Tom Liam Lynch Make education public

I penned this commentary recently, which lays out my perspective as a professor and parent on computer science in schools.

I had the pleasure of spending this afternoon with dozens of English teachers from around the country working on ways to integrate technology in the classroom.  Here’s the presentation slides.  Thanks Minneapolis! [Image credit: Pexels]

This morning, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) issued a public statement cautioning states and districts in their reliance on VAM models to evaluate teachers.  In their own words: The statement concludes by stressing the importance of any educator evaluation system meeting the highest standards of practice in statistics and measurement. It calls for substantial investment in research on VAM …

A brief but telling piece from LifeHacker in which an ex-Microsoft engineer extols the importance of writing for programmers.  Pair with Vikram Chandra’s Geek Sublime or, for a more theoretical take, Federica Frabetti’s Software Theory. Image credit: NegativeSpace

We once measured intelligence with mustard seeds; today we use data feeds.  Not sure how far we’ve come.  Check out this essay from my Soft(a)ware column in NCTE’s English Journal. [Image from Pixabey]

I’ve had the pleasure of reading Connected Reading: Teaching Adolescent Readers in a Digital World by Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hicks.  It is a book that realizes the ever-elusive quest to address policy, theory, and practice in a single volume. As both a professor of education technology and an advisor to schools and districts, I say with confidence that this …

I had the absolute pleasure of learning from colleagues in the UK this past week as part of the Code/Learning Seminar Series hosted by the University of Bristol.  All from a variety of topical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives, the organizers and participants taught me a great deal about how others are researching the role of software in education.   They’re collegiality and …

We knew what we wanted to do: take apart an iPhone.  It was a Saturday and my son Declan and I had hours all to ourselves. As many families today, we have old computer gear and smartphones hanging around the apartment.  Though my wife and I value the importance recycling or donating them, we continue to stack old devices up in …

What a pleasure to present today to a group of Chinese teacher educators, visiting the Center for the Professional Development of Teachers (CPET) at Teachers College, Columbia University as part of a cross-cultural exchange.  I am grateful for their presence and energy.  谢谢 Below is the presentation I shared and strayed from with the best of intentions: Photo credit: Danh …

In an online course I’m teaching, I wanted to create a way for students to engage with collections of readings and respond in a manner that allowed me to assess their understanding while not drowning in constant discussion posts.  My solution is called a 3X3. Here is how I described the assignment (which recur throughout the course) to students: After …

Read my analysis about recent investments in educational technology, and whether it is worth it at all.

Always an honor and pleasure to share one’s work and thinking with colleagues.  Below are links to some of the materials from the Conference on English Education at Fordham University this summer. Using Data Visualization to Teach (the Teaching of) Content Area Literacy [handout link] Befriending the Machine: The historical and future impact of technology on large-scale writing assessment [presentation …