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 […]
Author: Justin Reich
Singapore- Connecting Technology to Learning Goals
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 […]
I misspoke- A correction to a recent Boston Phoenix article
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 […]
Media Bonanza: Will Free Benefit the Rich
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 […]
Apple's Ebooks, What Matters More?: Rotating Graphs vs. Textbook Adoption Policy
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” […]
My Anti-SOPA letter
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 […]
Sal Khan to produce dating advice videos
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 […]
That's so dial-up
I gave an hour long talk today at the Berkman Center (link to event here, livestream, etc. will be up eventually), which mostly focused on how technology innovations interact with our extremely inequitable education systems. I made a passing comment that in one school I visited in rural South Georgia, a common pejorative among kids was “that’s […]
Technology in the Service of Learning
For the first 10 or so years of my career, I was pretty much exclusively interested in pedagogy, instruction, learning, and the classroom level education. The instructional core is where the rubber meets the road, where teachers and students get to together and try to rewire each others dendrites and neurons in pro-social ways that […]
School Reform as a Talent Development, Coherence and Equity
I’m taking my last class at HGSE, a 3-day Jan Term seminar, with three folks who have been in the education reform business for a long time, Bob Shwartz, Mike Smith, and Michael Barber (that’s Sir Michael Barber to you, buddy!) It’s called Seminar on Education Policy: Effective Education Systems, but it probably could be called: […]