Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

Matthew Lynch published in Best of the Best Lists, Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech, Math Education

Math Apps, Tools, and Resources That I Would Use If I Were Still in the Classroom

Back in 2001, when I started as a teacher, the technology boom was in its nascent stage. I remember toting a large bag filled with papers home most nights and going to sleep drowning under a vast sea of student homework that needed grading. My classroom was even worse, cluttered with books, manipulatives, globes, maps, and learning stations that left little room for anything else. However, as I write this in 2018, things have changed dramatically. Today’s teachers have edtech in their corners.

Digital teaching and learning tools have streamlined education processes and provide learning experiences that stretch far beyond the materials that were available for me back in 2001. If you are a math teacher, you may be thinking that edtech doesn’t apply to you, especially if you believe that math cannot be taught using digital tools. Students don’t have to see each step or review every problem under the tutelage of a teacher. Tons of apps can help students learn and practice math, and while it helps to have a teacher nearby, it is not necessary. If I were still in the classroom today, I’d use these math apps, tools, and resources:

Marble Math– With Marble Math, children aged nine through twelve will learn mental math and solve math problems. With mazes, marbles, and math, your child can have hours of fun and become a math genius at the same time. There are puzzles and fun around each turn in the maze, so never be afraid to forge ahead. The app also allows you to go back to previous problems and redo them if needed. 

Khan Academy– Khan Academy has more than 40,000 interactive Common Core-aligned practice questions and above 10,000 videos and explanations in economics, history, math, and more. This is the best study app and tutoring app for students of all ages who are struggling in science and other subjects. You can easily bookmark your best content to “Your List,”  which can be used offline when you’re not connected to the Internet.

Thinkster Math: Thinkster Math is using virtual tutoring to help students understand why they went wrong and how to correct those mistakes. Not only does it help grades improve, but it also sharpens the logic process for students who struggle. This can make a significant long-term impact on their ability to perform well in math.

Montessori Numbers-Coupled with the Montessori Letter Sounds app, Montessori Numbers helps teach children the foundations of math. Three- to seven-year-old children can use this app to begin understanding numerology, numerals, numbers 0 through 100, quantifying, counting, and more. Children can play lots of activities and games that have multiple difficulty levels. 

Matific: Matific strives to help students improve their math skills using hands-on mini-games and a modular learning system. The goal is for students to internalize the basic concepts and move on to more challenging activities. It is designed to help open the door to scientific thinking along with making math more interesting.

Jump Numbers – This app helps young children work on their addition and multiplication skills using skip counting. The game is designed for kids aged 5 to 10. The learning process has a background story to add fun to the process. The game gets more challenging as players get to higher levels and complete more tasks.

Sushi Monster: This app uses lively cartoon characters and games to make learning math fun for children in middle school. It helps them gain proficiency in adding sums and multiplying numbers; progress is rewarded with stars and trophies.

Drive About: Number Neighborhood– Children explore this imaginary world that contains fun activities to help them develop their math skills. Activities include number identification and writing, counting, matching, and ordering. Suitable for children aged 5 and below.

Talking Calculator: This app enables children with sight impairments to use a calculator independently. It has big, bright colored buttons to help the children, and it talks to them, telling them what button their hand is hovering over. After they enter their calculations, the app announces the answer.

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Matthew Lynch published in Best of the Best Lists, Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

Grammar and Writing Apps, Tools, and Resources That I Would Use If I Were Still in the Classroom

Back in 2001, when I started as a teacher, the technology boom was in its nascent stage. I remember toting a large bag filled with papers home most nights and going to sleep drowning under a vast sea of student homework that needed grading. My classroom was even worse, cluttered with books, manipulatives, globes, maps, and learning stations that left little room for anything else. However, as I write this in 2018, things have changed dramatically. Today’s teachers have edtech in their corners.

When I was a teacher, helping students to become competent writers was a chore, though not an impossible task. Grading the written assignments of students was also a difficult task, as many of them butchered the English language and treated grammar as though it was a skill that could be disregarded. To further complicate things, if students needed help editing a paper or project at home, they were on their own.

