Discussions

An interview by EdSurge with Jennifer Carolan, Director, NewSchools Venture Fund Seed Fund

Early this year, the nonprofit NewSchools Venture Fund created a seed fund to invest in early stage companies building education technology tools, applications, content, and services that will significantly improve education opportunities for children from low-income communities. So far, it has invested in about 19 companies (full disclosure: EdSurge has received funding from this group). Jennifer Carolan runs the fund. In this session, Jennifer will share:

* Trends that she's seeing among startup companies
* Implications for international education
* What she's not seeing (but wishes she did!)
 
Jennifer Carolan directs NewSchools Venture Fund's Seed Fund.  She spent seven years  in traditional district schools where she taught history and became a teaching and learning specialist. After studying differentiation at Stanford School of Education, she published her research in Education Leadership and has since been on a pursuit of finding tools to help teachers differentiate more effectively. She joined NewSchools Venture Fund in 2006. Jennifer works with the following ventures: BetterLesson, Education Elements, Engrade, Educreations and Mytonomy. Jennifer is also on the Board of Equal Opportunity Schools. She still teaches sometimes, most recently Innovations in Teaching 338 at Stanford’s School of Education/d.school. Jennifer has three children who attend a charter school in Los Altos California. 

EdSurge reports on developments in education technology--both what exists and how to use it--both in weekly newsletters and on our website, www.edsurge.com

This session will be divided into two (approximately equal) halves: first, EdSurge will interview Jennifer; second, we'll open the call to Q&A.

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