It is an unfortunate reality that there remains a digital divide in the United States; disadvantaged students have less access to technology tools, and even if they do have access to the tools, they are more likely to be used for efficient instruction of procedural and declarative knowledge rather than more effective or efficacious purposes. Read More
Information that a learner remembers and can restate comprises their declarative knowledge. Having learned a large body of declarative knowledge adds to individuals’ efficiency with answering questions and applying that information. For this reason, many teachers facilitate students’ learning facts in classes. The default approach to learning facts has been memorization and teachers introduce mnemonics Read More
John Dewey, the American philosopher is often credited with differentiating traditional from progressive education. In general, traditional education approaches the curriculum as a known collection of content, and teachers select a path through the content, ensuring students learn by rewarding expected answers and correcting inaccurate answers. Progressive education, on the other hand, is designed to Read More
189: On the Obsolescence of #edtech As a result, schools entered a cycle of technology obsolescence. They would expend significant capital in one year and a wave of new devices would arrive on campus. In the following years, the students and teachers would enjoy improved access to and improved function of the devices. Over time Read More
As educators, we have our students’ future in mind. I am resisting the urge to write about the misguided strategy of adults looking to their past to predict students’ future. I am writing instead about the timelines wise educators use when they are looking towards students’ futures. We really should be concerned with three futures. Read More
When I was an undergraduate student, the university had recently begun a project which found students in education programs spending time in schools early in their studies. Faculty realized a small fraction of their students discovered during their student-teaching, just before they graduated, that they did not like working in schools as adults. Even those Read More
124: IT for Teaching The tasks that teachers accomplish using IT systems can be differentiated into two categories. First, are the highly predictable tasks that resemble those performed by business users. IT professionals can plan and test functionality. These tasks include many of the data management tasks such as recording attendance and grades for which Read More
Educators seem to view their practice as one of two evolutionary processes (here I am using evolution in the sense of change in a recognized direction). It is either: Those who have been in the field for more than a few years, will point out that these two often happen in cycles. The same change Read More
Some schools lack the structures necessary to change what happens in classrooms; schedules, departments, prescribed curriculum, and other systems are obstacles that are too great. Schools are social organizations, thus inherently political; changes in how teachers interact with students can be affected by the demands or threats of those who are more powerful. Some teachers Read More
Hackers (those who try to break into our computers) and phishers (those who try to trick users into letting them into the system) are generally after computing capacity or data. In some cases, they want to use our computers for nefarious purposes. For example, they may want to use our computers to spread viruses or Read More