Featured Articles
Top Discovery Tips for 2021
Congratulations! Your navigation through countless virtual demos and presentations is now 2020 hindsight as you've grown comfortable with whatever online tool your company utilizes (Teams, Zoom,...
Bob Riefstahl
Demonstrate Your Commitment to Student Privacy
While EdTech providers’ privacy requirements may vary, complying with student privacy laws is always complex. It’s a time of unprecedented opportunity for ed tech providers. It’s also a time of ...
Patrick Davenport and Claire Quinn
3 Strategies to Drive EdTech Sales Post-COVID
HOW TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN A COMPETITIVE MARKET As bleak as the pandemic situation looks today, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Vaccines are on the way, and before we know it, K...
Emily Embury
Reopening Schools but Emptier, Physically Distanced, and still some Remote Students - The State of K12 Schools in America
We need to talk about the state of K12 schooling in America. It’s a different world now. The Learning Counsel’s major Digital Transition Survey showed our first data in October 2020 of the natio...
LeiLani Cauthen
Spotlight on Children's Privacy Protections - Spring 2021
Children’s privacy protection is well and truly in the spotlight as we move into spring. There’s plenty happening in the EU. TikTok has been grabbing the headlines in relation to children’s priv...
Claire Quinn
Last Chance for Gas and Tech
Back in the old days, before our country was completely built around every exit on every highway, we used to have signs posted at exits with information like, “Last Chance to Get Gas for 246 mil...
Charles Sosnik
No More School Money Worries
First there was the CARES Act, which is still not entirely spent out. Many areas of the country who didn’t get their allocation spent up by the end of 2020 got extensions . The CARES Act was...
LeiLani Cauthen
The Delicate Question of Teacher Digital Transition
“Let’s make sure we all get one thing very clear. Tech is replacing the old whole-group model , it’s not replacing true human direct instruction. It’s making direct individual instruction a p...
LeiLani Cauthen
A Seat at the Table – A Case for Pre-Sales Leadership
Perhaps you can relate to a situation from your past. You are eight years old and attending a large family holiday dinner. It is time to eat, and as the adults and teens find their way to the bi...
Bob Riefstahl
Social Media for Sales: Nurturing Leads & Closing Deals
Social media is more than a way to connect with friends and family, it’s also a vehicle for companies to engage with current (and future) customers. A LinkedIn analysis found that half of th...
Emily Embury
Understanding the Choices We Make
"People are capable of flight. The problem is the landing. " --Mark Yozart Acrophobia applies to people with "extreme, irrational and persistent fears of heights and situations ass...
Mac Bogert
The Oracle at Sacramento
2800 hundred years ago in Greece, a priestess named Pythia was famous throughout the ancient world for divining the future, and it is said no major decisions were made without consulting her fir...
Charles Sosnik
The 2020 Digital Transition Survey Results are in: Just How Large is the K12 Ed-Tech Market?
The U.S. K-12 sector spent $35.8 Billion in 2020 on all things EdTech, including hardware, major software systems, digital curriculum resources and networks, a healthy increase of $7.8 Billion o...
LeiLani Cauthen
And a Happy New Year
As we wind down 2020, we say farewell to the year that just keeps on giving. By any measure, this was the strangest year in our lifetimes. What began as a very promising 2020 quickly shifted wit...
Charles Sosnik
EduJedi Leadership Society Grants Awards at Learning Counsel’s 2020 National EduJedi Gathering
(Sacramento, CA December 15, 2020) This year is clearly a landscape shift for educational technologies. It is important to remember how far we have come in only a few decades with technology...
The LC Staff
Transforming a Good Demo into a Winning Demo
In-person demos have disappeared since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-sales and Sales professionals are headlong in building bridges to customers using virtual platforms, but many o...
Bob Riefstahl
By Definition: Real K12 Leadership Now
Really good leaders have uncanny abilities to do true estimates of what it takes to win. That is what defines a consistent winner and therefore great leader.
LeiLani Cauthen
LinkedIn Tips for Education Companies
BEST PRACTICES FOR MARKETING YOUR EDUCATION BRAND THROUGH LINKEDIN Known for its extensive networking capabilities, LinkedIn is an effective platform for making connections and promoting you...
