Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org
- On the web:
- https://hackscience.education/
Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at a community college in New England
Retired k-12 science/ math/ technology teacher/ technology integration specialist/ coordinator
Joined Nov 2022
One of my “professional hobbies” has been observing leaders… how they act and react to circumstances, plan and implement initiatives, and interact with others. On occasion, I have decided I must distance myself from certain leaders.
I find reasons to avoid meetings at first, but eventually I am clear about my active dissociation from them.
One of the projects that has captured my attention lately is getting a test server with WeBWork up and running for the math faculty at my college.
https://openwebwork.org/
This is an open source project designed to provide a platform for "online math homework" (think MyMathLab).
We have the test up and running so the faculty can explore it, and will be moving to development in the spring, with a target of production for the fall semester.
I'd be glad to hear advice/ recommendations from folks who have rolled this out.
@helgztech@fosstodon.org So, I became interested in heutagogy around the turn of the century--of course we were not using the term--when I was working with and organization that was promoting several active learning models. One of them was "personal performance projects" in which students in k-12 defined an independent project and completed it.
Schools around me (in Vermont) have kept the model, but imposed som many hoops that the self-direction is largely gone.
On my blog, I have three posts that explicitly address self-directed learning:
The Three Agogos (pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy)
https://hackscience.education/2019/09/06/the-three-agogos/
Heutagogy (largely draw from a school where we implemented a project)
https://hackscience.education/2022/03/13/heutagogy/
and Creating Things that Matter (a brief review of a book by that title):
https://hackscience.education/2020/06/12/creating-things-that-matter/
Gary Ackerman
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If you came here from Twitter in the last week, Reply below and boost this post so others can find you.
@Krassenstein I’m new to Mastodon. Planning to leave Twitter behind.
Gary Ackerman
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Platforms like #Twitter, #Facebook, #LinkedIn etc are all business that NEED to grow since we, the user are the products.
Revenue should not be a goal of a social platform, there are enough websites out there already who squeeze you for every penny in some form.
The internet wasn't created for profit alone but it seems many have forgotten..
Let's bring that back! 
Gary Ackerman
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I keep seeing people say Mastodon is nothing like Twitter. And they’re right.
Mastodon is an echo of the old internet, it’s decentralised, chaotic. What you get depends on your sysadmin. You can’t search, everything has to be shared to you by a human. Networks split apart and rejoin. What you see is your unique connection to it.
Is this good? Maybe. But for me that’s the internet I grew up with. No algorithms, no targeted adverts, just human interaction, and it was glorious.
@dimi Thanks for the response. I’m redesigning a course taught by a now-retired faculty member who did not include this in his syllabus. Social engineering was noticeably absent from the previous version!
Dr. Gary Ackerman here. I’m a retired #science #math #computerscience #teacher and #technology coordinator. Now serving as the director of the teaching and learning innovation center at a #communitycollege in northeast USA.
My interests include online teaching and learning, educational technology, sound pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy.
I'm nearing the end of redeveloping two courses for the spring semester. If you were teaching "Linux Programming" (with a focus on server management) and or "Network Security," what would you say "must be in the syllabus?"
These are community college students in the United States.
Hello Mastodon...
Dr. Gary Ackerman joining the community. My field is "educational technology" which sure is broad. In my role as the director of teaching and learning innovation at a community college, I support online teaching and manage the audio visual technology on campus.
Why, yes I have joined Mastodon.
@dimi Hello. My prediction is that twitter will crash and burn before long... but what do I know?
- On the web:
- https://hackscience.education/
Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at a community college in New England
Retired k-12 science/ math/ technology teacher/ technology integration specialist/ coordinator
Joined Nov 2022
