#technology
Every item in the public site that shares this topic, gathered across writing, book notes, and publications.
- Entries
- 189 total
- Writing
- 151
- Book notes
- 35
- Publications
- 3
Writing
2026
- Apr 24, 2026 Karpathy Found the Pattern. Educators Have Been Teaching It for Years.
How Karpathy's LLM wiki pattern maps onto educator knowledge work and local AI systems.
- Apr 3, 2026 How You Can Actually Tell Which AI Model You’re Using
Practical ways to tell which AI model you are using when platforms and models stay opaque.
- Feb 27, 2026 Thinking Out Loud: What Self-Hosting Is Teaching Me About Computational Thinking
What a self-hosting project taught me about computational thinking, risk, tradeoffs, and reasoning carefully through technical decisions.
- Jan 13, 2026 Finding the “Goldilocks Zone” for AI in Curriculum: Logistics, Not Logic
Why the hardest part of bringing AI into curriculum is not logic or pedagogy, but the logistics, shame, and practical constraints educators actually face.
2025
- Dec 18, 2025 The Private Cloud: Building a Front Door for My Homelab
How I turned a pile of local services into a coherent private cloud with domain names, HTTPS, and a real front door.
- Dec 7, 2025 Taking Back Control: Why Digital Sovereignty Matters
Why convenience stopped being enough, and how digital sovereignty became a more useful frame for thinking about platforms, data, and control.
- Nov 20, 2025 From Scrap Hardware to Stable Proxmox: Building the Core of My Homelab
How I went from thrifted hardware and confusion to a stable Proxmox base for the rest of my homelab.
- Nov 2, 2025 The Metal Box: Building My Proxmox Homelab
A real-time, messy walkthrough of building a Proxmox homelab.
- Oct 17, 2025 From Subsonic to Plex: My First DIY Server
How my first DIY server kicked off a homelab journey.
- Oct 11, 2025 Privacy Isn’t Optional: The Expanding Data Dragnet in K-12 and Higher Education
Why privacy matters when data collection feels routine.
- Oct 9, 2025 How I Wrote This With AI
How a homelab project became an experiment in writing with AI.
- Oct 9, 2025 Why I Built a Homelab (and Why You Might Want To)
Why building a homelab helps me understand the systems I rely on.
- Aug 20, 2025 The Day AI Analyzed My Entire Knowledge System: MCP + Obsidian in Action
What happened when I connected an AI to my personal knowledge system.
- Jul 3, 2025 Reclaiming Our Tools: Why We Can’t Opt Out of the AI Future
Why we should reclaim our tools instead of letting them control us.
- Jul 3, 2025 The Myth of Optimization: What Tech Worldviews Leave Behind
What gets lost when technology treats optimization as the default value.
- Jun 24, 2025 The Unwritten Code: Rethinking AI and Technology Through Hidden Ways of Knowing
Why not all knowledge can be reduced to written code.
- Apr 25, 2025 Why Now Is the Moment to Back Up the Web
Why backing up the web matters for memory, research, and history.
- Apr 14, 2025 Introducing My Digital Garden: Where Ideas Grow
An introduction to my digital garden and how it works.
- Feb 1, 2025 Navigating the AI Landscape
How to choose the right AI tool for your needs.
- Jan 9, 2025 Why Blanket Bans on Tech in Schools Don’t Work: An Argument for Educating Responsible Usage
Why blanket bans on classroom tech often miss the real issue.
2024
- Jun 1, 2024 Shifting the Blame: The User vs Developer in Digital Spaces
Why good systems blame design less and users less often.
- Apr 9, 2024 Redefining Education – Equipping Students for a Complex Future
Why education needs to adapt to a more complex, rapidly changing world.
- Jan 30, 2024 The Evolving Digital Commonplace Book
How a digital commonplace book can evolve over time.
- Jan 12, 2024 What Do People Do Better Than Computers? The Human Edge
What humans still do better than computers and why it matters.
