July Feature: M&A ACTIVITY FROM CHERRY TREE

Microsoft Acquires Flipgrid
Bain Capital Acquires Varsity Brands...
...And Separately Acquires Little Learning School
Trilogy Education Raises $50 Million
Civitas Learning Acquires ClearScholar
Degreed Acquires Pathgather
Vista Higher Learning Acquires SANTILLANA USA
TinyTap Raises $5 Million
Real Time Cases Raises $3.5 Million
Showpad Acquires LearnCore
ECS Learning Systems Acquires Prepworks
VIPKID Raises $500 Million
2U Raises $331 Million...
...and Agrees to Acquire CritiqueIt
Pacon is Acquired by F.I.L.A.
Beamery Raises $28 Million
Frontline Education Acquires Prologic Technology Systems
Scantron Acquires Castle Worldwide
Sphero Raises $12 Million
Gradescope Raises $2.75 Million
Novel Effect Raises $3 Million
Kanopy Receives Investment from L Squared Capital Partners
Lincoln Learning Solutions Acquires Evan-Moor Corporation

Forbes | Best Executive Recruiting Firms 2018

Recent Podcasts from Todd Hand

Active searches

Learning Ally, VP of School Sales and Account Management
KIPP Texas, Chief People Officer
KIPP Texas, Chief Financial Officer
Thinkful, Chief Operations Officer
Confidential CEO search in Pre-K
Two confidential board searches

Closed 2017-2018 searches

Walton Family Foundation, Senior Advisor
Edmentum, President and CEO
Rosetta Stone, CEO
Camelot Education, CEO
Sotheby's Institute of Art, Senior Director, Global Admissions and Recruitment
The School of The New York Times, Director, Pre-College Division
HelioCampus, SVP, Market Development
KIPP Texas, Chief Operating Officer
AltSchool, Chief Impact Officer
KIPP Foundation, Chief of Programs and Impact
CIG Education Group, Vice President, Global Information and Technology
American Public University System (APUS), President
Burning Glass, VP Business Development
OnCourse Learning, Chief Technology Officer; Chief Marketing Officer
Turnitin/Insight Venture Partners, SVP Sales
eDynamic Learning, SVP Sales & Marketing
Quad Partners, Chief Financial Officer; Chief Marketing Officer
InsideTrack, SVP Program Development
Voyager Sopris Learning, President
GEMS Education, Chief Financial Officer
Cambridge Education Group, General Manager
American Honors/Quad Learning, VP Business Development
MeTEOR Education, VP Growth Strategies
Illuminate Education, VP Sales
Center for the Collaborative Classroom, Chief Technology Officer
Penn Foster, EVP Business Solutions; General Counsel
Teachers for Tomorrow, Chief Revenue Officer
Tiber Health (a University Ventures portfolio company), Chief Product Officer

Sources

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• Academic Business Advisors, LLC
• Associated Press (AP)
• Academic Business Advisors, LLC
• The Atlantic
• Bostinno
• Brookings Institution
• Campus Technology
• Center for American Progress
• Center for Digital Education
• Center on Education and the Workforce
• Christian Science Monitor
• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• The Clayton Christensen Institute
• CLO Media
• CNBC
• CNET smartplanet.com
• Computer World
• Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
• eCampus News
• eLearning
• The Economist
• The Economic Times
• edSurge
• Education Dive
• Education News
• Education Next
• Education Sector
• Education Week
• Educause Review
• Edudemic
• Edutopia
• EdWeek Market Brief
• eLearn Magazine
• Entrepreneur
• eSchool News
• Fast Company
• Forbes
• Fortune
• FoxNews.com
• Geekwire
• GettingSmart.com
• Harvard Business Review
• the Hechinger Report
• the Heritage Foundation
• Huffington Post
• Inside Higher Ed
• IT World
• Journal of Applied Research on Children
• KQEDMind/Shift
• McKinsey Quarterly
• MDR EdNet InSight
• MIT Technology Review
• Mother Jones
• National Journal
• NBCNews.com
• NewsDay
• NewsWeek
• The New Republic
• The New Yorker
• The New York Times
• The Week
• NPR
• OnStartups.com
• Politico
• Psych Central
• Rolling Stone
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Scientific American
• The 74 Million
• SkilledUp
• Skoll World Forum
• Slate
• The Stifel Equity Research Group
• Social Science Research Network
• TechCrunch
• Tech Radar
• T.H.E. Journal
• Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• Time
• University Business
• University Ventures
• University World News
• US News & World Report
• Wall Street Journal
• Washington Post
• Venture Beat

