Tag Archives: technology

“Little Brother” is Magic

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow My rating: 5 of 5 stars From time to time growing up, my dad has said something that’s been on my mind a lot recently: “Technology that is sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.” This … Continue reading

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Start Me Up: Dispatch from Startup Weekend Washington DC EDU

Over the weekend, I had the privilege to attend a portion of the second Startup Weekend event focused on education. Startup Weekend is itself a startup organization that organizes gatherings of developers, designers, business and marketing experts, and investors to … Continue reading

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Video: A Super-Quick Sprint Through the Features on My Class Moodle Site

My vision for this year includes migrating my class to an all (or mostly) digital environment. Reading, writing, collaborating online. Not because it’s hip or cool or social, but primarily because it’s efficient. Today, I showed off some of those … Continue reading

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Technology is a Literacy (and I’ll be blogging about it on TFANet’s EdTech 101 blog!)

Exciting news! I’m joining the blogging team on Teach For America’s internal social network, TFANet.org. I’ve partnered with Lewis Leiboh, owner of the EdTech 101 blog. Together, we’re going to develop more content to get corps members effective digital tools. … Continue reading

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Demand More Research on Educational Technology!

                    Obviously I’m a proponent of getting more technology into classrooms. But I’m also a believer in data-driven decision making. So I read with great interest Matt Richtel’s NYT article on … Continue reading

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Andreessen, Slavin, and Stephenson on How Software Eats, Re-writes, and Reshapes the World

Algorithms are natural forces. Software is an evolutionary powerhouse. Code, in its genetic form, has long shaped the planet, and now, on a vast scale, code, in its binary form, is also shaping the planet. Marc Andreessen’s Saturday column in … Continue reading

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Industrial Archeology, Hacker Tourism, and How Building the Internet Worked Circa 1996

Let’s say you’re reading this in Egypt, or Hong Kong, or London. How exactly do bits and bytes get from this web server (somewhere in California) to your far-flung screen? It’s not satellites or magic, but it is crazy. There’s … Continue reading

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A History, A Theory, A Flood: Review of James’s Gleick’s The Information

This is Day of Creativity 22. Review also cross-posted on goodreads.com. A bench scientist or an engineer will tell you the same thing: the distinction between “science” and “technology” is important. Science is more about the undirected search for answers … Continue reading

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Shiny magical smartphones and better tracking data

I noticed on one of my observation visits that the teacher almost never put down her clipboard. On it, she kept a chart that allowed her to track student progress and comprehension, take notes on students who needed additional help … Continue reading

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