Nordic EdTech News #11 : 2020-01-20
Your Week 2 & 3 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystems
One of my objectives when launching this newsletter was to showcase Nordic and Baltic EdTech to the world. This coming week, with BETT and Educa, provides the perfect opportunity to do just that!
It’s impossible for me to summarise everything happening at both events. However, I’m delighted to see Educa expanding its international programme (Link) and am particularly looking forward to seeing the Norwegian Classroom at BETT and the Nordic CRAFT session on the main arena stage. (Link) Details of all companies exhibiting at BETT are here and those at Educa are here.
There’s a lot happening as business cranks back up after the holiday, so onto the links!
Best, Jonathan
Regional news
N8’s summary of the year highlights the great advances made across our ecosystem in 2019. (Link)
Finland and Sweden lead the way in the EIU’s Worldwide Educating for the Future Index 2019. (Link)
Cannot mention them all, but congrats to the Nordic companies who are finalists at the 2020 GESS Education Awards. (Link)
Baltic and Nordic cities also dominate Bloomberg Philanthropies’ New Digital Innovation Programme. (Link)
Nordic 9 has all the 2019 national investment funding numbers you’ll need here and the Hub presents the 12 biggest Nordic investment rounds in 2019 here.
Global trends
Brighteye Ventures publish ‘The European EdTech Funding Report 2020.’ (Link)
Looking for funding? Check out Emerge Education’s Investor Identifier. (Link)
EDUCAPITAL summarise the EdTech investment market in 2019. (Link)
Fascinating view of CES through an EdTech lens via Joseph South. (Link)
McKinsey report on how AI will impact K-12 teachers (Link), which prompted this analysis from John Martin, formerly CEO at Sanoma Learning. (Link)
News from Denmark
Dell Technologies Denmark outline their vision of the best digital primary school. (Den, Eng)
KUBO contribute to the KidsLab Podcast highlighting new features and what’s special about Danish education. (Link)
LEGO Education celebrates its 40th birthday (Link) and announces launch of new SPIKE™ Prime STEM solution. (Link)
Memofun attracts controversy over its suitability for the classroom. (Den, Eng)
New grant extends scope of Ultra:bit project to 2023 and into grades 7 and 8. (Den, Eng)
News from Estonia
The HITSA IT Academy programme announces plans for four university-led projects to promote e-learning in 2020. (Est, Eng)
Inga Kõue, Start Up Estonia’s Head of EdTech argues that schools and education need to do more to equip young people with tech and innovation skills. (Est, Eng)
Plans announced to increase the data transmission speed to 1 Gbit / sec in all colleges and schools in Estonia. (Est, Eng)
News from Finland
Interesting analysis of Finnish education post-PISA. (Link)
Will watch for outputs from the Finnish-Russian Educational Forum. (Link)
Rob Kolkman has been appointed chief executive of Sanoma Learning. (Link)
School Day has been shortlisted as one of the five finalists for the prestigious SXSW Launch competition (Link) and announce product update. (Link)
News from Iceland
Great to see Beedle exhibiting at BETT 2020 - find out more about their Microsoft Teams add-in here.
Kara Connect features in the Project 100 list of leading Baltic and Nordic social innovations. (Link)
Detailed survey of the Icelandic innovation ecosystem published by Northstack, Technology Development Fund, and Gallup. (Link)
News from Latvia
Accenture Latvia launch .NET training course as part of ‘She Goes Tech’ initiative (Link) and expand student Bootcamp training scheme. (Latvian)
Edurio launch a free staff wellbeing self-assessment tool for school leaders. (Link)
News from Lithuania
BitDegree are in the final of the Blockchains for Social Good EIC Prize. They’re aiming to win the 1m EUR prize. Good luck! (Link)
Good to see GOSU.ai and Qoorio included in the EU-Startups list of ten Lithuanian startups to watch in 2020. (Link)
News from Norway
Looking forward to seeing The Norwegian Classroom at BETT (Stand SS32). The official launch and reception is 1400 GMT, Wednesday 22nd. (Link)
Biblo Tøyen: a case study in digital transformation. (Nor, Eng)
Great to learn more about Herdis Moldøen and Lær Kidsa Koding. (Nor)
Inspera and THE explore whether the digital revolution has arrived for assessment. (Link)
Norwegian government launches national AI strategy. (Nor, Eng)
Academics in Norway (and Holland) raise concerns about higher education’s growing dependence on digital platforms. (Nor, Eng) HT Eilif Trondsen
News from Sweden
The team from Swedish EdTest will be at BETT. Contact Hanna Elving, Project Lead if you’d like to meet up - hanna.elving@nacka.se, +0046 704 317 803.
Bonnier Academy and Humana announce digital collaboration. (Swe, Eng)
Interesting profile of Simon Rybrand, CEO of Eddler. (Swe, Eng)
Haldor announce Immersive Reader integration (Link) and launch February webinar with Microsoft. (Swe)
Stockholm-based RepresentEdTech appointed as Scandinavian reseller for Turnitin. (Link)
How Samverka.nu aim to digitalise prao and foster collaboration between schools and businesses. (Swe, Eng) HT SPANINGEN.
Will be sure to listen to Soundtrap’s best of BETT podcast series, edited and uploaded from the show! (Link)
Thanks for reading and see you again on 3rd February!
Best regards, Jonathan
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