Nordic EdTech News #124: 2024-11-25
Your Weeks 46 - 47 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News. It’s been a busy couple of weeks with lots of public policy and corporate news to update you on, so let’s get straight into it.
The committee appointed by the Norwegian government submitted its long-awaited report on screen use. It was commissioned to “provide the government with a better knowledge base on how children and young people's screen use in kindergarten, school and leisure time affects health, quality of life, learning and upbringing.”
The report is clear that schools should "ensure a good balance between digital technologies and printed books.” It also confirms that digital technologies give “opportunities for differentiated instruction and special adaptation without the student feeling stigmatised” and that “digital technology can give teachers some new opportunities in teaching." Perhaps most importantly, the committee also emphasises that teachers must be allowed to choose which tools to use in their classrooms (Link).
The importance of this combination of print and digital resources has been further reiterated in Denmark and Sweden over the last fortnight. This move away from an either-or position, which pits analogue and digital teaching aids against each other, is to be welcomed. Particularly when it comes to improving digital skills to secure our region’s future innovation capacity and competitiveness.
Of course, this is all hugely timely given the publication of the 2023 ICILS report, which assessed the digital competencies of eighth-grade students across 22 education systems in the EU. The European EdTech Alliance published an excellent summary of the results and here’s links to coverage of the results in Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden.
Unsurprisingly, Norwegian Education Minister, Kari Nessa Nordtun, didn’t miss the opportunity to claim that the results proved that “the digitization of Norwegian schools has failed.” She continued: “I would have thought we would have had better digital skills. After all, we have spent a lot of resources on it in Norwegian schools.”
Swedish Minister, Lotta Edholm was similarly clear that Swedish students' IT skills had deteriorated because of “an ill-conceived digitalisation strategy.” In response, Camilla Hansén, member of parliament for the Green Party, argued that the government “now needs to raise the level of the political debate, show real leadership and set a clear strategy for how the school can use the possibilities of digitization.”
Moving onto the main corporate news of the last two weeks, congratulations to all at Magma Math for securing $40 million in Series A funding led by US-based Five Elms Capital (Link). Magma is already used by every other student in Sweden and has partnerships with over 30 US states. CEO and co-founder Henrik Appert commented: "This funding will allow us to accelerate our mission of enabling educators to create dynamic, student-centred classrooms where all students are challenged and supported appropriately."
Staying in Sweden, Albert released their Q3 numbers, which showed a small yoy drop in invoiced sales (148,716 k vs. 151,375 k SEK) between 1 January and 30 September. In Q3 these numbers, which include the vital back-to-school period, showed an encouraging 11% yoy increase.
Denmark’s Shape Robotics also announced their Q3 numbers with continued strong performance: reported revenue rose by 146% yoy (71.1 m DKK vs 28.9 m DKK), with an EBITDA of 7.4 m DKK in 2024, compared to 1.4 m DKK in 2023). The business also confirmed a 138.75 million DKK financing agreement with UniCredit Romania to boost SmartLab Production, delivery capacity and R&D (Link)
In a further example of the international appeal of Nordic EdTech, itslearning has signed a deal with four German states: Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin (Link). The 2.5 year deals aim to modernise K-12 and vocational education, setting “establishing a new standard for integrating technology into learning across Germany.
Good to see that Latvia’s Solfeg.io, who won the 2024 Nordic-Baltic Semifinal of the GESAwards. Lithuania’s EditAI and Finland’s TeachersPro were named runners-up-
And finally, Kide Science has announced a new partnership with Sesame Workshop and PAUTA to bring STEM to underserved populations in Mexican preschools (Link). The pilot project is funded by Business Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and will provide quality STEM content and teacher training in 20-30 public schools.
Please note that the next issue of this newsletter will come out on 16th December.
As always, if you’ve got a story that you’d like me to include in a future issue of this newsletter, please email hello@10digits.org, tag me on Twitter or LinkedIn or use #nordicedtech / #balticedtech.
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
National Minister of Education: Exam cheating in upper secondary school must be combated by going back to exams with paper and pencil. (Link)
According to KMD, video content “strengthens the relationship with the students and improves the feedback process.” (Link)
Lex.dk has updated its knowledge bank with 13,000 new articles on body and health to strengthen Danish language facts and counter misinformation. (Link)
The new university administration system, Esas, developed by Netcompany, is ready for launch after years of delay and budget overspend. (Link)
Detailed study of SKIDOS IRIS (I Read, I Succeed). (Link)
Styrelsen for Undervisning og Kvalitet have made recommendations for the use of AI in upper secondary schools and vocational education. (Link)
News from Estonia
Kristina Kallas, Minister for Education at the Tallinn Digital Summit: "AI forces us to rethink education. Creativity and adaptability are key, but our biggest challenge is reskilling teachers for the future." (Link)
News from Finland
Helsinki plans to stop using the Asti system in early childhood education and pre-school education, after spending €32 million on the tool. (Link)
Helsinki Think Company is arranging a three-day literacy 2.0 co-creation challenge together with Helsinki Education Hub. (Link)
HundrED launched their Global Collection 2025, highlighting the 100 brightest education innovations from around the world. (Link)
ThingLink has launched a XR solution for Meta Quest to transform training. (Link)
UNICEF Innovation launched the EdTech for Good Framework and associated Learning Cabinet at Slush 2024 to showcase tools that enhance learning outcomes. Many of those included are Finnish. (Link)
News from Iceland
Iceland's first action plan on AI has been unveiled with a “special emphasis on the development of knowledge through the education system.” (Link)
The national Domino's Pizza franchise will offer all its international employees access to Icelandic courses via Bara tala. (Link)
News from Latvia
Datorium invites girls from Latvia and Lithuania to apply for a free Python coding course as part of an EU Code Week programme. (Link)
The University of Latvia has introduced micro-certificates, offering “opportunities to learn specific knowledge, skills and competences that meet the needs of employers and the individual interests of each individual. “ (Link)
News from Lithuania
Turing College launched their first short course on AI for Business Analytics (Link) as they plan an event with Firstpick on 11th December looking at the future of AI. (Link)
News from Norway
Good to see that the Norwegian Classroom will be back at BETT 2025. Full details on how to get involved here.
Important reminder from the University of Stavanger of the role played by the physical learning environment. (Link)
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is “delivering approx. 700,000 assessment components via Inspera per month across many hundreds of centres worldwide." (Link)
The International Centre for EdTech Impact and Digital Promise have joined forces “to support EdTech companies with their certifications and evidence-building.” (Link)
News from Sweden
Good to see Cosafe Technology and Hypocampus in the Sweden Technology Fast 50 list (Link). Hypocampus has also expanded its range of teaching resources. (Link)
ILT Education wins at the Teach Early Years Awards (Link) as CEO, Jakob Skogholm, is interviewed by Ämnesläraren (Link)
imagi teams up with the Advanced Technology Research Council to promote coding within Abu Dhabi’s schools. (Link)
Danish WriteReader and MyStudyWeb have entered into cooperation, which will see MyStudyWeb selling their materials to schools in Sweden. (Link)
SCRIIN received a SEK 2.9 million grant from Svenska Postkodlotteriets Stiftelse to boost students’ movement in school with technology. (Link)
Skolon strikes a new international partnership with Padlet. (Link)
Tilda will partner with RISE to build the brain behind their AI, known as the ‘Behavioral Change Index.’ (Link)
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