Category: Media Coverage

NewSchools Summit 2013 Recap: Thoughts leaders, entrepreneurs and educators converge to share ideas and concerns

NewSchools Venture Fund   Last Wednesday, an invite-only crowd of nearly a thousand of education’s daring entrepreneurs, policymakers, admins, teachers–and even a few students–gathered outside of San Francisco for the 2013 NewSchools Summit. And what a flurry of action it was, with bigwig thought leaders sharing Big Ideas on the big stage, panel discussions on […]

NewSchools Venture Fund to address shortage of ed-tech capital

Selling technology to schools is still a formidable task, but it’s a far less expensive and extended process than it used to be. And because of this friendlier climate, we’re seeing the second wave of education technology tools and a surge in interest from businesspeople and entrepreneurs. But the education field only received 1 percent of venture […]

NewSchools & New Tools: PD, Games & MOOCs

Tom Friedman summed up what we saw as a major theme of the conference by saying “With edtech, don’t lose focus on what matters most – great teachers.” This theme seemed to be echoed in the sessions our team attended and hallway conversations. Even superstar teachers, with higher pay, lots of support and admins that […]

Zynga To Launch Learning Games Accelerator

Zynga.org will spend $1 Million and partner with NewSchools Venture Fund to create an accelerator that focuses on edtech and learning games. Zynga.org is Zynga Inc.’s nonprofit organization that is “dedicated to inspiring people to live, play and learn through social games.” They aim to get gamers involved in social issues through “content and campaigns” […]

Embracing education change: Summit in Burlingame focuses on standards, school needs

Forty-five states have joined together on a vision of shared standards called the Common Core, an idea that will embrace collaboration, technology and sharing on a scale never before seen in U.S. education. Change can be challenging though. For teachers, it will require a new way of looking at curriculum, even if Shakespeare is still […]

Education in a Defined Benefits World

“Education is the number one issue where ever you go,” said Tom Friedman to Ted Mitchell in the #NSVFSummit opening. “We left a ‘defined benefits’ world where workers retired with a pension, and we’ve moved into a ‘defined contributions’ world,” said Friedman, “where it’s your responsibility to open an account, make the money, and develop […]

Zynga and NewSchools Venture Fund create accelerator for educational gaming startups

Ed tech entrepreneurs are getting 

Zynga & NewSchools team up to launch an accelerator for educational gaming startups

BURLINGAME, CA.: Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus just announced that the gaming giant is launching a learning accelerator for gaming startups.