Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

A blog post on imagination and education
https://www.hackscience.education/the-troubling-paradox-of-imagination-and-education/

"Action without faith is misguided." Really? I can't imagine a statement that is more misguided than that one.

When it is well done, science blurs reality by asking more questions with each one it answers.

A former colleague used to tell the story of getting pulled over for speeding on the way to work. The officer said, “If you give me a good excuse, I won’t write the speeding ticket.” He replied, “I’m a teacher and I have to make copies for my students.” He did not get the ticket.

"Why don't you just have AI summarize it?"

Because I am interested in making sense of it, not just having a summary .

Epistemology is deeply important to educators. It allows them to evaluate practices, adopt and adapt those that are useful, discard those no longer useful, and otherwise refine their craft.

What do we know? How do we know it? What does it mean to know something?

These questions are important for educators to answer They exert important influences on what we do in classrooms, but we can't let them get in our way of acting.

What does it mean to be "literate" (in anything--reading, writing, math, or any other subject )? Ask a group of adults and you will get very different answers that are both reasonable and mutually exclusive.

One thing I leaned during 35 years in education: students have a low tolerance for dishonesty.

If the purpose of your meeting is to “start a conversation,” please don’t invite me.

I meet regularly online with a person who obviously has three screens going. They are very distracted during meetings and often has no idea what we are talking about.

While IT professionals may not exert direct control over teaching and school management decisions, the priorities they set and the devices and configurations they deploy do exert influence on what happens in classrooms and how it happens.

I buy and read used books. I judge the previous readers by the quality of their marginalia.

Much that one “knows” about school is a misconception.

No IT professional wants users of their systems to be ineffective and complaining, but often they are.

Many who hired are as IT professionals in schools have training and expertise that gives them deep knowledge of IT but they find the strategies that were effective in those other businesses and industries are not as effective in schools.

What isn’t expected isn’t seen.

“You get more conservative as you get older” is a myth… at least in the last several generations in my family.

Optical illusions are not mysteries.

Epistemology is deeply important to educators. It allows them to evaluate practices, adopt and adapt those that are useful, discard those no longer useful, and otherwise refine their craft.