EduGeek Journal

Recently, 20/20 had a segment on College education.  It was looking at how so many people get an education and then have a hard getting a job (“College: Worth the Price of admission?” January 16, 2008).  I usually agree with John Stossel on everything he reports, but this report was just misleading in my opinion. [...]

Every time I talk about using Web2.0 in education with someone, or even being a do-it-yourself EduPunk in general, I always throw in a little disclaimer at the end: “just be careful what you use, because one of those sites that you base your entire class on could be gone tomorrow.”  I usually get this [...]

If you don’t know what EduPunks are – well, you probably are one if you are reading this blog. Or, at least one at heart. We’re all probably EduPunks here at EGJ (even though I personally hate the label). We want to bring change to the online education world, and some of us are even [...]

As I’ve been pondering the status of the Learning Management System in education, I’ve noticed something interesting. I seem to use the system differently than many people. Some refer to LMS programs as prisons that trap learning. Content is dumped in to a repository, and then all interaction with that content and other students is [...]

We have all wondered about reading those customer-submitted testimonials online. Anyone can sign up and post, so are those for real… or are they just plants by the company? I had always given companies the benefit of the doubt – hoping that they were keeping their nose out of anything shady. It seems like my [...]

We all see many trends, new web sites, and Buzzwords floating around the EduGeek-o-sphere. Most of them I just let pass because I don’t think they are going anywhere (of course, I might comment on something hoping to build buzz for something that I still don’t think will go anywhere but is still so cool [...]

“If there’s a new way, I’ll be the first in line. But it better work this time.” – Dave Mustaine: Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying? Many educators are calling for a new type of education. One that is more fluid, open, self-guided. The argument is that humans are social creatures that naturally want to learn. [...]

If you haven’t seen this yet, here are some videos of what is brewing at Blackboard Project NG (Next Generation): http://www.blackboard.com/projectng/ One thing that I find funny: they are really hyping how you can have one account that lets you log in as a teacher or a student for different classes. They still think they [...]

Ars Technica and The Chronicle of Higher Education reported today about the torrent site Textbook Torrents‘ removal of several files after receiving a request from academic publisher Pearson Education. “On Friday, we received a request from Pearson Education, one of the bigger textbook publishers, listing 78 torrents that they wanted disabled. While they are acting [...]

Very interesting story on NPR about the current presidential twitter debate going on between the Obama and McCain camps. Listen to the store here. Weekend Edition Sunday, June 22, 2008 – Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, a Web site that focuses on the intersection of politics and technology, talks about the Twitter [...]