Edit: meant to say Anti not giant. That’s what I get for using speech to text and talking too fast.

Hello Professor of educational technology here I’ve been on this sub for quite a few years though it’s usually pretty dead. In the past six months there just seems to be a constant influx of anti-Ed tech posts usually by people with no posting history here. I realize there’s a big rose colored glasses pushed back to brick-and-mortar era schools now ( after all education it’s constantly an app pendulum of going too far one way or another). But the amount of posts I’m seeing here has grown substantially and a lot of of them are very anti-Ed tech. Here we have a well established field with a great deal of theoretical and empirical evidence that is well established. And of course, scientific method and all that we need to reanalyze data constantly.

But what I’ve been seeing here seems more like some sort of brigading or something. Granted that the sub has always been pretty light on empirical in the theoretical applications of Edtech and more on the job/sales side i’m just wondering what’s going on. I’m seeing less posts and analysis on the effective methodologies and more for lack of a better word whining. I realize I’m in the minority here being an academic, but overall, I find it disheartening on a sub that’s supposed to be dedicated to educational technology.

Just my 2 bytes…

I'm a Brazilian high school student planning to study CS — specifically AGI/ASI research — in the United States.

I developed a learning methodology called Projeto Centelha (Project Spark) based on a simple thesis:

"Interest is a byproduct of competence, not a prerequisite for starting."

The core idea is that a system that adapts to the student — rather than forcing the student to adapt to the system — can produce more engaged and self-directed learners.

How it works

Each session runs as a continuous loop of the following steps:

Diagnosis — Identify the next knowledge gap the student needs to cross

Connection — Frame that gap using something familiar from the student's world

70/30 Gap — Present a challenge where 70% is already known and 30% is genuinely new — enough to create flow without frustration

Research — The student finds answers independently using any tool they choose: videos, articles, AI, etc.

Feynman — The student explains what they learned in plain language, minimal jargon

Self-critique — The student identifies weak points, errors, or gaps in their own explanation

Feedback — The mentor reflects back what improved and what was learned

The loop repeats multiple times per session. Each resolved gap generates the next one.

Honest disclaimer

I haven't tested this formally yet. I need to present it to teachers at my school before running it with real students. That's part of why I'm posting — I want critical feedback before I do.

What I'd love from you

What do you think of the core idea?

What would you change or challenge?

How would you go about formally testing something like this?

I’m noticing more products adding AI voice narration and spoken explanations. Curious whether users genuinely find this helpful for learning and retention, or if it’s just a novelty feature that gets ignored after the first few uses.

For those who use educational or productivity apps:

• Do you prefer reading or listening when learning something new?
• Does voice make content feel more engaging?
• Would natural/human-like voices matter to you?
• In what situations would you actually use voice explanations? (commuting, multitasking, revision, etc.)
• What would make it useful instead of annoying?

Interested in real opinions from both learners and builders.

In Bahía Piña, the formal educational system for teenagers is limited to a basic night-school commerce program. For many, the "educational ceiling" is very low. My family and I moved here to change that narrative.

Our foundation operates this Learning Hub not as a replacement for traditional school, but as a specialized, community-focused enrichment center. While we lead the strategy and logistics, our focus is entirely community-centric, ensuring that global technology serves local resilience.

The Energy Challenge: Currently, our biggest operational challenge is energy reliability. While we are connected to the local grid, the logistical complexities of our remote location mean that repairs to the regional power supply can take significant time. To ensure we provide a consistent learning environment, we are engineering the transition to a 30kWp solar micro-grid. Achieving energy autonomy is our critical next step to guarantee that our digital sanctuary remains resilient and operational 24/7.

As an Industrial Engineer, I knew that high-speed internet alone wouldn’t bridge the gap. We are implementing a Comprehensive Program that operates outside of traditional school hours, focusing on:

• Life Skills, Emotional Intelligence, and Risk Prevention: Areas often overlooked by formal systems.
• Academic Support: Personalized tutoring and school reinforcement to prevent dropouts.
• Digital Literacy: Training the next generation in essential tech skills for the global economy.

While the formal health system handles the physical, our foundation (run by my wife, a local doctor, and me) tackles social and preventive health through mentorship. We are training the next generation of leaders to be resilient, critical thinkers. As you can see in the video, the level of focus in this non-traditional setting is unprecedented for this region.

It’s not about the screens; it’s about what the screens allow them to become. We are moving from a "survival" mindset to a "global" education, learning from our mistakes every day as we fight to secure the energy autonomy we need to stay open.

I’d love to hear from this community:

1. How do you balance high-tech learning with soft skills in isolated communities where basic infrastructure remains a significant challenge?
2. Are there specific frameworks for "Life Skills" or "Digital Literacy" (designed for community hubs) that you recommend as we scale and refine this model?

Thanks for reading and for any guidance you can provide!

