http://bentobox.io/), and I still think about it today. I do try and maintain a healthy skepticism though: is the edtech being referenced in this article still largely in the narrow band of technology, or are we seeing it expand?

vdaniuk 12y ago
Everything will be in the "narrow" band of technology, give it time :)
gravity13 12y ago
I think you just have higher exposure to 'learn to code' - there are a tremendous number of other companies, see https://www.edsurge.com/products/ https://www.edsurge.com/products/ for a great index.
- jonhmchan 12y ago
  Excellent - yes, I was hoping I was simply getting a higher exposure to 'learn to code' companies.
akurilin 12y ago
The last batch of Imagine K12 saw at most one or two companies that were dealing with teaching code / CS, the rest were tackling areas such as MDM, teacher productivity, communication with parents, polling students and teaching individual subjects like Common Core Math. The variety is there (see: https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-01-14-imagine-k12-launches-13-startups https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-01-14-imagine-k12-launches-13...), it just doesn't make the headlines as much.
ameister14 12y ago
It seems that, even through examining the site you were linked to, most of the professional education oriented companies are geared towards technical skill-sets. There are webinar platforms for a bunch of the other things but those are, for the most part, one-offs. It's rare to find an effective staged learning system with excellent content. I haven't seen it much outside of academic platforms.
krrishd 12y ago
I think 'ed tech' != 'tech ed'. Educational technology pertains to the usage of technology to enhance all types of education, whereas technology education has the goal of teaching students how to code, etc.

vdaniuk 12y ago

Everything will be in the "narrow" band of technology, give it time :)

gravity13 12y ago

I think you just have higher exposure to 'learn to code' - there are a tremendous number of other companies, see https://www.edsurge.com/products/ https://www.edsurge.com/products/ for a great index.

jonhmchan 12y ago
Excellent - yes, I was hoping I was simply getting a higher exposure to 'learn to code' companies.

akurilin 12y ago

The last batch of Imagine K12 saw at most one or two companies that were dealing with teaching code / CS, the rest were tackling areas such as MDM, teacher productivity, communication with parents, polling students and teaching individual subjects like Common Core Math. The variety is there (see: https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-01-14-imagine-k12-launches-13-startups https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-01-14-imagine-k12-launches-13...), it just doesn't make the headlines as much.

ameister14 12y ago

It seems that, even through examining the site you were linked to, most of the professional education oriented companies are geared towards technical skill-sets. There are webinar platforms for a bunch of the other things but those are, for the most part, one-offs. It's rare to find an effective staged learning system with excellent content. I haven't seen it much outside of academic platforms.

krrishd 12y ago

I think 'ed tech' != 'tech ed'. Educational technology pertains to the usage of technology to enhance all types of education, whereas technology education has the goal of teaching students how to code, etc.