Nordic EdTech News #55 : 2021-11-29
Your Weeks 46 and 47 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Good morning and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News!
As we enter the last month of the year I‘m prepared for the inevitable “2021: The EdTech year” review articles that will flood into my inbox and social feeds. But few will be as insightful or useful as the Utdanningsspeilet 2021 published by Utdanningsdirektoratet / the Norwegian Directorate of Education. It provides a “summary of statistics and research on day care and basic education in Norway” and includes a unrivalled insight into the national use of digital education.
Notably it identifies that:
Teachers see a lack of digital skills in students of all ages
There’s work to be done building teachers' professional digital competence
School leaders are prioritizing digital learning resources over print textbooks
The freedom to choose different digital learning resources and teaching aids contributes to higher motivation for both teachers and students
Most school leaders and managers are well aware of privacy and security issues when choosing and using digital resources.
This shift to digital resources and reduced budgets is causing further challenges for Norwegian publishers, who are now facing a “textbook crisis.” According to recent media reports, the lack of textbooks covering the updated Norwegian curriculum has led to mass photocopying of material, potentially leading schools to infringe copyright agreements. (Link, Link)
Digitization is also having an impact on effective school administration. Head teachers from Estonia and Finland outline here how their profession and role has changed in response.
NEN #54 reported on the proposed new payment model for Unilogin and the impact on EdTech businesses. EdTech Denmark has raised a series of important issues with key decision-makers and are working to bring all parties together in the next two weeks (Link). Similarly Edtech Finland (and members) have responded to criticism of Oppiva Invest’s role in funding leading Finnish EdTech businesses (Link).
And finally, I was delighted to talk to Sari Hurme-Mehtälä, CEO and Co-Founder of Kide Science, for her EdTechX Story. Check out our conversation here!
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 always much appreciated!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Interesting school case highlights concerns about publishers’ T+Cs, which automatically renew licences and subscriptions. (Link)
A new data security breach as Silkeborg Municipality leaks the personal data of almost 13,000 students. (Link)
More criticism for Aula from a survey of Danish school leaders. (Link)
Brancheforeningen for Undervisningsmidler encourages municipalities to involve teachers in the procurement of teaching resources. (Link)
eloomi confirms plans to open its first US office in Orlando. (Link)
Labster wins at the Best of Stem Awards 2021 (Link) and appoints Hope Frank as new CMO (Link).
Shape Robotics signs an agreement with Finland’s Sanako to supply language lab software for projects in Romania and Eastern Europe. (Link)
News from Estonia
ALPA Kids start a pilot project to provide their e-learning games to all preschools in Tallinn.
CTF Tech engages young people in the world of cyber security through gamified training and competitions. (Link)
The Research in Estonia podcast highlights education innovation in its latest episode. (Link)
Edumus launches Edumus School, which will offer a wide range of online courses to high school students. (Link)
eKool continues international expansion with new launch in Ghana. (Link)
The Estonian pavilion at EXPO 2021 Dubai will host an EdTech Day on 16 December. (Link)
EdTech Estonia celebrates its first birthday on December 1st. The organisation now has 34 member companies and huge ambitions for the future.
News from Finland
Forthcoming “Rethinking Education with AI” event brings together experts from Finland and Japan (7 December). Details here.
Code School Finland will provide training for teachers to help them implement creative programming projects with their students. (Link)
Educraftor launches Educraftor Academy to help organisations build an innovation culture (Link) as their founder, Peter Fagerström, takes part in the Future Talks Podcast. (Link)
GraphoGame wins “Best Early Years Resource” at the GESS Education Awards.(Link)
HEI Schools open in Canada (Link) and partner with EF for a Chinese teacher training programme. (Link)
Nice feature on the Helsinki Education Hub and its acceleration programme. (Link)
Great to see Kide Science included in this analysis of 31 case studies of education innovations during the pandemic. (Link)
Reactored will be launching new digital materials series for English language learning at this week’s ITK2021 Conference. (Link)
News from Iceland
Huge wealth of EdTech and teaching excellence from the recent Utís Online event. Follow #utis2021 for more.
News from Latvia
Edurio launches new Pupil Learning Experience and Wellbeing Review, based on the responses of over 45,000 UK pupils. (Link)
Riga TechGirls, working with Accenture, announce the latest round of She Goes Tech training sessions. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Lithuanian startup association Vienaragiai LT / Unicorns LT & partners agrees to invest €150k to support Teachers Lead Tech mission of improving teachers’ tech capabilities. (Link)
Great round-up of the recent Edtech Hackathon in Vilnius here.
News from Norway
Government allocates NOK 10 million to increase use of online Norwegian language teaching. Aimed at “publishers and EdTech suppliers who have existing online learning resources for first-time training in Norwegian.” (Link)
Online university administration tools take up too much time. (Link)
Positive impact from pilot programme between Advania School Partner and Færder municipality. (Link)
Ludenso launches new White Paper - Enabling digital creativity with Augmented Reality in K12 education. Download it here.
Research shows that Kaptein Morf app has a positive impact on students’ vocabulary. (Link)
2022 programme for Læring på digitale flater (Learning on digital surfaces) events published. Details here
News from Sweden
Cross-sector working group publishes report on mapping the innovation ecosystems where learning and technology meet. (Link)
Clio will expand its content provision to cover all subjects for “mellan och högstadiet” by Spring 2022. (Link)
Alexandra Blomberg from ILT Education receives the award for "B2B Commercial Excellence Director 2021." (Link)
Kognity confirms Engage conference for February 2022 (Link) and announces move into Tunisia (Link).
NE (Nationalencyklopedin) launches open API to give Sweden's schools easier and more flexible access to their digital teaching materials. (Link)
Quizrr wins the Social Impact Award at the Techarenan Challenge 2021. (Link)
Great article on finding product-market fit through a vision-led approach, featuring Joel Hellermark, Founder and CEO of Sana Labs. (Link)
Skolon named on the Deloitte Sweden Technology Fast 50 List for 2021. (Link)
Swedish Edtest plans Edtest Talk IRL next January: “How can we create an ecosystem that develops today's students through digital learning?” (Link)
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