Hack Education

Last week, the City University of New York (CUNY) unveiled its plans to create a "Commons in a Box," an open-source toolkit to help colleges and universities "roll their own" academic networks. The project will help replicate CUNY's Academic Commons at other schools. Read my story and argument for why...

Protests and Pepper-spray Last Friday, a group of non-violent, student protesters on the UC Davis campus were pepper-sprayed at point-blank range by a riot-gear-clad police officer. No surprise, photos and video of the incident went viral, and many people at what appeared to be unnecessary use of force. Despite the...

If I had to make an early prediction about a hot trend for 2012, I'd point to "data." It's an easy pick: big data is poised to be a big deal regardless of industry in the coming year. Thanks to the data from sensors, cell phones, Web browsing, social media...

Earlier this month, we covered the Fayetteville Free Library's new Fab Lab, the public library's plans to build a makerspace where library patrons could gain hands-on experience using 3D printers and other tools and could take programming and shop classes. It's part of a larger movement to rethink and re-imagine...

Kindle Fail I shipped my new Kindle Fire back to Amazon over the weekend, exchanging it for a regular plain ol' Kindle. It arrived yesterday, and it'll do. I'm tired of being fussy about devices. All I really wanted is a good e-reader. It's not news to anyone, I suppose:...

The release of the new Amazon Kindle Fire last week has prompted a new round of interest and excitement about the potential for students to lighten the load in their backpacks, so heavily weighted down with heavy textbooks. The Kindle Fire, cheaper than the iPad and an Android tablet to...

Don't Go Back to School (The Kickstarter campaign) Don't Go Back to School (My look at the campaign via MindShift) UC Davis pepper-sprays its undergrads (The Video) UC Davis (The Tuition) The Pepper Spraying Campus Cop (The Tumblr) Back to School (This American Life Returns to Penn State)

Last month, after spending the weekend at DC Startup Weekend EDU, I spent a couple of hours at the Rosetta Stone HQ in Arlington, Virginia. I made the visit as an education technology journalist. But it was also a bit of a personal visit too. I graduated from high school...

Legalities The lawyers at Georgia Tech ruined pedagogy (to paraphrase a tweet by my friend Jason B. Jones). With no debate or forewarning, the university crippled the university's wikis, claiming that they violated FERPA. Aaron Swartz, an early Reddit-er and the founder of Demand Progress was indicted this week on...

Andy Russell, the co-founder of Launchpad Toys -- maker of the awesome Toontastic storytelling app -- once worked for a major toy company. You could design the most wonderful educational toy, he told me, with creative and innovative features, but the marketing department was always interested in the shelf appeal...