The pandemic has raised several issues with education at all levels. One of the most interesting to me has been the seeming disconnect between being “data-driven” and decisions related to keeping schools open. Clearly the decision to keep a school open for in-person instruction rather than relying on remote instruction is complicated. There are many Read More
Instructors create information for their students. In some cases, the material is original, for example they may create presentations or documents, or the material may originate from publishers or open education resource providers and instructors revise them for their specific needs. Many instructors find the ability to share documents they make is one of the benefits of Read More
Twitter is a method of quickly publishing text, pictures, and video to the Internet. Many educators avoid using Twitter and other social media because of high-profile embarrassments that are reported on a regular basis. Those embarrassments are largely the result of the ease with which one can post information to the Internet. It takes only Read More
Computers, networks and digital media are changing the types of tasks educators assign as students access, manipulate, and create information using previously unavailable technologies. Williams (2004) defined fundamental characteristics of tasks which influence how individuals understand the tasks they undertake: the perceived importance of the task; the frequency with which it is done; the time Read More
Much of the 20th century recitation script for education, in particular the articulation of measurable goals and the focus on efficiency, was based on the assumption that becoming educated was a tame problem. So that curriculum goals could be achieved efficiently, the problems that became learner tasks were de-contextualized; the context of rich information and Read More
So, we know the brain is (literally) a network of neurons; our cells are interconnected and it is patterns of communication among those cells that determine “what we know.” (Yeah, I know… oversimplified… but bear with me.) Culture is also a network. Patterns of communication and interaction among “things” (some living and some not). Increasingly, Read More
Accounting is a technology that accompanied the creation of writing, and counting changed when “we” decided accurate records we needed. Whereas many cultures with primary orality do not differentiate numbers (many unwritten languages quantify using words for “one,” “two,” and “many”). Accounting necessitated accurate calculation of numbers including decimal places. The familiar base 10 and Read More
The culture (comprising beliefs, attitudes, symbols, and similar concepts) that learners experience when they are young contributes to their views and perspectives. These influence what behaviors in schools that learners value, how they define learning, and ideas about how learning occurs. These all affect how individual interact with curriculum, teachers, and peers in school. Differences Read More
Education has broad and diverse goals in our society: free and appropriate education for all. Despite the connotation of “standard” education, most recognize that “one size fits all” education is not what most students need. That suggests we recognize contingencies in education, just as scientists recognize contingencies. Science has centuries of managing contingencies, so we Read More
The purpose of education is to help people learn. Learning is a natural physiological process of the human brain. That nature defines the rules within which educators (and education policy makers) must play. While it might be convenient for policy makers to define test scores as a measure of learning, if test scores are a Read More