Hack Education

A relatively quiet week what with everyone focused on the Mayan Apocalypse, Christmas, and whatnot.

Steve Hargadon and I recorded our last podcast of 2012 today, making our way through the rest of the Top Ed-Tech Trends that I've written about here on Hack Education over the course of the last few weeks.

It probably goes without saying, but I’ll type it out anyway: 2012 was an incredible year for education technology startups. Launches. Updates. Funding. Acquisitions. Adoption. Headlines. Disruptions. Drama. Politics. Buzz. Hype. Revolutions. And stuff.

1. The Business of Ed-Tech
2. The Maker Movement

Part 10 of my Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012 series

Part 9 of my Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012 series.

On Saturday, I took a ride in one of Google’s self-driving cars. “This will be the most incredibly boring drive ever,” joked the car’s developer Sebastian Thrun.

Apologies for being late with this weekly roundup of education news. I was traveling and in meetings on Friday. Friday, the day a young man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and killed six adults and 20 children. This is now the second week in a row in which my write-up of the week’s education news includes murders at a school. Last week’s occured in my hometown. If it hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have included it. I’ve been thinking a lot about that — about “what counts” as news here and what doesn’t.

I was a guest on today's Ed Startup 101 Hangout, the class's last hangout of the year. I joined instructors David Wiley, Richard Culatta, and Aaron Miller, along with my fellow student Julian Miller.

Every week, Steve Hargadon and I sit down (virtually) to talk about the latest ed-tech news. Well, every week or so. We skipped a week. And while I had to Skype in (virtually), Steve actually recorded this "live before a studio audience" in Phoenix. (You can see "CogDog" Alan Levine's take on the event as he was there.)