K-12

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EdWeek Market Brief: K-12 Artificial Intelligence Market Set to Explode in U.S. and Worldwide by 2024
The use of artificial intelligence in education is expected to explode to a worldwide market value of $6 billion over the next six years, with about 20 percent of that growth coming from applications for U.S. K-12 classrooms and consumers, according to a report by Global Market Insights...more>>

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EdWeek Market Brief: Curriculum Provider Loses Court Fight With FedEx Over Copying 'Open' Materials
A federal appeals court has ruled against a curriculum company in its battle to force FedEx to compensate it for copying reams of its academic resources for use by schools, in a closely watched case among supporters of "open" educational resources...more>>

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Bloomberg: Back-to-School Set to Peak
The trade war isn't deterring U.S. shoppers from their back-to-school spending, according to one research firm. Retail spending will climb about 5.1 percent to a record $595 billion in the July-to-September period, in part because of higher disposable incomes and employment gains, Customer Growth Partners said in a report...more>>

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EdSurge: Swing Education Raises $15 Million to Connect More Schools With Substitute Teachers
Teacher shortages in the U.S. have been well-documented. But sometimes, what's harder than finding full-time teachers is finding substitutes who can fill in for them...more>>

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EdSurge: Microsoft Hopes to Revive Its Education Tablet Efforts With the New $399 Surface Go
For much of this decade, the narrative of tech giants battling to sell devices in U.S. K-12 classrooms has pitted Apple against Google. But through an ongoing series of product launches and acquisitions, Microsoft has been making its case to be the dark horse in the race...more>>

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EdWeek Market Brief: Inside the GDPR: Webinar Breaks Down New Law's Implications for K-12 Providers
If you're part of an education company that does business in Europe-or that ever hopes to do business there-you need to know the GDPR. The General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect in May, is a sweeping new European law that sets broad data-privacy rules for organizations processing data on citizens of the European Union...more>>

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EdSurge: After a 5-Company Merger, Illuminate Education Looks to Become a Megazord of K-12 Data
Illuminate Education just pulled off a Megazord move after its private equity owner, Insight Venture Partners, combined it with four other education data companies: IO Education, SchoolCity, Alpine Achievement and Key Data Systems...more>>

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EdDive: 5 cool ed tech tools we saw at ISTE 2018
Robots for STEM and autism, increasingly interoperable platforms and more to keep an eye on...more>>

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EdScoop: Competency-based education is gaining traction in states
iNACOL report provides case studies of eight states' funding strategies and outlines additional steps to fund innovation and change...more>>

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EdWeek Market Brief: IBM to Partner With Scholastic, Edmodo on Artificial Intelligence
IBM's Watson Education, an artificial intelligence platform that uses data trends to provide insights to teachers and students, is partnering with Edmodo and Scholastic in an effort meant to personalize learning...more>>

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EdWeek Market Brief: Make Learning Products Accessible for Students With Disabilities, Educators Tell Vendors at ISTE
Assistive technology-tools designed for users with disabilities-can give all students the opportunity to develop their strengths and share their skills, said Luis Perez, the incoming president of the Inclusive Learning Network for the International Society for Technology in Education, during a Tuesday keynote session at the group's annual conference being held here...more>>

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EdWeek Market Brief: Is the Textbook Dead? Far Too Early for Last Rites, ISTE Panel Suggests
The title of the session on the ISTE conference's second day was even more provocative than the headline of this post would suggest. "The Textbook Is Extinct! Now What?" was the posted description...more>>

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EdSurge: AdvancED to Merge With Assessment Maker, Measured Progress to Form $120M Nonprofit
Two national education nonprofits whose school improvement and assessment tools impact millions of students across the country are merging...more>>

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EdSurge: How Transparent Is School Data When Parents Can't Find or Understand It?
When Mosi Zuberi learned that his 18-year-old son, Kaja, might not graduate from McClymonds High School in Oakland, he anguished over his parenting missteps, wondering where he had gone wrong...more>>

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ARS Technica: First space, then auto-now Elon Musk quietly tinkers with education
LA's most exclusive school sits on SpaceX's campus and skips sports, music, and languages...more>>

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9to5 Mac: Making The Grade: Apple's biggest mistake in K-12 happened in 2006
I've written before about how Apple's lack of an identity management solution has hurt Apple in the fight for classroom dominance against Google's Chromebook. This week, I want to run through a little Apple history and explain one of the biggest mistakes Apple made in K-12 education - and it happened way before anyone outside of Apple was thinking about the iPad...more>>

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EdSurge: All the Upgrades and Updates From Apple, Google and More at ISTE 2018
Look what the wind blew into the Windy City. Earlier this week more than 18,000 attendees from 87 countries gathered in Chicago for ISTE, one of the largest K-12 education technology conferences and trade shows in the world...more>>

