Stephen Downes

Knewton - who presented in Calgary last week - offers some 'gee whiz' learning analytics. Michael Feldstein describes the company's "pivot" (that's the business meme of the year thus far) as follows: "Up until now, Knewton has been focusing on the big publishers—particularly Pearson, with whom it has a big partnership deal. One reason for that certainly could be that their APIs were not ready for smaller players before now. But I suspect another driver is the huge growth in ed tech startups in general and companies claiming to have some sort of adaptive learning products in particular." They provide a specialized service, but their specialization is beocming commoditized. Now they face the usual fate of software companies who don't adapt.