Crises and Capital: The Top EdTech Business Stories of 2020

EdTech development tells a big part of the story of when and where powerful new educational methods and approaches will occur. IOW, the latent potentials in EdTech are coming, but the question remains how are we (US) going to get there?

The school districts, and the state departments of education, spend the money. Which as we know is a huge part of public (government) expenditures, along with healthcare, at the state and local level. With the huge sums being spent each year, one might assume that innovation would be well funded, and driven to advance, by extant ed institutions. But that’s not the case.

Instead, currently, EdTech depends on venture cap investment for startups, and whatever the huge Tech companies such as Apple or Google might be “cooking up”, or even the huge telecoms who now own much of the film industry, and of course, the ever larger “gaming industry”.

Over the horizon, are potentials for grass roots and “bottom up” changes, where parents organize and push for better tools, and school districts actually listen. Failing that, and not to demote the worthy cause of public education for all in the US, maybe parents vote with their feet and support EdTech enabled “home schooling” or “community schools”.

One might imagine that China will eventually get around to powerful new educational tools that the US will be forced to keep up with to compete in the world economy. But before it comes to that, may the powers that be take the lead, as they should, and make US Education a world leader in EdTech. Possibly through Public/Private partnerships.