review:ed Episode #16 “Ed Tech Startups – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” recorded: February 17th 2012

This Interview is sponsored by Languagelab.com – Bringing the World of English to You Languagelab.com offers total immersion in English. Learn online in Languagelab’s English City, a virtual 3D city full of real English-speakers. Discover Languagelab.com’s specially designed courses for General English, Business English, Oil & Gas and Aviation English.

Show Notes

[02:00] Airy Labs layoffs and the Thiel Fellowship
Sources: TechCrunch | Hack Education

[14:20] Education Hype or Bubble? Sir Ken Robinson’s talk outdated

[22:20] Thank you to our sponsor Languagelab.com

[26:10] Interview with Jani Penttinen of Transfluent

[30:30] Transfluent translates the Obama Campaign Tweets into Spanish

[36:11] Pivots as part of a startup’s lifecycle

[46:47] Advice for young entrepreneurs

[49:23] Interview Lesley Beth & Kevin Condon of Jazzles

[51:00] History & methodologyof Jazzles

[59:00] Business behind Jazzles

[1:12:50] Would Google be as successful without Eric Schmidt as CEO?

[1:15:25] Inkling launches publisher platform
Source: Business Wire

[1:21:37] University of California YouTube Channel – UCTV Prime
Source: The Verge

Kirsten & Chris

In this episode of review:ed Chris and I talked about the news around Airy Labs and the Thiel Fellowship, Inkling’s new publisher platform and UCTV Prime, the new YouTube “premium” channel of the University of California. We also invited Jani Penttinen, Founder and CEO of Transfluent and the founders of Jazzles, Lesley Beth and Kevin Condon to talk about their experiences in building an ed tech startup.

This Interview is sponsored by Languagelab.com – Bringing the World of English to You Languagelab.com offers total immersion in English. Learn online in Languagelab’s English City, a virtual 3D city full of real English-speakers. Discover Languagelab.com’s specially designed courses for General English, Business English, Oil & Gas and Aviation English.

Show Notes

[02:00] Airy Labs layoffs and the Thiel Fellowship
Sources: TechCrunch | Hack Education

[14:20] Education Hype or Bubble? Sir Ken Robinson’s talk outdated

[22:20] Thank you to our sponsor Languagelab.com

[26:10] Interview with Jani Penttinen of Transfluent

[30:30] Transfluent translates the Obama Campaign Tweets into Spanish

[36:11] Pivots as part of a startup’s lifecycle

[46:47] Advice for young entrepreneurs

[49:23] Interview Lesley Beth & Kevin Condon of Jazzles

[51:00] History & methodologyof Jazzles

[59:00] Business behind Jazzles

[1:12:50] Would Google be as successful without Eric Schmidt as CEO?

[1:15:25] Inkling launches publisher platform
Source: Business Wire

[1:21:37] University of California YouTube Channel – UCTV Prime
Source: The Verge

review:ed Episode #15 “Who owns your Data?” recorded: February 10th 2012

	This Interview is sponsored by Einztein – The Social Learning Network Einztein is the social learning network for higher education and lifelong learners. Einztein brings the power of social networking to learning and enables anyone to create an online learning community for resource sharing, collaboration and discussion.
	This Interview is sponsored by Languagelab.com – Bringing the World of English to You Languagelab.com offers total immersion in English. Learn online in Languagelab’s English City, a virtual 3D city full of real English-speakers. Discover Languagelab.com’s specially designed courses for General English, Business English, Oil & Gas and Aviation English.

Show Notes

Kirsten & Chris

In this episode Chris and I talk to Rafael Corrales, founder and CEO of LearnBoost and Wayee Chu and Jennifer Carolan who co-lead the NewSchools Venture Seed Fund. Topics include the death of the common web, data portability, copyright on student notes and more.

	This Interview is sponsored by Einztein – The Social Learning Network Einztein is the social learning network for higher education and lifelong learners. Einztein brings the power of social networking to learning and enables anyone to create an online learning community for resource sharing, collaboration and discussion.
	This Interview is sponsored by Languagelab.com – Bringing the World of English to You Languagelab.com offers total immersion in English. Learn online in Languagelab’s English City, a virtual 3D city full of real English-speakers. Discover Languagelab.com’s specially designed courses for General English, Business English, Oil & Gas and Aviation English.

Show Notes

According to Kara Swisher at AllThingsD Craig Silverstein who joined Google in 1998 as employee number 1 leaves the company to join the team at Khan Academy. Probably the biggest hire of Salman Khan so far but taking into consideration that Silverstein probably does not need to work to actually make money for quite a while already I am sure it was a steal.

Being involved in a lot of different projects on Google from building the original search engine to a mix of different responsibilities lately he will apparently work as developer on the Khan Academy.

From the description Swisher gives in her post Silverstein seems to be a jack of all trades, something a small startup with limited resources is always looking for. The experience and knowledge Silverstein will bring to the table should be critical for the Khan Academy in terms of building a scalable and stable Internet platform. Also insights in search algorithms will be useful to structure the growing library of videos and exercises.

There is no official update from the Khan Academy itself yet but Kara Swisher will update her post as soon as she gets more details. Larry Page already gave a statement through a spokesperson, wishing Silverstein all the best and thanking him for his contributions over the years.

As Swisher points out, for someone who worked there from basically the start giving a statement through a spokesperson is kind of a weak move from Page.

review:ed Episode #14 “Everything Beyond the Traditional Classroom” recorded: February 3rd 2012

	This Interview is sponsored by Acceptly – College Prep Done Right Acceptly is making it easier for students everywhere to get accepted to college. Increase your chances through step-by-step guidance and secrets for overcoming the admissions process. Try it for free today.
	This Interview is sponsored by Einztein – The Social Learning Network Einztein is the social learning network for higher education and lifelong learners. Einztein brings the power of social networking to learning and enables anyone to create an online learning community for resource sharing, collaboration and discussion.

