DETROIT EDUHACKERS: Jeremy Schifeling, from the University of Michigan's student-led Social Venture Fund, helped organize last Friday's sold-out inaugural Hacking Education dinner last Friday night in Detroit. He filed this report: "Sixty-two education entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and funders packed the room for the Hacking Education dinner. One big takeaway: Detroit needs to start celebrating tech entrepreneurs just as much as it once heralded the icons of industry such as Henry Ford and Alfred P. Sloan. Detroit-based startups too often feel judged based on how many manufacturing jobs they can create. Change is coming, though. "I've seen an amazing evolution in the energy and meaningful progress in education in the Detroit area just in this past year," said Nora Chahbazi, President of Evidence Based Literacy Instruction. A number of local edtech startups attended the dinner, including Flip Learning, FriendsLearn, NotABook, truApp, and Virtual Nerd. And such dinners, Chahbazi says, are a sign of the changing times.