2023
- Nov 11, 2023 Unlocking Your Inner Genius with the Feynman Method
How the Feynman method can help you learn and explain ideas better.
- Oct 20, 2023 The Complex Role of Social Media in Protest Movements – A Review of Twitter and Tear Gas
A look at Twitter, protest, and the fragility of networked movements.
- Oct 16, 2023 Fostering Creativity and Innovation: Defining the Learning Competencies for Ohio’s Graduates
How creativity and innovation can be taught with technology.
- Oct 16, 2023 Innovating for the Future: Rethinking Technology Skills Instruction for Students
Why schooling should prepare students for an uncertain future.
- Oct 14, 2023 Seeking Feedback: Questions to Critically Examine Our Technology Use
Questions for thinking critically about your own technology use.
- Oct 13, 2023 Minimal Computing for Collaborative, Equitable Digital Scholarship
How minimal computing can support equitable, sustainable scholarship.
- Oct 10, 2023 The Allure and Risks of New Edtech
The promise and risks of educational technology in today's classrooms.
- Sep 24, 2023 Bending the Rules: A Review of Bruce Schneier’s Insightful Book ‘A Hacker’s Mind”
What A Hacker's Mind reveals about systems, power, and exploitation.
- Sep 24, 2023 Navigating the Impact of Capitalism on Education and Technology: A Lexicon for Thoughtful Discourse
How capitalism shapes what we build, buy, and believe about edtech.
- Sep 16, 2023 A Thoughtful Look at How New Technologies Are Reshaping Our World
A takeaway on how new technologies reshape society and power.
- Aug 4, 2023 Building an AI Tool to Safeguard Against Cyberattacks: The Quest for Trustworthy Data
How trustworthy data shapes AI tools for detecting cyberattacks.
- Aug 3, 2023 Introducing TrustSense: Your Safeguard in the Digital World
A fictional AI startup pitch about trust, safety, and authenticity online.
- Apr 14, 2023 How Will AI Impact the Job of Educators?
How AI is changing the work teachers do and what that means for education.
- Feb 9, 2023 The Challenges of Becoming a Manager vs. Maker in the Age of AI
How AI pushes knowledge workers to balance manager and maker modes.
- Jan 9, 2023 Gamify Your Learning Process With Habitica
How Habitica turns habits and tasks into a gamified learning system.
2022
- Nov 18, 2022 Considering the Post-COVID Classroom
What the post-COVID classroom changed and what still needs attention.
- Nov 17, 2022 Taming the Digital Dragon
Why the addiction frame can distort how we talk about tech use.
- May 5, 2022 Student Privacy and Pandemics: Understanding and Reducing Privacy and Security Risks
How the pandemic changed the stakes for student privacy.
- Mar 2, 2022 The Metaverse and the Future of the Internet
How the metaverse could reshape the internet and its risks.
- Jan 6, 2022 Becoming a Student Privacy Expert
How a student privacy program can deepen privacy expertise.
2021
- Oct 9, 2021 What You’ll Need For Mobile Vlogging
What you need to start mobile vlogging.
- Oct 8, 2021 I’m Teaching Myself TikTok
What it means to teach yourself TikTok as a networked learning project.
- Aug 27, 2021 How to Talk About Mental Health
How to talk about mental health with care and clarity.
- Jul 22, 2021 What will digital life be like in 2035?
What experts think digital life may look like in 2035.
- Jun 15, 2021 Memoir and the Creative Process
How memoir can help make sense of mental health and the creative process.
- May 14, 2021 The Harm in Do No Harm
Why 'do no harm' can be an incomplete guide for action.
- May 13, 2021 Intersectionality In Educational Technology
Why intersectionality matters in educational technology work.
- Apr 30, 2021 We Shape Our Tools and Then Our Tools Shape Us
How behaviorism still shapes classroom tools and student behavior.
- Apr 26, 2021 Healthy Avatars and Sick People
How digital health systems can both improve care and create new risks.
