On a personal note, I met Ian in 2013 when he guided me through a podcast on edtech and the EF accelerator, alongside two UK rising edtech stars in Code Club’ s Clare Sutcliffe and Night Zookeeper’ s Josh Davidson. We’ ve worked together since on events and content to help push forward UK edtech innovation. That’ s something we plan to continue here at DigitalAgenda.
The establishment of Edtech UK has been the logical outcome of Fordham’ s passion for building an ecosystem for improving the delivery of education through technology, whether it be apps or online learning like MOOCs. He’ s driven by a belief that education technology business can scale if it meets a need and has the right backing.
He’ s also wise enough to see that challenges remain, including building the digital skills of teachers and the wait for the first big innovation that takes UK edtech truly mainstream.
Though Fordham remains an advisor, Edtech UK’ s loss is Microsoft’ s gain, as well as the vast numbers within its reach, and I’ m looking forward to seeing what emerges from the tech giant through Ian’ s work.
Originally posted on Digital Agenda: Technology for Change
Julian Blake Follow me � @ julianblake
7