EdTech Takes Off in an Old Sydney Woolstore

The EduGrowt­h Christmas Party was held Thursday, December 15, in Sydney. EduGrowth is an accelerator network for the education sector. The event was held at the recently opened WeWork Pyrmont co-working space. The keynote speaker was

Adam Brimo,Founder and CEO of OpenLearning. EdTech Takes Off in an Old Sydney Wool-store

 

EduGrowth is new peak body for the EdTech sector: that is start-up companies selling mostly on-line services and products for education.

 

WeWork provide co-working office space around the world (mostly the USA), with two locations in Sydney. The new location in Pyrmont is in an old wool store which has been renovated in the classic start-up style, with old wooden beams and ceilings retrained, plus retro style steel fittings. There is an extensive bar provided and some interesting touches, such as "telephone boxes" for making private calls and cafe booths for intimate meetings.

OpenLearning provide an on-line learning system using what they call "social media workflow". The company came to prominence when they arranged with the Malaysian government to provide the platform for Malaysian university on-line courses (with 59 courses so far). 

 

OpenLearning also have a "Pay for Certification" offering with Hunter TAFE. The idea seems to be you do the courses on-line for free and then pay to receive the formal certification. This is not as radical as it sounds, as the VET sector has previously provided Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). I obtained a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment through Canberra Institute of Technology, with 80% through RPL and the rest some on-line learning and assessment. The OpenLearning/Hunter Cert IV T&A is more than twice the cost I paid for CIT certification.

EduGrowt­h Christmas Party

The EduGrowt­h Christmas Party is Thursday, December 15, 2016 in Sydney. EduGrowth is an accelerator network for the education sector.

Developing a Strategy for Exporting Australian Educational Technology to China

Greetings from the 47th Floor of the MLC Tower in Sydney, where I am attending a meeting on "Developing a strategy to support the NSW edutech sector access international opportunities". This is hosted by the StudyNSW section of the export arm of the NSW Government and called by the Sydney Edutech Group. There are about 25 people from the education sector and government present. The education export part of NSW Government was recently moved to the Premier's Department, in recognition of the importance of this sector.

We are getting an overview of the Chinese education system, The point was made that Chinese venture investment is now A$350M per quarter and equal to the USA. Most of this investment is in the K-12 tutoring, ESL and post secondary skills. There are fewer opportunities in the government sector (I suspect there is more opportunity than expected).

Telstra Muru-D Start-up Accelerator in Sydney, working with China was mentioned. The point was made that there are reforms by the Chinese government (I suggest this is an opportunity for education exports). Australia's Chinese population was seen as a resource for dealing with China.

Some groups are publishers: Phoenix Press and Pegasus Media, EduTech: New Orient,  Accelerators: Learnlab, Innovation Works, Companies: National football coaching reform, Angels and VCs: Zhen Fund, Fresco Ventures, Startups: Bering EduTech Group, Government: National and Beijing, Universities: Beijing Normal.

I found it interesting that working with Chinese universities was included almost as an afterthought. Australian academics have access to their Chinese univalents and might be a useful channels. I  attend the ICCSE Computer Science and Education Conference with Chinese university academics. Also there are Australian education conferences which Chinese academics may attend: ANU is running the Australasian Computer Science Week of Conferences, 2 – 5 Feb 2016, in Canberra.

One interesting point made at the meeting is that Austria is a very respected education brand in China. This directly benefits Australian educational institutions with Chinese students, but can also benefit education technology providers looking for Chinese investment and sales.

After discussing the investment environment in China, the meeting moved on to discuss a possible trade delegation. This might be a visit over five days in a few cities in mid August 2015 (with possible NSW Government representation).

Muru-D's events were suggested as a model for a deligation. This had ten companies showing products in three cities Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. The idea is to make the presentations look big, by having several confidante presentations. The problem of making something as esoteric as education pedagogy look impressive was discussed, as was the benefits of simultaneous translation (English pretension with slides in Chinese was considered adequate). Those interested in an EdTech delegation to China can contact Terry Hilsberg.

"StudyNSW and Sydney Edutech Group invite founders and members of edutech startups to a consultative round table to assist in the development of a coordinated strategy for NSW edutech companies in accessing global markets, in particular China.

The round table will also discuss opportunities for possible government-led edutech missions overseas, including to China, and how these missions could best be structured to assist NSW startups. Please come along to have your say in how the NSW government can best support you access international markets.

StudyNSW was established by the NSW government in 2014 to support international education in NSW. One of its functions is to identify and generate international market development opportunities and new technology-enabled models of delivery.

