Hack Education

Mario Armstrong challenges the latest PEW study that suggests mobile technologies are narrowing the digital divide. The Xplanation has a series of interesting videos on things kids won't know, ways they won't learn and skills they won't need by 2020. Geeky Mom has some really great thoughts on teaching and...

I've been attending the OSCON conference this week up in Portland, and as such have really neglected my own blogs. So in an attempt to dig my way out of a mess of untold stories, here are a few important ed-tech news items from the week: Borders announced a Textbook...

What happened to the summer holidays?! There seems to be an increase in edtech news lately, which must mean back-to-school is just around the corner for some states. Yikes! Here are a number of stories that have caught my attention in the last week: The American Creativity Crisis: Newsweek reported...

On Thursday, the FCC updated its blog to address some of the ongoing chatter about a recent study that found the broadband and home computers have a negative impact on the academic performance of low-income students. I don't want to make too much of it -- the FCC updates its...

Barnes & Noble announced its plans today for NOOKstudy, a new tool to help students utilize e-readers the way printed texts and classroom notes are used. (OK, we're assuming here that students use printed texts and classroom notes, I realize.) NOOKstudy will allow students to consolidate their course books and...

Google launched the beta version today of its App Inventor for Android. The project, according to the New York Times, has been under development for a year with the input from a fair number of students. And despite the assertions of some in the tech sector today that this will...

In a New York Times Op-Ed on Thursday, David Brooks rehashed what is, in my mind, a very old and tired argument, one that thanks to the recent publication of Nicholas Carr's The Shallows, is getting a lot of play: namely the Internet makes you stupid. But in the case...

Online language learning company Babbel announced today that it was adding three new language courses to their curriculum: Beginning Swedish, Beginning Brazilian Portugese, and Advanced English. Late last month, the Berlin-based company introduced a browser-based voice recognition tool to help learners with their pronunciation. The tool is integrated into all...

The learning management system Blackboard announced today that it has acquired both Elluminate and Wimba. Elluminate and Wimba both offer tools for synchronous and collaborative online learning. And while the acquisition is clearly a win for Blackboard (well, duh), as it will expand beyond its current asynchronous offerings, I do...

Last week was the ISTE Conference (formerly known as NECC), which describes itself as the largest education technology conference in the world. But you wouldn't know it if your sources for technology news are the main technology blogs. I've looked -- and I'm actually hoping I'm wrong here -- but...