Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

I trust experts. I know they recognize when they are wrong and they change when they get better information and better ideas to explain information.

That’s what #science teaches you.

@hasmis Yes, and admins are scared of IT!

@hasmis Agreed, but they often can be advocates for teachers when IT people are doing stupid stuff.

The IT We Need: Appropriate, Proper, Reasonable – https://hackscience.education/ https://hackscience.education/2017/11/27/the-it-we-need-appropriate-proper-reasonable/

Hey teachers, if you are going to share students’ work with others, get their permission. I don’t care the rationale or the justification. If you don’t you are showing gross disrespect for them as humans and creators. #edutooter

I am a skeptic, but I am convinced by evidence.

I am open-minded, but I am not gullible.

That’s what #science does for you.

Observations of Narcissist Educators – https://hackscience.education/ https://hackscience.education/2016/08/05/observation-of-narcissist-educators/

The presenter who complains the authors whose used to train AI aren’t compensated, then complains their institution doesn’t have a plagiarism checker should not be taken seriously.

A Brief Typology of Teaching – https://hackscience.education/ https://hackscience.education/2016/07/28/a-brief-field-guide-to-educational-adjectives/

New rule: if the “make sure you have done x by the end of the day” message that gets sent to everyone causes you to to take time to go and check only to find that you complied earlier, you get a $500 bonus.

@cqoverly yes it does!

There is amateur video of a situation involving adults and children in the news in my area. Very distressing and definitely newsworthy. When the video was first shared by media, the children were not blurred, later they were.

I wonder what that meeting was like!

Students must sit and listen to learn.

This is the biggest fallacy in education.

If you join a committee and do not assume responsibility for any of the work to be done, please resign from the committee.

@SantiagoSainz Agreed, but I think the nature of the education matters. The hyper focus on content standards in the USA right now is not what will produce what you advocate.

That idea of teaching math (or any other basic skill) so that students can apply it elsewhere is not supported by empirical evidence.

Another observation from ca. 2008:

For educators, the penetration of computer networks into the classroom has been simultaneously a great advantage and a great distraction. Using media in previous generations, teachers could be sure an editor working within some system of accountability had approved the information, and one could be reasonably sure that media selected for the classroom accurately represented the prevailing view of professionals in the field. This system arose in part because of the expense of creating media and in part because of the expertise needed to create the media. Only those who were assured of a paying audience or those who could support expensive productions could publish for the masses. When using modern media, however, one cannot assume any editorial oversight of the media appearing in public. Hucksters, radicals, rascals, and idiots can all create content for the web and the content created by those groups appears in the same search engine results as those of professionals, experts, and authorities.

I recently discovered this prargraph that I wrote about 15 years ago. I was prescient:

The milieu of information sources is further complicated by the fact that the hardware and software necessary to publish to the Internet is available on even the most modest computer systems in use today, and that connections to the Internet are ubiquitous and cheap. In a matter of minutes, anyone with access to a computer and an Internet connection can publish anything he or she wants on the Internet. Such capacity allows citizens to from political networks, business to publish information for employees and customers, educators to publish for colleagues and students, and charlatans to do what they do.

It’s 2023, but turning it off, then back on is still the way to fix almost all IT problems.

No evidence or reason can overcome the “I survived it, they can too” when it comes to educational practices.