Week in Edtech 10/30/22 with Guest Joe Connor of Odyssey

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, we speak with Joe Connor of Odyssey, which raised a $4.75M dollar seed round this week to help districts and families use flexible education funding sources, like Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and microgrants. Ben and Alex also discuss:1) Elections & Education: The Rise of Education Polarization Is College Worth It? Voters Are Split. (Five Thirty Eight)How the Diploma Divide Is Remaking American Politics (New York)‘There Are Two Americas Now: One With a B.A. and One Without’ (NYTimes)Award-Winning Teachers Are Pushing Back Against Attacks on ‘Honest Education’ (Edweek)2) Stanford's Pandemic-Fueled Pivot to Online EducationReview of Stanford’s ‘emergency remote teaching’ and learning explores lessons learned from the pandemic (Stanford)3) Edtech Mega-VC Michael Moe on the MetaverseVirtual Reality and the History and Future of Education in the Metaverse (EIEIO: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Education, Impact and Opportunity)4) Gates foundation pivots to Math as NAEP scores underscore crisis Student math scores are down from pre-COVID levels, the National Report Card finds (NPR)Why the Gates Foundation Is Investing $1.1 Billion in Math Education (Edweek) NAEP ‘Nation’s Report Card’ Shows Steep Fall in Math Scores (Edsurge)How Do Schools Come Back From ‘Catastrophic’ Drops in Math, Reading on NAEP? (Edweek)5) Digital Surveillance and Monitoring in Schools and Children's Right to PrivacyKids Are Back in Classrooms and Laptops Are Still Spying on Them (Wired)Surveillance Education Cycle: Finding Ways to Protect Privacy in Schools (Random Lengths News)New Polling Finds Parents and Educators Overwhelmingly Support Technology Designed to Keep Students Safe Online (GoGuardian PR)