What’s Happening in the Market
Campus, an online alternative to community colleges, raised $23 million in a Series A extension led by Founders Fund, with 8VC participating. This follows their $29 million Series A last year. Campus stands out by paying adjunct professors from top schools like Vanderbilt, Princeton, and NYU $8,000 per course - well above national averages. This premium pay attracts elite teaching talent to deliver high-quality online education.
OpenStax and Rice University have secured $90 million in funding to establish SafeInsights, a research and development hub focused on inclusive learning and education research. SafeInsights will bring together researchers, educational institutions, and digital learning platforms to conduct long-term studies on effective learning predictors while prioritizing student privacy protection. This R&D hub aims to advance knowledge and best practices in creating inclusive and impactful educational experiences through collaborative research efforts.
Vivek Sinha, former COO of edtech unicorn Unacademy, has raised $11 million for his new venture, Beyond Odd Technologies. After resigning from Unacademy after a 3-year stint, Sinha has swiftly launched this new platform aimed at tackling the skilled workforce shortage.
What We’re Talking About
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted to reinstate net neutrality rules and regulatory oversight of broadband internet, reversing a Trump-era decision. The commission also ordered U.S. units of three Chinese telecom companies to discontinue broadband internet services in the country. This regulatory shift could impact consumer access, market competition among internet providers, and address national security concerns over foreign telecom firms operating networks in the U.S.
Anthology has raised $250 million from investors to invest in its strategic initiatives and core education technology solutions. With challenges facing higher ed like enrollment drops, budget constraints, and evolving student needs, Anthology's significant new investment positions it to capitalize on institutions' growing reliance on edtech to modernize learning and drive success through innovations like its AI course-building assistant.
One Big Idea: A Negotiation for Information
The ability to effectively construct questions has always been essential – individuals and companies have asymmetric influence with access to information and the resources to leverage that information. However, the art and science of inquiry have evolved, and with each of these transitions comes an opportunity to shift the balance of power through learning.
Historically, there are three key players in the exchange of information: the asker, the controller, and the holder. The asker seeks knowledge, the holder possesses it, and the controller facilitates the transfer. As we’ve entered the digital age, the controller has evolved.
Initially, information was transferred orally, like Homer’s ‘The Iliad.’ The introduction of the written word then transformed and distributed information: Ashoka the Great established the rule of law throughout the Mauryan Empire by erecting giant stone pillars inscribed with text.
Above: A pillar of Ashoka in Vaishali, dating from the 3rd century BC
The introduction of the printing press democratized information even further (although access was still restricted to the literate and those with access to texts). At the turn of the 20th century, public libraries started to proliferate. People could access information through books, newspapers, or any other text that they could readily get their hands on. Many of us were taught in school how to find the information we need from these written texts. We learned to use tools like the table of contents to navigate this controller.
Then came search engines like Google, allowing users to directly query the world wide web. You can already see that navigating these two controllers to their full potential requires a different skill set. We quickly went from using the Dewey Decimal System to crafting strategic keyword searches. Unfortunately, very few people were explicitly taught these modern search skills, which exacerbated the digital divide. Now, as we've transitioned into the social media age, apps like TikTok have become an information source, with people posing questions directly to subject matter holders. Studies show that nearly a fifth of all video content on TikTok contains misinformation. Even fewer people have been taught the art of questioning for social media, and can’t discern fact from fiction. Most have had to learn to navigate these new controllers independently through trial and error.
We've now entered the age of AI, with generative models like ChatGPT providing unprecedented access to information and insights. Some have already developed proficiency in prompting these AI assistants effectively and leveraged this new technology to increase their productivity, creativity, and efficacy. For many of us our skill development has come through trial and error. We’ve asked ChatGPT a question and it hasn’t responded in the way we expect. After tweaking the question, maybe providing more context or being more specific in our ask, we've been able to get closer to an answer that fulfills our needs. That’s usually the learning experience for adults - trial and error. However, many, particularly students from underestimated backgrounds, may struggle without guidance on leveraging this powerful technology.
We need to design, create and invest in systems that are inclusive and equip students from all backgrounds with the skills to effectively use artificial intelligence to get the information they need to empower them and propel their potential. A few organizations are looking into solving this problem AI for Education has consulting services that help schools and districts develop a customized plan for implementing AI. The AI Education project (aiEDU) provides training and a curriculum for teachers to teach AI literacy. I know many more organizations are working to solve this problem and these organizations are off to a strong start, but a broader coordinated effort is also needed. If we don’t move on this quickly, we are failing our young people and laying the foundation, again, for a future that is controlled by and designed for a handful of people.
We are in the middle of a pivotal transition in how we seek and obtain information. AI provides our young people with access to information that allows them to learn, connect, and build in ways that were impossible for the masses previously. In theory, this should democratize access to information and enable us all to win. My fear is that it won’t. If history reflects the future, we will be slow to teach our most vulnerable communities the skills they need to leverage these new disruptive technologies. Failing to universally empower the next generation with the skills to ask the right questions could further entrench existing inequities.
Society must take an active role in ensuring all students can effectively prompt AI tools to access accurate, relevant knowledge that allows them to learn, create, and thrive.
As we move forward, here are three questions we need to consider.
How have we taught students the art of questioning in the past?
How do we apply our learning from past approaches to the AI age?
How do we ensure that our efforts are inclusive and are meeting the needs of our under-resourced communities?