- Apr 21, 2021 Home Automation Goals
A look at home automation goals after moving into a new house.
- Mar 26, 2021 My Ratio of Signal to Noise
How to keep your digital life organized without losing the signal to noise.
- Mar 17, 2021 What Should We Demand of Tech
What we should expect from technology as users and citizens.
- Mar 3, 2021 Technology, Instruction, Learning in Teaching (TILT) Student Survey
Why the TILT survey matters for student experiences with instructional tech.
- Mar 1, 2021 Technology, Instruction, Learning in Teaching (TILT) Faculty Survey
Why the TILT survey matters for faculty use of instructional tech.
- Feb 25, 2021 Development & Validation of the TILT Survey
How the TILT survey was developed and validated.
- Feb 19, 2021 Documenting Instructional use of Technology in Higher Education
How educators can document and study instructional technology use.
- Feb 6, 2021 Narrative for Tenure & Promotion
Selected materials from my tenure and promotion packet.
- Feb 3, 2021 Remembering in Digital Contexts
How digital residue changes the way we remember people after they die.
- Jan 21, 2021 Using Twitter for Teaching, Learning, and Socializing
How Twitter can support teaching, learning, and social connection.
- Jan 6, 2021 Residue of Learning
Who owns course content after class ends, and what learning residue remains?
2020
- Dec 16, 2020 Technology is a Tool, Not the Strategy
Why technology should support a strategy, not become the strategy.
- Dec 15, 2020 Considerations of Death
How technology and social networks shape our views of death.
- Dec 10, 2020 Information Technology Addiction
A caution against overusing the language of addiction when talking about tech use.
- Dec 9, 2020 Well-Being in a Digital World
What happens when you step away from social media but not the web.
- Nov 19, 2020 Hacking Happiness in the Information Age
How screentime, habits, and balance shape digital well-being.
- Nov 5, 2020 Engaging With Activist Texts in Learning Environments
How activist texts can support learning and social change.
- Oct 30, 2020 What’s Next?
What comes next after receiving the Divergent Award during COVID.
- Oct 22, 2020 How to Cultivate Self-Awareness
A short guide to cultivating self-awareness through digital identity work.
- Oct 19, 2020 Computational Thinking
How computational thinking helps people solve problems more systematically.
- Oct 2, 2020 Control Your Controllables: Preparing for the Post-COVID Classroom
How to focus on what you can control in a post-COVID classroom.
- Sep 28, 2020 Become a Digitally Literate Educator
In 2016, I joined the One Side Project Challenge. The project brought together a number of creators from around the globe, created a private space for idea…
- Sep 10, 2020 My DIY Peloton
A quick look at Peloton and the appeal of connected fitness.
- Sep 4, 2020 Is social media bad for us?
A look at social media, screentime, and the mental health conversation.
- Jul 21, 2020 Four Levels of Real World Home Classrooms
How home classrooms change when learning moves online.
- Mar 10, 2020 Building Ethical Communities
How to think about building ethical online communities.
- Jan 24, 2020 Talking to youth about privacy, security, & digital spaces
How to talk with youth about privacy and security in digital spaces.
- Jan 3, 2020 Use GitHub Pages & Jekyll to host a podcast
How to use GitHub Pages and Jekyll to host a podcast.
2019
- Oct 28, 2019 On Digital Life & Well-Being
How digital life and well-being connect in future-facing research.
- Aug 24, 2019 Talking to Children about Technology, Social Media, & Algorithms
How to talk with children about tech, social media, and algorithms.
- Apr 10, 2019 Digital Storytelling
How digital storytelling can transform classroom learning.
- Jan 9, 2019 The case for anonymity online
Why anonymity can still matter in online spaces.
2018
- Nov 23, 2018 The Black Box & Educational Technologies
Why educational technologies often feel like black boxes.
- Nov 21, 2018 Digital Literacies and the Skinner Box
How behaviorism still shapes digital literacy and classroom technology.