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Spectrum: Can science-based video games help kids with autism?
The Research on Autism and Development (RAD) Laboratory is located in a Tetris-like maze of brown wooden buildings, not far from the main campus of the University of California, San Diego. The lab itself is a nondescript warren of small beige rooms. But everything else about it is extraordinary...more>>

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Education Week: DeVos-Supported 'Brain-Performance' Company Loses Appeal Over Misleading Advertising
A controversial "neurofeedback" company that has received significant financial investment from the family of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos has agreed to stop making questionable claims about its treatments for conditions such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and depression...more>>

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THE Journal: Survey: Funding for Ed Tech Still Encumbers 21st Century Learning
An education technology company has released results from its latest teacher survey. Among the findings: funding for ed tech is the biggest issue for most schools; augmented and virtual realities are hot really only with pundits, not classrooms; and Google is a top choice...more>>

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EdWeek Market Brief: Ed-Tech Investors Size Up K-12 Market, Advise Entrepreneurs
Two recent billion-dollar deals in education captured the investment conversation at an ed-tech conference here last week...more>>

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EdSurge: TinyTap Raises $5 Million to Help Teachers and Parents Make, Find and Sell Learning Games
TinyTap, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based creator of a platform that allows teachers to find, create and sell educational games, has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Aleph, an Israeli venture fund. Previous investors including Inimiti, Radiant and ReInvent also chipped in...more>>

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Inside Higher Ed: Rejecting AP Courses
Eight private schools in Washington area -- including St. Albans and Sidwell Friends -- announce they will stop offering Advanced Placement courses...more>>

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Hechinger: Why your student's personal data could be freely bought and sold
Report finds private brokers are advertising access to all sorts of students...more>>

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Education Week: How (and Why) Ed-Tech Companies Are Tracking Students' Feelings
All school year, Kaylee Carrell has been watching online math videos using a free software platform called Algebra Nation. What the Florida 8th grader didn't know: The software was also watching her...more>>

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ETS and LearnLaunch to Fund Edtech Startups
To further advance its mission, ETS is enhancing its historical role as a nonprofit organization devoted to educational research and assessment to include support for the education startup community...more>>

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Future Source: Global K-12 Mobile PC Education Market Continues Growth Momentum
Global sales of Mobile PCs* into the K-12 sector increased in the first quarter of 2018, with shipments growing 4% year-on-year, reaching 5.8 million units, up from 5.5 million in the first quarter of 2017. The largest growth came from the Asia Pacific and European regions...more>>

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THE Journal: Student Outcomes for Online School System Go Toe-to-Toe with Traditional School Results
A new research study has found evidence that full-time students in one particular online public school, Connections Academy, can attain the same level of achievement as that offered at traditional public schools and that they may be better positioned to succeed than they would in other virtual schools...more>>

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THE Journal: As Demand for Online Schools Grows, So Does Need for Accurate Evaluation
...A recent national study by NEPC shows enrollment in full-time virtual schools and blended schools (online and face-to-face instruction) increasing at a rapid pace...more>>

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WSJ: More Students Are Getting Special Help in Grades K-12
More students are getting extra help for a range of issues including ADHD and anxiety, data show, with a disproportionate amount of those receiving support attending schools in wealthier districts...more>>

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Politico: Opioid epidemic overwhelms schools
America's biggest public health crisis since AIDS has seeped into cash-strapped schools. Educators are on the silent front lines of the epidemic at a time when many already feel overtaxed as a result of budget cuts and chronic shortages of school counselors, psychologists and social workers...more>>

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Chalkbeat: Purdue is trying to upend the traditional high school model. Here's what it looks like
All it takes to know that Purdue Polytechnic High School is doing something different is a walk through the campus in the basement of a technology office building...more>>

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The Pacific Northwest Inlander: Why nearly 1,000 families are clamoring to get into Spokane's charter schools
In his freshman year at Rogers High School, Isaiah Thompson realized he needed a change. It wasn't that he struggled in school. He regularly got A's and B's. But he craved a different kind of learning, something more hands-on...more>>

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U.S. News: Big-Name Charter School Backers Donate to Key Governor Races
Prominent charter school supporters are dishing out campaign money, as key state governor election races have now begun in earnest...more>>

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Hechinger: Nearly 750 charter schools are whiter than the nearby district schools
Loose laws let scores of charters create policies that favor white students...more>>

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Chalkbeat: 'How long do we let them fail'? Indiana committee begins review of virtual charter school rules
As a group of state officials convene for the first time Tuesday to examine virtual charter schools, two prominent Indiana Republican lawmakers are calling for the state to intervene in the dismal performance of the schools...more>>

