Hack Education

The news finally hit Techcrunch today: The education gaming startup Airy Labs is in trouble. Big trouble. I've had a glimpse into some of the problems for a while now, and I opted not to write the story. I guess that makes me an awful ed-tech journalist. I'd prefer to...

Tinkering with the Web One of the very first "a-ha" moments I had when I was trying to teach myself HTML was that I could right-click and "view source." Perhaps it sounds silly and obvious to say that now, but at the time, I felt as though I had pulled...

I'm helping Software Carpentry think through its strategy and curriculum for a blended learning model of teaching software engineering to scientists. As I recently noted, I'm making some shifts in my work so that I can focus more on some of these questions surrounding how do we create learning environments...

Wolfram Alpha unveils a "pro" version of its computational search engine today, with a new set of tools that promises to make it easier for anyone to tap into this powerful technology. Although we've come to associate searching for information online with "Googling," Wolfram Alpha offers a different sort of...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" -- George Santayana Our short-term ed-tech memory (Inside Higher Ed) Photo credits: Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Every week, Steve Hargadon and I sit down (virtually) to talk about the latest ed-tech news. I always find our conversation to be one of the most thought-provoking exchanges I have all week. You can listen to last week's episode (in which we discuss our thoughts on Educon, on another online learning...

Abridged version: I'm making some big shifts in my work in the coming months (read: focusing my energies rather than what's become the scattershot of freelance writing). I'm thrilled to say that this will mean more time for Hack Education, thanks in no small part to a research and writing...

  Politics and Policies The Chicago Public Schools lifted its ban on YouTube this week, allowing teachers and staff access to the video-sharing website. Let's hope other districts follow! As part of his State of the Union speech, President Obama talked about college affordability, blasting colleges for increasing tuition costs...

The Digital Textbook Playbook On February 1, the FCC and the Department of Education unveiled a "Digital Textbook Playbook" (PDF), a guide to help K-12 schools makes the transition from printed textbooks to digital ones. According to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the goal is to get all students in the...

Unlike hundreds of other tech bloggers, I confess:  I really haven't been waiting on pins and needles all day to live-blog or scrutinize or analyze the high-anticipated Facebook IPO. These are the benefits, I would argue, of covering ed-tech specifically. (It's also the benefit of still recovering from all those...