Upgrading EdTech is a podcast that examines the opportunities for improving education technology outcomes from both educator and technology provider perspectives. Hosted by Ben Grimley, ESL teacher and co-founder/CEO of Speak Agent, Inc.
Upcoming Episodes
We’re taking an end-of-year break and will be back later in the summer!
Past Episodes
12 – EIGHT BUDGET-PROOF STRATEGIES FOR MULTILINGUAL INSTRUCTION
How do you continue to support multilingual learners in a fraught budget environment where your resources are declining? By forging partnerships among ELD, Math, and Science departments to implement English language development strategies in the content areas! This episode explores the big picture situation and then details eight ELD strategies shown to be effective in STEM subjects.
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11 – IS EDTECH PURCHASING BROKEN?
How K-12 districts source, evaluate, and purchase edtech products may be a big part of the reason why district leaders are not seeing the learning outcomes they were hoping for. This episode explores the challenges with sourcing innovative solutions, using RFPs as an evaluation tool, and purchasing. We examine why school districts are inadvertently locking out some of the best solutions that could drive better student learning outcomes.
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10 – FOLLOW YOUR NORTH STAR
A special episode for Teacher Appreciation Week in gratitude to all of our wonderful educators across the country, whether teaching in the classroom, supporting teachers or learners outside the classroom, or working in school or district leadership roles.
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9 – THE EDTECH STARTUP DILEMMA
The bar keeps rising for K-12 edtech startups, Every year there are more and more requirements just to even be considered for purchase. This episode explores the most common requirements and a few ways to minimize the burden on startup founders.
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8 – MAKING GOOD DECISIONS
This episode is about decision-making for both education leaders and edtech founders. What are the essential ingredients of good decisions? How can you improve your decision-making process both pre-decision and post-decision?
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7 – THE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE BARRIER
This episode explores what the learning sciences say about how you can overcome the academic language barrier.
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6 – CAN I MAKE AN EDTECH PRODUCT?
This episode explores how you can jump into the world of making your own edtech product…
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5 – THE BIG SHIFT IN HOW TO EVALUATE EDTECH
A big shift is brewing in how school districts evaluate edtech products. This episode deep-dives what the research debate is all about and explores concrete steps you can take to make edtech more effective in your school district.
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4 – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT AI
This episode identifies the potential pitfalls of applying Generative AI, or GenAI, to education and shares four principles you can build upon to avoid recycling the errors of previous failures.
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3 – WHO IS YOUR EDTECH PROVIDER, REALLY?
This episode makes the case for what founder-led edtech providers have to offer to educational institutions and explores the potential advantages over funder-led providers.
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2 – IMPLEMENTATION: THE BANE OF EDTECH
This episode looks at the challenges of edtech Implementation and shares a few ideas for educational institutions and edtech founders alike to consider about improving the process.
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1 – CODESIGN
This episode explores Codesign, the practice of developing edtech products from the ground up with input from the people who use them. Doing so can improve student engagement, improve instructional supports, and increase the probability that the product will be effective!
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