Week in Edtech 8/19/26: ChatGPT for Teens, $265M Reach Capital Fund, The EdTech Backlash, AI’s Competitive Shakeup, and More! Feat. Sabine Wallis, NWEA & Andy Rotherham and Marisa Mission, Bellwether

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I mean, if you think about what the experience of being in ChatGPT for Teens is... it's still back and forth text. Even if they're going to create a visualization, it's still pure back and forth text. Yeah, I guess you could do some voice, but it's not immersive. There are some really interesting ed tech tools coming out where the actual user experience is much more engaging and connected. And it's not just like a back and forth text message app. And yes, chat CBD could move into that direction. But I think there's still an area to differentiate. And I've seen a lot of really interesting ed tech companies are thinking about both the pedagogy, but also the actual, like, what are you doing when you're engaging, when you're connecting with my AI companion or with my AI flashcard app or with my AI study tool or with my AI tutor? What does it actually look and feel like? And I think there's still, at least for now, room to innovate there. Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry. From funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood, K-12, higher ed, and work, you'll find it all here at

EdTech Insiders. Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event calendar. And to go deeper, check out EdTech Insiders Plus, where you can get premium content, access to our WhatsApp channel, early access to events, and back channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoyed today's pod. EdTech Insider listeners, we are here. It's Week in EdTech. A day early. We're so glad to bring you the latest and greatest in all EdTech news. I'm Ben Cornell, along with Alex Sarlin, and we are EdTech Insider co-founders. Few shout outs before I hand it off to you, Alex. We've got a Thursday happy hour in San Francisco coming up. If you're listening to it, it's probably tonight. And then also we have our EdTech Insider WhatsApp channel. If you subscribe to our newsletter, you automatically get to join our EdTech Insider WhatsApp channel. It's where all that conversation and action is happening. And then last but not least, we have two big, big announcements. September, we have a happy hour in Los Angeles, co-hosted by Jacob Cantor Dodo and a group of other ed tech organizations to be shared soon. And October 1st and 2nd, we're at the Teach for America Summit, and we will be on stage interviewing Lin-Manuel Miranda. Few of you may know that Lin was actually a teacher before he became this famous intellectual in American history. commitment to education for Puerto Rico. He also has a lot of interest in history and Hamilton, EduHam. So we're going to be diving into all of that live on stage in Caesars Palace. I believe