Nordic EdTech News #44 : 2021-06-07
Your Week 21 and 22 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Good morning! Welcome to Nordic EdTech News and hope that you have a great week!
With all of the amazing pedagogical and technological innovation this newsletter reports on every week, it’s essential that we check-in on the actual use of such materials in classrooms to transform teaching. Since 2016, Clio has produced an invaluable market survey on the use of digital teaching aids / technology and published their 2021 report at the end of May. The report combines insight from both Denmark and Sweden and evidences a strong move towards digital teaching tools - nearly 40% of Danish teachers, for example, answered that they used digital materials exclusively or predominantly in teaching. As well as providing an insight into how schools responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, the report also outlines some of the challenges schools still face in their digitisation journey - unstable internet and inadequate equipment are, for over 40% of teachers, still major stumbling blocks.
One concern not referenced in the report is student data privacy. In my last newsletter, I linked to a Norwegian report which raised concerns that popular EdTech resources were not implementing appropriate safeguards. Since then, IKT-Norge have issued a robust rebuttal on behalf of their members, calling the report “junk” (Link in Norwegian). But the issue is still live and I’m sure that we’ll be hearing much more on this topic from Norway and elsewhere over time. This recent article on Google’s plans in the space is well worth reading in this context.
Tomorrow (8th June 2021) sees the official launch of the European Edtech Alliance. Full details of the event here and there’s a great speaker line-up including Sweden’s Lexplore. Again, please do attend and show your support!
Next Monday’s Nordic EdTech News Interview will be with Jon Gunnar Thordarson, CEO at Icelandic EdTech, Mussila. And if you missed last week’s interview with Annely Tank, CEO of EdTech Estonia, you can read it in full here.
I’m always happy to recommend other high-quality EdTech content, so please do check out the blogs (English and Swedish) and newsletter produced by Alastair Creelman. He’s an e-learning specialist working at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, south-east Sweden, with a particular interest in the use of digital tools in higher education.
If you read this newsletter for Nordic EdTech analysis and insight, you may be interested to know that I do also sell my services. Want to find out more about my advisory work helping to build great EdTech businesses and organisations? Let’s talk.
As always, do let me know if you’ve got any feedback or a story to include in a future issue of this newsletter by emailing hello@10digits.org. Sharing this email with your network is also much appreciated!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Minister for Education to review use of learning platforms in schools. (Danish)
Clio CEO, Jesper Eiby Christoffersen, announces that he’s leaving to join Group Online as CEO from 1st August. (Link)
Eduflow launch the Eduflow Academy to help customers build “engaging digital learning experiences.” (Link)
FrontRead publish results from a 5-year research project showing that their solution improves reading speed by 50%. (Link)
See where Justlearn founder, Philip Rossen, got the inspiration to launch the language teaching platform. (Link)
Congrats to Lulu Lab, who are nominated for Best Newcomer and Founder of the Year at the Nordic Startup Awards. (Link)
Shape Robotics seal deal with GEMS Education (Dan) and predict strong growth ahead. (Dan - $$)
Masters students at the University of Copenhagen Business School can now study a new Applied Machine Learning and Data Engineering module, developed with Capgemini. (Link)
News from Estonia
Detailed explanation of how Estonia provides consistent, fast internet access for students and teachers. (Link)
New resources from Clanbeat to help students tackle anxiety and worry. (Link)
Mentornaut receives €100,000 investment from angel investors for online tutor platform. (Link)
News from Finland
Don’t miss the Finnish Early Childhood and Education International Innovation Forum - Tuesday 8th June. Great speakers and full details here.
The Finnish government allocate €111 million to “to alleviate the adverse impacts of the pandemic on children and young adults” including €65 million to bridge the learning gap. (Link)
How Claned help Rosaldo to improve online training for healthcare workers. (Link)
Detailed background on HEI Schools and their continued international growth. (Link)
Kide Science start working with kindergartens in Jyväskylä. (Finnish)
Great to hear Ellimaija Ahonen, CEO of LessonApp, on this podcast talking about Finnish education and EdTech. (Link)
Tuudo hit 100,000 active monthly users in 26 Finnish universities and launch new partnerships with Bitwards. (Link)
Verdane invests in Eduhouse and Wistec to support their growth as B2B e-learning content businesses. (Link)
News from Iceland
Time for my periodic mention of #menntaspjall to get the latest picture of how teachers in Iceland use EdTech in their classrooms.
News from Latvia
A pilot project for EMU: Skola, a wellbeing solution for students, gets great feedback from teachers. (Lat)
Useful insight from Lielvārdes on hybrid learning in Latvia. (Lat)
Great summary of usage over the past school year from Uzdevumi. (Lat)
News from Lithuania
Strong EdTech panel at last week’s Startup Fair (Link) but unfortunately no recording at the time of writing. Will post when available.
Lukas Kaminskis, Co-founder & CEO at Turing College, on “Creating XXI century education: job market expectations.” (Link)
The National Agency for Education continues to extend their list of recommended digital teaching resources in April / May. (Lith)
News from Norway
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to adopt itslearning as its statewide LMS for the next 3 years, following a trial one-year contract. The system will now support 400,000 users across the state. (Link)
Kahoot! announce that their app is now available on the Amazon Appstore (Link) and confirms that the Kahoot! EDU Summit will take place on 16 / 17 June. (Link)
Ludenso launch a new Ocean Challenge to encourage “ocean preservation, entrepreneurship and creativity.” (Link)
Sarah Bertram Smith from Brighteye Ventures on investing in EdTech at the Creative Startups Roundtable organised by Startup Norway. (Link)
For some educators in Higher Education, the pandemic digital teaching experience was “so positive.” (Nor)
News from Sweden
As a Jämtland resident, it’s encouraging to see how Elevhälsa Online is strengthening local students’ mental wellbeing. (Swe)
How the Apple Entrepreneur Camp supported imagiLabs on their journey. (Link)
Skolon and ILT Inläsningstjänst announce new integration. (Swe)
Skolverket report shows that online / distance learning needs trust and structure to be a success. (Swe)
The Swedish Edtech Industry announces new Board members (Link) as it expands focus to include B2C and corporate learning EdTech businesses. (Link)
Fascinating to see how Helsingborg municipality empowers children through the use of virtual assistants (via TietoEVRY). (Link)
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