A spillover investor interest in
Canada was identified by the Post as
well. Desire2Learn (D2L) raised $80
million from venture capital investments in September, the largest amount ever raised
as a software investment in Canada, according to the Post. The next step for D2L
is to "start scooping up smaller startups with innovative
technologies."
D2L is a learning management system
(LMS), the software used to manage the assignments, marks and other information
about students. It is particularly used
in online learning programs, but can be used to manage classroom information as
well.
The company that produces D2L is
located in Waterloo, Ontario. Its major
proprietary competitor is Blackboard, which took over the other main Canadian-created
LMS, WebCT. Moodle is the main open
source LMS, free to use, but with high time demands for maintenance and
upgrades.
The link between privatization and
education technology is made explicit in the
Post article. Teach for America
(TFA) is a program that puts university
grads without teaching qualifications into U.S. public schools as
teachers. The Post reports that TFA "has trained an education corps of
almost 28,000 young teachers interested in education reform. Many of them,
disillusioned with traditional classroom teaching, have started private
companies or not-for-profits to change the system from the outside."
The Post does have some strategic
advice for edtech businesses that might be directed to the promoters of the BC
Education Plan as well :
"Smart entrepreneurs dole out
their technological solutions in easily digestible chunks that don’t force busy
teachers to re-imagine their classrooms from the ground up. After all, teachers
still have many other low-tech realities to consider: paper report cards,
chalkboards and overhead[s]. The everyday reality of a ringing bell and a
packed curriculum makes implementation of sweeping digital reform all the more
difficult."
Find the Financial Post article from September 10, 2012 at
http://natpo.st/SdZngW
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