Ed-tech as MacGuffin...

Ed-tech objects do make good MacGuffins nonetheless. The hardware, the software, the online content -- they're all very compelling. They generate plenty of that initial intrigue and interest. We want the new iPad, for example, because it's new. It's shiny. It is attractive. It is desirable. We care about the story of education (I use "we" very broadly here) thanks to the technology featured now in Act I.

But the MacGuffin, remember, is just the thing that draws us in. It isn't what drives the plot forward. That requires people, human connections, processes (and okay, in the case of Hitchcock, things like greed, vengeance, and other complex psychological motives.)

Read the whole thing over on Inside Higher Ed.

Photo credits: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho