Sony E-Reader to Launch in December

Will it have an education component like the rumored Apple tablet?

The Sony eReader will compete with the Kindle 2.

There are some aspects to this device that may be positive for school districts.

1. The device allows the user to type in a zip code and obtain virtual copies of books from the local library branches.

2. The device is not tethered to one single distribution center like the Kindle 2.

For a review of what one school district is considering, check out this comment from Matt Mello, technology director at Holly Area Schools:

Would be great if the Sony solution permits single point of administration of content for their wireless eBook readers. Its quite apparent that Amazon does not have this capability.

We're evaluating eBook readers as possible replacement for our school district's textbooks. We purchased several of the larger Kindles and though a great reader for individuals / consumer market, Amazon does not have a solution for distributing and controlling a volume of eBooks devices.

It is clear that Amazon doesn't even have a strategy for this, based on experiences of calling their customer support. They had no information to offer, either now or in the long run. Their only solution is to have an individual email account tying each Kindle to an end-user. This is very problematic to manage for several thousand students. Also, you cannot speak directly to a Sales or Technical Acct Exec for Kindles at Amazon. Only someone who has general information.

I hope Sony develops such strategies as central point of administration for managing a volume of wireless eBook readers and have an organizational account structure where there is an individual / team with whom we can speak directly on product features or support.

I think these strategies would be key selling points and allow widespread adoption by educational institutions.

Hottest New EDUpunk Company?

Has anyone been following what I consider to be the hottest new EDUpunk company in our space: Flat World Knowledge?

In addition to making their e-texts free, they can be edited by faculty members, and students can sell their lecture notes to make some extra cash. Also, check out TextBookMedia, as they are knocking it out of the park as well. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Incidentally, Jeff Shelstad at Flat World Knowledge was a speaker at the 2009 Education Industry Investment Forum in Phoenix.

Greetings!

Hello, Everyone.

First I'd like to thank Doug for his work in making this happen and I look forward to meeting each of you.

I'm curious to see if there are any fellow EDUpunks here.

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts about angel investments within our space as I've kicked around the idea of launching EDUinnovators where we would allow EDU innovators a place to upload a short elevator pitch (preferably video) and invite investors to see some of the hot opportunities in our space...

Respectfully,

Steve Cooper
Founder, Tech University of America
Steve@TechUofA.com

The Road Trip for Education -- EIIF Hits the Road

Ten Cities. Thirty Days.

Next month, I am going to be flying all over the United States and to one city in Canada to meet the new leaders in for-profit educational services and learning in North America. This is my attempt to glorify and promote what has become one of the most successful strategy sessions for investors in for-profit education in K12 and post secondary schools and services.

Do you want to be included in this list? We have spots for five more interviews, and then we will have to close the door on new applicants.

Each of these interviews will be showcased on this blog, and also at other sites around the web, including Fast Company, where I manage a blog on entrepreneurship in Asia and abroad.

Here's the list of confirmed meetings, along with the cities (dates are not final, yet):

New York City

Stephen Tave, American Higher Education Development Corporation
Elliot Levine, Hewlett-Packard Education Services
Bernard West, Banyan Education Capital
Meg Mude, Entrepreneur

Chicago

Dr. Darcy Tannehill, Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Andrew Howard, Brain Hurricane

Washington, DC

Doug Mesecar, Scholastic
Bobbi Kurshan, Curriki
June Herald, KinMix
Scott Fleming, Madison Education Group
Michael Ratti, Regent Education
Members of K12,Inc

San Francisco

Dennis Diligent, CPP, Inc.
John Grillos, WorldSage, Inc

Boston

Peter Stokes, Eduventures, Inc
George Kane, Pearson Education
Amit Shah, Green Comma

Vancouver

Toby Chu, CIBT Education
Dean Dupperon, Sprott-Shaw Community College

Los Angeles

Charles Paul, World Wise Education
Alex Kaplan, IBM Educational Services
Sabrina Kay, Fremont College
Rob Chandler, Fairmont Schools

Fort Lauderdale

John Hage and Carl Tsang, Charter Schools USA

Phoenix

Steve Cooper, Tech University of America
Dr. Clinton Gardner, NorthCentral University
Gene Hayes, Piccolo International University
Rob Crawford, Life Development Institute

And that's it...

So Far.

It looks like it's going to be a great month of learning, investing and spreading the word about the 12th Annual Education Industry Investment Forum in Phoenix, Arizona, March 1-3, 2010. Come join us!

Africa Becomes Fastest Growing Continent

Africa now has one billion people and the highest population growth rate of any continent.

What institutions are building for-profit inroads into education there?

If you know of anyone, please let me know. I am interested to find K-12 for-profit education, online education, distance learning and post secondary institutions that treat Africa as a -- very large -- marketing demographic, as complex and as populous as it is.

Although population growth has slowed in North African countries such as Egypt and Tunisia, on average women in sub-Saharan Africa have more children than women elsewhere. While globally the average woman has 2,6 children, in sub-Saharan Africa she has 5.3 children (which is down from 6.7 children in around 1950). The world's highest fertility rate is in Niger, where women have on average 7.4 children.

Teacher Voices Frustration Over Hiring Freeze

Recently, a teacher confronted New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein over a hiring freeze.

