EdTech & Classroom Tools
Three K-12 LMSes dominate, and they optimize for different things. A practical comparison for districts and departments choosing or rethinking their stack.
Bootcamps have matured. The hype is gone, the field is smaller, and the picture is honest enough now to compare schools and outcomes seriously.
Early decision and early action are not interchangeable, and the admit-rate gap between ED and regular decision is misleading. A practical guide for seniors weighing both.
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.
“10 Years of Blogging: Time for a Change and a Book”
24 posts
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.
“Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom: an honest LMS comparison”
23 posts
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.
“The UnCommon Core”
20 posts
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.
“The lesson plan structure that survives most edtech fads”
17 posts
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.
“ISTE 2010: Easy…Not Free”
16 posts
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.
“Coding bootcamps in 2026: outcomes, costs, and which ones still work”
7 posts
Seventh/eighth grade teacher Clarence Fisher describes his “thin walled” classroom in Snow Lake, Manitoba, where students regularly use the Web to collaborate globally. His work illustrates how networked learning environments deepen critical thinking and problem solving, challenge traditional school structures built on scarcity of knowledge and teachers, and shift control of learning toward connected, social, online/offline experiences that mirror the real world students are entering.
Reflecting on what students describe as the benefits of online courses, we question whether this version of "online learning" is truly different from traditional content delivery, and argue for a model that leverages networks, inquiry, and learner-driven paths rather than simple digitized coursework.
We’re wondering what a “Basketball Math” curriculum might look like for our son Tucker, combining his love of the sport and his interest in math, and we’re asking for ideas on how to build a K-? curriculum around basketball that could also tap into online social learning spaces.
Yesterday, Alec Couros went “Back to School” to meet his first grade daughter’s teacher, sparking a Twitter conversation that captured the frustration many teacher-parents feel at traditional classroom expectations. We reflect on similar experiences with our own kids and share the strategies we use to navigate the gap between the schooling they get and the learning we want for them.
Many of us are calling for big changes in schools—new literacies, connected classrooms, and modern learning—but the conversations on front porches and in small-town coffee shops rarely touch any of that. Leading in education today means doing the work almost no one is asking for yet, while still meeting traditional expectations, and helping communities see why both matter for our kids’ futures.
We explore Erica McWilliam's vision of teaching as co-creating value in learning networks and Charles Leadbeater's idea of "useful ignorance," asking what it means for us, our students, and our children to unlearn traditional notions of teaching in a script-less, fluid world.
Reflections on attending ISTE 2010 primarily as a vendor, the allure and limitations of the exhibit floor, and why we value conferences that focus on authentic learning over shiny tools.
It has gotten to the point where we shudder every time we hear plans to “increase student achievement” or “improve schools,” because those phrases almost always mean one thing: raising standardized test scores. Far too little of what those assessments measure is what we care about as parents, and we need new ways to assess learning that value passion, problem solving, collaboration, and real-world impact.