Article Archive
I just want to point out that around 9:45 in this video, Sal Khan says that he is planning to produce a series of dating advice videos. He says they are for his 2 year old daughter, for when she grows up. He thinks that she'll be more likely to listen to a younger version […]
Dear Rep. Markey, Sen. Kerry, and Sen. Brown, I write to you in strong opposition to the current SOPA and PIPA bills that have been introduced into Congress. I write as a constituent in Arlington, MA, as a former classroom teacher, and as a current education researcher. Piracy is a serious and important issue that […]
So last Friday I gave a talk at the Berkman Center riffing on my most recent policy quandary: Will Free Benefit the Rich? That is, will the widespread availability of free and open educational resources disproportionately benefit already-advantaged students? Is this a policy problem, or is it actually desirable in the long run? If we […]
I'm proud of my fellow educators today for their entirely reasonable reactions to Apple's education announcement. Richard Byrne as per usual, sums up the vibe well: The iBooks textbooks look very nice and have some interactive elements. But, I can't help but wonder why Apple choose to make the, "iBooks will make kids' backpacks lighter" […]
After my recent talk at the Berkman Center, Will Free Benefit the Rich, a reporter from the Boston Phoenix asked me to chat with her about MITx. Her position was pretty clear-- the response to MITx seemed "rhapsodic" and she wanted to use my research as a lens to raise questions about whether MITx was […]
I'm in the air between Boston and Minneapolis, on the first leg of a ~30 hour journey journey to Singapore. My EdTechTeacher colleague Tom Daccord and I have been invited by the Academy of Singapore Teachers as part of a new exchange program called the Outstanding Educators in Residence program. We're each spending two weeks […]
Introducing, Ask a Researcher: Every week, I try to reserve a few hours for answering questions, reading colleagues papers, reviewing proposals for conferences, offering school and job advice, and generally being of service to other educators. Most of this has happened over email for the last few years, but now if I write up anything […]
Ask a Researcher question in response to my Berkman Luncheon talk: Will Free Benefit the Rich? Just watched the video, I found it very useful. I am writing a paper concerning the urban/rural divide in education in Thailand and what you are saying about the 'haves and have nots' is very relevant to what I […]
Another question in my Ask a Researcher series: This leads me to a question I wanted to ask you about the role of student motivation in measuring the successful implementation of OERs. When Sal Khan was at my school a couple of weeks ago, he met with teachers and I asked Sal Khan how his […]
So if you are one of the world's best education systems, how do you keep getting better? In Singapore, the answer is the Academy of Singapore Teachers. One of the most important points that came out of the McKinsey evaluation of global education was that the strategies that get a school system from poor to […]
Fact: The national school systems with the highest test scores also have the least variation in test scores among subgroups (by race and income). In other words, the best systems are also the most equitable. What's harder to prove, but seems to be the case, is that equity is not merely a by-product of excellence, […]
The teaching job in America was designed as a temporary position, for men before the headed to college or for women before they got married. As it transitioned into being a career, it never really developed the features of having a career trajectory. It's one of the only careers in America where the responsibilities that […]
You know those people into webinars who dial in from overseas at ungodly hours... that was me today, hosting a 4pm EDT webinar at 5am from Singapore. We were lucky to host Angela Maiers, who is coming this March to keynote the MassCUE/METAA Leadership Conference, and our conversation was about Angela's campaign to promote Passion […]
One of the great things about my job, is that by virtue of being an outsider, often organizations will bring together diverse groups of people to solve important challenges around technology integration ("Justin Reich is coming next week, let's have him meet with all the stakeholders.) But the meeting I had in Singapore on Friday […]
One of the amazing facets of my visit to Singapore is that I've not just been invited to present to audiences, but I have been invited to be part of the system in Singapore. Over the past week, I have had the chance to offer two history master classes to Singapore teachers on tech integration […]