Cloud education tech claims larger role in ‘hire learning’
May 28, 2015
Grazed from Fortune. Author: Heather Clancy.
The explosion last year in venture funding for education technology—more than $1.87 billion invested—wasn’t strictly earmarked for K-12 classrooms, colleges and universities. A fast-growing portion of ed-tech investments is squarely focused on corporate cyberlearning applications as businesses struggle to fill skills gaps and retain talent.
As one vivid illustration, consider the $1.5 billion paid by LinkedIn to acquire Lynda.com, a venerable subscription-based online learning company in business for two decades. Wrote LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, in a blog post justifying the deal: “I believe we need to transition from a 20th century approach heavily reliant on rote learning to a 21st century curriculum focused on collaboration, critical reasoning and creative problem solving; provide more opportunities for experiential vs. textbook learning; better equip teachers to cater to multiple forms of intelligence vs. simply focusing on math and verbal skills; ensure compassion is taught in every classroom; and provide today’s students with the skills they need to obtain the jobs that are and will be vs. the jobs that once were.”…
Read more from the source @ http://fortune.com/2015/05/28/education-technology-hire-learning/