Liz Myer
Kicking Off the New Year: Your Virtual Sales Kickoff NEEDS to Tell a Story
When your executives take the virtual stage at your upcoming Sales Kickoff (SKO), a story needs to be told. Here’s the scenario. 2020 has been an unprecedented year and your company is not onl...
Bob Riefstahl
How Efficacy Research Supports EdTech Marketing and Sales Efforts
There are two increasingly common questions that district leaders ask when seeking out new products and services: Do you have efficacy research? and Can you prove to me that your product improve...
Saul Hafenbredl
Christmas is Coming Early this Year
“A pair of Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots Is the wish of Barney and Ben Dolls that'll talk and will go for a walk Is the hope of Janice and Jen And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for s...
Charles Sosnik
The 2 Percent Difference Between Winning and Losing a Deal
This month’s article will examine The 2% Factor . Summed up, this is basically the minute margin (historically 2 percent) between winning and losing. There are a number of factors that will inf...
Bob Riefstahl
Quantifying the Capital Raise
“How much money are you looking to raise?” A question heard at the end of nearly every early stage entrepreneur-investor conversation. More often than not, the response separates the wheat from...
Liam Pisano
Once Upon a Time…
When I hear that phrase, I remember reading bedtime stories to my sons when they were youngsters. As adults, stories help us understand complex concepts, and just like when we’re younger, they f...
Bob Riefstahl
Understanding the Identity Perils of U13 (Under 13) kids
With COVID-19, kids are online nearly quadrupling digital engagement & screen time. Now’s the time to get it right with the fastest growing user segment online.
Claire Quinn
Two-Day Virtual Event Format is Twice the Fun
Conference season is well underway at the Learning Counsel. If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you know we made sweeping changes to our conferences in March, shifting from one-d...
LeiLani Cauthen
Okay, So Where are We?
Since March 14 when the majority of classrooms shut down and the school world decided that going virtual was the answer to keeping our children safe and providing an education in the time of a p...
Charles Sosnik
The Case for a Different Kind of Capital in EdTech
I’m a venture investor in K12 education, so it might seem strange for me to advocate for a different kind of capital other than traditional venture capital. After all, I benefit from my current ...
Graham Foreman
A Time to Lead
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” -- Ecclesiastes 3, New International Version There is a saying that comes to mind when I think of t...
Charles Sosnik
The Bogosity of Time Management
Time Management. What a racket. As if we can manage time. Time is elastic, and not on our terms: Root Canal Time is very different from New Jersey Beach Time . I think all meetings should h...
Mac Bogert
Understanding the New Compression in School and District Sales Cycles
It seemed like just yesterday that the sales cycle in district curriculum and technology acquisition was 12 to 18 months. Back then, districts would buy curriculum, which were predominately text...
Bob Riefstahl
Education 2020: Sharp Curves Ahead
To say this has been a crazy year is an understatement. Like you, our organization has been trying our best to stay ahead of the curve and make adjustments in our business to keep up with the ev...
LeiLani Cauthen
5 Keys to Writing Effective EdTech Marketing Emails
Email is a great way to reach one customer or prospect at a time. Because they get to decide what they click on and when, anyone who opens your email is by definition ready to hear your message....
Joshua Bolkan
Personalizing Messages to your Districts: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Rehearsal Tips for Recording Personal Videos in Sales
Bob Riefstahl
The Wind of Change is Blowing Fiercely
The wind of change is blowing through our industry. Like it or not, the COVID-19 pandemic and political pressures are combining to accelerate the Uberization of education. Technology adoption, o...
Charles Sosnik
Video Discussion: Using this Stimulus Wisely to Go Hybrid
Any way you slice it, the CARES Act stimulus will bring a lot of money into K-12 this year. How wisely districts can utilize this funding will determine, to a large extent, the success they ...
The LC Staff
Featured Papers
The Learning Counsel presents journals, papers and briefs on critical topics in Digital Education.
Most will require registration in order to access them, but they are all free.
Three Near-Term Innovation Areas for K12
An Essential Audio Ingredient in Today’s Accessible Learning Environments
The Gaps Remaining for District Digital Transition
5 Steps to Fixing the Hidden Traffic of Records Management Overwhelming Schools
From Chaos to Learning Recovery: Going from Manual-Digital All the Way to Efficiency
Hybrid Logistics Security
