I can testify to that. When I worked in SFUSD they had just adopted a new Algebra 1 text book that was probably four times as big as the books in our days. The book was full of random full-page images of things like giraffes. I remember telling my students to be careful with the books as the replacement cost was listed at $120.
However, as much as I see the current textbook industry as predatory racketeering that needs to go, I also oppose IPADs in schools and consistently advise schools against purchasing them. As far as k-12 education goes, netbooks are vastly superior technologies at a fraction of the cost.
Knack for Teachers failure seems indicative of a larger trend in the start-up world, the explosion of doomed-to-fail start-ups founded by mediocre programmers with no understanding of their target market. These founders believe that their subpar efforts will somehow lead to the next airbnb or dropbox, ignoring the careful planning and sheer brilliance at the heart of all great start-up successes.
My fear is that just as interest in ed-tech is waxing, the field will be flooded by these want-a-be founders who fail miserably and then blame their failures on parent, teachers and children. Education is a complex and difficult market that will requires a founder to have deep knowledge of its inner workings. For the technological innovation that is desperately needed in education to be successful, our best hackers must step forwarded and accept the challenge. Nothing else will do.
I worry. However, John Resig's work at Khan Academy gives me hope.
I don't know about blaming this on any larger trend. I think that Jarrod just didn't understand his market. I don't know anything about him, but if this was one of his first companies then blaming failure on his customers is a pretty common thing.
When my first company failed, I blamed my customers. When the second didn't get off the ground, I blamed the technology. And when my third failed, I blamed myself.
You're right. I didn't understand the market. However I'd substitute that I blame myself for not understanding my customers, rather than blaming my customers.
This is a strange discussion. The topic of this article is not communism but Marx's predictions that industrial capitalism would become unsustainable. The author clearly states he does not see communism as the solution.
One of the shared flaws of great teachers seems to be an irrational insistence on seeing good intentions in the actions of men. Maybe this failing is the result of so much exposure to the innocent nobility of children, yet untainted by the world. Such a weakness is the only plausible explanation I find for such a glaring omission of reality.
In an ideal world more readily accessible data in education would be a welcomed blessing. However, in reality we all know that the administrations of this decrepit institution are populated with shameless kleptocrats and petite despots, http://nyti.ms/oiOUwp. Far from worrying that they might accidentally act on a false correlation, one should fear the certainty that these parasites will manipulate this new data into harmful deceptions to further their selfish agendas.
Before education can be saved, it must first be freed from the shackles of the villains at the helm. Let us draw courage from our brothers in the Arab world; if they can overthrow decades of brutal tyranny, we can surly take back our temples of learning.
Yet further proof that colleges are reverting back to playpens for the children of the wealthy. This can be rectified:
1. Found free and open schools, research labs, and workshops, i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace.
2. Encourage great thinkers and innovators to boycott the universities and join these new institutions instead.
3. Support these new institutions and their members through donations, sponsorship, and employment.
4. Persuade companies and start-ups to validate the work and members of these new spaces by recognizing the achievements of their members as more valuable than paper degrees from grade-inflating universities.