Now, all of that has changed, well, sort of. Students have access to a host of grammar apps and tools that will not only help them correct their grammatical errors, but also teach them to be better writers in the process. If I were still in the classroom today, I’d use these grammar and writing apps, tools, and resources:

Grammar Pop– If you’re looking for a fun word game for adults or you want your kids to learn parts of speech as quickly as possible, the Grammar Pop is for you. With this fun game, you match words with parts of speech of pop clouds and advance from nouns and verbs to gerunds and participles.

Mingoville– With 10 missions, you can use Mingoville to learn English language. The app has a dictionary that is available in 32 languages and contains over 10,000 audio clips to help you learn to pronounce all types of words. There are also 130 games and activities that will reinforce spelling, reading, grammar, and pronunciation. If you love to sing, there are also 10 songs that you can sing along; you can also participate with your friends.

Quill– Quill is a writing tutorial app for teachers designed to help students become better writers. Quill is a nonprofit organization, and its goal is to provide tools such as Quill to help make students better writers. Quill uses web applications to create engaging content for students that helps them learn grammar, writing skills, and vocabulary. Using the teacher dashboard, you can monitor students’ progress according to the Common Core Standards; this feature also makes grading more intuitive and meaningful.

Turnitin for Educators: This website has a wide array of functions designed to help teachers check the integrity of their students’ work, and it helps them mark students’ work. It helps to prevent plagiarism by comparing the works submitted by students with a vast text comparison database, OriginalityCheck. The GradeMark function helps teachers give feedback and remarks to their students, and QuickMark enables them to mark students’ work directly.

Word Sort by Grammaropolis: This tool uses Grammaropolis characters to help teach the parts of speech. Children play by taking a word as it floats across the sky and dragging it into a container that holds the appropriate part of speech. It also has pages explaining parts of speech along with their grammatical function and game character personality.

Writing Challenge App: This app aims to guide students who want to do some form of writing but need some creativity nudging. The app delivers a prompt every minute, suggesting new ideas, characters, scenes, and even plots.

Grammarly– This platform helps the student to improve their grammar and build confidence in their writing ability.

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Matthew Lynch published in Best of the Best Lists, Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

Classroom/Behavior Management Apps, Tools, and Resources That I Would Use If I Were Still in the Classroom

Back in 2001, when I started as a teacher, the technology boom was in its nascent stage. I remember toting a large bag filled with papers home most nights and going to sleep drowning under a vast sea of student homework that needed grading. My classroom was even worse, cluttered with books, manipulatives, globes, maps, and learning stations that left little room for anything else. However, as I write this in 2018, things have changed dramatically. Today’s teachers have edtech in their corners.

Digital teaching and learning tools have streamlined education processes and provide learning experiences that stretch far beyond the materials that were available for me back in 2001. If the edtech of today were available back in 2001, I could have used classroom management tools to help me deal with my sometimes unruly 4th period class. I could have used behavior management tools to develop and manage a student reward system. Parents could have logged on to an app to see whether or not their child was behaving themselves. Yes, sir, edtech would have saved me a lot of time, effort, and stress. If I were still in the classroom today, I’d use these classroom management apps, tools, and resources:

ClassDojo: This classroom management app can be a powerful tool when it comes to motivating students to maintain exemplary behavior. Teachers can give points or take them away when students don’t comply with the set expectations and rules of the classroom. Even better, parents can see this information quickly and easily.

Too Noisy: Do you have a rowdy class that often allows their volume to swirl out of control? Particularly for educators who have students with auditory sensitivities, the noise of the classroom may be overwhelming. Too Noisy demonstrates when the room is getting too loud with unique graphics that show how close you are getting to an intolerable level.itivities in their classrooms who may find a high noise level distressing.

Lan School – Lan School is a classroom management tool that works on Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS. It is a management software built to keep students engaged and learning while staying within the walls of a safe digital environment. It provides tools to monitor students’ screens to make sure that they stay on task. It also has a chat function that allows instructors to communicate with students and help them with their projects. The broadcast feature allows the teacher to broadcast his/her screen to the rest of the class.

The Great Behavior Game: This game is designed for educators who work with students in fifth grade or lower. The game allows teachers to award points and penalties for specific behaviors. The scoreboard can be used to issue rewards to winning students at intervals during the day. The app also allows educators to generate reports and collect data for future reference.

