There has been a bit of a "MOOClash" afoot and the breaking news that an Emeritus Economics professor has dropped-out mid MOOC only fans the flames.

From this LA Times article covering the news:

The action by Richard A. McKenzie, an emeritus professor in the UC Irvine business school, highlights the uncertainties faculty face in adapting traditional face-to-face classes to the emerging universe of massive open online courses known as MOOCs.

Do you feel that this news perfectly expresses the natural "growing pains" of the MOOC vs traditional learning model? Or are groups like Coursera trying to take what should be a "casual learning" framework and apply it universally to more formalized content and processes?

In what appears to be a mash-up of FounderDating, Ednode, ResearchBroker and LinkedIn, Harvard's Innovation Lab (iLab) has created a new "founder" matching site, FounderFinder.

From the Harvard iLab newsletter:

The Harvard innovation lab has partnered with CoFoundersLab to provide the Harvard community with a free way to find a co-founder/business partner. A great team is critical to startup success, yet good co-founders/business partners are hard to find. We’re committed to helping the Harvard and greater Boston entrepreneurial community better solve this problem.

If you’re looking for a co-founder, there are more than 1,000 profiles in the greater Boston / New England area looking to join a team or found a venture.

To get started create a FREE entrepreneur profile on the i-Lab Founder Finder.

Following the news that Kaplan has entered the edtech accelerator race... Pearson, under the guidance of Diana Stepner (Read her NewLearningTimes.com profile here!) and her Future Technologies team after they announced their entry, Pearson Catalyst.

Listed below is the EdSurge.com take from their recent newsletter:

The program offers up to $10K for startups--with no equity taken. Here's the catch. They need to be working on things "that complement or enhance a Pearson brand," which presumably includes its extensive list of products and services. Ten teams will be chosen for the three-month program that will start in mid-April. Here's what it sounds like: work with us to deliver and promote our content, and in return we'll get you access to the markets where we've already established relationships.

We were definitely one of the first to use the term "edupreneurship" right here at the lab. Perhaps two years ago (at least we were one of the first to use it!?)? Now a group of University of Michigan students, many in the Business School and the Economics program have launched a "movement" called exactly that. Funded in part by the University's Social Venture Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the group hopes to create change in the ed space (as stated on their Twitter page), "Our mission is to create positive, systemic, transformational change in the U.S. education system." Visit edupreneurship.net for more details.

The group will host an "E-Day" next month and has a series of initiatives ranging from ideation sessions, workshops, a field trip to a local school and a "lock-in" in which new solutions to education's problems will be developed. Also, the group has invited "UnCollege" movement founder and author, Dale J. Stephens to speak/host these multi-day bootcamp sessions. Despite a lack of solid plans for how these new ideas will be implemented in schools, excitement and inspiration abounds (check-out NewLearningTimes.com alumnus Ghetto Film School and their Seen in New York here!.

Kaplan just announced (Thanks EdSurge!) a new NYC-based educational Technology accelerator program in partnership with NYC Techstars. From the EdSurge article:

The program terms should be familiar by now: ten companies will spend an intensive three months working in the New York City with mentors from a massive lineup that includes Kaplan CEO Andy Rosen, Washington Post chairman Don Graham, investors Deborah Quazzo and Matthew Greenfield, edtech founders and a pack of Kaplan executives. Missing from the list seem to be educators, however.

Startups will get $20K in support, along with office space, facilities and access to Kaplan insights and program around learning.

Very interesting that educators are missing from the equation... it does seem that this might be the missing piece to the edtech puzzle. Hmmm.... LaunchPad?!

Join me for another @EdTechNY @Meetup at @Knewton! This time big data continues to take center stage... and apparently is in need of a bigger "boat?!" Excited to learn more.

Event Details:

Tuesday, February 26, 2013 7:00 PM
Knewton
FREE!
100 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Thanks! You are confirmed for…
Education APIs: “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat”

Join the EdLab outreach train, register for the event here & add your +1 below!

Learn more about today's seminar here and add your brilliant thoughts, questions and takeaways to the vialogue below!

Visiting from outside the EdLab? Learn how to set-up a vialogues account here!

Laura Scheiber and I completed the first session of this +Acumen online leadership course (original blog post from a few weeks ago that lays-out the details) and wanted to share our takeaways in relation to our work at EdLab and specifically, ideas to possibly integrate into future LaunchPad initiatives. Visit the +Acumen site here. We are excited to share our learning from this free opportunity from the world's largest social entrepreneurship-focused venture fund!

+Acumen Session 1:

What we liked:
-Not a MOOC

Fast Co. recently released their list of the world's top 10 "most innovative" educational technology companies. Do you agree? Why or why not? What company's should have made the list? Are these kinds of lists really very helpful? Hurtful?

Read more here.

(Image source)

As security and bots become even more of an issue for the world of online work, life and product development, I thought I would share this overview of 2-step password authentication. I wonder if this might be something to consider for our applications here at EdLab? Would this sacrifice users and became a "pain point" for educators already burdened with the sizable "lift" involved in setting-up their students with new technologies and applications?

Here are the main considerations that Edtech Magazine lays-out in a recent blog post (these are only the headings... the author provides all info to back these up):