Attending SXSWedu this year inspired us in a multitude of ways: to understand exactly where the gaps are in educating our world’s youth and how we can work together to fix it; to enhance our product to make the lives of educators and students even easier as they empower students with our platform; and to never stop questioning and learning. In this spirit, we sat down with some of the key panelists from the global educational conference to get their perspectives on some questions we not only had on our mind, but questions that we are hearing the entire educational community ask. Questions such as: What kind of change must be affected in education? What kinds of technology are you using to affect that change? What kinds of patterns do you see emerging in the field? What’s next?
And now, we want to share the answers we found with you. Because only by sharing the views of all of us working to affect change in education — from the thought leaders we interviewed to every single teacher changing lives in the classroom — can we open up the conversation and begin to move the needle.
This is one post in the #eduinnovator series highlighting quotes from key thought leaders of education. Read on for an exclusive interview with educational changemaker and SXSWedu speaker Kapil Jain, where we go in-depth on the key trends in education, innovation, and what the future holds.
Kapil’s Journey Through Education
My journey with education started way back in the day, and can be categorized into two main phases.
My second phase is marked after I finished my MBA and went into management consulting. One of my clients was Rosetta Stone and, at that time, it was looking to explore its growth options, especially beyond its core US consumer business. I joined them to help scale their B2B subscription business, targeted at K-12 and higher edschools, and corporations. During my career at Rosetta Stone, I worked in many different capacities, expanding the business different markets around the globe, expand its product portfolio into literacy, English for ELL students, Spanish for Healthcare, etc. From there, I moved on to join Blackboard and also started mentoring start-ups through incubators such as 1776 and GSV.
Asian vs. American Edtech Markets: What’s the Difference?
The Correlation Between Educational Vigor & Edtech Consumption
We see a large contrast in the general mindset of parents and students in Asian markets as opposed to the United States. In Korea and China, we saw that students and parents were naturally eager to get their hands on supplemental material, because they thought that the curriculum in their formal schooling systems was not rigorous enough. In India, the curriculum is rigorous, and it has become a norm to have such a high level of competitiveness when it comes to trying to get into the top colleges and professions; as a result, a disproportionate share of monthly household income is spent on educational tools and resources outside of formal schooling system.
Global Adoption & Appreciation of Edtech
The sheer number of technology devices and access points today, gives rise a much larger market. People have more access to technology, which means schools are more connected, and the audience is now bigger for those trying to empower schools with technology. And we see this in its various forms from country to country, market to market. In emerging markets, students and learners expect your product to work without requiring them to be on the grid all the time. Whereas in more mature markets, connectivity is often taken for granted.
The general appreciation of edtech has changed. There is a lot more awareness in terms of what technology and supplemental tools can do to drive better outcomes for student success. And this varies by country. In emerging markets like India, while tech tools are useful, they still cannot be a standalone solution. They must be bundled with a classroom program. Similarly, in a country like Brazil, they will invest thousands for a classroom bundle because the online-only program does not cut it for them. Thus, standalone online-only ed-tech programs have a different level of appeal and demand in emerging markets vs. that in more mature markets. Discipline and rigor differs from country to country, and this determines the level of appreciation of the technology and how it is used, be it online or in the classroom.
Differences like these all stem from a cultural level, of course, and can be seen woven throughout the different artifacts of education. Everything from testing patterns, to pressure on students, are all contributing factors to how much investment in and consumption of education technology happens in each country.
More About Kapil
Open Up the World with 100mentors
Now that we’ve learned what is happening in the schools of the world, are you ready to follow innovative educational leaders like Kapil and empower the world’s youth? Join 100mentors as we take your students on a mission to explore the professions and places from around the globe, with the help of the world’s brightest minds. Educators using 100mentors have replaced regular classroom lectures and assignments with a “Classroom Mission” curriculum, where they empower their students to connect with mentors from across the world (from NASA scientists and Google data scientists to Hollywood cinematographers and New York Post Editors, and more) to expand their learning — and life — horizons. So, what do you say?
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