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Digital Trends: School shooters leave clues. Could A.I. spot the next one before it's too late?
In the light of recent deadly school shootings in the United States, educators, parents, and security experts are looking to technology to help solve the problem. At the forefront is the use of artificial intelligence...more>>

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EdDive: More school districts turn to online security services to monitor threats
The Orange County school district in Hillsborough, N.C. is the latest district to sign on with a new online security service designed to identify online threats to schools and students, WFMY News reports...more>>

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The 74: In the Aftermath of Net Neutrality, District Leaders Should Be Proactive With Service Providers, Experts Say
At a time when educators are increasingly focused on personalized learning and technology education, reliable internet connections in the classroom are more important than ever...more>>

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Hechinger: In 6 states, school districts with the neediest students get less money than the wealthiest
New federal data shows a 3.4 percent funding gap between rich and poor school districts...more>>

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The Hill: Education narrative favoring wealthier, whiter states was just proven wrong
State education rankings published by organizations such as U.S. News and World Report or Education Week are highly influential. When education is discussed, whether the focus is teacher pay, unions, common core standards, or school choice, state education rankings are invariably used as a political cudgel...more>>

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EdDive: SCOTUS deems unions' 'agency' fees unconstitutional
Unions call the decision "a rallying point," vow to remain a "vibrant force for working people."...more>>

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Education Week: Education Bill That Omits Trump Merger Plan, Boosts Spending Advances in Senate
Legislation that would provide a funding boost for disadvantaged students and special education was approved by the Senate appropriations committee on Thursday...more>>

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NYT: School's Closed. Forever.
What happens to a rural town after it loses its only school? Arena, Wis., is about to find out...more>>

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EdSurge: The Dept. of Ed. Reorganization Plan is Out. Where Is the Office of EdTech?
The Trump Administration on Thursday announced a proposal to overhaul the organizational structure of federal departments. Among the ideas: merge the Department of Education with the Department of Labor to form a single Cabinet agency, which is being called the Department of Education and the Workforce. Notably, the blueprint leaves out any mention of the Office of Educational Technology (OET), the branch of the Department of Education that oversees federal policies and initiatives relating to education technology...more>>

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EdDive: How might districts use funds available under ESSA?
With bipartisan agreement, spending under the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) will grow this coming school year...more>>

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Higher Ed

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Forbes: How Faster And Cheaper Alternatives Will Replace Most Of Higher Ed
Unresponsive, incoherent and expensive. That's how Ryan Craig sees higher education. He's a leading critic of the status quo and advocate for and investor in postsecondary innovation...more>>

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EdSurge: In Move Towards Nonprofit, Grand Canyon University Sells for $875M
Grand Canyon Education, a publicly-traded education company, announced today it has sold Grand Canyon University for $875 million to form a nonprofit...more>>

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EdDive: Accreditor clears path for $1.9 billion Strayer-Capella merger
The merger between Capella University's parent company, Capella Education Company, and Strayer Education Inc., the parent company of Strayer University, has been approved by the Higher Learning Commission and is expected to close on or before Aug. 1...more>>

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EdDive: How U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump travel ban will impact higher education
The Supreme Court upheld Tuesday in a 5-4 decision President Donald Trump's travel ban, which prohibits entry to the U.S. for individuals from eight countries, with the greatest restrictions on residents of six mostly Muslim nations...more>>

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Forbes: Imagining A Blockchain University
A couple of Oxford faculty imagine a different kind of university, one that is distributed and democratic...more>>

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Encoura: How Do Institutions Select Student Success Technologies?
When the topic of student success comes up at higher education conferences, you will nearly always see a room full of engaged attendees nodding their heads in approval. Who wouldn't? Increasing student success is an important and worthwhile goal for any institution and almost everyone has room for improvement...more>>

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Bloomberg: Blackboard Debt Takes a Hit After Colleges Drop Its Education Software
Blackboard Inc. was already having a tough year when Chief Executive Officer William Ballhaus got word in April that Cornell University -- the company's very first customer -- was defecting to a rival education software service...more>>

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Observatory: Smartphones are disrupting teaching and learning, according to a survey
According to the survey conducted by MidAmerica Nazarene University to 1000 US professors, 82% indicate that technology improves the teaching and learning process. In general, they mention that Wi-Fi, laptops, educational software, digital whiteboards or education portals have a positive impact in the classroom; 66% said that technology in the classroom makes students more productive and 60% said that it stimulates them more intellectually...more>>

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Washington Post: The future of college education: Students for life, computer advisers and campuses everywhere
Predictions about higher education's future often result in two very different visions about what is next for colleges and universities...more>>

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Reaching for the Cloud
Inside Higher Ed: Many colleges are embracing IT cloud services, but significant cost barriers remain for smaller institutions...more>>

