Ed News Ticker December 6th 2011

Gene Wade – TEDxSF – Building the World’s Most Affordable and Accessible Private University Online

TEDx talk by Gene Wade, the Founder and CEO of UniversityNow, a venture-backed start-up, whose vision is a world in which education is universally affordable and accessible to all who seek it.

Source: TEDxSF

Tech startup 2tor rides surge in online education

2tor is still the highest funded startup in education with $65 million in total.

While there are other companies in the space of online education, both Johnson and Katzman agree 2tor doesn’t have an parallel competitor offering the same level of to their high-quality but welcome the emergence of one. “I would love for more people to try to do what we’re doing,” says Johnson.

Source: Reuters

Livemocha takes a crack at Rosetta Stone in retail

According to Livemocha’s CEO Michael Schutzler, sales of the boxed product sold at Barnes & Nobles are going really well.

“(The) bulk of Rosetta Stone’s sales that generate actual margin are in retail. Berlitz has been there for decades,” said Schutzler. “Our partners are Merriam Webster … and therefore we think we have a shot at winning in this arena as well.”

Source: GeekWire

High School Class Gives New Meaning to Learning Apps

At Winchester High School in Massachusetts students are engaged with mobile app development.

“Kids are immediately attracted to mobile technology,” Downs said. “I thought it would be great if I could develop a course that would take advantage of this interest they have and at the same time connect it to software that a majority or students could actually be interested in learning.”

Source: theJOURNAL

It only takes $6 million to Educate the World

Shai Reshef, founder and president of the University of the People (EDUKWEST interview) explains that it would only take a budget of $6 million for the institution to reach sustainability and fulfill its goal of free education for everyone, forever.

Source: Big Think

Funding, Grants & Book Deals: Thiel Fellows Are Making The Grade (With More Classes To Follow)

The Thiel Foundation has decided to launch a second class in 2012. The program is now accepting applications, with a deadline of December 31st. Candidates must be under 20 years of age until that date.

Source: TechCrunch

Behind A Big Data Veteran, GoingOn Brings A Next-Gen Social Platform To Academia

GoingOn pivoted into an on-demand platform for academic institutions which allows them to build their own private social networks.

The ambitious and far-reaching goal for GoingOn, CEO Jon Corshen tells us, is a large-scale platform play: To create a fundamentally new piece of the academic technology ecosystem, one that sits between and ties together LMS, SIS, and the Portal.

Source: TechCrunch