The Pigeons of Education Technology

Beginning December 2018, I am taking a break from regular updates to Hack Education (in the form of the “Hack Education Weekly News” and the monthly “Business of Ed-Tech” venture funding analysis, specifically). This project will also be dormant. Maybe I’ll pick it up after I’ve finished writing Teaching Machines....

There have been lots of stories this week – and thank you to everyone who’s forwarded them to me – about a pigeon found with a beaded vest. “Is This Your Bedazzled Pigeon?” asks Gizmodo. “Did you lose a pigeon dressed in a tiny bedazzled vest? He’s been found,” says...

"Don't Call Them Winged Rats," says Wired. "These Pigeons Are Exquisite." They are indeed. The article features a number of photos of birds taken in Australia by Leila Jeffreys.

"Where do doves released at weddings go?" asks The Washington Post. "They can live happily ever after." Which is probably more than you can say for most marriages. The story profiles Ken Haselrig and his company that releases "doves" for special occasions. They're homing pigeons, so they just head on...

Seriously. This is a real story: "Determined surfer saves pigeon from drowning on Venice Beach." "There are people who will go out of their way for a lowly pigeon," said one onlooker. Lowly pigeon. Ugh.

Via Buzzfeed: "Here's Everything You Didn't Think You Wanted To Know About Pigeons." It's a quick look at the new book The New York Pigeon by photographer Andrew Garn. I bought this book, and it is full of photos of some beautiful, beautiful birds.

The New York Times on "The Elusive Squab" (with a shout-out, of course, for the wonderful Wild Bird Fund): Q. Pigeons are everywhere, but has anyone ever seen a baby pigeon? A. No. They are mythical creatures born in adult form, like the Greek goddess Athena when she sprang from...

Via The Washington Post: “The Silicon Valley elite’s latest status symbol: Chickens.” Raising chickens isn’t shocking. Folks do it everywhere, particularly when they’re trying to perform “back-to-the-land” and “sustainable” lifestyles in the face of middle class, suburban malaise. But the subheader on this story points to how this might be...

This story (which like many I’ve posted here lately) is not about pigeons. But it nods at the ways in which birds are more complex beings than folks like B. F. Skinner ever gave them credit for. It also underscores the ways in which folks like B. F. Skinner and...

This isn’t a pigeon story but I would be remiss if I missed out on Sunday’s big “superb owl” joke. In honor of the birds, the Atlantic published a set of wonderful owl photographs.