Hack Education

[View the story "LAK#12, Storified" on Storify] Disclosure: My travel and accomodations at LAK12 were covered by the conference organizers

This is big news: Harvard and MIT form a partnership called edX that'll build on the MITx platform.  Harvard plans to start offering courses online for free (with certificates available upon completion -- for a fee).  And the two universities launch a research initiative to examine how these sorts of...

I have an article in this month's School Library Journal titled "What Tech in Schools Really Looks Like." I open with the famous quotation from cyberpunk author William Gibson: "The future is here; it's just not evenly distributed." Indeed, the distribution of technology is radically uneven, I argue. The stats...

A few thoughts from LAK12, the Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference. I’m at the event in Vancouver BC this week, and while many of the panels are addressing how institutions will prepare themselves for educational "big data," I was particularly interested in the presentation today by Verónica Rivera-Pelayo about the...

Cross-posted at Inside Higher Ed My son graduated from high school in June of last year. He opted not to go to college. He didn’t want to. I didn’t pressure him. There are a thousand reasons why he’s made the right choice, and just as many why he has --...

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. This week's show includes discussion about: 0:31:  More thoughts about what we mean when we talk about...

Launches and Upgrades The mythical G-Drive is here. Or at least, Google Docs has been rebranded as Google Drive. You can read my story on how affects Google Apps for Education users here. Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein has launched his latest startup: DIY. It’s an online community and app for...

Cross-posted on Inside Higher Ed About a month ago, I decided I'd had my fill of the Silicon Valley tech blogs.  I can't even remember now what triggered it -- a thousand different blog posts, all restating the same thing about the latest iPad probably.   So I unsubscribed to all the...

History professor Jonathan Rees called it an “uncharacteristically subtle post.” When he posted an excerpt from his university’s report on its Blackboard usage, he didn’t have to say much: “I think all I want to do here is point out that all the things professors use Blackboard for here most...

Just one day before Pineapple-gate erupted, New York Times columnist David Brooks called for more standardized testing in higher education. You'll have to read my story over on Inside Higher Ed to see what the heck that has to do with robo-graders.  Hint:  pineapples don't have sleeves. Photo credits:  Heather...