The Blend: April ‘22
Special Update: edCircle’s founder C.A. Long joins the United Nations as Senior Manager of Digital Learning
Within the UN Global Compact, Long will help the organization expand its corporate sustainability curriculum and digital infrastructure to support over 15,000 member companies based in over 160 countries.
Regarded as the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, the UN Global Compact encourages member companies to align their strategies and operations using Ten Principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.
Stories we’re watching...
🇺🇦 Online learning resumes in Ukraine. Internet connectivity in Ukraine has remained relatively resilient during the war, thanks in large part to technicians and telecom engineers working in real-time to maintain the system. These efforts provide teachers and superintendents a chance to use Zoom and Google Meet to resume lessons and attempt searches for missing children. Read More >
📐Measuring the efficacy of an edTech product. The quality of the products & services being funded remains an open question across the industry. According to a new report published by Digital Promise, edTech companies find learning research helpful in the design process, but establishing industry-wide standards for learning research and product efficacy is still in early days and could need federal support.
🍎 Supporting teachers through tech. Classplus, now valued at $570 million, has amassed over 100,000 educators and creators in India. The platform helps educators operate, manage and sell courses to students. It could be a chance to connect rural communities to top-tier learning content.
📔 Alphabet Inc.‘s Google faces a student privacy lawsuit from parents in Illinois who claim that the company’s edtech tools invaded their children’s privacy by collecting data of their faces and voices through Chromebook laptops. The suit involves overlapping privacy laws and could influence the type of devices school districts can implement in classrooms.
👾 AT&T Launches Free Edu-tainment Platform For Kids. In collaboration with WarnerMedia, The Achievery helps connect students to learning content that entertains as well as teaches by leveraging clips from WarnerMedia films and cartoons.
Exploring Happiness & Mental Well-being Online
Yale's most popular class ever teaches stressed-out young strivers how to be happier. The online version has been taken by millions. Other happiness courses regularly appear in lists of the most popular online courses. Read More
🔥Job Postings:
Senior Instructional Designer, L&D at Comcast
Learning Designer at Columbia University
Digital Learning Program Manager at Google’s School for Leaders
Director of edTech at Boston University
Remote Instructional Designer at Oracle
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