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
Digital Literacy & Media
On Being “Clickable”
Reflecting on what it means to be highly visible and “clickable” online, and why educators and students need to experience networked learning, not just publish content.
Schools & Policy
Dispatches from the Front Lines (Cont.)
So here’s a concept. Teach the kids how to use Google images instead of blocking it so that the elementary school teachers can actually find pictures of doves to supplement their lessons.
Schools & Policy
The “Perfect Storm” for Education
We explore how the Read/Write Web is disrupting traditional models in journalism, music, business, and politics, and ask when similar forces—especially open educational content and changing teacher-learner relationships—will finally trigger a radical re-envisioning of K12 education.
Schools & Policy
Beware the Cell Phone
New York City’s proposed cell phone lockers highlight how schools may be missing an opportunity: instead of banning and charging students to stow phones, we could be teaching them to use mobile devices as learning tools. As mobile social networking grows and phones become powerful platforms worldwide, especially through SMS, schools need to experiment with ways to leverage the devices already in students’ pockets.
Schools & Policy
Dispatches From the Front Lines
This e-mail showed up in our inbox today: A few weeks ago, our school began to block Wikipedia. When we asked why, we were…
EdTech & Classroom Tools
Reason #84 to Teach Blogs and Wikis: National Security
Great article in the New York Times magzine today on the burgeoning use of blogs and wikis by government intelligence agencies to capture and connect information and turn it into knowledge.
EdTech & Classroom Tools
Using Pageflakes as Student Portal
We share how we’ve been using Pageflakes in RSS workshops to create topic-specific student portals, and why these dynamic, customizable pages can be powerful tools for teaching content management, RSS, and global awareness.
Schools & Policy
No Child Left Without a Portfolio
One of the reasons why we feel very lucky these days is because we actually get some chances to get outside of the US and see firsthand what others are doing. This is our third trip to the UK this year and we get more and more impressed each time we come by what they are trying to do.