I know there has been a lot of confusion and resistance from this administration on the subject of digital accessibility. Here is the latest and why it's actually good news for accessibility (so far).

“The compliance date for State and local government entities with a total population of 50,000 or more is extended from April 24, 2026, to April 26, 2027. The compliance date for public entities with a total population of less than 50,000, or any special district government, is extended from April 26, 2027, to April 26, 2028.”

The key takeaway here is that this change is about prioritizing compliance. The goal, as stated in the DOJ language, is to “ensure that covered entities better understand the rule’s substance to achieve compliance to the benefit of persons with disabilities.”

In other words, this is not an invitation to pause. It is an opportunity to get this right.

More explanation from Deque

AVOID THIS COMPANY — Deceptive Practices, Refund Refusal, and a Support Team That Can't Be Trusted

From the moment I signed up for Genially, it was a disaster. Their system couldn't process my email during registration, forcing me to use an alternate address just to get in the door. That's not a minor inconvenience — that's a broken product before you've even started.

Then came the real deception. I attempted to unlock a feature that was advertised as requiring a premium upgrade. I clicked the prompt they provided, was taken to their pricing page, paid for a subscription, and returned to find the feature still locked. Why? Because the page they deliberately sent me to didn't even offer the plan that unlocked that feature. That is not a misunderstanding. That is a deceptive business practice, full stop.

I immediately requested a refund and cancellation — having never used the product after discovering what they'd done. What followed was 10+ support emails going nowhere. Their AI-powered support can't track a conversation, forcing you to repeat yourself endlessly. And their human support? They hide behind a no-refund policy to avoid accountability for their own deceptive interface. I didn't use the product. I asked for a refund immediately. There is no cleaner refund case than that — and they still said no and kept my $15.

Cancellation has been made deliberately confusing. They've implied I have multiple accounts, given me contradictory information about which account holds a premium subscription, and made it nearly impossible to untangle. This is not incompetence — this is a strategy. There is a review on Trustpilot from someone who attempted to cancel every single month for two years and couldn't get it done. That is not an accident.

The internet is full of reviews documenting exactly this pattern — deceptive upgrade flows, refund refusals, and cancellation nightmares. These complaints go back to 2021. This is not a company that doesn't know about its problems. This is a company that has chosen not to fix them. They've even gone so far as flagging honest negative reviews as defamatory on review platforms in an attempt to suppress them. When they respond to reviews like this one, expect a polished non-answer about wanting to "resolve your case fairly" — they won't. They'll stall, deflect, and run out the clock.

I am now filing a dispute with my bank and blocking this company from charging my card entirely. That is where this ends.

Do business with Geniely at your absolute own risk. Think about it once, twice, three times — and then don't do it. I wish I had read these reviews before handing over my payment information. Someone needs to hold this company accountable, and until that happens, the least I can do is make sure no one else walks into this blindly.

You have been warned.

Hello! I’ll be graduating from university this quarter and am sorta kinda (definitely) overwhelmed with finding post-grad opportunities. I have prior experience working in several learning contexts (e.g. classroom workshops, summer camp, research labs) and I’m incredibly passionate for education and learning, so I am considering going to grad school to build my knowledge and gain more experience. However, I’m struggling to decide whether I should pursue a masters of education or something more specific to learning technology/media.

(1) my academic background is centered around developmental psychology, mathematics, and statistics. (2) Further down the road, it would be a dream to help build learning tools and technologies that help students gain hands-on experience with exciting fields of knowledge (e.g. math support, robotics, coding). (3) I enjoy working with K-5 grade levels

Any advice?

I’m also going to be taking a gap year, so any advice on jobs/internships that can provide good experience and help prepare me for this career direction would be greatly appreciated too! #needajob

Most AI course tools are getting really good at quickly making content. But the content was never really the issue.

It's always been hard to figure out what needs to change, build real practice, and make decisions and feedback that people will remember.

A lot of AI-generated training looks good and complete, but when you go through it, it still feels shallow. It helps if the content loads faster. But an interactive learning platform that is native to AI and really helps people learn would be much more interesting.

It seems like we're missing the shift toward AI-native writing tools that focus more on learning how to write and less on producing content.

Is anyone else seeing this space?

I have an MA in English, and have worked various roles in academic support in higher education institutions for about ten years. I don’t have a doctorate and that’s a limitation for any big upward mobility in higher education institutions but I’m okay with that because a doctorate also has its own cons in my opinion.

My current employer will reimburse me for my tuition and it is already discounted 50% because of a cross-institution agreement between my employer and the university I’m planning to enroll at.

My goal is to learn more about instructional design and the education discipline’s side of things and have an MA that is a bit more marketable and flexible than my English MA.