The round table consultation led by Terry Hilsberg, Sydney Edutech Group. Overseas mission visit discussion

Edutech Group and StudyNSW We are a 400+ strong Sydney meet-up group, interested in connecting educators, tech geeks, start-ups and investors who are passionate about the education space and interested in applying technology to solve current problems in the education sector. If you are a developer / hacker / entrepreneur / investor — who is passionate about education — please join us.

StudyNSW is a dedicated unit established by the NSW Government to increase the number of international students studying in NSW or with our education providers overseas, improve the quality of their experience while in the State and recognise their contributions to our communities.

Educational Technology Strategy for Sydney

Greetings from the Fishburners Co-working Space in Sydney, where SydEduTech is drafting a strategy to make Sydney a world leader in educational technology.

The one page SydEduTech draft Strategic Plan 2015 – 2020, which was distributed before the workshop had:

2020 Outcomes

• A leading global edutech hub
• Vibrant and sustainable ecosystem
• Supporting a portfolio of successful edutech companies
• Broad and engaged community support base
• High awareness of edutech

2020 Targets

• Independent experts agree Sydney is a leader
  Net importer of edutech companies
• Active entrepreneurs and investors
• 600 edutech companies
  45 edutech companies > $10 million
  7 edutech companies > $100 million
  Increase in education exports and GNP
  Jobs creation
  Social Good
• Over 3000 members
• Increased awareness in general community

Strategic Investments

• Online Presence

• Value Add Events

• Ecosystem Re-investment

• Facilitate International Activities

• Partner with Leading Organisations

• Execution Resources

• Create Funnel of Potential

• Engage Wider Community

The one thing which I think Sydney could do to make itself a globally recognized center for educational technology was to have events which are visible on-line. The idea is that when looking for educational technology products and services online, a search will come up with Sydney events on the topic and the searcher will say "It is all happening in Sydney".

One idea raised was to have one big annual event in Sydney. Another was for a hacker-thon event (this weekend is a "Masters of Code Competition" in Sydney).

I joined the table brainstorming how to "Facilitate International Activities". It turned out another participant was part of a startup teaching English to school students in China using computer games.  

A few months ago I was visiting Vancouver for a conference and searched for other education events on there and people to visit. With a little effort I found found plenty to do.

I hope to take a copy of the finalized strategy and change "Sydney" to Canberra". ;-)

Transforming Sydney into a world EdTeh hub by 2020

The SydEduTech group has issued a Draft Strategy Framework for Sydney EdTech Hub 2020, with the aim to "transform Sydney a leading EdTech Hub by 2020". This is an ambitious goal for an ad-hoc volunteer group, especially given that 2020 is only five years away. But Sydney has some natural advantages, being one of the most livable cities in the world, in Australia's most economically vibrant region and having a number of major universities and Google's Australian Headquarters.

SydEduTech has invited the community to:

1. Review the draft strategy framework 
2. Comment to Facebook, directly or link blogs to there.
3. Attend a SydEduTech “strategy reset” meeting, 6pm, 3 February 2015.

Three questions asked are:

1. What are the major trends predicted for EdTech for the next 5 years?
2. What are the outcomes that need to be achieved for Sydney to be recognized as a global EdTech hub?
3. What are the challenges/strategic investments that we need to do as a group to achieve this goal and how would you approach them?

My answers:

1. What are the major trends predicted for EdTech for the next 5 years? Interest in MOOCs will gradually transform into demand for courses which ordinary students actually complete, have a viable business model and provide credible credentials. Within five years on-line education will become the norm, with the upper secondary, vocational and university student spending about 80% of their time on-line.
2. What are the outcomes that need to be achieved for Sydney to be recognized as a global EdTech hub? Sydney needs to build on its strengths as a good place to live and popular destination for international students. An area which Sydney could work on is training and qualifications for ICT professionals and educators in EdTech. As well as skilling up the thousands of local educational designers and on-line teachers required, training and qualification packages could be marketed to the world.
3. What are the challenges/strategic investments that we need to do as a group to achieve this goal and how would you approach them? The Australian and state governments, along with higher education providers need to be convinced that the golden age of international students coming to Australia for face-to-face courses is about to end.  Existing educational institutions need to be convinced that there is benefit in cooperation, rather than competition, to retool for on-line education, while they are still in business. One way to do this would be for the NSW government to emulate the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN),which has the major universities as members.

Optus SydEduTech Pitchfest

Greetings from the "Optus SydEduTech Pitchfest" at the UTS Business School in Sydney. This is being streamed live. In his welcome, Professor Roy Green, head of the Business School at UTS, commented on the announcement of the end of Holden car making in Australia. He called for work on micro-national startup companies. As an example, he pointed to the "creative precinct" which is growing up around UTS, in Ultimo in Sydney.