Didn’t know Salt Lake City was becoming an EdTech hot spot? It’s still news to some well informed locals. Here’s a baker’s dozen of the EdTech companies on the western front of the Wasatch:
Lumen Learning, which raised $2.5 million last month, is a Portland-based company that helps colleges and schools replace commercial textbooks with open content providers. Co-founder David Wiley is still based in Utah.
Utah is home to almost 4,400 technology companies that raised nearly $1 billion in capital last year. There are few EdTech investors so most startups need to work east and west coast networks.
BoomStartup (SLC and Provo) is a lean startup accelerator founded in 2010. More than 40 companies have graduated from the program and have raised more than $15 million in seed capital.
The Eccles School of Business at University of Utah has a particularly strong entrepreneurship program with a focus on value creation.
Schools to visit. We’ve profiled a couple great SLC area schools.
There are a variety of online high school options including Mountain Heights Academy, which launched in 2009 with a commitment to open content.
Smart Cities Summit. Last week we hosted a small gathering of EdLeaders at the Leonardo, a science, technology and art museum on Friday to discuss Smart Cities that Work for Everyone.
Participants noted several things heading in the right direction:
“We’ve been able to grow Instructure from a handful of employees in 2011 to more than 550 employee this year because Utah has many smart, interesting, talented people,” said Mitch Benson, VP of K-12 at Instructure. “The challenge Utah faces is to keep up with the demand since many tech companies are expanding their presence and drawing from that same pool. This is why the STEM Utah program and others are vital to the future of success in Utah.”
Energized by the convening, Agilix CEO Curt Allen said, “Together we can help make Utah a model.”
EdPolicy. Twenty years ago Governor Mike Leavitt Leavitt proposed competency-based Western Governor’s University. It opened in 1997 and I joined the board in 1999. Leavitt was also an early leader of the early college movement. We launched a network of early college high schools together on September 11, 2001.
Having left the Smarter Balanced testing consortium, Utah has the opportunity to lead the way on a next generation state assessment system.
With Florida, Utah received top marks from Digital Learning Now in the most recent state policy report card. Utah’s 2013 Student Achievement Backpack (UT SB 82) is featured as an example of a portable student record. To learn more, read the DLN State Policy Profile for Utah.
Tom Vander Ark is founder and CEO of Getting Smart. He is also a partner in Learn Capital and a director of iNACOL, Digital Learning Institute, Imagination Foundation, Charter Board Partners, Strive for College, and Bloomboard.