Ed Tech News

The Latest in Education Technology News

Stories of the Week | July 27, 2023

More money, more problems for national broadband expansion

8/15/23 by Anthony Hennen, The Center Square

A federal broadband expansion program triggers similar complaints across the country: red tape and labor shortages make the process daunting, even by bureaucratic standards, and many worry about the logistics of such a massive undertaking.

At a summit hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures on Monday, officials emphasized the artificial barriers set up by the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, or BEAD, which provides $42.5 billion in federal cash to states.”

ISPs complain that listing every fee is too hard, urge FCC to scrap new rule

8/15/23 by Jon Brodkin, ARS Technica

The US broadband industry is united in opposition to a requirement that Internet service providers list all of their monthly fees. Five lobby groups representing cable companies, fiber and DSL providers, and mobile operators have repeatedly urged the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate the requirement before new broadband labeling rules take effect.

The trade associations petitioned the FCC in January to change the rules and renewed their call last week in a filing and in a meeting with FCC officials. 

Broadband Council says delay in pole attachment biggest hinderance to broadband expansion

8/13/23 by Jeff Jenkins, WV Metro News

Generative AI has generated more words than any recent technology product. More people have discovered its garrulity with words than any product in history. It has also led tech majors like Google to embed AI in new products.

One of the most affected sectors by AI is education because, either way you look, it is a content-based industry. The content could be assessment tests, learning content, or content that the education sector expects its customers (students) to create. Every organization in the education space is dealing with a large quantity of content.

AI increasingly used by students to do their school work and many teachers can't tell

8/16/23 by Becky Johnson, Sky News

The release of ChatGPT last fall thrust generative artificial intelligence into the spotlight, throwing its development and use into overdrive. In the K–12 ecosystem, excitement is building.

“We’re seeing a lot of engagement and enthusiasm,” says Jeremy Roschelle, executive director of Digital Promise, a nonprofit that works to advance equitable education systems. “Educators are responding to AI differently than to other ed tech developments they’ve seen. They’re saying, ‘This is a tool for me, as a teacher, to make my life better_._’ This is something they want to work with as a professional tool.”

Edtech Is No Longer A Funding Fave

8/9/23 by Joanna Glaser, Crunch Base

For venture investors, the big lesson of 2023 is that valuations set in an upbeat funding environment can quickly come down. They’re applying that learning to the edtech space, where funding has plunged and mega-sized rounds are no longer getting done.

So far this year, not a single education technology company has raised a venture round of $100 million or more, per Crunchbase data. In 2021 and 2022, there were more than 60 such financings globally. Overall funding to the education sector has also plummeted this year, down nearly two-thirds from the same period in 2022.

Stories of the Week | July 27, 2023

FCC wants 100Mbps US broadband download speeds as a minimum

7/27/23 by Paul Lipscombe, Data Center Dynamics

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has outlined ambitions to increase the minimum download and upload speeds for broadband services in the country.

Rosenworcel said that there’s no reason why everyone in the US shouldn’t be connected with high-speed Internet services.

“In today’s world, everyone needs access to affordable, high-speed Internet, no exceptions,” said Rosenworcel. “It’s time to connect everyone, everywhere. Anything short of 100 percent is just not good enough.”

Are Universities equipping students with the tools for success?

7/31/23 by Matthew Lynch, The Tech Advocate

Higher education has been tasked with taking a two-pronged approach to providing students with the tools they need for future success. Universities must prepare students for employment today while also preparing them for an unknown future.

How successful have they been?

Success in the real world is determined by whether or not you are prepared for employment after completing your education. You anticipate having acquired a specific set of skills that will make you marketable as well as indispensable in today’s business world.

The Edtech Sector Needs an Urgent AI Re-education

7/17/23 by Yatish Rajawat, CDO Trends

Generative AI has generated more words than any recent technology product. More people have discovered its garrulity with words than any product in history. It has also led tech majors like Google to embed AI in new products.

One of the most affected sectors by AI is education because, either way you look, it is a content-based industry. The content could be assessment tests, learning content, or content that the education sector expects its customers (students) to create. Every organization in the education space is dealing with a large quantity of content.

AI in Education: New Guidance from the Department of Education

7/21/23 by Adam Stone, EdTech Magazine

The release of ChatGPT last fall thrust generative artificial intelligence into the spotlight, throwing its development and use into overdrive. In the K–12 ecosystem, excitement is building.

