Hack Education Weekly News
Education PoliticsThe FCC will seek public comments on a proposal to allow the Lifeline program to subsidize broadband, much as it has long subsidized phone service, to low income households.Senators...
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How Sputnik Launched Ed-Tech: The National Defense Education Act of 1958
On October 4, 1957 news broke that the Soviet Union had successfully launched the first man-made satellite into space. Sputnik prompted a national panic, not simply over a looming Cold War – the...
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No, Sesame Street Was Not the First MOOC
Clearly it’s a research paper perfectly titled for widespread circulation, combining everyone’s favorite early childhood TV show with one of the most overhyped acronyms in ed-tech: “Early Childhood...
View ArticleChallenging MOOCs
I did it! I finished a MOOC. I submitted my final project for “POPX1.1x The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture.” I paid for the verified certificate, so – fingers crossed – my project...
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Education PoliticsTexas Governor Greg Abbott has chosen Donna Bahorich to chair the state’s board of education. Bahorich has never sent her children to public school, opting to homeschool her...
View ArticleIs It Time to Give Up on Computers in Schools?
This is a version of the talk I gave at ISTE today on a panel titled "Is It Time to Give Up on Computers in Schools?" with Gary Stager, Will Richardson, Martin Levins, David Thornburg, and Wayne...
View ArticleThe Stories We Tell about Education Technology
This post first appeared on Educating Modern LearnersDo the stories that we tell about education technology demand we ask more questions? Do they prompt us to rethink what teaching and learning looks...
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Education PoliticsGovernor Jerry Brown signed a law that ends California’s personal exemption for vaccination for school children. Via Inside Higher Ed: “Education Affiliates, a for-profit chain with...
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Education PoliticsThe US House of Representatives voted to reauthorize/rewrite No Child Left Behind.Via Inside Higher Ed: “Oregon now is poised to follow Tennessee as the second state with a plan on...
View ArticleHow Teens Use Social Media
This article first appeared on Educating Modern Learners in April 2015Earlier this year, an article "written by an actual teen" made the rounds on social media. The article promised "A Teenager's View...
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Education PoliticsNo Child Left Behind looks to be replaced by another set of meaningless words: “the Every Child Achieves Act,” which passed the Senate this week. The House’s version, “the Student...
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Education PoliticsPresidential candidate and clown Donald Trump “criticized the federal government for earning a profit on the federal student loan program,” Inside Higher Ed reports. (Remember that...
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AlphaSmart: A History of One of Ed-Tech's Favorite (Drop-Kickable) Writing Tools
There aren’t many ed-tech products that have developed a cult following, a phrase that appears at the foot of the Wikipedia entry for AlphaSmart, a “smart keyboard” first marketed to schools in the...
View ArticleRethinking 'What Counts'
This article first appeared on Educating Modern Learners in April 2015"Learning is not a counting noun,"says Dave Cormier, "so what should we count?"His question - a writing prompt, if you will - comes...
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Education PoliticsThe Obama administration will announce today that it will offer Pell Grants to some prisoners, “the first adult inmates to be eligible for the grants since Congress barred prisoners...
View ArticleEd-Tech Funding: The Year (The Data) So Far
Earlier this summer, the tech blog Techcrunch pronounced that “Investors Rethink EdTech As Dealflow Declines.” No one likes tech blog gaffes more than other tech blogs, so there’s been a lot of crowing...
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Education PoliticsThe Republican Presidential candidates had their first debate this week, and education was actually a topic. “Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio get in a fight about Common Core,” Vox’s Libby...
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Teaching Machines and Turing Machines: The History of the Future of Labor and...
This talk was delivered today at the Digital Pedagogy Lab Summer Institute at UW MadisonThank you very much for inviting me here today. Once upon a time, as a graduate student, I imagined the...
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Education Politics“Does Online Ed Lack ‘Integrity’?” asks Inside Higher Ed, responding to a line suggesting such in Hillary Clinton’s higher ed plan. Clinton also exaggerated the student loan crisis,...
View ArticleTesting: Moving Beyond the Public Relations Battle
This post first appeared on Educating Modern Learners in May 2015The debate about standardized testing has hit the mainstream. Or at least, it hit HBO last weekend, when John Oliver offered a segment...
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