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Dump the majors? Poll finds high school students want skills that will get them hired
The majority of high school students who will be entering college over the next three years would like to see more colleges promote education and skills training rather than only offering majors for future employment, according to an annual survey by the Washington-D.C.-based College Savings Foundation...more>>

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Fortune: Google Search Can Now Help You Choose a 4-Year College
For the millions of students graduating from secondary school each year, selecting the right college can be a daunting task. Thanks to a new feature added to Google Search, however, navigating the college search process may be a bit easier...more>>

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EdSurge: Microsoft Buys Video-Discussion Platform Flipgrid
A video-discussion platform originally started by a University of Minnesota professor to keep in touch with students for a course he was teaching has been purchased by tech giant Microsoft...more>>

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Chronicle: Google Wants to Play a Bigger Role in Your College Search. Here's What You Need to Know.
Google waded into the college-search process on Tuesday, announcing that it would elevate certain statistics about four-year colleges when people use the ubiquitous search engine to seek out information...more>>

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EdTech: UBTech 2018: Higher Ed Sees Great Potential in Virtual Reality
An Internet2 survey shows that VR adoption is well underway for a variety of higher education applications...more>>

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UV Letters: Work Backwards: A Design Thinking Approach to Higher Education
In my copious spare time, I enjoy compiling a list of bad ideas for universities. Here's what's currently at the top...more>>

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NYT: The New Toll of American Student Debt in 3 Charts
It's a sign of the times: A new game show, "Paid Off," debuted on Tuesday offering winners not dream vacations or new cars, but a pile of cash to help lessen the crushing weight of their student debt...more>>

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EdDive: Yet another report says fewer Americans value 4-year degree
More Americans believe a four-year degree is not worth the financial cost, according to a CNBC All-American Economic Survey, which found the number had increased to 44% from about 40% five years ago...more>>

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EdSurge: Beyond Tuition: How Innovations in College Affordability Are (Or Aren't) Helping Students
The college affordability crisis is a familiar story to most Americans. A simplified version often goes that state funding for higher-ed institutions has decreased dramatically over the years, which has translated into massive tuition hikes for students and their families...more>>

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Washington Post: How the Great Recession changed the job market forever for college grads
As this year's college graduates transition from school to career, they are entering one of the healthiest job markets in decades for those with newly minted degrees...more>>

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EdSurge: New Survey: Students See Anxiety and Time Management Among Top Challenges to Finishing Degrees
According to a new survey released by Civitas Learning in partnership with the Center for Generational Kinetics, students view the top challenges to completing their degrees are anxiety (35 percent of respondents) and time management (36 percent of respondents)...more>>

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Hechinger: More high school grads than ever are going to college, but 1 in 5 will quit
New data show little progress in retaining students, despite efforts to plug the leak...more>>

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Washington Post: Why do so many students drop out of college? And what can be done about it?
More than 3 million students will graduate from U.S. high schools this month, and two-thirds of them will head off to college next fall. If history is any guide, for many of them, their high school graduation might be their last commencement ceremony...more>>

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Center for American Progress: New Federal Data Show America Still Needs to Improve College Access
It's tempting to think that America has largely solved its problems surrounding access to postsecondary education...more>>

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Burning Glass: Capturing the Untapped Market: Skeptical Enrollees
In a recent report, EAB identified one type of working learner that represents a significant growth opportunity for higher education: the skeptical enrollee. As described by EAB, the skeptical enrollee is a prospective student who already has a particular program in mind but needs to see the tangible career benefit before applying to a postsecondary institution. In other words, they want to know there will be a solid return on their investment...more>>

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The Atlantic: Should America's Universities Stop Taking So Many International Students?
Critics say the country's higher-education institutions should focus on ensuring more Americans get four-year degrees, but college presidents highlight the benefits of global diversity on campus...more>>

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Inside Higher Education: No Bottom Yet in 2-Year College Enrollments
Some researchers are warning community colleges that enrollment isn't expected to improve, even as they grapple with declines in state funding and demand for better performance and outcomes...more>>

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Observatory: By 2020 the US will be 5 million university graduates short
According to a prospective report published by Georgetown University, the US labor market is projected to grow from 140 to 165 million jobs - 18% - by 2020. Of these future positions, 65% will require some form of secondary education...more>>

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Public Agenda: A Major Step
What Adults Without Degrees Say About Going (Back) to College...more>>

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WSJ: The War on Admissions Testing
What's behind the move to drop ACT and SAT scores for college entry?...more>>

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Inside Higher Ed: A Quarter of Private Colleges Ran Deficits in 2017
About 25 percent of private nonprofit colleges and universities spent more than they earned in the 2017 fiscal year, though net tuition revenue grew for the first time in three years, Moody's Investors Service said in its annual look at median financial performance...more>>

