I’ve been kicking around the concept of “red herrings” for a few years, at least since I started to recognize them. I attribute this skill to the habits I developed while a doctoral student, but we all know how “reliable” such stories are about ourselves. For me, red herrings always appeared in our school structures, Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Tired Thoughts After Reading About Design Research
I finished all of the books on my “to read” pile, and I just haven’t gotten to placing another order yet… I maintain my list on Amazon, but have committed to buying all of my books from independent book sellers, so the stream of new to me books has been interrupted. Fortunately, my copy of Read More
Yeah, I’m Not a Conspiracy Theorist, but…
Last week, one of my wife’s colleagues had a medical emergency. It is a rather rare condition and she was asking me what I know about it (noting really), so I said it a few times as I through what it might be from the words in the title. When I started typing it into Google for a search to Read More
A Story About Plagiarism Detection
The conversations about online proctoring of… excuse me… online surveillance during… exams has caused me to take a deeper look at the technology tools we use to ensure academic honesty. By the way, The Manifesto for Online Learning (Bayne, 2020) has a wonderful and brief discussion of this issue. Specifically, I started thinking about plagiarism Read More
What “Stay in Your Lane” Says About Your Leadership
“Stay in your lane” is the advice leaders give to those who they have “empowered” to take leadership positions. When committee chairs or other individuals begin to make suggestions or ask questions that are perceived to be beyond their duties or the charge of the committee they are told to “stay in your lane.” Ostensibly Read More
On Ethics in #edtech
In the recent move to remote teaching, the interest in and “need” for online proctoring of tests students complete at a distance has come to the front of many educators’ and instructional leaders’ attention. increasingly, as well, this discussion focuses on the question “Should we use these tools?” Personally, I see little value in these Read More
Some Thoughts on Critical Consciousness
Paulo Freire, an educator who worked in Brazil in the 1960’s, is well-known for several essays including “Education for Critical Consciousness” and “Extension and Communication” (Freire, 1974). In these works, Freire argues that meaningful learning occurs when the learner reaches critical consciousness which enables the learner to reflect on and understand not only what they Read More
Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology
For all of the rhetoric around being data driven for the last few decades, educators are generally woeful users of data when it comes to making classroom decisions. In my opinion, this is due to the fact that data (quantitative date that is) can only be meaningfully be applied to large data set. We might Read More
Small Teaching Online
The stream of “how to teach online” books and materials to support those faculty who are teaching online. I enjoy these. They are increasingly aligned with what we know about learning (and we know much more than my teachers did… we know more than any teachers did even 10 years ago). One of the great Read More
Education and Science Are Political… and That is A Good Thing
My social media feeds recently have been filled with calls that “you” not be political. I am included in the “you” because I am an educator (retired from almost 30 years in K-12 and continuing to teach and support teachers in community colleges). I am also included in the “you” as I have a background Read More