News from the Edutech & Publishing World

• Bett Awards shine a light on the best of edtech 2020

The Bett Show 2020, brought together more than 800 leading companies, 103 pioneering edtech startups and over 34,000 visitors. Read more

• University of Arizona to develop socially intelligent AI agent

Researchers from the University of Arizona (UA) have been granted US$7.5m to build an artificial intelligence agent that is fluent in social cues and human interactions. Read more

• UK edtech market forecast to be worth £3.4bn by 2021

The UK edtech sector is on track to reach £3.4bn by 2021, according to The Telegraph. The growth reflects a surge of recent investments in emerging technologies such as virtual reality, coding and augmented reality, to name just a few. Read more

• Mark Your Calendars: 70+ US K-12 Education Events to See in 2020

Whether you’re looking for pitches or professional development, networking or hobnobbing, there’s something for you in this calendar.Here are nearly 80 K-12 events happening in 2020. Read more

• Online Degrees Slowdown: A Review of MOOC Stats and Trends in 2019

Last year, MOOC providers announced about 30 new online degrees. In 2019, only 11 online degrees were announced. The total number of MOOC-based degrees has now grown to 50. Read more

• Technology will create super-teachers, not replace them

Priya Lakhani OBE, founder CEO of CENTURY Tech, says schools can use AI to automate and improve less human-dependent tasks, so teachers can get back to what’s important – teaching. Read more

• A Textbook Publisher in a ‘Sea of Calm’? How Houghton Mifflin Is Navigating the Digital Transition

This decade has not been kind to traditional textbook publishers, as many publishers struggled to adapt their businesses from print to digital. Yet despite it all, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a stalwart in the K-12 publishing industry, says it’s been in a “sea of calm”. Read more

• More publishers fail as e-books rise

UK e-book revenues climbed 11 per cent to £563m in 2014, while sales of physical books fell 5 per cent to £2.7bn. Read more

• Report: Higher ed’s regulatory ‘triad’ needs an overhaul

The three bodies that together oversee higher education in the U.S. are in need of an extreme overhaul, argues a new report from New America. Read more

• Do protections for people with disabilities apply online? Domino’s asks high court.

Domino’s sells millions pizzas daily, and offers at 15 ways to order pizzas. But Guillermo Robles, who is blind, said neither their website nor its app allowed him to order his pizza of choice. Read more

• Pearson acquires ed tech company Lumerit Education in $29m deal

The acquisition of the San Antonio, Texas-based company is Pearson’s first in three years after selling various assets to become “a leaner, more efficient and more digital” company, including selling its US K12 public schools courseware business to Nexus in February. Read more

• Higher Ed Has Now Split Into Dual Economies: Online and Traditional

Before the invasion of the internet, the university comprised a secure, single identity; now—with about a third of college students online—the American college is bifurcated. A deeper look reveals strikingly different economies and cultures, student populations, status of faculty members, curriculum, infrastructure and even tuition. Read more