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Hack Education

The History of the Future of Education Technology

I created Hack Education in June 2010 shortly after I became a technology journalist. I was frustrated by the lack of coverage of education technology -- by both technology and education publications. I did my day job (that is, the freelance writing I got paid for) but devoted as much attention as possible to Hack Education, trying to create the sort of publication that I'd want to read: one that was smart and snarky, one that was free of advertising and investor influence, one that was tracking new technologies but not just because of some hyperbolic "revolution."

To “hack” can mean a lot of things: To break in and break down. To cut to the core.  To chop roughly. To be playful and clever. To be mediocre. To solve a problem, but to do so rather inelegantly. To pull systems apart.  To "MacGyver" things back together. To re-code. To rebuild. To “Hack Education,” in turn, can have multiple interpretations, I recognize: a technological solution, a technology intrusion, a technological possibility, a technological disaster. Ed-tech is all those things.

To "hack education" isn't something that just technologists should do or care about. Nor is this just a concern for teachers, administrators, parents, or students. We all should consider the implications of technology on how we teach and learn, lest the future of ed-tech be just like the history of ed-tech: learners as pigeons.

In June 2022, I posted my last update to this site. I can't be, I won't be ed-tech's Cassandra any longer.