Classtime – Classtime is a classroom management solution designed for students and teachers; it includes analytics, real-time grading, and libraries. It allows teachers to create, share, and download lessons and assessments from over 30,000 available materials. It provides a time-effective solution for teachers in the classroom.

DyKnow –  DyKnow is a classroom management software solution that helps you monitor devices, reduce distractions, and keep students on task. This software enables teachers to see how students are spending time on their devices in class. It can restrict the students’ access; i.e., it can manage what a student can and cannot access during a course through a customizable blocking plan.

Eduphoria! – It is a classroom management tool that enables a learning environment through budget maintenance and education enhancement. Eduphoria! empowers teachers. The integrated apps assist in every aspect of the school day, from lesson planning to monitor student progress, streamlining administrative duties, and providing a collaborative platform for education professionals.

HiClass – This is a variable room management solution through monitoring, broadcasting, and more. HiClass computer classroom management software is very easy to use and offers a rich set of functions that enable teachers to broadcast, control, communicate, monitor, or collaborate with students individually or as a group, to ensure that every student gets the most out of class time.

Stop Go!: The time between classroom activity changes can be very disruptive with disorderly behavior. Using this app, you can bring order to the process. The app functions like a traffic light, signaling to students when the time is right to move or get to their seats. When the light changes, a bell also chimes in case some students might have missed the visual prompt.

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Matthew Lynch published in Best of the Best Lists, Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

Early Childhood and Elementary Education Apps, Tools and Resources That I Would Use If I Were Still In The Classroom

Back in 2001, when I started as a teacher, the technology boom was in its nascent stage. I remember toting a large bag filled with papers home most nights and going to sleep drowning under a vast sea of student homework that needed grading. My classroom was even worse, cluttered with books, manipulatives, globes, maps, and learning stations that left little room for anything else. However, as I write this in 2018, things have changed dramatically. Today’s teachers have edtech in their corners.

Digital teaching and learning tools have streamlined education processes and provide learning experiences that stretch far beyond the materials that were available for me back in 2001. When it comes to digital learning in the early childhood or K-12 classroom, there is no shortage of apps will help teachers develop or find curriculum, or deliver instruction effectively.

Are you a teacher who is looking for apps or tools for their early childhood or elementary education classroom? Don’t worry I have some great recommendations for you. Below you will find a list of early childhood apps, tools, and resources that I would use if I were still in the classroom.

Montessori Preschool – is a comprehensive early learning app. It covers phonics, letter tracing, counting, shapes, colors… in a fun and engaging environment. With new games added every 2 months, the app also offers tons of activities to develop critical thinking, learn foreign languages and even think like a coder! With its carefully crafted designs, Montessori Preschool is beautiful to look at and answers a number of user requests such as child profile management, screen time management and even device space management. The app is free to download and 10 games are completely free to try. Users who want to try more have a 7 day free trial period before the subscription (monthly or yearly) starts.

Toca Hair Salon – Cut, color, comb, and style the hair of six different characters in your own hair salon! Children are in charge of their hair salon and have all the tools of a real stylist including scissors, electric hair trimmers, towels, shampoo, conditioner, and hair dryer. They can choose from 12 different hair dyes and 8 hair accessories

Funky Fruitilicious– The Funky Fruitilicious app helps children to learn in a delightful environment using visual learning techniques. The experience is most enjoyable when parents serve as a guide for their kids while playing it with them. The app is designed for preschoolers trying to learn the concept of counting and the basics of numbers. Funky Fruitilicious uses a variety of colorful game activities as well as funny audio sounds to improve kid’s learning.

Flashcard Stash– The Flashcard Stash is a new kind of flash card that is built on top of a dictionary, which enables you to look up the flash card words and save them. For instance, you can click on highlighted words for a quick definition or click on functions in the top right of every vocabulary flashcard such as synonyms, audio, and sentences. The AR Flashcards make learning fun and more entertaining for toddlers and preschoolers. With about 26 beautifully rendered animals to help your toddler learn the alphabet, learning is fun with AR Flashcards.

