Nordic EdTech News #125: 2024-12-16
Your Weeks 48 - 50 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello and welcome to the final Nordic EdTech News of 2024. I cannot believe how quickly the year has gone, but it’s been very successful and super enjoyable.
One of the obvious highlights was the Nordic EdTech Summit I launched back in August. I’ve been repeatedly asked what’s happening next year and so I am delighted to confirm that the Nordic EdTech Summit will be coming to Malmö in September 2025.
Listening to feedback from this year’s delegates, I’ve made three changes for next year.
More convenient location: Just 20 minutes by train from Copenhagen, the largest airport hub in Northern Europe, Malmö is perfectly positioned for travel from the Nordics, Baltics and beyond.
All in one day: Delegates will enjoy a focused day packed with insight, networking and opportunities to drive growth across the region.
Perfect timing: Now scheduled for early September, so companies can smoothly handle customer demands at the start of a new school year.
We’ll share full details on venue, programme, tickets and more in early 2025. In the meantime, pre-register now to receive updates as they happen!
Let’s begin our news update just across the Øresund Bridge, where the Danish Government has launched a “new strategic effort to pave the way for artificial intelligence in Denmark.”
Their initiative aims to create a secure platform for the development of new Danish language models. According to Viden.AI, the platform will “also include an open sandbox where researchers, developers and users can collaborate on specific use cases within, among others, public administration, healthcare and education.”
The strategy also prioritises making Danish text data open source. This supports the foundation for more high-quality artificial intelligence solutions that work in Danish. Experts predict that the data could be used directly in the development of language models that can be included in teaching materials and teaching technologies that are adapted to Danish curricula.
Linked to the announcement, the launch of the AI Competence Pact aims to increase the AI skills of 1 million Danes by 2028. The Pact specifically details plans to “collaborate with schools and educational institutions to make AI a natural part of teaching and prepare young people for the future labor market.”
Coincidentally, the Swedish government’s AI Commission has also submitted its final report and emphasises that “Sweden must take urgent action.” One of the report’s most interesting suggestions is to give all Swedes free access to AI tools and to train the population on how to get the most out of them. It’s been compared to the transformational Hem-PC reform of the 1990s that subsidised personal computers.
The Swedish Edtech Industry and other industry stakeholders have both reiterated that “Sweden's road map for AI must start in school.” And according to recent research from Skolverket, it won’t be a moment too soon - the use of AI services is very limited among Swedish teachers and students, with only 2 out of 5 teachers using AI in some part of their work or teaching.
There’s some positive national results to build on in the TIMSS 2023 Survey. I don’t have space to go into all national results in detail, but they do unfortunately reiterate the gender and socio-economic disparities evidenced in the recent PIRLS research. And as Morten Rosenkvist, Director of the Norwegian Directorate of Education, said: “We cannot be complacent that so many are not learning what they are supposed to in school.”
There is good news for the region in the second OECD Survey of Adult Skills, the results of which were released last week (Link), with five countries in the global top 10 - Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Denmark. The survey looked at literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem solving skills. Governments claimed the results proved that local national education systems were still high quality,
After their $40 million Series A funding round in the last newsletter, there’s more good news for Magma Math. The business has now received a grant of almost SEK 7.7 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Link). The grant will fund “a two-year project aimed at developing Magma's AI technology and implementing the tool in marginalised areas.” You can learn more here about the future of Magma Math from Henrik Appert, CEO & Founder.
Congratulations also to the team at Meitner, who have raised SEK 25.6 million in fresh capital (Link). Billed as “the most modern school platform”, the company now has 40,000 students using its services in this highly competitive national marketplace.
Staying in Sweden, ILT Education is expanding its operations in France by acquiring the assets of MOBiDYS, its joint venture partner (Link). The move adds headcount to operations in France and “strengthens the future for Sondo”, their dyslexia-friendly reading service.
Take the time over Christmas to read the 2024 Nordic Learning and Talent Report from Cornerstone to “better understand HR professionals’ learning and talent management challenges today” (Link). It aims to provide L&D leaders across the Nordics with insights into the workforce readiness gap and ongoing learning challenges for Nordic organisations.
Finally, huge thanks to everyone for reading, subscribing and supporting this newsletter over the last 12 months - it’s very much appreciated! Nordic EdTech News will return to subscriber inboxes on 13th January 2025.
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.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Government advisors want to “free municipalities and schools from Microsoft and Google.” (Link)
More than a third of students in 6th and 8th grade are distracted by smartphones or computers during class. (Link)
The Ministry of Children and Education is creating 30 municipal online education schemes to help students with long-term absence from school. (Link)
CFU has launched a new platform, where teachers will be able to reserve both physical and online teaching materials. (Link)
Famly has partnered with Busy Bees Nurseries, the UK’s largest nursery group, in a collaboration they believe “will transform early childhood education.” (Link)
Unihelper.io has raised pre-seed funding to “address the growing challenges faced by students in today’s dynamic educational landscape.” (Link)
News from Estonia
Some teachers are now delivering lessons in multiple classrooms across Tallinn and Estonia through synchronous online lessons. (Link)
ALPA Kids’ Ukrainian language learning app has now been downloaded over 500,000 times and across 150 countries. (Link)
News from Finland
Edulyzer and Instituto Escalae won the "Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies Awards 2024" organised by the Madrid City Council. (Link)
The Helsinki Education Hub has opened applications for the next intake of its incubator programme. (Link)
Valamis wins gold in Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence in Technology Awards. (Link)
News from Iceland
News from Latvia
Using the STARS skills management platform, adult Latvians can apply for medium and high-level digital skills training from December 5. (Link)
New Edurio research reveals that English school staff value having a MAT vision / values and appreciate knowledge-sharing. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Over 10 million euros has been allocated for the purchase of new textbooks. (Link)
The companies in the first cohort of the Edu Challenger Accelerator have been announced. (Link)
Turing College and FIRSTPICK have joined forces to establish a new AI engineering course and an AI accelerator programme. (Link)
News from Norway
Updated advice for schools on screen use as Morten Søby, one of the architects of Norway’s digital push, bemoans what’s happening to his legacy. (Link)
Interesting conversation about transforming the way the world learns between Svein-Tore Griff With (Founder of H5P) and John Baker (Founder of D2L). (Link)
Inspera is now working with Civica “to provide an integrated solution for digital assessments for awarding bodies around the world.” (Link)
Komponent, the Danish municipalities' joint development centre, has signed a five-year agreement with itslearning to “modernise and strengthen their work in learning and competency development.” (Link)
Fascinating insight from Per Borgen, CEO at Scrimba, on their rise, fall and rise again. Great to see such detail and transparency. (Link)
Ingrid Jebsen Vinje takes over as CEO at Videocation. (Link)
We Are Learning “democratises learning: Anyone can create a story.” (Link)
News from Sweden
Lots of invaluable insights into children, parents and schools’ use of screens and digital learning resources in the 2024 children and the internet report. (Link)
As anticipated, problems have arisen with digital national exams. (Link)
Sales of Swedish course literature for university students have declined by 40% in the last two years as more students copy and illegally access materials. (Link)
AcadeMedia offers students and guardians a basic education in AI via EdAider. (Link)
Haldor and Tempus join forces to offer municipalities a complete product suite from pre-school to adult education. (Link)
Lexplore lands its first municipality customer in Finland. (Link)
Swedish JobTech releases their first annual industry report - data, skills development, job matching and leadership are all key themes to watch. (Link)
Uniplay has launched with the aim of making “corporate learning as fun and engaging as playing a game.” (Link)
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