Show Notes

• [01:40] Welcome Dr. Alicia Chang of Airy Labs.
• [02:30] How to judge if Research is trustworthy
  Source: MindShift
• [21:48] Stanford Faculty launching online teaching startup
  Source: HackEducation
• [34:40] Thank you to our sponsor Acceptly – College Prep Done Right
• [38:33] Chris reports from his call with Blackboard – overhauling the UI
• [50:53] Voxy launching Voxy Academy – ESL Classroom / Lab in the company HQ in New York
  Source: EDUKWEST
• [54:50] The state of language teaching in public schools – US and Europe
• [1:06:53] Thank you to our sponsor Einztein – The Social Learning Network
• [1:08:43] Amazon acquired TeachStreet – shuts it down on February 15th
  Source: EDUKWEST
• [1:16:55] Do we need to fear Google?

Kirsten & Christopher

In this episode of review:ed Chris and I invited Dr. Alicia Chang of Airy Labs to talk about good research and faculty members leaving to found education startups. We also cover Blackboard’s new UI, Voxy Academy, Amazon buying TeachStreet and if we need to be afraid of Google.

	This Interview is sponsored by Acceptly – College Prep Done Right Acceptly is making it easier for students everywhere to get accepted to college. Increase your chances through step-by-step guidance and secrets for overcoming the admissions process. Try it for free today.
	This Interview is sponsored by Einztein – The Social Learning Network Einztein is the social learning network for higher education and lifelong learners. Einztein brings the power of social networking to learning and enables anyone to create an online learning community for resource sharing, collaboration and discussion.
	This Interview is sponsored by Languagelab.com – Bringing the World of English to You Languagelab.com offers total immersion in English. Learn online in Languagelab’s English City, a virtual 3D city full of real English-speakers. Discover Languagelab.com’s specially designed courses for General English, Business English, Oil & Gas and Aviation English.

Show Notes

• [01:40] Welcome Dr. Alicia Chang of Airy Labs.
• [02:30] How to judge if Research is trustworthy
  Source: MindShift
• [21:48] Stanford Faculty launching online teaching startup
  Source: HackEducation
• [34:40] Thank you to our sponsor Acceptly – College Prep Done Right
• [38:33] Chris reports from his call with Blackboard – overhauling the UI
• [50:53] Voxy launching Voxy Academy – ESL Classroom / Lab in the company HQ in New York
  Source: EDUKWEST
• [54:50] The state of language teaching in public schools – US and Europe
• [1:06:53] Thank you to our sponsor Einztein – The Social Learning Network
• [1:08:43] Amazon acquired TeachStreet – shuts it down on February 15th
  Source: EDUKWEST
• [1:16:55] Do we need to fear Google?

Language learning startup Voxy now offers free English lessons in a classroom at the SoHo HQ. Voxy Academy is both a research and development lab in which new products will be tested in a classic brick and mortar environment.

The Voxy team aims to explore how mobile and web-based educational technology like the Voxy applications can enhance real-word classroom mechanics and pedagogy. Voxy team members like product managers and developers will not only observe the students but also interact with them, helping them to handle new products or features. In return Voxy will get first hand feedback and user data directly from its users.

The Voxy Academy team will also work on a curriculum for English teachers, helping them to integrate Voxy’s mobile and web based products in their own classroom.

Voxy Academy is currently accepting students who are native Spanish and Portuguese speakers in New York City with a basic class on Tuesdays at 7 PM and an advanced class on Thursdays at 7 PM. Interested learners can contact classes@voxy.com.

If you want to know how it all started, below is the EDUKWEST interview Kirsten did back in October 2010, shortly after the official launch at TechCrunch Disrupt.

According to Seattle based tech blog GeekWire TeachStreet has been acquired by Amazon. It is a talent acquisition and the service will be shut down on February 15th. Team TeachStreet already joined the AmazonLocal team.

Teachers can export their data with a tool provided by TeachStreet and there is also a special FAQ for the transition.

The main reason for this acquisition seems to be the infamous Google Panda update back in February 2011 which has had a negative effect on the traffic of various companies that relied on SEO driven visitors. Apparently TechStreet never really recovered from this blow.

Dave and I talked about the issue on KWestions in March 2011 and back in January, hence right before the Panda update, I talked to Jason Calacanis whose company Mahalo has also been hit heavily by the algorithm change. Both interviews are embedded below.

I will share some personal thoughts on this on KirstenWinkler.com but I can already say that I am of course happy for Dave and the team but also pretty sad to see one of my favorite startups go. I also need to find out how the acquisition of TeachStreet might affect their Australian partner doMore.

EDUKWEST Episode #89 published: February 2nd 2012 Guest: Shmuel Meitar, Founder Time To Know

This Interview is sponsored by Einztein – The Social Learning Network Einztein is the social learning network for higher education and lifelong learners. Einztein brings the power of social networking to learning and enables anyone to create an online learning community for resource sharing, collaboration and discussion.

Time To Know was founded in 2004 by Shmuel Meitar as a philanthropic endeavor, investing $60 million of his own wealth into the startup according to TechCrunch. Today Time To Know offers a complete curriculum in math as well as language arts along with a digital platform for schools in K-12.

The holistic Time To Know way to teach has already been implemented in public schools in 150 classrooms in Israel and 120 classrooms in Texas and New York by the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

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