JumpStart Preschool – Your preschooler needs to have fun learning, and JumpStart Preschool gives you just that! It is designed for your little kids to learn pre-reading and critical-thinking skills while on the go. Your kids will learn to recognize and count numbers, practice shapes and colors while on the search for the best wiggly creatures to complete the collection. They will listen to stories by flipping through pages as words are read aloud.

Lexia Core5 Reading– Lexia® Core5® Reading is available to teach reading for preschoolers to fifth graders. It creates reading lessons based on research, to find the best ways to teach individual students or small groups. Using this app, teachers can organize their learning environments in the most productive and conducive way. This app can be used in combination with Lexia® PowerUp Literacy™ and Lexia® RAPID™ Assessment to optimize reading experiences and reading groups in schools.

Make A Scene: Farmyard– Make a Scene: Farmyard stimulates children’s creativity and allows them to design their own scenes. Little kids love cute farm animals, and this app has sheep, cows, ducks, chickens, and more. With hours of entertainment, they will learn and practice vocabulary, motor skills, and coordination simultaneously. They will be able to numerous scenes in this dynamic farmyard; for preschool to adult, this app will not disappoint.

Preschool Puzzle Math– Preschool Puzzle Math is a puzzle-solving game that teaches children math. It allows them to practice counting, simple addition, and subtraction. Preschool Puzzle Math helps your child develop the fundamental math skills that will help them going forward with mathematics. Your child learns to count, add, and find their way around tasking puzzle games with free-flowing gameplay. Suitable for ages three to seven.

Nico & Nor Coconut Star– Explore the Coconut Star World by solving puzzles using push, pull, and texture to get to new stars to win. This app provides a cheerful sojourn into the world of forces and motions using fireworks, water traps, and real-time feedback. The app provides opportunities for children to develop their scientific method skills. The Ramps program has two apps (Coconut Star and Ramps Journal) working hand in hand to help preschool kids and their teachers to record videos and results from experiments.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox– Preschoolers love games and are the best at learning, so Monkey Preschool Lunchbox combines both these elements. Designed for two- to five-year-olds, this app has six games to teach colors, letters, counting, shapes, sizes, matching, and spotting the differences. Fun monkeys assist the child, and cute sounds and designs make it appealing to young eyes and ears. Children will also learn fruits and numbers. Virtual stickers provide positive reinforcement for a job well done.

Toddler Toy Factory: Help your kids improve their reading, spelling, memory, and hand-eye coordination using virtual toys. This matching game allows kids to pair identical toys. The “Make” room lets kids drag single letters into the toy machine to build toys. The toy is ready once the word is spelled out and then read out loud.

TeachMe: Kindergarten: Help your child ace kindergarten using this fun app. It contains all the subjects that children learn at the kindergarten level such as how to spell, write, add, and subtract. The app rewards student progress, and these rewards can be used to make in-app purchases. Parents and teachers can monitor the child’s development.

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Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

Literacy Apps, Tools, and Resources That I Would Use If I Were Still in the Classroom

Back in 2001, when I started as a teacher, the technology boom was in its nascent stage. I remember toting a large bag filled with papers home most nights and going to sleep drowning under a vast sea of student homework that needed grading. My classroom was even worse, cluttered with books, manipulatives, globes, maps, and learning stations that left little room for anything else. However, as I write this in 2018, things have changed dramatically. Today’s teachers have edtech in their corners.

Digital teaching and learning tools have streamlined education processes and provide learning experiences that stretch far beyond the materials that were available for me back in 2001. Early childhood and elementary education teachers who are struggling to help emerging readers become literate have access to tens of thousands of digital tools that have been created to solve their problem. Now, the gift of reading can be extended to everyone.

As a result, I expect to see a drop in the prison population in the coming decades. Why? Because when prison corporations have to decide how many new prison cells to build, they use the number of students who cannot read at grade level as a measuring stick. Sad, but entirely true. With the proliferation of digital tools to solve the literacy problem, the amount of illiterate K-12 students is sure to fall, which hopefully decreases the prison population. Knowledge is power. If I were still in the classroom today, I’d use these literacy apps, tools, and resources:

FunBrain– FunBrain comes with hundreds of free interactive books, videos, games, and printed material that help kids from Pre-K to 8 years old develop and master math, literacy, problem-solving, and reading skills. Vital skills and subject areas such as fractions, addition, shapes, and vowel sounds are included in each book, game, and video to give parents and educators a sense of confidence in the learning process.

