Hack Education

The interview below is part of my research project for Mozilla. As the organization works to support new generations of Web builders, does it need to build some sort of tool to help teach HTML5? A Scratch (or a HyperCard) for HTML5? I talked to engineer and education entrepreneur Jared...

Laura Blankenship teaches computer science at the Baldwin School, a K-12 all girls school in the Philadelphia suburbs. I've known Laura for a long time, and as we share a similar Literature Phd-to-tech-geek background, I have tons of respect for the work she now does). I've wanted to talk to...

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 this past week's episode (in which we discuss our thoughts on SXSWedu and the Digital...

I first covered ClassConnect last fall, as the startup was part of the ImagineK12 education incubator program. At the time, ClassConnect was building a pseudo-LMS -- I say "pseudo" as while it contained some features of an LMS (a calendar, for example), the emphasis was always the course's content (and...

Launches The Baltimore-area non-profit Digital Harbor Foundation has launched a new program called EdTech Link, that will involve students, teachers, and local area technologists. The technologists will train teachers in various programming and tech skills, who in turn will work with students in after school programs. Those students will then...

Once again, I am using Storify to publish all my various notes and Tweets and photos from a conference. This week was SXSWedu, which was pretty "meh" as far as conferences go but pretty awesome as far as meeting folks like David Wiley, Jim Groom, and Alan Levine. [View the...

The latest interview in my research for Mozilla... Mark Guzdial is a computer science education professor at Georgia Tech. That joint disciplinary background -- CS and Education -- is particularly important and interesting, I think, in terms of both the what CS education should entail and the how. Guzdial created...

I first spoke with Harshit (Harry) Shah early this year when he contacted me to chat about teaching computer science to middle and high school kids in an after-school program. A former data analyst and infrastructure manager at eBay, Shah is now focused on CS education. We spoke yesterday about...

Edmodo hopes to make the move from "app" to "platform," with the opening today of its API to third-party Web developers. At launch, Edmodo boasts some 35 partners who have already developed apps for the new platform -- these include Mathalicious, Late Nite Labs, Desmos, BrainNook, Aviary and (30) others....

Mozilla's Michelle Levesque sent me an email late last week asking how things were going with my research project. Any thoughts to share, she asked? Any patterns emerging? I held off on responding to her email (because yuck, email) in part because I knew I had lined up today conversations...