Hack Education

I've spent the day with a group of educators invited to Discovery HQ in Silver Springs, Maryland to participate in a forum titled "Beyond the Textbook." As with a number of the events I've attended recently, I've opted to storify the notes, Tweets, and blog posts (and I should add...

It's been one month since I "kicked off a research project for Mozilla, exploring whether or not the organization should develop a tool to help people learn HTML5. It's been rather a whirlwind, I must say, talking to a lot of smart folks -- 12 teachers and technologists (the links...

I want us to set the bar really high when it comes to education technology -- both in its development and its implementation. I don't think it's too much to ask. I mean, we're talking about teaching and learning here, and while I believe strongly we should all be lifelong...

Politics and Policies It's been two years since the Obama Administration released its National Educational Technology Plan. This week, the government unveiled a website to announce the formation of a commission to develop a blueprint for implementing the plan. I kid you not. The British government has caused some waves...

Over the course of the past month, I've been working on a research project for Mozilla, asking a bunch of smart folks -- technologists and teachers -- whether or not the organization should build a tool to help boost Web literacy and help create more Web builders (and if yes,...

It's been almost a year since I first wrote about the work of Joel Levin (aka "The Minecraft Teacher") bringing the 3D world-building game Minecraft into his second-grade classroom. Much has changed since then -- the full release of the PC version of the game, for starters. Mojang co-founder "Notch"...

Alan Levine said it first. I'm just echoing him, nodding in agreement with as much energy as I can muster after 4 conferences in a row. Let's flip the conference, just like we're supposedly flipping the classroom. Assign us the videos of presentations and panels ahead of time as "homework."...

(Excerpted from my Inside Higher Ed piece today) I'd classify myself as more of a lurker-learner than active participant in MOOCs right now (hey, I'm busy!). I am tracking on LAK12, Change11, and DS106, and I'm trying to stay up-to-date with Udacity's CS101... I'm particularly interested in who my fellow...

Microsoft Research, along with UC Berkeley, Moscow State University and the Outercurve Foundation, releases the beta version of the ChronoZoom Project today. ChronoZoom is an impressive new timeline tool, containing articles, images, sound, video and other multimedia, aiming to deliver an online visualization of Big History. Big History is emerging field...

This weekend, I'll head to the east coast to Discovery Education's "Beyond the Textbook" forum to discuss -- as the name of the event suggests -- the future of textbooks. I'm quite honored to have been asked to participate, particularly as the last time I wrote at length about the...