“We’re seeing a lot of engagement and enthusiasm,” says Jeremy Roschelle, executive director of Digital Promise, a nonprofit that works to advance equitable education systems. “Educators are responding to AI differently than to other ed tech developments they’ve seen. They’re saying, ‘This is a tool for me, as a teacher, to make my life better_._’ This is something they want to work with as a professional tool.”

Good-Paying Careers in Data Are Booming. But Schools Aren’t Teaching It

7/31/23 by Sarah D. Sparks, Ed Week

Salt Lake City has become one of the fastest-growing technology hubs in the country. The region’s low cost of living and cheap real estate has drawn heavy-hitters like Microsoft and Facebook, and that success has helped Utah acquire one of the highest rates of billion-dollar startups of any state.

But business leaders say the schools in this area, which has come to be known as “Silicon Slopes,” need to build a stronger foundation in data and statistics skills for their future workers if that growth is to be long lived. Elizabeth Converse, the executive director of Utah Tech Leads, an industry group in Salt Lake City, said she sees national declines in K-12 math performance, particularly in data and statistics, as economic “red flags” for her state as well as the nation.

Stories of the Week | March 15, 2023

New 'Tech Tactics in Education' Conference Announced by Campus Technology and THE Journal

3/15/23 by The Journal

Registration is now open for Tech Tactics in Education: Data and IT Security in the New Now, a new conference from the producers of Campus Technology and THE Journal. The three-day event, taking place November 7–9, 2023, at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla., will offer hands-on learning, practical tips, and strategic discussions on critical cybersecurity issues and key data infrastructure and practices across K–12 and higher education.

Education professionals in IT, cybersecurity, data management, and data privacy fields are invited to join ed tech innovators, thought leaders, and pioneers as we explore current and emerging technology, data, and security trends impacting education institutions, as well as models for implementation, best practices, and strategies for effective technology leadership.

AI or VR? Matching emerging tech to real-world learning

3/16/23 by Martin Brown, Times Higher Education

The gap between what we teach and what employers need is widening rapidly. This gap is not only in knowing how to use emerging technology but also in effective education in problem-solving, collaboration and the ability to adapt to change.

At the FMH Media Lab, we test emerging tech to see if it can deliver more effective learning experiences than current practice. Defining the problem determines the choice of tech.

We have had success with a range of solutions – from complex VR simulations to AI-driven interactions with conversational agents (which are dialogue systems that conduct natural language processing and respond automatically using human language) to requiring students to curate exhibitions in a 3D digital museum.

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Report: $12B in Broadband Funding Committed to Date Through ARPA Programs

3/14/23 by Carl Weinshenck, Telecompetitor

Approximately $12 billion in broadband funding has been awarded or budgeted to date through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), according to a report released today from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to commemorate ARPA’s second anniversary.

The ARPA included two programs that awarded funding to states and municipalities that could be used for a variety of purposes, including broadband– the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) and the Capital Projects Fund (CPF).

Maine seeks input on how to spend $250M in federal broadband funds

3/15/23 by Irwin Gates, Maine Public

Maine has $250 million from the federal government to extend high-speed internet service to more of Maine. The Maine Connectivity Authority is launching a survey to help it figure out where to spend that money.

The authority’s economic development director, Tanya Emery, says there could be several reasons why people lack good access: “Their town is simply not serviced, their road is not serviced, they have a particularly long driveway and there’s one provider and that one provider has quoted them an enormous amount of money.”

Help wanted in bringing broadband to rural communities

3/16/23 by Lanell Downs Smith, Greenville Advocate

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) held a public Alabama Community Broadband Technical Assistance Program meeting for Butler County in Greenville March 7. Beginning at 2 p.m., separate sessions for elected officials, internet service providers, government and community organizations, and citizens gave each group the opportunity to discuss broadband challenges, initiatives, and progress, highlighting what has been done, and what still needs doing so that ADECA can work to make grant funding available to fuel projects and provide stable, affordable broadband service at the fingertips to even the most rural residents.

Read more at: https://www.greenvilleadvocate.com/2023/03/16/help-wanted-in-bringing-broadband-to-rural-communities/

Stories of the Week | February 8, 2023

Investments in Ed-Tech Companies Tumble. How This Could Affect Schools

2/8/23 by Lauraine Langreo, Ed Week

Venture capital investments into U.S.-based ed-tech companies dropped by nearly 50 percent in 2022, signaling that K-12 educators might be picking from a smaller number of products for their classrooms in the years ahead, according to a recent report.

