Online Learning
How to evaluate an online course before you pay for it
The number of online courses has grown faster than the language for evaluating them. A working framework for picking ones that deliver and avoiding ones that don't.
Online Learning
Private student loans: what students should know before signing
Private student loans differ from federal loans in ways that compound over a 20-year repayment. The structural picture, the cosigner trap, and when private loans actually make sense.
Conferences worth your district’s PD budget for 2026-2027
Some education conferences continue to earn their costs. Others have grown thin. An honest read for districts allocating professional development budgets.
Topics
EdTech & Classroom Tools
Honest reviews of the apps, platforms, AI tools, and devices teachers are asked to adopt. We assess what genuinely helps students think, what just keeps them busy, and what's heavily marketed without earning its place.
“Free alternatives to expensive grade-book and assessment software”
27 posts
Digital Literacy & Media
Reading, writing, and thinking in a media environment that wasn't built in students' interest. We cover information literacy, source evaluation, attention, and what it means to be a careful reader and a credible writer online.
“Teaching media literacy in an algorithm-shaped attention environment”
25 posts
Schools & Policy
What happens to teaching when policy meets practice. We write about school systems, assessment regimes, district decisions, and the quiet politics that shape what's possible inside the classroom.
“Chronic absenteeism, three years on: what the data actually shows”
21 posts
Teaching & Pedagogy
How real classrooms work, lesson by lesson. We write about instructional design, classroom practice, and the small craft decisions that shape what students actually learn, separating durable pedagogy from passing fashion.
“Differentiation that doesn’t double your prep time”
19 posts
Professional Development
Notes on how teachers actually grow. We cover conferences worth attending, PD that doesn't waste a Saturday, and the case for treating educators as career-long learners rather than topped-off skill sets.
“Conferences worth your district’s PD budget for 2026-2027”
17 posts
Online Learning
MOOCs, course platforms, bootcamps, and the rest of the open-web learning economy. We cover where online courses deliver, where they don't, and how adults are actually picking up new skills outside traditional classrooms.
“How to evaluate an online course before you pay for it”
12 posts
Recent writing
Schools & Policy
One Laptop Per Child Begins…$14 Billion on Easter
Chris points to pictures of Nigerian students at the first school to receive laptops in the One Laptop Per Child program, sparking thoughts about global access, inequity in US schools, and what it will take for society to prioritize meaningful opportunities for all children.
Digital Literacy & Media
“A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs”–NY Times
The front page of today’s New York Times features a story about the attempts of Tim O’Reilly and Jimmy Wales to create a set…
EdTech & Classroom Tools
Make Your Own Google Maps…Too Cool!
Ok, so check it out, dawg… here’s an example of what you can do with the new “My Maps” feature from Google. Go on…go look.
Digital Literacy & Media
Over 2 Million Views
Karl’s “Did You Know?” video has gone viral with over two million views, sparking powerful reactions in schools and helping set the stage for a much bigger conversation about education and learning.
Teaching & Pedagogy
Stuck
We’re blog stuck, wrestling with whether “school” itself limits how we think about learning, especially as education increasingly moves beyond physical classrooms.
Teaching & Pedagogy
Sunday Caption Contest
Since we’ve decided to blow out our aggregator and start over because there’s too much information swirling around and this blog is doing a horrible job of capturing it, it’s time to play: Sunday Caption Contest.
Schools & Policy
Worse Before it Gets Better
We reflect on growing resistance to social software in schools, new legislation like state-level DOPA efforts, and troubling media coverage of teens online, arguing that meaningful change requires broader cultural understanding of learning in social networks.
Professional Development
The Steep “Unlearning Curve”
One of the most challenging pieces of moving education forward in a systemic way is the “unlearning curve” that teachers and educators have to go through to see new possibilities. This post explores how our ability to publish, connect, and collaborate via the Read/Write Web demands that we unlearn traditional assumptions about expertise, classrooms, curriculum, and literacy, and offers 10 specific ideas we need to unlearn.