Imagine Learning– Imagine Learning provides award-winning educational software to thousands of students around the globe. It provides a solution to literacy and language issues. Imagine Learning provides students with individual instruction on various activities particularly designed to meet their personal needs and provide a real outcome. The essence of our business is to find solutions to our customers’ issues.

Lexia PowerUp Literacy– Lexia® PowerUp Literacy™ is made for middle school students to help them master their reading skills. Working with typical reading lessons, teachers can use this app to fill in learning gaps, allowing student to practice skills such as comprehension, analyzation, evaluation, and comparison. It allows for online and offline activity, to be available for all students’ learning needs and activity levels. This can be used in combination with Lexia® Core5® Reading and Lexia® RAPID™ Assessment to optimize reading experiences and reading groups in schools.

Polly: Amazon’s Polly program is a text-to-speech app that sounds more natural than many of the others. This could be an ideal way to help below-grade readers to improve their literacy. The text-to-speech software allows them to hear each word while they follow along. Students might finally be able to catch up with these assistive technologies for literacy.

ThinkFluency: This is an assessment tool designed to help students develop reading fluency. Teachers can spend less time assessing their students and more time teaching them. To get started, the teacher sets up an account and then adds classes and their students. The teacher can set individual words-per-minute (WPM) goals for each student or use the app’s grade-specific recommendation instead. The real-time analytics feature allows teachers to track errors and correct them as they listen to the their students’ recorded reading sessions.

LibroVox: Access more than 50,000 audiobooks for students that you can download once for later use. These could be a great way to inspire struggling readers to pick up a book. After all, it is much easier to follow along than it is to attempt to read it all on your own.

Whooo’s Reading – The goal of Whooo’s Reading is accelerated reading comprehension and improved writing skills. By using open-ended questions instead of the standard true/false and multiple choice style, students are required to think independently about texts. The Whooo’s Reading program automatically reminds students to improve their writing by asking them to cite evidence or answer all the parts of a question. Teachers can monitor student’s reading with automatic quiz results, graded by the Whooo’s Reading app, available in the teacher dashboard. To increase student motivation, students earn Wisdom Coins for reading and writing. These can be spent on accessories and items for their Owlvatars (owl avatars).

BiblioNasium– A website exclusively for children between the ages of 6 and 13. It aims to promote the reading habit among children. Equipped with peer and parental controls, it presents an effective and stimulating program for the user. Using this app, you can adapt reading to fit the child’s need, monitor his/her reading log, and help the child explore a variety of reading genres. Reading data is saved online and is always accessible.

Curriculet–  This reading platform aims at overhauling and changing the way children study and the way teachers teach. Programmed questions and instructions pop up while a child is reading a text from the class. Using this tool, teachers can personalize the reading experience for their students; it also helps them to create and share the contents of their study digitally.

Kids A-Z– Children can select from a library of eQuizzes, eBooks, and hundreds of developmentally appropriate eResources by using the Kids A-Z mobile app. Students can complete corresponding quizzes to improve their comprehension skills and use interactive annotation tools that aid in the development of close reading skills. Kids A-Z mobile app is a must-have for kids that have access to Raz-Kids, Science A-Z, Headsprout, or Raz-plus.

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Matthew Lynch published in Best of the Best Lists, Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

Tutoring/Test Prep Apps, Tools, and Resources That I Would Use If I Were Still in the Classroom

Back in 2001, when I started as a teacher, the technology boom was in its nascent stage. I remember toting a large bag filled with papers home most nights and going to sleep drowning under a vast sea of student homework that needed grading. My classroom was even worse, cluttered with books, manipulatives, globes, maps, and learning stations that left little room for anything else. However, as I write this in 2018, things have changed dramatically. Today’s teachers have edtech in their corners.