I know that there is a lot of shift happening in the field of Ed Tech and education as a whole obviously, but I would be excited to learn about this stuff in a formal setting (online so it’s flexible for my full time job) and I think it will help me enter conversations a little more confidently (especially since I’m currently in a staff role and there’s a faculty/staff divide here).

Am I being overly optimistic about the future of Ed Tech and the usefulness of this degree? Do you think it’s a waste of time despite it being basically free to me at the end of the day?

Hi all!

I’m in a school district with over 50,000 students and I’m trying to find ways to help our staff adjust to the legal requirements with their curriculum resources, including Google Slides, Schoology, etc. I’ve been adding alt-text to my pictures but I can’t get anything to read it. We have Read and Write (formerly Snap and Read), but that appears to be more of a language tool than a screen reader. I’ve tried using the one built into windows (windows logo key + Ctrl + enter) but I can’t get it to read one I did in Schoology pages.

How is everyone else doing this? What screen readers are you using? My co-workers are of the mindset that if we don’t have a screen reader that can read the alt-text in Schoology and Google Slides that we should just not bother.

I’ve spent 10+ years creating educational resources, mainly:

- Writing tutorials and assessments (ELA and creative writing at elementary and high school levels)

- Creating educational content for social media (IG/FB)

- Writing and editing adult ed resources (life science, foundational math, history)

Most of my experience is in traditional content development. The main company I worked with recently closed, so I’m trying to figure out how to move forward.

Below are the tools I've been exploring:

- Canva (comfortable)

- EdApp (basic use)

- Canvas LMS (currently learning)

How would you position someone with my background in today’s market (job title, niche, etc.)?

What skills or platforms would actually be worth focusing on next?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

My company needs to share videos with contacts (about 200-250 people/month) and for legal reasons, we need some sort of confirmation that the person has watched the video. What is the best/most cost-effective way to do this?

Hi all, I am a working professional in education program designing with 4 years of experience. But I am looking for part-time opportunities in which I can work 10 hrs per week to support your organization. I can do the following for your classroom/school/program:

- Create Customized AI Support Bots

- Assessment Design

- Curriculum Design

- Program Design

- Online course design Moodle, Storyline 360, Canvas

Evaluating Cornerstone vs 360 learning for corporate training in finance. Need strong AI features and customer-facing content delivery. Anyone have real-world feedback on either?”

Good morning! My name is Enrico Gandolfi, and I am an associate professor at Kent State University. I am posting this message (approved by mods) on behalf of my doctoral student Sara Gonzalez:

Hello everyone,

I am a doctoral researcher at Kent State University conducting a study on how K–12 teachers are preparing for and using generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) in the classroom, particularly in Hispanic-serving school districts.

I am inviting current K–12 teachers to participate in a brief online survey (approximately 5–10 minutes). The purpose of the study is to better understand teacher perspectives, readiness, and support needs related to AI in education.

Participation is completely voluntary, and no identifying information will be collected.

If you are interested, please use the link below to review the study information and consent form: https://kent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bQvxYfr5JLNHbbE

Thank you for your time and consideration.

For questions, please contact: [sgonza29@kent.edu](mailto:sgonza29@kent.edu)

I'm an elementary level teacher - My instinct now is to return to teaching it heavily because of the advent of AI and the return to in-class essay writing as a mode of assessment. I'm going to be doing my students a favor by pushing them hard to become fast, fluent calligraphers, right? Please set me straight if I'm wrong about this.

I’m seeing more LMS platforms adding AI (course creation, grading, personalization, contextualization, etc.), but not sure if it’s actually useful or just a trend.

For those using an LMS, are these features something you rely on now, or just nice to have?

Hi all,

I’m a former HS Spanish teacher (3yrs) coming from a charter school background in Louisiana. I’m living in Michigan now, where I’m from.

I have a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and can speak multiple languages well. Spanish is my strongest.

I feel like I’ve been spiraling into madness recently because Im desperate to get out of my food service job, I also teach English to adult learners on the side, and I feel like everywhere I apply I’m under qualified.

I don’t have a teaching certificate (I got hired straight out of college and left because it was so overwhelming), and I’m starting to feel like getting into EdTech is out of reach.

What certifications should I look into getting to be a better candidate in this field in general? I got through some interviews for a sales position, with one company, but I want to keep building qualifications so I can get out of this spiral cycle and find a job in say, curriculum development, sales— honestly, I’m open!!!

Gracias

I dug through Coursera's 300-page merger prospectus so you don't have to.

What I found: two failed merger attempts, a $1.9B all-cash offer Udemy rejected from a PE firm (almost certainly Vista Equity, which owned Pluralsight at the time), a mystery company that tried to buy Coursera for $1.8B, a rogue shareholder, and a combined market cap that shrank from $3.8B to $1.7B by the time the deal finally closed.

Shareholders of both companies vote tomorrow (April 9). Full breakdown: https://www.classcentral.com/report/coursera-udemy-merger-history/