- Oct 5, 2018 Screentime guidelines for children & adolescents
How screentime looks different for children and adolescents.
- Oct 4, 2018 Child-Computer Interactions in early childhood
How child-computer interactions fit into early childhood learning.
- Sep 21, 2018 Exploring temporal patterns Playing with data visualization & social media analytics
How to think about temporal patterns in qualitative research.
- Aug 30, 2018 B-Tags, Photos, Technology & Surveillance
How photos, tags, and technology can become tools of surveillance.
- Aug 23, 2018 Assistive Technology
How assistive technology is adopted and supported in schools.
- Jul 20, 2018 Making sense of teaching, learning, & assessing with technology
How technology shapes teaching, learning, and assessment.
- May 21, 2018 Better visions of ourselves: Human futures, user data, & The Selfish Ledger
Why ubiquitous tech should help us build better versions of ourselves.
- Feb 16, 2018 Embedding STEAM into K-8 classrooms
How STEAM can help younger learners connect school and life.
- Jan 31, 2018 Cold brew coffee
A personal take on coffee, making, and the rituals that start the day.
- Jan 2, 2018 Backup your digital information and devices
Why backing up data should be part of your annual digital hygiene.
2017
- Dec 6, 2017 Using logic models to organize grant proposals
How logic models help clarify what grant proposals can do.
2016
- Oct 11, 2016 BadgeChain Annual Report (2015-2016)
A review of BadgeChain's work over the past year and what's next.
- Jul 6, 2016 Doug Belshaw Brings Blockchain Thinking to the Badge Summit
Doug Belshaw's Badge Summit keynote through a blockchain lens.
- Jun 30, 2016 Three steps to become a digitally agile educator
Three steps to become a more digitally agile educator.
- Jun 22, 2016 BadgeChain Reads – A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform
Welcome to the second round of BadgeChain Reads.
- Jun 9, 2016 BadgeChain Reads – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
Welcome to the first round of BadgeChain Reads.
- May 2, 2016 Podcasting
How podcasting uses RSS and why a website still matters.
- Apr 7, 2016 Digital portfolios
What digital portfolios are and why they matter for learning and identity.
- Mar 22, 2016 Blockchain and Open Badges in Higher Education & Research
How blockchain might affect open badges in higher education.
- Mar 18, 2016 What is Blockchain?
A plain-language introduction to blockchain and its possible uses in education.
- Mar 9, 2016 How to plan, present, & survive a Pecha Kucha style presentation
How to plan and deliver a concise Pecha Kucha presentation.
- Feb 17, 2016 Digital Portfolios + Open Badges + Blockchain = Personal Learning Ledger
How digital portfolios, badges, and blockchain might connect.
- Jan 6, 2016 Helping Educators Become Digitally Literate
How to help educators become more digitally literate.
2015
- Jul 15, 2015 Play With Digital Media, Stop-Motion Animation, & Vine to Earn the #VineOff Badge
Why stop-motion and Vine are useful ways to play with digital media.
- Apr 8, 2015 Developing & Expressing Your Teaching and Research Philosophy Using Digital Tools
An assignment prompt and example structure for sharing a teaching and research philosophy online.
2014
- Dec 31, 2014 A Response to a Request to Ban Handheld Devices for Children Under 12
A balanced response to calls for banning devices for children under 12.
2013
- Nov 8, 2013 A Device Agnostic Policy that Allows for Ubiquitous Access to My Content
How to make your content accessible across devices.
- Sep 24, 2013 Opportunities to Enhance Online Discussions & Collaboration Using Google Hangouts
How Google Hangouts can enhance online discussion and collaboration.
- Aug 11, 2013 Day Five at the MA New Lit Institute – Digital Texts and Tools are a toybox, but what if we want a sandbox?
Notes from the final day at the MA New Literacies Institute.
- Aug 6, 2013 Day Two at the MA New Lit Institute – Teachers Like to (Need to) Play
Notes from day two at the MA New Literacies Institute.
