"There's a place up ahead and I'm goin', just as fast as my feet can fly" —Creedence Clearwater Revival
The 1EdTech community is already achieving new heights in 2021!
The 1EdTech team and I have spent many, many hours collaborating on pandemic-related topics at and between the half dozen virtual conferences and roughly 500 virtual project group meetings over the last 12 months. In a nutshell, we’ve been very pleased with how the 1EdTech community has performed. Nothing keeps the future from coming. I believe there is hope for great optimism as we use the learnings from the pandemic to make a better world together.
But what I am here to report that over the last 12 months, we were not just supporting pandemic-related topics but also making amazing progress across the entire set of 1EdTech initiatives. It is clear from just the first two months of 2021 that 1EdTech will have another breakout year of enabling the edtech ecosystem.
Here are some of the highlights of progress and things to come:
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What a line-up for the Digital Credentials Summit next week! The Comprehensive Learner Record and Open Badges are being adopted in higher education, corporate talent management, and across a broad ecosystem of products proving the power of digital credentials.
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We’ve seen record-breaking attendance at all of the virtual events 1EdTech has hosted, including the most recent 1EdTech Europe Summit 2020, 1EdTech Quarterly Meeting November 2020, and 1EdTech Quarterly Meeting February 2021 (over 500 at last count!).
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The 1EdTech TrustEd Apps program for student data privacy is receiving rave reviews from institutional and supplier members alike. This is a breakthrough in terms of a program that is lifting up the edtech sector. Stay tuned for an emerging data privacy interoperability rubric.
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State systems and statewide engagement in 1EdTech are accelerating. It has never been more important for state departments of education or state systems to work more closely with regional school districts and universities. This collaboration applies to all of the 1EdTech work—from TrustEd Apps to OneRoster to LTI Advantage to CASE Network to digital credentials.
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1EdTech’s combined work on Edu-API, Caliper Analytics, the Student Learning Data Model, and LTI Advantage clarifies what we are beginning to call “data ready apps.” Edu-API is moving very rapidly toward market reality, and Caliper is continuing to make great strides in HED, with very serious interest now in K-12.
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In 2021, 1EdTech will be launching the Standards First program. Starting with OneRoster, 1EdTech members and the broader edtech community will have a clear path forward to ensure that open standards are the first choice for edtech integrations. Stay tuned!
Hold on to your hats because we’re going up around the bend! I’ll see you there.
