There is a plethora of new companies claiming to be offering something new and effective in learning using digital tools.
What is the state of play in the ed start-up world? Of the list of nine ed startups listed at http://101.edstartup.net/space/ I had already heard of 5 of them and am in fact taking a course on Coursera so have direct experience of how that one is working.
Sometimes I have difficulty understanding the concept of the startup. Degreed for example does not give enough information, so are they live too early? Some of them seem too mechanical given their avowed aim of being people-centred eg Class DoJo. I guess that this is a technical implementation of the many complicated points systems I used to read about in certain US teaching newsgroups. I must say that back then I used to worry that class time was far too concentrated on behavior management rather than learning, so I’m not sure how I feel about the mechanization of these rewards and social control systems. On the one hand it may be time-saving for the teacher, allowing more time for learning and on the other it may make it too easy to concentrate on these extrinsic motivators (of badges and smileys and so on) at the expense of intrinsic motivators. But I am interested in the Badge idea in general and especially how that can be used for the recognition of informal learning.
I am particularly interested in Coursera since I am following a course there at the moment. They seem to be having a few technical problems caused by internal (upgrade and more students than anticipated) and external (GoDaddy outage) factors but I don’t seem to have been affected by these. Otherwise I admire the way in which the videos are delivered in a very fluent way with the possibility for sub-titles. One option I use is the ability to speed up the videos so that speaking speed more nearly matches reading speed. I have been very impressed at the way the content is so well structured and delivered. I wonder though if this is possible for all subjects: Language, for example, which is my specialty and which I see as more of a skill to be gained by interaction than a collection of learning objects.
Otherwise the list brings home to me that the main way to be an edstartup is by implementing some code. Of course it is exactly the code which brought us Web 2.0, social media and so on. So there is a link between coding and digital interaction. But I’m wondering if this means that you can’t be in the edstartup camp unless you are a programmer/coder.
I am also a little unclear about the business model in some cases and how the founders make a living such as Coursera for example where all the courses are free.
As to how to keep up with developments, I have been following the New Media Consortium for many years and find their annual reports very interesting and illuminating. I also find that Kirstin Winkler has her finger on the pulse regarding language learning tech. EdSurge is new to me and has been added to my list.
It will be interesting to take a look at the list of nine in a couple of years time to see which have survived and which not. I suspect there will be casualties along the way, not least because the field of edstartups is so new and people are feeling their way both in what works pedagogically and what works financially.