Articles
Writing about educational technology, learning design, and the questions that sit underneath both. Articles are organized into three threads: Tools & Power examines the economics and politics of EdTech, Other Lenses draws on speculative fiction, natural systems, and contemplative practice to think differently about design, and Design Practice covers the day-to-day work of building learning experiences that hold up in real conditions.
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Who Pays for the Free Tool?
Part 6 of an ongoing series on vibe coding in EdTech. In a recent article, I wrote about the ethics of building automation tools for educators, using Mary Doria Russell’s concept of…
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I Know a Grackle
My dad kept a bird book with a life list penciled inside the front cover. I don’t think he updated it very often. It was one of those things that surfaced years…
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The Security Case Against Vibe-Coded EdTech
Part 5 of an ongoing series on vibe coding in EdTech. Over the past several months, I’ve been building an argument across multiple articles. I’ve made the case that educators can and…
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What a Homelab YouTuber Can Teach Us About EdTech Dependency
A video about replacing streaming subscriptions with a home server recently crossed my feed, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how cleanly its argument maps onto educational technology. The…
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The Unwavering Band of Light
Early in my career as an instructional designer, I took on a project that should have felt like meaningful work. We were building a train-the-trainer program for people who would be supporting…
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Designing for Human Judgement in AI-Powered EdTech
Part 4 of an ongoing series on vibe coding in EdTech. The first version of my course builder had a problem, and the problem was me. I’d been building a personal tool…
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What AI-Assisted Coding & GAS Can’t Do
Part 3 of an ongoing series on vibe coding in EdTech. I’ve spent the last year or so experimenting with, writing, and talking about why educators and districts should consider building their…
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Vultures, Vibe Coding, and Who Gets to Automate Whom
Part 1 of an ongoing series on vibe coding in EdTech. In Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, published in 1996, one of the earliest plot points involves a professional role that Russell…

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DIY EdTech: The Basics of Building Custom Web Apps with AI
Part 2 of an ongoing series on vibe coding in EdTech. A few weeks ago, I wrote again about why teachers should learn to code, arguing that basic programming skills give educators…
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Low-Bandwidth Course Design
When I work with rural districts across the Great Plains, the same frustration comes up in different words: the course is built, the content is good, and a good share of the…

