Nordic EdTech News #22 : 2020-06-29

Your Week 25 & 26 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystems

Jun 29, 2020

As my social media timelines fill up with pictures of summer cottages, hammocks and Nordic lakes, it’s clear that summer holidays are here (at last!) for many across our ecosystem. This will, therefore, be the last Nordic EdTech News for a little while - we’ll be back towards the end of July with a round-up of news from the holidays.

Until then, there’s lots of news to catch up in the links below and you’ll hopefully have time to read these longer items as well!

Great wide-ranging interview with Eilert Hanoa, CEO of Kahoot! (Link) covering how to handle exponential growth, building new revenue models and the benefits of being a Nordic business. A must read!
Latest McKinsey research highlights education technology’s impact on learning. (Link) I love John’s Martin’s summary on Twitter - Empower the teacher first for better outcomes. Don't add technology without a plan. Stay away from tablets.
New OECD country education profiles released for Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Norway (Link) alongside national education reports for all 8 countries reviewing preparedness for supporting learning during the pandemic. (Link)
Fascinating review of Nordic impact start-ups and the barriers inhibiting their growth. (IMO EdTechs clearly fit the definition of impact startups.) (Link, Link)
Nordic countries lead the way in EU Innovation with Sweden on top. (Link)

If the lure of work gets too much to ignore, then please make sure you’ve completed your entry into the 2020 Nordic-Baltic EdTech 50. As per NEN #21, we’re working with HolonIQ to select the top 50 startups from across the region. Applications are now open and will close on 8 August 2020. Nominations are welcomed from EdTech companies, their customers and investors. Apply here.

Have a great summer!

Best regards, Jonathan

News from Denmark

6th Grade students work together to create a computer game as part of Coding Class. (Den, Eng)
Aarhus Municipality pauses distribution of Chromebooks to schools as teachers express concerns. (Den, Eng)
BookBites (Den, Eng) and Pickatale (Den) report significant success in boosting time spent reading online during the pandemic
CanopyLab acquires Peruvian publisher YoPublico to help scale in key Latin American market. (Link)
How teachers are using KUBO to teach Maths. (Link)
LEGO Foundation launch new Children, Technology and Play study. (Link)
Sprogteknologi.dk launches to provide easy access to Danish language resources and to support the development of AI locally. (Danish)

News from Estonia

Great profile of Kadri Tuisk, Founder and CEO of Clanbeat. (Link)
HITSA announce plans for Chromebook procurement programme (Est, Eng) as their responsibilities are taken over by a new Education and Youth Board. (Est, Eng)
Don’t miss the online version of the new Life in Estonia magazine, which focuses on the national education revolution. (Link) 99Math, DreamApply, Lingvist and Tutor.id are all featured amongst others.

News from Finland

Finnish Government announce an extra €17 million to support upper secondary schools. (Fin, Eng)
Code School Finland’s AI Curriculum receives positive evaluation from Education Alliance Finland. (Link)
Olli Vallo, CEO of Education Alliance Finland, blogs about why impact research is important in EdTech. (Link)
Kide Science announce new agreement with Dalton School in Hong Kong. (Link)
First outputs of new relationship between Seppo and Dutch publisher, Thieme Meulenhof. (Dutch, Eng)

News from Iceland

Icelandic EdTech guru, Ingvi Ómarsson, offers his ‘8 things teachers want EdTech companies to know.’ Much to think about here. (Link)
Kara Connect’s CEO, Thorbjorg Helga, spoke to the BBC about how their system helps young people with mental health problems. (Link)
Great to see an EdTech company, Smáforrit, in the 10 startups selected for the Startup SuperNova Accelerator programme. (Ice, Eng)

News from Latvia

Catch up on all of the sessions from the Ed-Tech Evolution online event (Link) as the competition winners are also announced. (Link)
How Latvia’s Tava Klase (Your Class) television channels kept the nation learning during the pandemic. (Eng)
Latvian MOE announce pay rises for teachers as part of a package of education reforms. (Lat, Eng)

News from Lithuania

Many Lithuanians lack high-quality digital literacy skills. (Lith, Eng)
Summer coding courses from Edukraftas. (Lith)
Teachers Lead Tech gear up to train 600 teachers in September. (Link)

News from Norway

6 out of 10 students believe that their learning outcomes have got worse as a result of distance learning. (Nor, Eng)
Details emerge for new curricula in 16 subjects. (Nor, Eng)
Israeli company gains access to school student data. (Nor - €€)
Hubro Education outline the pandemic challenge for EdTechs - more users but not more revenue yet. (Nor, Eng)
Kahoot launch Kahoot! Academy - a global knowledge platform, content community and marketplace for educators, learners and publishers. (Link)
Ludenso outline new project in Germany. (Link)
Samsung celebrate their partnership with Lær Kidsa Koding by promoting the Hjemmekodeklubben learning platform (Nor, Eng) and detail their work supporting distance learning. (Nor, Eng)

News from Sweden

Kognity highlighted in Nordic Scalers report from Nordic Innovation.
Notysing app helps students learn music and enables teachers to monitor progress. (Swe, Eng)
Year 5 students test new Microsoft Surface Go. (Swedish)
Moblrn raises 6.5 million SEK to expand globally and signs agreement with French conglomerate, Saint-Gobain. (Swe, Eng)
Sana Labs host a masterclass on the Future of Corporate Learning. (Link)
Scientific EdTech raise 5.6 million SEK to develop its maths app. (Swe, Eng)
Swedish Edtech Industry announce support for new school year (Swe, Eng) as nine new members join. (Swe, Eng)
Rapid progress is being made at Swedish Edtest with 23 EdTech companies now actively involved. (Swe, Eng)