Nordic EdTech News #68: 2022-06-13
Your Weeks 22 & 23 update from the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystem
Hello, good morning and welcome to today’s Nordic EdTech News.
Thank you to the +45 new subscribers who have signed up to receive this newsletter in the last two weeks. It’s great to see that more and more people are taking an interest in the Nordic and Baltic EdTech ecosystems - this really helps to achieve our ambition of promoting their innovation and educational excellence on the European and global stage. And as evidenced below, there’s plenty of that in today’s update! On to the news…
Congratulations to all at Lithuania’s BitDegree who have confirmed a $1 million seed funding round (Link). The investment from Mistletoe will help the online learning platform to “further develop its metaverse-based product, aptly dubbed, the Learnoverse.”
Whilst on learning platforms, Denmark’s Innovationsfonden has invested DKK 19 million in a national consortium (named GreenEdTech) that will develop a free teaching platform for primary and lower secondary schools (Link). The programme aims to transform Denmark’s approach to sustainability teaching and is led by Aalborg University, Clio, VIA University College and the Danish Agency for IT and Learning.
Sanoma (whose shares are listed on NASDAQ Helsinki) announced that it had acquired Pearson’s Italian K12 education content business and its German exam preparation business (Link). The acquisition sees Sanoma enter the Italian market for the first time and “substantially bolsters Sanoma Learning’s digital offering for secondary education not only in Italy, but also in its other operating countries.” This recording of Sanoma Learning’s recent deep-dive into digital learning is also well-worth a watch.
Don’t miss the launch of The Finnish EdTech Report 2022 tomorrow (14th June, 1600 EET). The report was commissioned by Helsinki Education Hub and conducted by EdTech Finland and aims to “map the current state and prospects of the EdTech industry in Finland.” Full details and sign up here.
If you can, please support The New Ukrainian School Hub - this free portal aims to help Ukrainian teachers and learners wherever they are now. It has been developed by the European Edtech Alliance and the Learning Together Project and was funded by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission.
And finally, it’s great to see country case studies from Denmark, Estonia and Sweden in this new EU report: ‘Enhancing learning through digital tools and practices: How digital technology in compulsory education can help promote inclusion.’
The next issue of this newsletter (and the last before a summer break) will be published on 4th July. So let me know if you’ve got any feedback or a story to include by emailing hello@10digits.org. Sharing this email with your network is also much appreciated!
Thanks for reading, Jonathan
News from Denmark
62% of Danish schools have access to a makerspace, where students can work creatively with digital and analogue technologies. (Link)
Industry research recognizes Airtame as “the most used wireless presentation solution in schools and classrooms in both the Americas and EMEA.” (Link)
DI launches export promotion to help Danish EdTechs access the significant German market. (Link)
Labster was named “Best Technology Learning Platform” and “Overall STEM Education Solution Provider of the Year” at the EdTech Breakthrough Awards. (Link)
Great interview with Kasper Holst Hansen, Founder of Matematikfessor, on his post-exit entrepreneurial journey. (Link - $$)
David Johan Christensen, Founder of Shape Robotics, has resigned as Executive Vice President but will continue as a non-executive board member. (Link)
uQualio was confirmed as a winner in the Nordic/Baltic Tech Rocketship Awards, organised by the UK’s Department for International Trade. (Link)
News from Estonia
Estonian teachers are happier at work thanks to autonomy and freedom to teach. (Link)
The annual conference for EDEN Digital Learning Europe will be hosted at Tallinn University between 20-22 June 2022. (Link)
Congratulations to everyone at ALPA Kids, who received “The Children's and Youth Jury Award” from the Estonian President! (Link)
Net Group makes Schoolaby, its digital learning platform, available for free to all EU users. (Link)
News from Finland
Finland’s best educational solutions have been named at a recent awards ceremony - Positive Learning was the best digital learning solution of the year and Kide Science the best educational export solution. (Link)
Great to see Eduten and Kide Science featured in a TechCrunch article following their success at the Extreme Tech Challenge. (Link)
Elias Robot has delivered a new project with a leading Finnish vocational education provider supporting students “to strengthen their language skills and prepare for work.” (Link)
MinnaLearn (from the creators of the Elements of AI course) launches with a Finnish approach to cohort-based learning. (Link)
Sparkmind, the Finnish EdTech VC, leads a €1.65m equity financing round for Spanish EdTech startup, Smowltech. (Link)
News from Iceland
Wide range of new digital teaching materials have been recently added to Menntamálastofnun. (Link)
News from Latvia
Future school funding will be distributed via municipalities. (Link)
Agreement signed to establish a MIT Education Innovation Laboratory in Latvia. (Link)
News from Lithuania
New curriculum to be deployed in Lithuanian schools from the 2023 / 2024 academic year. (Link)
Quality standards for textbooks and digital teaching resources signed into law. (Link)
News from Norway
Expert group submits report to the government on digital learning analysis and highlights some challenges re: digital teaching resources. (Link)
Norway’s student teachers need better access to the digital teaching resources that they will be using when they graduate. (Link)
Upper secondary students want digital teaching as a core part of courses. As a result, it will be included in the new Education Act. (Link)
Gyldendal confirmed a collaboration with Aftenposten to create Aftenposten Junior School, a digital newspaper with teaching resources specially developed for primary schools. (Link)
Ludenso secured a 500k NOK grant to research how XR can support inclusion in education. (Link)
News from Sweden
Malmö’s Arduino Education is an official sponsor of the World Robot Olympiad (WRO), a global robotics competition and STEM programme. (Link)
Digiexam announced that the City of Stockholm has now submitted over 2 million digital exams on their platform. (Link)
Furhat will pivot their recent acquisition, Misty Robotics, towards the education sector. (Link)
Interesting interview with Dora Palfi, Co-Founder @ imagiLabs (Link) as they are named a finalist at the Social Innovation Tournament (Link).
The City of Stockholm intends to sign a framework agreement with Skolon to use their platform and to buy digital materials and school tools. (Link)
Storyals and Telia launch a new partnership to “build digital skills in organizations that have invested in Microsoft 365.” (Link)
Irisgruppen chooses StudyBee and Google Classroom as their new learning platform across 20 institutions and 4,000 learners. (Link)
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