London-based TES Global, a digital resource sharing platform that claims the largest online network of teachers--5.9 million users--in the world, has acquired Blendspace. Launched in 2012, San Francisco-based Blendspace (formerly known as EdCanvas) allows teachers to collate digital material in one place and share it with students. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Three of the four current employees of Blendspace will stay on and move into the San Francisco offices of Wikispaces, which TES Global acquired in February 2014. Blendspace, a graduate of Imagine K12’s 2012 class, says it has 500,000 users in over 12,000 schools and 70 countries.
As a result of the acquisition, Blendspace will be able to expand their premium offerings to all users. “Teachers can continue using Blendspace as before, but can now get all the extra perks that were previously behind a paywall,” like teacher collaboration and unlimited lessons and classes, explains CEO, Amy Lin. TES’ extensive library will offer Blendspace users more materials as well, as teachers will now be able to select from TES resources to build lessons.
Lin also sees the acquisition of Blendspace as an opportunity for TES to make its content library more accessible across different digital mediums. Currently, TES content must be downloaded from the site, and as Lin says, “one obvious place our technology can go is to take those resources and help deliver them online.”
The addition to the triumvirate of teacher tools will allow TES Global to broaden its reach into the classroom, adding Blendspace’s lesson creation and delivery platform to Wikispaces’ collaboration capabilities and TES’ resource library. “If you want to make good use of the resources in this collaboration environment, you need to turn them into fully-fledged lessons,” explains Adam Frey, co-CEO of Wikispaces.
Lin sees the move as a natural fit. “The number one thing to consider is if you have a mission fit, and all three really share the central mission of serving teachers,” says Lin. Frey agrees, anticipating that the three resources will allow “a much more cohesive way for people to have one place to manage their content and lessons.”
