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Education’s Cognitive Effect
Thanks to Morgan at Phil Hill & Associates for surfacing a thoughtful piece by Kirsten Green at Forerunner on the shift from network effects to cognitive effects, and why this change may quietly rewrite the rules of platform dominance. Her argument is simple but profound: the most powerful platforms going forward won’t just connect users; they’ll understand them. And once you…
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The 2026 IT Strategic Landscape in Higher Education
The trajectory of Higher Education technology has undergone a pivotal transformation over the last three years. In 2024, the sector was defined by post-pandemic stabilization. By 2025, that focus transitioned toward infrastructure maturity, with a heavy emphasis on cloud migration. As we enter 2026, digital transformation has moved from a theoretical future-state goal to a permanent operational reality. Today’s IT leaders are managing…
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Identity and Access Management in HigherEd: A Market in Transition
This month, we rolled out Identity and Access Management (IAM) as a new product group in the ListEdTech database, with support from the team at Unicon. As part of that launch, we analyzed nearly 3,000 IAM implementations across higher education institutions in North America, segmented by enrollment band—and the results highlight a market that is consolidating at the top…
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The SIS Tipping Point: Cloud as the New Standard for Education
For years, the education sector has been cautiously eyeing the horizon of digital transformation. While many administrative tools made the leap early, the Student Information System (SIS) remained anchored in traditional on-premises environments. However, recent market data confirms that we have reached a definitive tipping point. The shift to the cloud is no longer a…
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RFP Trends & Market Priorities – December 2025 Update
What five years of RFP activity tells us about shifting institutional needs in HigherEd and K–12 As this will be our last post of the year, we wanted to take a moment to look back at RFP activity across Higher Education and K–12. Each year, RFP patterns give us an early indication of where institutions…
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Student First: Born from Scratch to Deliver the Future‑Ready SIS
Founded in 2021 by EdTech veteran David Meek, Student First is a brand-new Student Information System built entirely from the ground up. Unlike legacy SIS providers, it was conceived with modern technology and a clear purpose: to empower non‑traditional institutions through a truly future‑ready platform. Origins and Purpose David Meek, who previously founded Campus Management Corporation…
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AI in Higher Education: Reimagining the Human Connection
Insights from the Instructure Roundtable at EDUCAUSE 2025 At this year’s EDUCAUSE conference, Instructure hosted a roundtable exploring one of higher education’s most pressing questions: I was the moderator of the discussion that brought together leaders from Arizona State University (ASU), Indiana University (IU), Liberty University, Columbia University, and Instructure. Together, we examined how artificial intelligence is influencing pedagogy,…
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The 2025 K-12 SIS Market: Steady Leaders, Emerging Shifts
The North American 2025 K-12 SIS market continues to show the hallmarks of a mature industry: steady leadership among top vendors, slower implementation cycles, and a growing emphasis on product differentiation through AI and integrated analytics. Yet beneath this stability lies meaningful change. Mergers and acquisitions, new state-level migrations, and evolving expectations around data intelligence…
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The K–12 CMS Market: Consolidation, and the AI Effect
The K–12 CMS market has transformed more in the past two years than in the previous decade. Based on our dataset of more than 17,000 school districts across Canada and the United States, the story is clear: a market once defined by choice is now shaped by consolidation, compliance pressure, and the rapid normalization of AI. Two…
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Tracking HigherEd Tech Trends Through Educause Exhibitor Data
A Brief History of Our Analysis Since 2021, ListEdTech has analyzed the Educause exhibitor floor to better understand how product categories evolve year after year. This long-term tracking provides a unique lens on the education technology landscape, highlighting not just who’s exhibiting, but what kinds of solutions vendors prioritize. In our previous analyses, we focused…
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Who Are HigherEd’s Tech Leaders?
This year, I’ve been revisiting some of the classic business books: Blue Ocean Shift, Free, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Zero to One, and of course, Crossing the Chasm. That last one really got me thinking about early adopters. In tech markets, they’re the people (or in HigherEd, the institutions) who are comfortable taking risks, trying something new, and shaping the market…
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Anthology’s Chapter 11 Filing: Breaking Up to Refocus
September 2025 marked a major turning point for Anthology, the owner of Blackboard and several other higher education technology platforms. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. after efforts to sell itself or parts of its business outside of court failed. The filing is not a liquidation. Instead, it is a structured reorganization designed to…
