Deep learning is an alternative to the version of curriculum that supports instructionism. Among the assumptions in which deep learning are grounded are: appropriate curriculum depends on individual’s existing knowledge as well as social context schools give students experiences within which they develop and refine skills for on-going learning through reflection, learners understand themselves as Read More
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
As a student, I attended a high school that had four computers available for students (my classmates’ recollections confirm my memories). I was thoroughly unimpressed with the devices. I had fun playing the game in which I tried to hit my opponent’s castle with projectiles. Ostensibly, the game was played to reinforce the lessons taught Read More
Fundamentally, human communication includes: (a) encoding, (b) storage, (c) transportation, and (d) decoding. Responding to the limits of human communication that result when we rely exclusively on our bodies and motivated by the necessity of communication for our social species, humans have developed a long series of both hard technologies and soft technologies for extending Read More
Multitasking is the mythic capability of people to perform more than one task at a time. A youngster who is messaging a friend on a computer computer, carrying on a text message conversation with another friend on a phone, and listening to music all while doing homework is multitasking. (So is that youngster’s parent who Read More
In cleaning out decades’ worth of journals, letters, and reflections including those stored on both bits and bytes, I have identified several types of situations encountered over and over in my professional life. In this post, I describe one of them that I call the “You Had Better Save Yourself.” The title is grounded in Read More
Education has broad and diverse goals in our society; *free* and *appropriate* education is to be available for *all* learners. We educate learners who have many different needs and goals. We educate for society that recognizes many different needs and goals. Despite this, a generation of students and teachers have heard that education is grounded Read More
My email response to a leader seems to deserve a place on this blog: The purpose of education is to help people learn. Learning is a natural physiological process of the human brain. Nature, then, defines the rules within which educators (and education policy makers) must play. While it might be convenient for policy makers Read More
Yochai Benkler, a professor at Harvard Law School (2006) observed “the change brought about by the networked information environment is deep. It is structural. It goes to the very foundations of how liberal markets and liberal democracies have coevolved for almost two centuries” (p. 1). Reference Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks: How social Read More
A short excerpt of a school leader’s comments on goals and the valuable planning methods she had discovered. All of the leaders articulated the expectation that they follow prescribed planning methods. Carol indicated the expectation had been formalized in her school district. “Once the state department of education started taking about SMART goals, we were Read More