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The EvoLLLution: Megatrends Prompt Universities to Innovate and Internationalize
As the global higher education industry evolves, it's critical for college and university leaders across the United States-and around the world-to understand the direction of the trends and to develop strategies to address the change...more>>

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WSJ: For U.S. Business Schools, Leaders Are Hard to Find
Some of the most prestigious M.B.A. programs are seeking deans willing to run them...more>>

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Observatory: What will the university be like in 2040, according to Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech proposes a hybrid education focused on the development of cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. In addition to adaptive learning platforms and artificial intelligence assistants...more>>

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Christensen Institute: Accreditations insidious impact on higher education innovation
While Washington, D.C. slams accreditors for not holding colleges and universities accountable for their student outcomes, the more insidious failure of accreditation is the stifling effect on innovation at existing institutions...more>>

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EdDive: Another community college approved for bachelor's degrees
Clark State Community College has joined two-year colleges in Ohio and those in 18 other states offering a four-year degree - but it's a trend that some four-year institutions find troubling...more>>

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Forbes: Stealing A Page From Disruption To Transform Accreditation
One of the only things Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. can agree on is that they don't like the accreditation system in higher education...more>>

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NBC News: DeVos goes deep with anti-regulatory mission at Education Department
California is the latest state to lob legal challenges at the Education Secretary's controversial policies...more>>

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EdDive: Will SCOTUS ruling on union fees impact higher education?
...Joseph McCartin, executive director of Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, told Education Dive that the decision will affect public colleges and universities with unions in the 22 states that allow unions to collectively bargain "by shaping what they are allowed to do and substantially attacking their financial security and ability to fund their work."...more>>

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EdSurge: Nonprofit University Buys For-Profit College's Tech Platform
The technology platform and curriculum of the company called UniversityNow-which attracted more than $40 million in venture backing and ran an experimental for-profit college-has been sold to the nonprofit National University system, which plans to use the platform to deliver its online courses...more>>

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The EvoLLLution: Are You Ready To Go Online? Key Considerations for New Online Education Initiatives
The changing fortunes of higher education is nothing new. The shifting landscape is well documented and there is much (very justified) hand wringing over the fate of higher education, especially that of small, private colleges...more>>

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Forbes: Why College Tuition Is Actually Higher For Online Programs
Online college programs were supposed to be less expensive. With no physical campus to maintain, no limits on class sizes and the ability to recycle content, you'd think they should be...more>>

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Inside Higher Ed: Online Options Give Adults Access, but Outcomes Lag
Using newly available federal and state-by-state data, an analyst explores states' embrace of fully online learning and whether it drives adult students' access and success...more>>

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Campus Technology: Two-Thirds of Online Students Do Some Coursework on a Mobile Device
In a survey of 1,500 "past, present and prospective fully online students," most are taking advantage of - or want - the option to use smartphones or tablets for their class work...more>>

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Chronicle: What Do Online Students Want? 3 Findings From a New Survey Offer Some Clues
What do online students want? According to a new survey, they want to conduct more of their course activities on their mobile phones or tablets, and they'd like better career-planning services...more>>

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EdSurge: How Blockbuster MOOCs Could Shape the Future of Teaching
There isn't a New York Times bestseller list for online courses, but perhaps there should be...more>>

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Hechinger: As feds pull back, states step in to regulate for-profit colleges and universities
Securities filings show an industry increasingly vexed about state oversight, enforcement...more>>

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Washington Post: Former executives of defunct for-profit college firm ITT settle fraud charges with SEC
Former top executives at ITT Educational Services, the parent company of defunct ITT Technical Institute, have settled fraud cases with the Securities and Exchange Commission, avoiding a trial slated to begin Monday...more>>

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EdSurge: Why Purdue Professors Continue to Protest Purdue's Purchase of a For-Profit U.
If Purdue University's purchase of the for-profit Kaplan University can be thought of as a wedding, there were plenty of people in the audience shouting objections throughout the ceremony...more>>

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WSJ: Struggling For-Profit School Operator Was Generous to Top Executives
Education Management Corp. paid Chief Executive Mark McEachen more than $14 million as the company he stepped in to lead sold off its business and prepared to shut down...more>>

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WSJ: End of the Line for For-Profit School Operator Education Management
Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing follows sales and wind-down of Art Institute chain...more>>

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Chronicle: Education Dept. Report Says No to a For-Profit Accreditor - but It Might Not Matter
For the second time in less than two years, officials at the U.S. Department of Education have recommended against approving a controversial accrediting agency that primarily oversees for-profit colleges...more>>

