The future of learning: Meet the edtech companies leading the way

Education is not exactly what we would call a tech-driven industry. Despite the influx of new technologies and devices arriving in classrooms every year (permitted or not!) - many teachers and parents have remained skeptical of the role technology could play.

Enter 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a seismic shift in education, and schools and universities around the world have been forced to move their classes online to keep students safe and secure. teachers while ensuring that education does not collapse. a break. This has created an unprecedented demand for digital educational tools and software, accelerating the shift to online learning and, consequently, triggering massive growth in the edtech industry. How did you experience this wave? And what will happen now that everyone is going back to class?

This week on Inside Intercom you'll hear:

Tristram Hewitt, Operations Manager at Outschool Liran Biderman, Customer Experience Manager at Simply Kris Jagasia, co-founder and CEO of Off2Class Chris Hull, co-founder and president of Otus

From schools adapting to remote learning to creativity-boosting music apps, in today's episode we'll hear from Intercom's customers at the forefront of edtech talking about the latest trends and developments. Grab a pen and notepad, or a tablet and stylus, and join us as we explore their world and discover what the future of education looks like.

If you're short on time, here are some quick tips:

Despite the normalization of online tutoring, many teachers still have doubts, not to mention challenges around equity of devices and internet access. Massive open online course platforms must create a simple and supportive environment to ensure that users enjoy the experience and derive real value from the applications. To deliver amazing experiences to their users, learner-centric companies need to find the right metrics and continually seek customer feedback. In education, results are everything. Many apps and companies have gained notoriety during the pandemic, but only tools that prove their effectiveness will thrive. Edtech is getting a lot of attention for its ability to mitigate the impact of teacher shortages, which is driving high adoption in schools. Much like a CRM, a centralized system with student information can help teachers maximize their students' learning and help them achieve their goals.

Make sure you don't miss any highlights by following Inside Intercom on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube or by grabbing the RSS feed in your reader of choice. The following is a slightly edited transcript of the episode.

The education revolution

Liam Geraghty: Hello and welcome to Inside Intercom. I am Liam Geraghty. One of the ripple effects of the COVID pandemic has been the acceleration of home learning. Schools all over the world suddenly had to find the best way to teach their students, and it wasn't just high school students. Over the past few years, the edtech industry has seen rapid growth across the board. Today on the show, we take an edtech lesson with some of the Intercom customers who have been at the forefront of this change to learn about the challenges and successes they've had, not to mention trends they see. Later in the show, we'll hear from Liran Biderman, head of customer experience at Simply, a company that fuels creativity through its music learning apps.

Liran Biderman: I think a lot of companies, especially in the IT space, could benefit from saying, "Yes, we put our customers first" and looking at what kind of substance can be placed behind it. How can we generate a lot of value for customers and make sure they get it every step of the way?

"We see this as an opportunity to rethink the way students are taught in schools"

Liam Geraghty: We'll be talking to Kris Jagasia, co-founder and CEO of Off2Class, a tool for ESL teachers.

Kris Jagasia: It's really happened over the last year, across all industries,...