Canvas by Instructure

If you’ve ever played Oregon Trail, you know the journey was fraught with perils like snakes, cholera, broken limbs and a general store owner named Matt. But if you survived all that, you were rewarded with a wonderful life in a new, open land. When I played Oregon Trail back in the middle school computer lab, I didn’t know there would come a day when I’d be leading my own proverbial wagon train — on its way to the edtech promised land.

Two weeks ago, the weatherman said Spring was here. So why did I wake up to snow in my front yard last week? Apparently, predicting the weather is hard. Or at least accurately predicting the weather is. Just ask Punxsutawney Phil.

A while ago, I sent out an email asking our users to tell us their Canvas story, with no idea of what I was going to get back. I received some amazing responses about who's using Canvas and how they're using it to push the boundaries of teaching and learning. That kind of stuff gets us all really excited to deliver an even better user experience.  

Sometimes people have really good ideas. For instance, there’s a bacon alarm clock that wakes you up with the smell of bacon. Or a way to rent a grandma when yours is just too far away. Or slowly building up an immunity to iocane powder. Maybe you have a really good idea for a new product feature. And maybe you want to know how to sneak it onto the roadmap. Well, the good news is there's no sneaking necessary. Instructure has a number of established channels for soliciting and evaluating product input.

I grew up playing with Legos. I loved them. I remember making my own robotic piggy bank, Marble Madness ramps, even mousetrap-powered cars. When I really wanted to get crazy, I’d build medieval castles with all sorts of secret entrances and trap doors. My little brother gravitated toward more aquatic pursuits like submarines and Atlantis-inspired cities built from our shared pile. What was so awesome about Legos was that, with the same set of blocks, we could construct totally different worlds to play in.

What do George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln have in common (besides the whole “My face is on money!” thing)? If you answered, “They were all President of the United States,” congratulations, Captain Obvious. Way to dig deep. If you answered, “They were all land surveyors at some point in their careers,” give yourself a gold star. Or two. Also, you should probably get out more.

What did the first chemist say to the second chemist? "Hey baby, I got my ion you.” OK, so it turns out chemist jokes are only one step above accountant jokes. Dumb jokes aside, chemistry is pretty awesome. Currently, there are 118 elements on the periodic table. Individually, each element is useful and cool, but when you start combining them, things get really interesting. Just look at the elements that make up water. Hydrogen is unstable and wants to blow you up and oxygen isn’t much better. But wow -- throw them together and you have a life sustaining liquid!

In the words of Willie Nelson, we're "on the road again."  If you're out on the road this month, and happen to be at any of these shows, stop by and visit us (and pick up some swag while you're at it):   

It's a forgone conclusion that maple bars are amazing. They’re the donut version of one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Then someone went and added bacon on top. It’s sorta like someone stuck the statue of Zeus at Olympia on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It's mind blowing. If you haven’t tried one of these, you must.

If you'd have told me four years ago edtech was going to be the hottest tech around, I'd have called you crazy. Since its inception, edtech has had highs and lows. When Devlin and I started Instructure in 2008, edtech was at a low. Lots of companies were tossing eLearning around, but the excitement just wasn't there. Now I can't go a week without finding another infographic on the surge in technology adoption in education.