Today I went to my very first hackathon at UC Berkeley. In 8 hours we had to create a working HTML5 prototype of a smartphone app that would help middle school and high school kids (especially from underserved populations) get good information about college and start to develop an identity as “college material”. Our app, called Picture Yourself in College, helps students… Read more →
Response to The Trouble with Online College, NY Times I think this article is right on the money about the challenges of online learning– namely that most students wash out and that there is not enough support for struggling learners. I’d like to propose some solutions. See– somewhere in the public excitement over MOOCs is the implicit promise that we… Read more →
This week I had a taste of fear and regret when I thought I left my laptop on the bus. I spent a whole work day freaking out, trying to secure my sensitive data and recover my valuable files. I am writing a reflection on those terrible hours to share what a godsend cloud services can be when you lose… Read more →
Most of us grew up writing in a word processor, editing our words for the printed page. I argued recently that we need to re-train ourselves to write for the web instead of the printed page. Since I wrote that post I’ve been looking for the perfect app to help me simply write for the web. it turns out that… Read more →
Dear Copyright Office— I would like to register my support for the practice of jailbreaking of smartphones, tablets, and game systems on the principle that these devices are fully-functional computers and should not have their functionality crippled to promote monopolistic business practices by their manufacturers. I believe that “jailbreaking”– or “freeing personal electronics to function properly as the computers… Read more →
2011 brought us the buzzword craze of “gamification” in education, or the quest to make learning online more like a video game. Inspired by FourSquare‘s achievement badges as a way of motivating users to check in to location-based services and Mozilla’s promise of outcomes-based badges in lieu of diplomas, we ed-techies went a little nuts for gamification this year. In… Read more →
A colleague recently asked me if I could explain the distinction between open source and proprietary learning management systems, especially as it might affect a K-12 school looking at the best kind of LMS to implement today. She wanted to know how schools assess open source vs. proprietary systems– “So, the ‘limiting context’ I am interested in is how the… Read more →
With the news that Google Apps for Education will be integrated with Google+ in a few days, it’s time to start thinking about how social media and collaboration can be a reality for schools.
[Question from a colleague] It appears that OpenClass has the same mission as Canvas – OpenClass: “disrupt technology for education”, Canvas: “disrupting the Learning Management System (LMS) market.” Does this new partnership introduce any concerns about Canvas’ future. Blackboard has to change if it’s going to survive. Canvas too? The thought crosses my mind – will we make this disruptive… Read more →
If you are trying to create a branded online identity, it helps to have a consistent username across all of the major sites. With NameChk.com, you can search once and see if your favorite username is available on 159 different social media sites. Just enter the username you want in the search bar and it will give you a graphic… Read more →
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