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Et Alia

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Paris Ledger: U.S. Education Market is Expected to Reach $2,040 bn by 2026
The new report by Zion Market Research on the "U.S. Education Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016-2026? has a vast information about the market and its potential. The U.S. education market was valued at around USD 1,350 billion in the year 2017 and it is expected to reach approximately USD 2,040 billion by 2026. The U.S. education market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of more than 4.5% between 2018 and 2026...more>>

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WSJ: White House to Propose Merging Education, Labor Departments
The White House is set to propose merging the Labor and Education departments as part of a broader reorganization of the federal government, said a person with knowledge of the changes...more>>

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SIA: Employers Globally Struggle to Find Workers With The Right Skills
Businesses struggle to fill open positions as many states have more job openings than available skilled workers, according to ManpowerGroup's (NYSE: MAN) 2018 Talent Shortage Survey...more>>

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Chronicle: Facebook Plans to Team Up With 15 Community Colleges. What Will That Entail?
Something rang both haphazard and familiar in the announcement Facebook made last week, promising to create as many as 15 partnerships with community colleges by the end of 2018...more>>

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Observatory: Education must respond to the demands of the labor market, according to Pearson
Pearson's report states interpersonal and complex thinking skills (critical thinking, logic and creativity) need to be measured and continuously learned depending on the demands of the jobs...more>>

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TechCrunch: Goodwall gets $10.8M to expand its LinkedIn for students
Goodwall, a US-focused student and graduate professional network which aims to connect young people with college and employment opportunities, has closed a $10.8 million Series A funding raise...more>>

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EdSurge: Chegg Nabs Online Flashcard Tool, StudyBlue in $20.8 Million All-Cash Acquisition
Chegg, a publicly-traded provider of textbook rentals and online student services, has acquired StudyBlue, a company that offers study tools such as flashcards, for $20.8 million in cash...more>>

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MIT Tech Review: Rebuilding Germany's centuries-old vocational program
The Ausbildung is widely touted as an example other countries should follow. But it's struggling to keep up with technological change...more>>

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Venture Beat: High Fidelity raises $35 million with goal of bringing VR to 'a billion people'
High Fidelity has raised $35 million in funding for its open source platform for building distributed social virtual reality worlds. The platform leverages blockchain technology to enable VR developers to create linkable experiences that can be easily deployed across platforms that also adhere to the open, transparent, and secure ledger technology...more>>

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SI News: What does the future of online learning look like? - report
Every year an increasing number of students take to their computers and access education through online or distance learning programmes. However, this could be set to change according to Learning House's annual report with Aslanian Market Research (AMR)...more>>

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The World Bank: Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About
Recently, we reached out to education experts around the world to hear what they considered the most pressing issues facing our sector today...more>>

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Campus Technology: Study: People Remember Information Better Through VR
A new study from the University of Maryland found that people recall information better when it is presented to them in a virtual environment, as opposed to a desktop computer...more>>

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EdSurge: Institute of Education Sciences to Offer Up to $4M for Research Into Educational Tools
The Institute of Education Sciences is offering grants up to $4 million to fund the research, development and evaluation of educational services and assessments...more>>

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EdSurge: The Number of Students Taking Online Courses Is Quickly Rising, But Perceptions Are Changing Slowly
Online course offerings in the United States have expanded. In both K12 and higher education options for students to take whole courses, blended courses and-in some places-entire degree programs online are more prevalent than ever...more>>

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Hechinger: Education unfits us for slavery; we need to protect the Department of Education
The new White House proposal to merge the Departments of Education and Labor views students only as workers...more>>

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HBR: When Technology Gets Ahead of Society
Drones, originally developed for military purposes, weren't approved for commercial use in the United States until 2013. When that happened, it was immediately clear that they could be hugely useful to a whole host of industries-and almost as quickly, it became clear that regulation would be a problem...more>>

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Pew Research Center: Stories From Experts About the Impact of Digital Life
While many technology experts and scholars have concerns about the social, political and economic fallout from the spread of digital activities, they also tend to report that their own experience of digital life has been positive...more>>

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Public Agenda: Infogagement: Citizenship and Democracy in the Age of Connection
Our traditional notions about the "public square" are out of date. In thinking about information, engagement, and public life, we have generally put information first: people need to be educated, and then they will become politically involved (the original title of this PACE project was, accordingly, "Information for Engagement")...more>>

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HBR: Collaborative Intelligence: Humans and AI Are Joining Forces
Artificial intelligence is becoming good at many "human" jobs-diagnosing disease, translating languages, providing customer service-and it's improving fast. This is raising reasonable fears that AI will ultimately replace human workers throughout the economy...more>>

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Pew Research Center: Public Attitudes Toward Technology Companies
A majority of Republicans say technology firms support the views of liberals over conservatives and that social media platforms censor political viewpoints. Still, Americans tend to feel that these firms benefit them and - to a lesser degree - society...more>>

