Edtech Insiders
Edtech Insiders
Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell
At Edtech Insiders, we interview founders, investors, operators, educators, and thought leaders about the future of education technology. You’ll hear from leaders across the education technology industry and learn about all of the important edtech trends happening globally.
Inside Reach Capital’s $265M Fund V with Jomayra Herrera
Send us Fan Mail Jomayra Herrera is a Partner at Reach Capital, an early-stage venture fund investing across learning, health, and work. Previously, she worked at Emerson Collective and Cowboy Ventures, investing in companies including Handshake, Guild, Contra, and Career Karma. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why Reach Capital is doubling down on pre-seed and early-stage investing with its new $265M Fund V.How learning, health, and work intersect to create new opportunities for inno...
Aug 18
50 min
AI Should Support Teachers, Not Replace Them with Joy Delizo-Osborne of Student Achievement Partners
Send us Fan Mail Joy Delizo-Osborne is President and CEO of Student Achievement Partners, where she works to improve instructional quality and connect evidence-based practices with curriculum and edtech. A former teacher, instructional coach, and principal, Joy brings more than 20 years of experience in education. 💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode: How AI can support and not replace teachers and students.Why productive struggle still matters in AI-powered learning.What districts should ...
Aug 17
52 min
Week in Edtech 8/5/26: Higher Ed Leadership Turnover Accelerates, OpenAI Expands Its Education Push, AI “Slop” Floods Teachers Pay Teachers, Students Propose AI Rules, and More! Feat. Janice Jackson of Aspen Institute
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Ben Kornell and Alex Sarlin as they break down the biggest stories shaping higher education, AI adoption, school technology policy, and the future of learning. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:05:13] Higher ed leadership turnover accelerates amid political, financial, and AI pressures [00:11:00] OpenAI launches new AI tools for college students, professors, and K–12 educators [00:17:27] OpenAI pushes deeper into higher ed with AI-powered academic workflows [00:20:40] AI c...
Aug 14
58 min
How Boddle Turned Classroom Math into a Game Kids Choose to Play with Edna Martinson
Send us Fan Mail Edna Martinson is the Co-founder and COO of Boddle Learning, a gamified K–6 learning platform used by millions of students to build confidence in math, literacy, and science. She is passionate about combining great game design with research-backed learning experiences that teachers and students love. 💡 5 Things You'll Learn in This Episode Why Boddle was built to compete with video games.How gamification drives learning and confidence.What teachers want from classroom technol...
Aug 10
49 min
Week in Edtech 7/29/26: Gates Foundation Shakeup, OpenAI's AI Workforce Push, Y Combinator Backs AI Tutors, Coursera Invests $100M on AI Learning, and More! Feat. Kavitta Ghai of Nectir & Aidan McDowell of UniqLearn
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Ben Kornell and Alex Sarlin as they break down the biggest stories shaping AI, edtech investment, philanthropy, the future of work, and AI-powered learning. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:02:33] Bridges AI Summit brings district leaders together to discuss AI adoption, pilots, and edtech purchasing [00:05:19] Imagi raises $4.5M with backing from OpenAI, Lovable, Will.i.am, Kahoot!, and ElevenLabs [00:09:18] AI, cross-sector platforms, and portfolio consolidation drive e...
Aug 7
1 hr 33 min
Inside the Inaugural Columbians in EdTech Showcase: Meet the Winners
Send us Fan Mail Inside Columbia's First EdTech Showcase, Alex Sarlin sits down with the founders and leaders behind the inaugural Columbia EdTech Showcase to explore the startups, ideas, and innovations shaping the future of learning from AI-powered discussion tools to health education, learning science, and content curation. 🎙️ Featuring insights from: [00:01:56] Pete Novak, Founder, Columbians in EdTech [00:14:48] Dan Wang, Co-Founder, CAiSEY [00:32:43] Kyleigh Sudlow, Lead Engineer, Puber...
Aug 3
1 hr 19 min
Claude for Teachers: How Anthropic Is Reimagining AI for Educators with Drew Bent & Sandra Liu Huang
Send us Fan Mail Drew Bent leads Education at Anthropic, where he oversees education initiatives including Claude for Teachers. A former math teacher, Khan Academy engineer, and co-founder of Schoolhouse.world, Drew focuses on applying AI to improve teaching and learning. Sandra Liu Huang is President of Learning Commons, where she leads the development of open AI datasets and learning science infrastructure for education. She previously held product leadership roles at Google, Facebook, and ...
Jul 30
27 min
Student-Centered Learning, AI, and School Redesign with Julie Young of Florida Virtual School
Send us Fan Mail Julie Young is the Founding CEO of Florida Virtual School (FLVS), where she helped pioneer online public education and expand access to millions of learners. She later founded ASU Prep Digital and is the author of Say Yes: How Virtual Became Reality, continuing to shape the future of student-centered learning. 💡 5 Things You'll Learn in This Episode How Florida Virtual School grew from a small pilot into a global model for virtual education. Why putting stude...
Jul 27
43 min
Week in Edtech 7/15/26: NYC Pauses AI Procurement, Anthropic Launches Claude for Teachers, Norway Restricts AI in Schools, and More! Feat. Louise Baigelman of Storyshares & Ashish Bansal of StarSpark.AI
Send us Fan Mail Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they discuss the latest developments in education technology, from growing AI skepticism in schools and major policy shifts to Anthropic's education strategy and conversations with founders tackling literacy and AI tutoring. ✨ Episode Highlights: [00:05:49] New York City pauses AI procurement across its school system [00:11:28] New study questions AI's impact on teaching quality and student engagement [00:18:00] Norway introduces stri...
Jul 24
1 hr 31 min
Why Kids Should Help Design EdTech: Inside the Joan Ganz Cooney Center's Co-Design Movement
Send us Fan Mail Michael Preston, Executive Director, Medha Tare, Senior Director of Research, and Liza Gak, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, are leading researchers focused on child-centered educational technology. Together, they are helping edtech organizations design better products by combining learning science, participatory co-design, and thoughtful approaches to AI. 💡 5 Things You'll Learn in This Episode Why involving children early in product design leads to ...
Jul 20
48 min
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