(Cross-post at techgypsi. es) 2011 has been a phenomenal year for me, both personally and professionally. For that, I am incredibly grateful. I began the year as a technology journalist, agitating for more and better and smarter coverage of education technology. And rather than just grouse and grumble, I finally took the steps necessary to provide just that. I quit writing at two major publications mid-year (this one and this one) so that I could focus (almost entirely) on education. I put a great deal of energy into Hack Education, trying to create the sort of site I'd want to read. I can talk at length about the economics and politics of this decision: freelance employment and contractual, intellectual labor; self-employment and no benefits as a single mom; no "stake" in the company that your pen has created; whatever… It was a weird year for technology blogging, as Ben Parr rightly point outs. He would know; he (like a lot of us) quit. And so what did we learn from all this? [...]