Substack Essays

I know nothing about the pedagogical design of textbooks.

Part II. Governance Abused

Growing up in Los Angeles, I used to hide in the closet.

I live near an elementary school.

Part I. Governance Failed

Every year, the federal government places more than $100 billion into higher education through Pell Grants and student loans — more than a trillion dollars a decade.

I recently posted “Is Modesty an Advantage?

What Lessons Can We Learn from the Canvas Hack? — Lesson Threee

There is considerable Sturm und Drang these days about the skills gap. It’s not a new worry, but the advent of AI has turned it into something closer to a crisis. We do need to worry about the skills gap, but there is a related problem that deserves just as much attention:

How students and faculty find resilience amid the trauma of war

This goes in my Weekend Vignettes / Backlog Section. It’s a topic I am thinking about and will become a future post.

Phil Hill's recent reporting on the Canvas security incidents includes a “technical deep dive” from Instructure.

The Learning Management System sits at the center of the modern education ecosystem.

Education is too often approached through the lens of solutions, especially technology solutions.

Lesson Two: Runway to Reinvent — The Case of Blackboard

Lesson One: Beware of Technical Debt

Wittgenstein observed that language is prone to bewitchment, leading us to errors, misunderstandings, and tragedies.

The University of Texas at Austin has come out with guidance on the use of AI Detection Software.

The CoreLMS Open Source Code Repository is now live and available here:

On Monday, May 4, 2026, I will make the code repository for the CoreLMS project available under an MIT open source license.