- Jul 29, 2013 Develop Your Own Personal Learning Network Using Twitter
How educators can use Twitter to build a personal learning network.
- Jul 23, 2013 Digital MacGyver: Pocket & the Ability to Read it Later
A pocket guide to the tools and tricks I use to get work done.
- Jul 9, 2013 Global Youth in the Digital Age
How global youth navigate engagement in a digital age.
- May 28, 2013 Notes as We Frame an Open Badge Initiative for Teachers Using Technology
Notes on framing an open badge initiative for teachers.
- May 19, 2013 Working Individually & Collaboratively While Constructing Online Content #teachtheweb
How to balance solo and collaborative work while making online content.
- May 10, 2013 Empowering Students in the Reader/Writer Nature of the Web #teachtheweb
How making, connected learning, and critical literacy support student agency.
- May 1, 2013 What kind of thinking is involved when you Make? #teachtheweb
What kinds of thinking happen when you make content online.
- Apr 6, 2013 Keynote at the Literacy and Learning Conference
A keynote on the Common Core and new literacies.
- Apr 2, 2013 Inquiry and the Learning Process
Why inquiry matters in teaching, learning, and educational technology.
- Mar 9, 2013 Backyard Science – The Rocket Report
A backyard rocket project and what it shows about learning.
- Jan 31, 2013 Teaching Online and the Time of Screencasts
Why screencasts work well for online teaching and learning.
2012
- Dec 12, 2012 Exploring Growth in Teacher Dispositions through the use of Visual Analogies
How visual analogies can help explain teacher growth.
- Nov 8, 2012 Negotiating The Intersection of Literacy and Technology
How literacy and technology overlap in classroom practice.
- Oct 17, 2012 Construction and/or Creation of Online Content
How online content construction expands beyond online reading comprehension.
- Oct 12, 2012 How and when will students and I interact? #blendkit2012
How blended learning changes when and how instructors and students interact.
- Oct 10, 2012 Writing & Technology Book Chapter Proposals
A call for chapter proposals on writing and technology.
- Sep 27, 2012 What will my blend be?
How my first MOOC shaped my thinking about blended learning.
- Aug 15, 2012 When did “HACK” become a bad word?
Why 'hack' has become a bad word in some professional spaces.
- Aug 11, 2012 Student Responsibilities and Educational Technologies
What students and teachers owe each other when using educational technology.
- Aug 7, 2012 Storify and Curiosity
A quick test of Storify and the role of curiosity in trying tools.
- Aug 6, 2012 Teacher Responsibilities & Educational Technologies
A reflection on teacher responsibility when using educational technologies.
- Aug 4, 2012 Responsibility and Educational Technologies
A reflection on teacher responsibility when adopting educational technology.
- Jul 28, 2012 Preparing for the MA NLI 2012
We are quickly approaching the week of festivities for the Massachusetts New Literacies Institute 2012.
- May 21, 2012 Google Forms and Online Survey Tools
How Google Forms can be used to build simple online surveys.
- May 3, 2012 Online Research and Media Skills…and Elementary School
How elementary students can build research and media literacy skills.
- Apr 25, 2012 Google Drive, Dropbox, & Cloud Storage
A quick look at cloud storage, backup, and Google Drive.
- Apr 21, 2012 Administration and Technology
How administrators can use technology with more care and context.
- Mar 19, 2012 Creating and Curating Your Digital Identity
How to create and curate a stronger online identity and brand.
- Mar 13, 2012 Millennials and Their “Hyperconnected” Lives
How hyperconnected life shapes the literate lives of Millennials.
2011
- Jan 26, 2011 Scaffolding Early Learners as they Search & Sift Online Information
How to scaffold young learners as they search and sift online information.
- Jan 12, 2011 A Response to My Earlier Thoughts on Raising a Digital Native
A follow-up reflection on raising a digital native.
2010
- Nov 24, 2010 The Digital Coursepack
How a digital coursepack can support classroom learning.
