The future of edtech is small, local, private & free/libre. No spying. No black boxes. Just tech that belongs to you and me. Support The Strange Tool Store now and you could be one of the founding supporters.

Support The Strange Tool Store at £3, £5 or even £10 per month (liberapay displays this broken down into per week) and join us and help make technology strange again — and make it ours.

This fund will be used for supporter meet ups, testing technology, experiments, hack days and time to develop these concepts further with like minded people.

So what exactly is the The Strange Tool Store? Well The Strange Tool Store was created by me Dr. Adam Procter https://discursive.adamprocter.co.uk/about/ I am hoping for it to become the co-operative seeking to further discuss, discover, design and create brand-new edtech, I believe that digital technologies have great capabilities to actually enhance learning and teaching but the way they are currently designed and funded is a problem.

The tools we are given in education (edtech) are too often built to monitor, to measure, to control. They track our every thought, harvest our data, and turn learning and learners into a commodity. Data is almost all stored in surveillance cloud based systems and tied to often large annual subscriptions for education providers.

• I reject this future.
• I believe another way is not only possible — it is necessary.

I believe a new approach exists to imagine, design and create small, private, decentralised, local-first tools built for learning, not for surveillance. Tools shaped for specific communities of practice and the joy of discovery. Tools that amplify curiosity, creativity and cooperation. Tools that belong to the learners, not to big tech.

When you or I write in a notebook, read a book, sketch an a idea — those thoughts belong to us. We choose whether to share them. Our edtech should honour that same right.

If we want to wonder, ponder, learn and grow together, we need tools that respect our privacy and our agency.

The Strange Tool Store is looking to become the place to support, create and showcase such tools and ideas. https://strangetool.store/

nodenogg.in

I have already proven it can be done. Over nearly a decade of research and making, I have developed nodenogg.in (with a lot of help) a tool that increases participation and confidence in crits and feedback sessions within University Art Schools. This has been funded mainly by myself as part of my PhD and now my ongoing practice-based research, alongside a few more recent uk research funds. This has enabled me to finally get to nodenogg.in 1.0 in Summer 2025. I have some exciting things in the pipeline for https://nodenogg.in in for the next academic year, to keep up to date and see how to use nodenogg.in visit https://docs.nodenogg.in (being regularly updated aug/sept 2025)

The supporter goal for The Strange Tool Store

So I am now looking to build this co-operative in a sustainable way, so I am asking friends, those interested in these concepts, technologists and designers to join now. I have set myself an ambitious target to reach £400 donations per month by Jan 2027. But great things start small.

This co-operative fund will be used for supporter meet ups, testing technology, experiments, hack days and time to develop these concepts further with like minded people. Not a beer or caffeine fund!

Please note this is not instead of the larger ambitions for all the projects and research, I hope we can create and bring together, I will still continue to seek research and commercial funding inline with the principles developed from my research that edtech must be be free/libre software, local-first, private, simple exportable data and modular code.

I want to be as transparent as possible to ensure all supporters understand what the money is used for and so if you can donate £3, £5 or even £10 a month that would be amazing. I am donating £10 a month personally to this fund (liberapay splits this into £2.30 per week)

I will also post specific updates at https://blog.strangetool.store/ related to these supporter funds and you can follow me as @adamprocter on micro.blog, mastodon @<adamprocter@fosstodon.org>, bluesky as @adamprocter.bsky.social‬ or just rss/visit my blog (also a weekly newsletter) at https://discursive.adamprocter.co.uk, you can also join the online discussions at https://discuss.strangetool.store and I have a specific discord for nodenogg.in development too. https://discord.gg/bpJPZxWs and of course all the code and projects so far are at / linked to from - https://github.com/thestrangetoolstore (hoping I can create one of those mega lists! once we get going)

So if this sounds exciting or at the least intriguing, please consider setting up a recurring payment. Or even just a one off donation to show support would be much appreciated.

Help make technology strange again — and make it ours.