Investors poured $4.2 billion into U.S.-based ed-tech companies in 2022, a sharp decline from the $8.3 billion invested in 2021, according to a report from HolonIQ, a market intelligence firm focused on the education industry.

The slowdown shows that “the party’s over and it’s back to fundamentals and outcomes,” according to the report.

Tech Alone Isn’t Enough to Secure K–12 Schools

2/8/23 by Tina Thorstenson, EdTech Magazine

The education sector has a cybersecurity problem on its hands. Adversaries have ramped up attacks on K–12 schools and universities, using ransomware and double-extortion campaigns to target institutions with vast stores of data but limited means to protect their critical digital assets.

Today’s schools fully depend on technology. Inside the classroom, it supports teaching and learning; outside the classroom, it powers everything from door access to security cameras and bus schedules. Federal initiatives, such as E-rate, were developed to help schools procure the technologies they need. However, even as schools face ongoing cyberattacks, the E-rate program has not been updated to cover the purchase of security and network defenses to protect those systems.

Five Predictions for the Future of Learning in the Age of AI

2/8/23 by Anne Lee Skates, a16z

When OpenAI released its chatbot ChatGPT last year, proponents were quick to announce the death of various writing-related fields, such as screenwriting, computer programming, and music composition. One particular field stood out as a sector that would feel the power of ChatGPT almost immediately: education. With ChatGPT’s technology, students can now easily cheat on papers and college admissions essays, while on the opposite end, teachers can outsource their curriculums to AI—and no one would be the wiser. 

But ChatGPT is hardly the end of education. Just as quickly as students started passing off the chatbot’s work as their own, new programs popped up to detect AI-written work, and teachers, looking to get ahead of their students, started integrating ChatGPT responses into their lesson planning. 

Proposed state broadband office touted as more effective, creative in closing ‘digital divide’

2/7/23 by Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner

With at least 80,000 to 90,000 locations in Nebraska still lacking quality broadband internet service, a legislative committee on Tuesday heard the latest proposal to close the state’s long-nagging “digital divide.”

Gov. Jim Pillen has proposed the creation of a new state broadband office, supplanting the Nebraska Public Service Commission as the state’s main conduit for doling out funds to companies to expand the reach of high-speed internet service.

A state broadband director, and an estimated nine other new staff members, would be housed within the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

Lumen cuts fiber build target, braces for ‘year of rapid change’

2/8/23 by Diana Goovaerts, Fierce Telecom

Lumen Technologies slashed the target for its residential Quantum Fiber expansion from 12 million to between 8 million and 10 million after pausing its build last month to zero in on locations with the potential to deliver better profitability. The shift appears to be the first of many for Lumen as the company embarks on what new CEO Kate Johnson called a “year of rapid change.”

Speaking on the company’s Q4 earnings call, CFO Chris Stansbury noted that given Lumen ended Q4 2022 with 3.1 million passings, its new plan calls for deployments to roughly 5 million to 7 million incremental locations over the next few years. He added that the decision to lower its build target is designed in part to ensure it’s not laying fiber just for the sake of it.

Stories of the Week | January 18, 2023

A Collision of Innovation and Interests

1/18/23 by Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed

Adrian College president Jeff Docking has some innovative ideas for higher education leaders battling enrollment pressures and market forces. Among them: Rize Education, a for-profit course-sharing company that Docking co-founded and incubated on Adrian’s campus outside Detroit, which develops and teaches online courses through its platform.

Rize was founded in 2019, and Adrian began using the platform the following year. That allowed the college to build out new majors, which in turn brought in students and revenue. Docking told Inside Higher Ed such efforts are a necessary innovation for higher education, offering strapped institutions an affordable way to add courses of study and flexible online programs in an effort to recruit students.

FETC 2023: Technology Opens the Door to New Innovations in K–12 Education

1/17/23 by Rebecca Torchia, EdTech Magazine

The Future of Education Technology Conference invites administrators, IT leaders, educators, library media specialists and ed tech coaches to convene for four days of sharing and learning. This year’s conference, in New Orleans, will highlight how educational technology positively disrupted the past three years of learning.

Keynote sessions planned for the event will showcase technology through the lens of what it means for the future of education. Attendees can catch Anne-Marie Imafidon, founder and CEO of Stemettes and host of the Women Tech Charge podcast, presenting on the importance of inclusion in a tech-driven future. Also, New York Times’ best-selling author Daniel Burrus will speak on transforming education with tech.

Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.

1/12/23 by Kevin Roose, NY Times

Recently, I gave a talk to a group of K-12 teachers and public school administrators in New York. The topic was artificial intelligence, and how schools would need to adapt to prepare students for a future filled with all kinds of capable A.I. tools.

But it turned out that my audience cared about only one A.I. tool: ChatGPT, the buzzy chatbot developed by OpenAI that is capable of writing cogent essays, solving science and math problems and producing working computer code.

Buried vs. aerial —fiber firms try to balance growth with resiliency

1/18/23 by Sue Marek, Fierce Telecom

U.S. fiber companies are furiously expanding their network footprints to accommodate growing demand from consumers and businesses for high-speed broadband. According to the Fiber Broadband Association’s (FBA) 2022 Fiber Provider Survey, fiber was deployed to 7.9 million U.S. homes in 2022, more than in any previous year.

At the same time, the U.S. experienced 18 separate weather and climate disasters in 2022, according to the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, making it one of the most destructive and costly years in U.S. history in terms of weather and climate-related disasters.

Bronx teacher receives award for bridging digital divide in school

1/18/23 by News 12 Staff, News 12 Westchester

A Fordham high school teacher received a big honor for her work in bridging the digital divide in her school’s community.

Maha Hasen is one of four national winners of the 2022 Cognizant Innovation in Computer Science Education Award. Hasen has worked with her class to develop innovative apps and teach them coding skills.  

Hasen has been teaching computer science at the Fordham High School for the Arts for the last four years but started off specializing in math. She says she took on the challenge to teach coding after there were requests from the students for a computer science program.

Stories of the Week | January 4, 2023

Senators send letter to FCC about inaccurate Nevada broadband map

1/5/23 by Jessica Hill, Review Journal

Nevada Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday urging the agency to fix its broadband map of Nevada.

The senators say the current map does not provide an accurate and reliable depiction of broadband availability in Nevada, which is important because the National Telecommunications and Information Administration uses that map to make decisions on broadband funding that was made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Government Spending Billions To Expand Broadband but Can't Tell Who Needs It

1/5/23 by Joe Lancaster, Reason

As Karl Bode noted this week at Techdirt, the FCC’s maps were so unreliable that multiple states took it upon themselves to draw up their own. Vermont determined that more than 18 percent of its residents lack broadband access, while the FCC’s newly redrawn maps put Vermont’s shortfall at only 3 percent.

Now, with more than $40 billion in state grants on the line, states are scrambling to challenge the new maps, which cost the FCC nearly $45 million in addition to the $350 million previously spent. 

Tech in 2023: 3 Priorities for Education IT Leaders

1/2/23 by Brandon Shopp, E-learning Inside

As technology remains a key part of the educational experience, IT teams continue improving processes that focus on enhancing educational outcomes while ensuring resilience across the digital ecosystem.
But, with a new year around the corner, IT teams may be asking: “What should our priorities be in 2023?”

To help answer that question, here are three considerations IT leaders must consider as they plan their 2023 IT strategy.

New York City Blocks ChatGPT at Schools. Should Other Districts Follow?

1/4/23 by Alyson Klein, EdWeek

Districts around the country may be tempted to follow New York City public schools’ lead in restricting student access to ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered tool that can mimic human writing with eye-popping efficiency.

But they would be making a huge mistake, some experts say.

“I understand the knee-jerk reaction” on the part of the nation’s largest school district, which this week blocked the app on school devices and networks, said Andreas Oranje, the vice president of Assessment and Learning Technology Research and Development at the Educational Testing Service.

8 K-12 trends to watch in 2023

1/4/23 by Roger Riddell, Naaz Modan, Kara Arundel, and Anna Merod, K12 Dive

From pandemic academic recovery and calls to strengthen family engagement to the need for preventing cyberthreats and school violence, there’s no shortage of challenges facing the nation’s education system. At the same time, there is no direction from which those hurdles aren’t coming at administrators full-speed.

As 2023 gets underway and the K-12 sector faces looming deadlines for emergency pandemic funds, ongoing battles over curriculum and more, the following eight trends will be critical for education leaders to watch.

This year, expect to see school districts tap more of their federal American Rescue Plan funds to continue paying for pandemic recovery efforts while keeping an eye on meeting the final obligation deadline of Sept. 30, 2024.

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