Does the current climate lend itself to finding more online solutions? I've been hearing about pressure being put on budgets that lead to the cutting of teacher positions, these freezes on new hires, and most pressing of all, halts on spending for teacher development.

Why is professional development one of the first choices in the budget bloodletting? Intuitive logic would tell us that if you are keeping the teacher from developing his or her skills, you are making them less integral to the teaching curriculum, thereby fulfilling a maligned sort of destiny -- cutting salaries or positions.

Seems like a type of cycle.

This will be one of the topics at the Education Industry Investment Forum held in Phoenix, Arizona March1-3. 2010.

Flying Around America, Looking for a For-Profit Education Business Model

A perfect for-profit education model may not exist.

As many operators and investors and financiers there are, there are just as many business models.

But I am going to make an attempt to find the best ones that I can.

From September 8 to October 8, 2009, I will be flying to several different cities around North America searching out and interviewing the young, the old, the good, the bad and the ugly in for-profit education.

I'm taking nominees now. I've already sent out several invitations and gotten a few acceptances. I will be meeting with a few people in the following cities during this month long Road Trip for Education.

Here are the cities so far:

Austin, Texas
Chicago, Illinois
New York, New York
Vancouver, British Columbia
Seattle, Washington
Phoenix, Arizona
San Francisco and Los Angeles, California
Washington, DC
Orlando, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida


If you live in or near these cities, and you fancy yourself a leader in for-profit education, or if you know someone who is a leader, leave me a comment on this blog, or email me at dcrets [at] iirusa dot com. Let's talk.

The schedule is being worked up now. Put yourself into this conversation and you will see our video interview together on this blog and on other social media sites.

You will also have an opportunity to be a guest speaker at one of our breakfast meetings in New York City and the March 1-3, 2010 forum in Phoenix, Arizona.

More information here: Education Industry Investment Forum.

On the Web

Links we are looking at today during our research for the 12th Annual Education Industry Investment Forum:

Education Dynamics

So, what's an e-reader? Is that like electronic ink?

How much should you pay a teacher?

Do textbooks cost too much?

The Chicago School for Professional Psychology

Tabula Digita and The Rise of Edutainment

Some of you may remember Ntiedo Etuk from his appearance at the 2009 Education Industry Investment Forum, which we held this year in Phoenix, Arizona.

At the time, Ntiedo was pitching an exciting new-ish company, Tabula Digita and telling a great story about the need to mix enterainment, gaming and education to help students learn.

I've just learned that the company hit cash flow break even and is on track to hit revenue of $10 billion in 2010.

Tabula Digita is the sort of company that ought to be heavily funded and rapidly scaled so it can gain adoption in as many school districts, as fast as possible. For that, more venture capital would certainly help. Yet VCs are still skittish about education. "VCs do not understand the school system ... because the money is coming from a school district instead of a business," Etuk says.

Oh, Ye of Little Faith

Are you one of those hard-scrabbled doubting Thomases who insists on believing that education will not weave itself beautifully with technology?

I hope you are not. If you are not, and you are easily excited by the dovetailing of the most recent technological developments with education efforts that will inspire hordes of children to become the leaders of their generation, then you must get a whiff of this recent Apple technology rumor:

Apple is developing a touch-screen tablet PC and one of its versions will be for educational use.

From Gizmodo, your latest in plausible deniability:

They went on to say that although the project has been going on under various names between four and six years, the first prototype was built around the end of 2008. Adding, "The time to market from first prototype is generally 6-9 months." That would place the device's release date in this holiday season. They then said, "There was a question of what OS the device would run, too." (Other people I've talked to have implied this remains a huge secret.)

My call dropped on some windy road off skyline drive.

Later, I asked, was there a code name for the project?

"Yes...[redacted]."

I thought about it for a second, googled the term, and it all made sense.

"Don't publish that name, please, " they requested.

Don't worry, I won't.

Barack Obama and Arne Duncan Star in Education Reform Competition

It's a Race to the Top, with US$4.35 billion on the line to improve American education.

I was reading today about a new proposal to award billions in grants to education institutions heralded by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and US President Barack Obama.

Here's the summary of what this is about:

The centerpiece of the Obama administration's education reform efforts is the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund, a national competition which will highlight and replicate effective education reform strategies in four significant areas:

* Adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace;
* Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals;
* Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices; and
* Turning around our lowest-performing schools.

The Textbook Industry is Inefficient

That's what Chegg.com's Jim Saska says in an article in the New York Times today.

Saska, who used to work for Match.com, has helped Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra, the co-founders of Chegg run a business model that allows college students to rent textbooks, the way people rent movies through Netflix.

It all started through the use of Mr. Rashid's American Express card, as told in this story about the origins of Chegg.

Charter School Fight is On After Obama Puts US$5 Bil in the Pot

Once the Obama administration made it clear that schools would be eligible for US$5 bil for education reform, the ideological fight kicked into full gear, especially for a Boston school.

This article about Boston Mayor Tom Menino and his support of education reform in a city school system with many different interested parties fighting for control of the mix.

Pearson Education Buys 18% of TutorVista

TutorVista courts Pearson and successfully receives a bid for nearly 18% of the company.

You may remember TutorVista from our Education Industry Investment Forum in March. They spoke about entrepreneurship in education.

Find out more about the annual Education Industry Investment Forum.

Federal Money for National Ed Standards

Will the White House help the US fund a national set of standards for education? William McKenzie thinks so.