Disclosures

I am always suspicious when I hear people invoke "objectivity" -- whether they're scientists or journalists or teachers. I am deeply implicated -- me, Audrey -- in all I write, in all I think. I try my best to be transparent about that. So here's some things that situate my knowledge (and for you, dear reader, to situate me in turn):

Education

I went to public school in Wyoming through 11th grade when I attended a private boarding school in Oxford, England. I did not graduate from high school. (The State of Wyoming would not grant me my diploma as I didn't have enough PE credits.) I have an International Baccalaureate instead. The IB was the best education I received in my entire educational career: from kindergarten through graduate school.

I dropped out of college when I was 19. I had a baby when I was 21. I went back to school eventually and stayed there for multiple degrees. I was widowed when I was 34. I dropped out of a PhD program a year later.

I taught university for almost 10 years. I taught a variety of classes in a number of departments: composition, Folklore, Women's Studies, English, Film, Comparative Literature. During that time, I was a member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, the labor union representing the University of Oregon graduate students and a local of the American Federation of Teachers. I am no longer a member of either union, as I'm no longer a grad student.

I wrote my Masters Thesis in Folklore on political pranks. This included a chapter on political pie-throwing. Yes, I remain a rabble-rouser. Yes, I laugh at this stuff. Yes, I think it's important.

I worked for the International Society for Technology in Education for (not quite) two years before resigning to become a freelance writer. I have no financial interest in the organization and am not a member.

My 18-year-old son is not going to college.  I'm sorta freaking out -- not because he's not going to college, but because our economy looks so grim for the young, the inexperienced, the un-credentialed.

Economics

I currently write regularly for O'Reilly Radar, and Inside Higher Ed. They pay me per post. I contribute on occasion to other publications, including KQED MindShift and The School Library Journal.  I also write for my own ed-tech blog Hack Education, but I have struggled to figure out a way to monetize the site. I won't run ads. I just won't.

One way, it now seems, is to work on a major research project for Mozilla, something I'll be undertaking beginning in February 2012 for at least one month.  Mozilla will be compensating me for my research and writing on a project surrounding Web literacy education, and in the spirit of transparency, everything from this project will be blogged about on Hack Education.

As tech writing doesn't often involve good compensation, many bloggers also work as consultants on the side.  I have long refused to do any paid consulting for education technology companies (although I have always done a lot of unpaid consulting in the form of talking to folks about teaching and learning in the course of the work I do as a writer). Nor have I had any investments in the companies I cover -- or any companies for that matter. I have no 401K, and I own no stocks.  The investment piece won't change.  But the consulting piece is morphing somewhat as I have started in 2012 working with Steve Hargadon on a project called EdIncubator, run through his Classroom 2.0 site.  EdIncubator is meant to help education startups and services connect with educators for feedback, focus groups or teacher councils.  My role is very small, but I will be available through EdIncubator for more formalized consulting (if need be) in order to help bridge the startup and educator worlds.

My partner Kin Lane is also a technology professional, and we've started a business together called Techgypsi.es. The name pretty much says it all.  When people ask where we live, I say "out of a suitcase."  I should add "hopefully near free WiFi and a power source," but always in motion.

Updated December 2011