One focus of professional development relative to information and computer technology (ICT) in schools has been managing it. When computers first arrived, and machines were stand-alone devices, individual educators were able to manage the computers in their classrooms with independence; software was purchased for single machines and printers and similar peripherals were connected to specific Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Ethics and Data Collection in Schools
A part of all education research is recognizing one’s responsibility to proceed in a manner that respects the subjects, the process, and the community. Ethical researchers do not endanger the physical or emotional health of subjects, and they take steps to ensure the privacy of subjects and preserve subjects’ right to withdraw without penalty. Also, Read More
Learning New Technologies
I have been workin with faculty who are trying to learn to use a new web service recently. They have been growing frustrated as the interface is not intuitive (and it is poorly designed, but don’t tell anyone I said that). Many have said they would stop using the service if they could but they Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Correlation does not Mean Causation
Correlation does not mean causation… just because your computer malfunctioned soon after you (or someone else) did something to a computer or a system or your network or your software and it malfunctioned soon afterwards it does not mean the change cause the problem.
Be A Bricoleur
Claude Levi-Strauss (a French anthropologist who died in 2009 less than a month before he turned 101) introduced the term bricoleur to western thinkers to describe a “jackof- all-trades” approach to technology (and other practices). He suggested the term after observing individuals in other cultures who would explore the potential uses of various new tools Read More
Effects of IT on Teachers and Learners: Speed and Innovation
Related to the digital generations’ interest in and desire to customize technologies is the rate at which the digital generations adopt new technologies. Members of these generations are willing to buy new devices as soon as they arrive on the market and they are enthusiastic consumers of innovative new devices. They both become users of Read More
What is “Good” Technology-Rich Teaching?
I’m reviewing some recent observations I have made of lessons in which technology was used for education. One teachers explained her what she sees when she walks past some classes as they use the new Chromebooks for the math program that is recommended by the school district: You go in and see all of the Read More
A Teacher’s Realization that Literacy is Changing
I have been talking with teachers about the role of technology in their courses and the changing nature of the schooling experience. This one particular English teacher is realizing the traditional curriculum is no longer sufficient for her students. She described her recent realization: We have to face the fact that things like reading are Read More
Jerome Bruner’s Observation of Education
In describing education as a social invention, Bruner (1966) suggested each generation of educators engages in a process of revising educational theory and realigning the resulting practice in response to changes in human understanding. Bruner reasoned (a) the need to update education arises from advances in understanding of human growth, development, and learning; (b) advances Read More
Hermeneutic and Naturalistic Approaches to Research and Planning
Hermeneutic researchers fall into the hermeneutic cycle (see figure 1) in which an artifact is interpreted in light of the culture and then the culture is reinterpreted in light of the emerging understanding of the artifact. This cycle between the whole of the culture being reconstructed and the parts of the culture embodied in the Read More