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
Teaching & Pedagogy
The Big Questions: Now What?
As of today, 220 of you were kind enough to vote on what you thought were the 10 most important questions from the list that we generated at Educon. Here are the “winners” at the moment, along with a plan to collaboratively tackle each question and turn the results into something more actionable for schools.
Professional Development
Continuing the Educon Conversation
We reflect on a conversation from Educon about the “big” questions schools should be asking in light of tectonic shifts in social learning online, and invite readers to help narrow a substantial list of essential questions down to a top ten for deeper exploration.
Digital Literacy & Media
Weblogg-ed » No Choice
{ "title": "No Choice", "content_html": "<p>(Cross posted to the PLP Network blog)</p>\n\n<p>One of our favorite things that Sheryl says when she talks about the…
Schools & Policy
2020 Vision?
Ten years from now, the next decade will be drawing to a close. Our daughter will be 22, our son 20. We’ll be…older. It’s setting up to be a pretty important 10 years on a lot of fronts, especially for how we live and learn.
EdTech & Classroom Tools
What’s Changed? (2009 Version)
We always get in this reflective mood at the end of the year, trying to put some form to what’s changed, both in our own practice and in the larger conversation about schools. Despite more traveling, more PLP work, and deeper on-the-ground conversations, it still feels as if traditional practice remains deeply ingrained and truly transformative change is rare.
EdTech & Classroom Tools
I Don’t Need Your Network (or Your Computer, or Your Tech Plan, or Your…)
We’ve been thinking a lot about how phones are disrupting schools and what it means when every student carries an Internet-connected device. The real issue isn’t just networks or hardware; it’s how curriculum must transform for anytime, anywhere learning with anyone in the world.
Teaching & Pedagogy
“What Did You Create Today?”
In a couple of weeks, both Tess and Tucker will be starting their first day at brand new schools, and we’re hoping their stories about school will change—from grades and homework to creating, learning, and sharing every day.
Professional Development
Raising the Profession…or Not
A look at how restrictive technology policies and low professional regard undermine teachers as learners and leaders, and a question about whether social web tools can help raise the perception of the teaching profession.