Digital teaching and learning tools have streamlined education processes and provide learning experiences that stretch far beyond the materials that were available for me back in 2001. Back in the day, teachers would have to tutor struggling students before or after school. Now, with the advent of artificial intelligence, teachers can use this technology to tutor students during class time. All they need is a tutoring app that uses artificial intelligence, and they are all set. The app will gauge the student’s present level of academic performance, and then present the student with learning experiences and assessments to help them achieve the desired level of academic performance. As a bonus, this technology can also be used to prepare students for classroom level and standardized exams. If I were still in the classroom today, I’d use these tutoring/test prep apps, tools, and resources:

iTalk2Learn– iTalk2Learn is a math tutoring app that uses cutting-edge technology to ensure that students learn more naturally. This app is the result of a three-year collaborative European project to create an open-source intelligent tutoring platform that reinforces math learning for 5- to 11-year-old students. This will enable educators to deliver the correct lesson at the right time.

LearnCube – This is a virtual classroom built for teaching and tutoring online. It helps to eliminate the distance barrier between teacher and students by bringing them together in a virtual classroom. It uses an online interactive whiteboard for teaching; users can draw, annotate, type, and switch to multiple boards while on the platform. The software makes use of high-quality audio and video encoders and compression algorithms for its virtual classes. Since all the content is web-based, there is no need for downloading and learning to use the software. LearnCube also provides the option for users to personalize the classroom.

MATHiaU– MATHiaU is math learning software is offered by Carnegie Learning. It provides college-level math assistance, including one-on-one tutoring. With this app, students take thorough assessments and are given feedback that includes a personalized learning path. MATHiaU provides affordable easy-to-use artificial intelligence based tutoring.

Chegg Tutors: Find tutors in every subject area for both high school and college students by looking at their previous reviews. This allows you to search for the person who is right for you based on your needs and possibly even personality. The best part is that they strive to make it affordable by offering a discounted weekly plan to help keep students on track.

Study Island: Since 2000, Study Island has been used by children in grades K-12 for learning in an entertaining fashion. It is relevant across different subjects including math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. It comes with interactive features and mini-games that aid learning and incentivize progress.

Study.com: This website carries over 1,000 courses made of short, fun videos taught by seasoned educators. The courses vary widely from psychology to calculus, food and nutrition education to PowerPoint lessons. They provide additional learning material for over a million monthly visitors, which include children and adults of all ages and educational status. The College Accelerator membership allows students to watch videos and gather credits that can be transferred to any of the thousands of colleges and universities that participate in the program.

EMsync – This platform helps with tutoring and mentoring of young people to help them succeed in school. This platform is designed to help ignite young people’s potential.

GradeSlam– GradeSlam provides online tutoring service with certified educators delivering interactive academic support to students whenever they think they need it to be successful. The service is unlimited, on request, and available on any device around the clock. The certified educators on this platform point out student’s mistakes during the learning process and guide them on how to avoid those mistakes next time.

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Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech, EdTech Startups & Businesses, Featured, Fresh, Higher Education,

How Edtech Companies Can Sell To the International Market

Edtech is a growing market, expected to increase by 17% yearly. However, a significant part of that growth is projected outside the U.S. As international schools begin to accept edtech, the market is becoming friendly for companies. Recent changes in the U.S. market have led to a decline in funding and support for edtech, so embracing international sales will be increasingly important for long term sustainability in the industry. Though the sales trajectory admittedly still needs some work for most edtech companies. Targeting and acquiring international clients comes with different challenges than landing U.S. deals.

What research and considerations does your startup need to address for the international market? How can you successfully sell edtech products to schools outside the U.S.? Here is a quick breakdown for any company wanting to make a move to international edtech sales.

Consider Market Demands

Before attempting to make an international sale, think about the market needs of each country. China, for example, is projected to reach $15billion in STEM spending by 2020. While U.S. spending on STEM learning falls, China continues to invest heavily in youth STEM education.

A 2010 German initiative to improve educational performance had a slow start. However, companies looking to target a global market may do well to focus on the developing European market. Germany, as the largest economy in Europe, is a sensible target for edtech entrepreneurs. The region, as a whole, has committed to improving education by 2020. The potential within the EU is even more evident when you take a look at the success of edtech startups in Europe.

