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Comment by japhyr | Hacker News Reader

I am curious why you are asking this. Are you a teacher wondering what others do, or are you a hacker looking to build something in the education field?

Education is one field where tech solutions have a long way to go. I believe copyright and cost are two issues that need to be thought about carefully in any ed-related technology venture.

For example, I am pretty sure most teachers still do all their lesson planning using word processing software, which is like architects working in MS Paint. Teachers need a well-designed lesson planning tool. That tool needs to be open-source to see widespread use, for a number of reasons.

I am excited to see where ed tech goes in the next 10 or 20 years. Tell us a little more about what you are thinking, and I'd love to share some more specific thoughts.

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When I was teaching, having a detailed lesson plan was the least of my work. Just a handful of bullet points was fine.

What takes the most time when you're teaching is grading.

Also time-consuming: documenting discipline issues and parent contact. And, when you're new: creating worksheets/problem-sets, lab handouts, quizzes, tests, and exams.

Might I ask how do you go about creating those worksheets/problem-sets, etc?

I've noticed in Staples that they have paper templates for those but I'm wondering if anyone actually uses them at all.

You mean what tools did I use? LaTeX.

When I was teaching, having a detailed lesson plan was the least of my work. Just a handful of bullet points was fine.

I half-agree with this. I don't need to work from a script, but if you want to do really high-quality work with students your plans need to be laid out pretty carefully. Students should be able to produce professional-level work in high school, in their area of highest interest and ability. We need to do some pretty well thought-out planning to help students work at that level. Once the planning is done, I work from bullet points. But at some point, for consistently high-quality curriculum, we need more than bullet points.

What takes the most time when you're teaching is grading.

I disagree with this. Certainly many teachers spend a lot of time grading. But with good use of peer feedback and modeling, grading does not need to dominate a teacher's time.

Also time-consuming: documenting discipline issues and parent contact.

Yes, although education is a holistic profession. The better we plan and deliver meaningful learning experiences, the fewer discipline issues we have.

We're entrepreneurs trying to improve edu with tech. >For example, I am pretty sure most teachers still do all their lesson planning using word processing software, which is like architects working in MS Paint

I love this analogy! I'd say it's like programmers working in TextEdit though. Can you tell me your opinion about lesson planning tools in detail?

I wrote a post about this topic a while back, "Why do programmers have better tools than educators?"

http://peak5390.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/why-do-programmers-...

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