Schools are organizations in which consensus is very difficult to achieve; the probability of sustaining commitment to any decision reached through consensus is lower still. Those decisions tend to be overturned when leadership changes or in response to other political influences. This is a source of real and reasonable frustration for teachers; it is unavoidable. Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
The Problem with #edtech Integration
In the 2006 edition of a popular textbook for courses designed for educators learning to create technology-rich classrooms, Robyler (2006) defined integrating educational technology as “the process of determining which electronic tools and which methods of implementing them are appropriate responses to given classroom situations and problems” (p. 9). This idea had been a staple Read More
On #edtech Management
Management refers to those organizational practices that affect how decisions are made and how resources are used. The arrival of computers in schools did add another to the management tasks necessary in schools as it became necessary to draft and approve policies related to technology (acceptable use policies for example), to plan for both large Read More
On #edtech Changes
Comparing the first desktop computers used in schools to the computing devices available to students and teachers today, one can see important differences in the nature of the computing tasks that can be done, the rapidity and ease of data sharing, and the amount of data that can be shared, as well as the senses Read More
#edtech Access isn’t Sufficient
In 1993, Seymour Papert imagined two time-traveling professionals from 100 years earlier; he speculated the physician would be flummoxed by the technology as well as the work of doctors and nurses in the 20th century clinic, but the teacher would find the technology and the work in a 20th century classroom very familiar. Papert based Read More
When Computers Started School
Historians of technology trace the beginnings of computers from the analytic machine of Charles Babbage in the 19th century. The history of electronic digital computing is usually measured from the creation of Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the computer built to handle the massive computations necessary for military applications (including for the Manhattan Project Read More
Humans and Computers
My social media feeds have been filled with many stories about “the next big thing” in technology and education. I suppose we expect such lists to be popular at important (and arbitrary) transitions like the end of one decade and the beginning of next. (For me, I am a few short weeks from working as Read More
Perspectives on Planning
The potential for dysfunction within the teams charged with technology planning is great, however. Educators and technologists participate in planning and decision-making processes within their specific domains, but those activities are very different within each group. Technologists have recognized and commonly understood guidelines and standards within which they work and design, and most problems can Read More
My Elevator Pitch on Twitter for Educators
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
My Elevator Pitch on “good #edtech”
So, we want our schools to be technology-rich places. That means we need to make sure there is mutual support for: Networks to be are properly planned; Devices to be properly installed and configured; Management is reasonable according to what we can afford and how we do business; Problems are resolved in a timely manner; Read More