1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Deborah Quazzo of GSV Ventures (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: I have been covering online education from a journalistic point of view for a long time. You must have heard this expression, sage-on-stage to guide-on-side, where the teacher was asking people to go and look at YouTube videos or Khan Academy videos and then coming and doing exercise in class.

They were doing exercises and the teacher was there to support and guide on the side. We have taken another turn in this COVID crisis where the teacher is on Zoom and the child, for most of the day, is learning at home on his or her own.

Especially in households where there isn’t a lot of education in the parents, the parents are not in a position to help them. When it comes to high school AP Calculus, very few households have parents who can help with any of that. I think there’s a whole new paradigm coming into play now.

Deborah Quazzo: I interviewed Alberto Carvalho on a virtual summit. Alberto is a famous, wildly accomplished, spectacular superintendent of Miami-Dade. They went online really easily and they’ve had 91% attendance, which is mind-blowing when you hear about other districts.

To your point on parents, he views this as the opportunity to bring parents into the learning experience. In a school setting, parents are shut out and you can’t come into the building. You can’t participate.

I loved how he thought about that – to be able to bring your parents into the room and have them participate more actively in the learning that’s happening with their children in the public school systems. I thought it was a very elegant observation. Parents should not be and I’m certainly not equipped anymore to teach calculus.

I think the products are getting better and better. I also think this is going to bring a whole lot of new fresh entrepreneurs into the space.

Sramana Mitra: I think that would be fantastic.

Deborah Quazzo: We had this wonderful wave that Andrew and others were in and it’ll be great to have a new wave of folks come in to address the things you’re talking about.

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 7 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Deborah Quazzo of GSV Ventures
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