Nordic EdTech News #56 : 2021-12-13
Your Weeks 48 and 49 update from the Nordic & Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello and welcome to the final Nordic EdTech News of 2021! Preparations for the traditional end-of-year celebrations are in full swing despite an increasingly uncertain public health position that has already seen the Norwegian government confirming that schools can start their Christmas holidays early (Link) and Danish lower schools shifting back to distance learning (Link).
Whilst on Denmark, recent NENs have reported on plans to significantly increase the fees to access Unilogin, the national school sign-in solution. It’s great to see that the Minister for Children and Education has now withdrawn these plans (Link), confirming her intention to “maintain and expand Unilogin as a strong foundation for the school's digital work."
Notably the Danish Government also announced last week that it would provide an additional DKK 52.5 million to support the “digital education of Danish school children” (Link). The budget is to be invested in teaching students how to behave safely online and a raft of supporting resources and training for teachers and parents. The need for these initiatives is urgent as evidenced by a recent Telia report of 5,000 children aged between 11 and 17 in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden which found that 90% of them had faced misinformation online (Link).
The importance of using trusted online content and resources is further evidenced in work by the Finnish National Agency for Education (OPH) who have recently published new guidelines and quality standards for digital learning environments. Developed in collaboration with Education Alliance Finland (EAF), they also provide clear advice and support for municipalities and schools when buying learning resources (Link).
EAF has also recently developed the OPUS Framework (Objectives, Pedagogy, User Experience and Support). It aims to support EdTech businesses to create high-quality solutions and is based on their many years of experience. I’d suggest that it would be hugely useful alongside Brighteye Ventures’ new report on “Deciding where to expand”, which is packed with useful insight for any business considering their next move.
Building an increasing international footprint will certainly be on the 2022 agenda for the team at Ouriginal, whose acquisition by Turnitin has now been confirmed (Link). As in NEN #55, there’s lots more acquisition news below.
Congratulations to Finland’s GraphoGame who won the Nordic Baltic semi-final of the Global Edtech Startup Awards (Link). And also to CanopyLab and Turing College who were named in a recent round-up of “the Best European Innovations in 2021” (Link)
Nordic EdTech News returns to subscriber inboxes on 10 January 2022, so please follow us on Twitter where we’ll be keeping an eye on any major developments over the festive season.
Finally, huge thanks to everyone for reading, subscribing and supporting this newsletter over the last 12 months - it’s very much appreciated!
Stay healthy and wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Best regards, Jonathan
News from Denmark
Eske Gunge steps down as CEO of Actimo after selling the business to Kahoot! in 2020 and overseeing a successful integration. (Link)
Interesting moves in the homework help / tutoring market as GoTutor confirms Learny acquisition (Link) and MentorDanmark takes over Restudy ApS. (Link)
Labster announces their 10 STEM Educator of the Year Award winners. (Link)
Skolen Online won an Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 prize. (Link)
Shape Robotics confirms strong yoy growth of 160 - 180% to reach revenues of up to DKK 17 million in 2021. (Link)
New portal launched to help teachers embed games-based learning into their lessons. (Link)
News from Estonia
Great series of events this week focused on EdTech, knowledge and learning at Estonia’s pavilion at EXPO 2021 Dubai. (Link)
Brilliant to see the amazing progress made by EdTech Estonia and its members in 2021 as they celebrate one year of operation. (Link)
Nearly 6,000 children studied programming and robotics as part of the ProgeTiiger Future Maker 2021 event. (Link)
See how the Opiq learning platform helped replace textbooks in Estonian schools. (Link)
News from Finland
Claned collaborated on an elearning White Paper with Slush as part of their Entrepreneurship Redefined series. (Link)
Kide Science confirms new partnership with IntellectoKids. (Link)
MoovKids has signed an agreement with HEI Schools in Australia, where their
activities and lesson plans are now being used.New Nordic Schools team up with Boundless Life to launch a new education centre in Portugal. (Link)
First-ever online Finnish International Final Exams are underway. (Link)
School Day starts Assignments integration with Teams (Link) and announces that schools in Helsinki will start piloting the app in upper secondary schools. (Link)
The SoRoMa research project explores how robots can support students' math learning. (Link)
Sparkmind.vc leads a $2.5m round into Berlin-based corporate learning startup, Wonderwerk. (Link)
News from Iceland
The Canvascasters Podcast makes its way to Iceland for a special episode. (Link)
Esports Coaching Academy receives a grant from the Íslandsbanki Entrepreneurship Fund. (Link)
News from Latvia
New STEAM school planned to support formal education courses alongside lifelong learning and re/upskilling. (Link)
Over 1,000 women have applied for the Riga TechGirls mentoring programme. (Link)
News from Lithuania
Poklet announce that they have added 12,000 registered users since September. (Link)
Detailed video interview with Monika Katkute from Teachers Lead Tech by Zanichelli Venture. Watch in full here.
Turing College launch new subscription model for members to join their “data science community.” (Link)
News from Norway
Good to see Creaza listed as a “cool tool” by EdTEch Digest! (Link)
House of Math hits 300k registered users and confirms a new 11MNOK funding round. (Link)
Launch of Kahoot!+ AccessPass will provide access to premium kahoots, courses and other resources through a global online marketplace. (Link)
Kodetimen 2021 takes place today (13 Dec) with over 70,000 students signed up to participate. (Link)
Ludenso confirms the winners of their Sustainability Challenge. (Link)
No Isolation wins significant funding to research how their solution can support the elderly at home. (Link)
Wittario raises NOK 13 million in their latest funding round. (Link)
News from Sweden
Gleechi announces the launch of a new Training Platform, which enables clients to deploy VR training without “any development overhead.” (Link)
ILT Education confirms that schools in Herne and Recklinghausen (Germany) now have access to Polylino. (Link)
Paula Dozsa of imagiLabs has been named as a Lead2030 winner by Deloitte. (Link)
NE’s Teaching Materials Survey identifies that not all schools provide resources to all students as well as other significant national/regional disparities. (Link)
Skolverket released research showing that digital learning resources “can stimulate students' motivation, commitment and learning.” (Link)
StudyBee signs a reseller agreement with Online Partner. (Link)
Toca Life World (65 million active users) confirmed as iPhone App of the Year 2021. (Link)
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