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Pew Research Center: Social Media Use Continues to Rise in Developing Countries but Plateaus Across Developed Ones
Digital divides remain, both within and across countries...more>>

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Reuters: Gaming addiction classified as mental health disorder by WHO
Many parents already have concerns, but some may now have a new argument for limiting their children's 'screen time' - addiction to video games has been recognised by World Health Organization as a mental health disorder...more>>

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Venture Beat: HR tech is evolving quickly - more acquisitions are on the way
Globally, HR technology is massive space, spanning everything from recruitment to performance reviews. One source pegs the value of this market at $400 billion...more>>

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JFF: $1 Billion Wage Gain Challenge
Seed funded by Schmidt Futures, JFFLabs is launching a competition to find the nation's most effective and promising ways to meaningfully increase people's annual incomes...more>>

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Venture Beat: Pi-top raises $16 million for modular PCs that teach you how to code
Pi-top, a fledgling ed-tech startup that encourages anyone to build their own computers and learn to code, has closed a $16 million round from U.K. investment firms Hambro Perks and Committed Capital...more>>

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The Atlantic: Code Now. Pay Tuition Later.
Coding schools are offering free classes in exchange for a percentage of future income. But at what cost?...more>>

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EdSurge: Another Coding Bootcamp, Learners Guild, Bites the Dust
Another coding bootcamp has kicked the bucket. Learners Guild, which offered a 10-month program for aspiring software engineers, has shut down...more>>

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Venture Beat: Udacity launches blockchain nanodegree program
Online learning platform Udacity is doubling down on its mission to offer courses in transformative technologies to plug current and anticipated employment gaps...more>>

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CLO: Impact and ROI of Learning: Worth Pursuing or Not?
Higher levels of learning evaluation are more difficult and subjective, but they are also the most important...more>>

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CLO: Change on the Horizon for Executive Education
Spending levels remain consistent. However, changing student demographics and talent management needs point to the necessity for fresh thinking...more>>

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EdDive: How Starbucks moved 23K tablets for its day of bias training
How do you deliver simultaneous training to around 175,000 workers around the country on three weeks' notice when the majority of staff doesn't sit at a computer?...more>>

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CLO: What the Future Holds for Learning and Development
Here, three millennial L&D leaders - Larry Nicholson, training manager at American Integrity Insurance; Giselle Mota, learning strategist at Preductiv; and Nick Elkins, digital design manager at PwC (previously learning and performance experience designer with Coca-Cola Beverages Florida) - sound off on what they believe the future holds for the profession...more>>

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CLO: The Need for Continuous Learning
Our knowledge has an increasingly limited shelf life...more>>

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Forbes: This Financial Giant Will Now Offer College At No Cost To Employees
Discover, the diversified financial services company, is offering its U.S.-based employees the gift of college - for free. Here's how it works and what you need to know...more>>

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HR Dive: Employees feel managers aren't helping them develop skills, survey shows
Only four out of ten employees believe their manager is helping them develop the skills they need to perform their work, according to new Gartner findings; fewer still believe they're being readied for the future...more>>

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HR Dive: How to handle the training challenges of a rapid-growth industry
Imagine trying to hire staff for an industry that didn't exist even a year ago - to train on compliance not yet finalized. Imagine an industry experiencing such rapid growth that there's an excellent chance the employee you just spent a small fortune hiring and training will be poached from your payroll before she hits her first anniversary...more>>

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TechCrunch: Memrise raises $15.5M as its AI-based language-learning app passes 35M users
Memrise, a UK startup whose eponymous language-learning app employs machine learning and localised content to adapt to users' needs as they progress through their lessons, has raised another $15.5 million in funding to expand its product...more>>

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TechCrunch: China's VIPKID, which links English tutors with online learners, raises $500M at $3B+ valuation
The online language school market is continuing to heat up, and a startup that connects English teachers with an audience of students spanning China and 35 other countries for live language tutorials, is helping fan those flames...more>>

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Observatory: The companies of the 21st century, according to Google Cloud
Google Cloud launched a guide with the characteristics that portrays the successful and resilient companies of the 21st century. A vision of the impact of automation, AI, big data and blockchain in the future of the organizational environment...more>>

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Inc: Simple and Effective Leadership Skills That Few People Live
Jack Christianson explains that leadership is all about people. When the leader gets relationships right, everything else falls into place...more>>

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Bryan Alexander: What the Mary Meeker slides mean for the future of education
Last week Mary Meeker published her latest trends report. It's gotten a lot of attention, typically; here I'd like to identify what I see as the important findings for the future of education...more>>

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