- Oct 27, 2010 Is Your Acceptable Use Policy Acceptable…Or Not?
How acceptable use policies shape classroom technology decisions.
2009
- Nov 13, 2009 Article Review and Study Design Task for My Comprehensive Exams
My article review and study design task for comprehensive exams.
Book notes
1753488000000
- 2025 Digital Minimalism
Cal Newport
- 2025 The Attention Merchants
Tim Wu
- 2025 The Shallows
Nicholas Carr
1743724800000
- 2025 The Unaccountability Machine
Dan Davies
1742256000000
- 2025 The Pacific Circuit
Alexis Madrigal
1735689600000
- 2025 The Harrow
Noah Eaton
1731369600000
- 2024 Cyberlibertarianism
David Golumbia
1725926400000
- 2024 Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari
1724716800000
- 2024 Access Is Capture
Roderic N Crooks
1704067200000
- 2024 The AI Mirror
Shannon Vallor
1679961600000
- 2023 Unwired
Gaia Bernstein
1678838400000
- 2023 Impromptu
Reid Hoffman
1675728000000
1661900340000
- 2022 The Network State
Balaji Srinivasan
1617667200000
- 2021 The Promise of Access
Daniel Greene
1612224000000
- 2021 In the Plex
Steven Levy
1548720000000
- 2019 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari
1546300800000
- 2019 Hello World
Hannah Fry
1517270400000
- 2018 The Art of Screen Time
Anya Kamenetz
1508803200000
- 2017 Thank You for Being Late
Thomas L. Friedman
1497312000000
- 2017 Radical Technologies
Adam Greenfield
1458518400000
- 2016 The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data
Michael P. Lynch
1451606400000
- 2016 Weapons of Math Destruction
Cathy O'Neil
1436832000000
- 2015 Armada
Ernest Cline
1422921600000
- 2015 The Signal and the Noise
Nate Silver
1409011200000
- 2014 Lock In
John Scalzi
1400544000000
- 2014 Rogue Code
Mark Russinovich
1396224000000
- 2014 Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
Michael Lewis
1388534400000
- 2014 The Innovators
Walter Isaacson
1298937600000
- 2011 The Information
James Gleick
1293840000000
- 2011 A New Culture of Learning
Douglas Thomas, John Seely Brown
1175385600000
- 2007 The Ghost Brigades
John Scalzi
1167609600000
- 2007 The 4-Hour Work Week
Timothy Ferriss
1020124800000
- 2002 American Gods
Neil Gaiman
883612800000
- 1998 Otherland: City of Golden Shadow
Tad Williams
Publications
2021
- 2021 Today Is the Tomorrow We Should Have Prepared for Yesterday: Rebuilding Our Classrooms to Facilitate Student-Centered, Teacher-Sustaining, Tech-Supported Education
Journal article · Garcia, Merideth; Marlatt, Rick; McDermott, Maureen; O’Byrne, W Ian. (2021). Today Is the Tomorrow We Should Have Prepared for Yesterday: Rebuilding Our Classrooms to Facilitate Student-Centered, Teacher-Sustaining, Tech-Supported Education. Voices from the Middle.
2018
- 2018 Designing Spaces for Creativity and Divergent Thinking: Pre-Service Teachers Creating Stop Motion Animation on Tablets
Journal article · O'Byrne, W Ian; Radakovic, Nenad; Hunter-Doniger, Tracey; Fox, Madison; Kern, Reggie; Parnell, Stephanie. (2018). Designing Spaces for Creativity and Divergent Thinking: Pre-Service Teachers Creating Stop Motion Animation on Tablets. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology.
- 2018 Digital storytelling in early childhood: Student illustrations shaping social interactions
Journal article · O'Byrne, William Ian; Houser, Katherine; Stone, Ryan; White, Mary. (2018). Digital storytelling in early childhood: Student illustrations shaping social interactions. Frontiers in Psychology.