For those startups looking to branch into the African or South American markets, funding help by the World Bank may play a significant role. Additionally, edtech companies who target the Persian Gulf can get in on the ground floor of a promising market. Understanding the market potential for the countries you want investment from is imperative to international success.

Understand Educational Goals

Looking at the performance of students on the international market, it’s obvious which countries are currently excelling in science, mathematics, and reading, and which need work. While the U.S. didn’t rank in top 10 for any of the categories, educational policy is making edtech a hard sell in American schools.

Meanwhile, international schools are competing to produce the best workers of tomorrow, and those goals can be exploited by thoughtful edtech companies. The United Nations set education goals for the 2000-2015 period. Unfortunately, only three countries met the expectations. For edtech entrepreneurs, this can mean a chance to make a real contribution for the 2015-2030 period. New goals have been set out, and an increase of $22billion in funding is expected to achieve those goals globally.

The key to success will understand what is lacking in the education system of each country, and how your products can bridge the gaps.

Be wary of International Faux Pas

Even if you’ve done your research and investigated the international need for education products, that doesn’t equate to sales. Selling products internationally, requires an understanding of local culture, customs and business values. Each country is different. So, hiring an experienced liaison with an educational background in your target country can give you a head start to negotiations.

Regardless of your particular product or niche in the edtech sector, the international market is a growing opportunity waiting to be exploited. Have you sold products internationally? What have been your greatest challenges and successes with the global edtech market? We want to hear your experiences!

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech, Featured, Fresh, Higher Education, Higher Education EdTech

My Vision for the Future of Assessment in Education

Assessment is a big part of today’s education landscape. Most states use high-stakes assessments to measure student growth and proficiency at the end of each school year. But is this really the best way to use assessments? The future of assessment in education needs to change.

In order to really reimagine the future of assessment, we must ask ourselves what the purpose of assessments really are. In their current form, assessments are used to measure everything students have learned. High-stakes end-of-year assessments are used to determine whether students pass or fail a class. These same assessments are used to judge the performance of schools.

Rather than use assessments as the final test of what students have learned and how well teachers have taught them, we should be using assessments to measure student progress all year long. These formative assessments, as opposed to the traditional summative assessments, will change the way we think of assessments.

By using formative assessments throughout the year, teachers can measure what students have learned and where they’re struggling. This allows teachers to modify their instruction based on the results of their assessments, rather than waiting until the term is over to see what students know.

Of course, most teachers are already using assessments in just this way. Teachers adjust what they’re doing all year based on student performance. The problem is, these assessments aren’t used to make big decisions, like whether students should pass a course or how a school will be rated. By shifting our focus from what students know at the end of the year to how they’ve grown all year long, we can get a more accurate measure of student and teacher performance.

When schools are judged, the growth that students have made over the year should be weighted much more heavily than their overall achievement. This would create a more level playing field for all schools, regardless of location or students’ previous achievement.

To achieve my vision for the future of assessment in education, we need to create effective assessments that will help us measure student growth, not just achievement. This will require EdTech companies to get involved in the assessment process and create ways to track student growth. By incorporating technology into assessments, we can bring educational assessments into the 21st century.

How do you envision the future of assessments? How will EdTech be a part of that future?

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assistive Technology, Career Readiness, Child Development Tech, Classroom Management,

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 7: How Digital Age Teachers Can Win Over Parents

Education is a collaborative process, as it takes many stakeholders working in unison to help students succeed academically. One of the most integral parts of this collaborative team is parents, as teachers know all so well. So, if you are a teacher struggling to increase parental engagement, how do you fix this issue? In this episode, we will discuss 7 ways that digital age teachers win over parents.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Assessment, Assistive Technology, Black Boys in Crisis, Child Development Tech,

The Edvocate Podcast, Episode 6: 8 Ways That Digital Age Teachers Avoid Burning Out

Being a teacher is a tough job. So much so, many new teachers end up leaving the field within their first three years. To ensure that the next generation of students have qualified teachers, we must nip this phenomenon in the bud. In this episode, we will discuss 8 ways that digital age teachers avoid burning out.

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