A Nation at Risk

It has been 25 years since the landmark study A Nation at Risk. The students described in the study would be in their 30’s and 40’s now — in fact, I am a member of that “at-risk” generation of students. My own take on this study 25 years later is that it’s somewhat alarmist. As a member of that generation, I believe we have held our own in the world fairly well. However, when my local newspaper’s education blog asked whether schools are better or worse than they were 25 years ago, I admit I feel that schools are just about the same. Not substantially better or worse. That’s not really progress.

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Amazon and the Read/Write Web

(From the “Somewhat Shameless Self-Promotion Department”) I just wanted to note that my book is now officially available on Amazon, but even more, look what other Read/Write Web type things you can do:

Post a review (ok…nothing new there, I know.)Post to a discussion board about the book. (Somewhat new.)Tag the book with keywords that help others find it. (New)Contribute to a wiki about the book. (New)All pretty cool, I think, though I wonder how many people will use them. And did you know that author’s can have their own blogs at Amazon? I haven’t had time to dive into it much, obviously, but I do think it’s all quite an interesting attempt to get people involved in a product.

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