Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Learning leads to changes in humans. They behave differently after they have learned. They can perceive things they could not perceive before; they can state things they could not state before, they can solve things they could not solved before, and they can.

Educators may see their role as primarily academic, but their learners will never be ready to learn if they do not become advocates for the mental and physical health of their students.

I can at least understand the fact that money buys access to political leaders; it is shameful, but understandable. I cannot understand school leaders allowing outside money to make their decisions.

You cannot claim to be transparent and not share your plans... well you can, but no one believes you.

On the one hand they insist on data to support their decisions (and they concoct data to support them), but on the ether hand they reject evidence that contradicts their practice.

Effective teachers once refined the craft of designing effective lessons,. Now they are taught to use an intervention , and it is likely one designed to meet the needs of students that are far different from the current student(s).

One thing I learned during my education career: Every school has multiple on-going initiatives. Some of which have contradictory goals.

For the first 30 years of my career in education students, parents, principals, colleagues all remained the same over the years. There were good years and there were tough years, but within what one might call the normal limits, things did not change. In 2019, I left k-12 education, because everything had changed.

Only school IT professionals have ever experienced the intense pressure of entering a classroom to fix the computer and projector for a classroom of students who are awaiting the start of the long-promised movie.

A new episode of my podcast dropped... my target audience is folks who want to or who are working as IT professionals in schools.
https://bit.ly/3RZpmyI

Leadership and the Adoption of Innovative Planning
https://hackscience.education/2019/11/21/leadership-and-the-adoption-of-innovative-planning/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

My best lessons were those in which students were creating something that did not exist before.

AI seems to be supporting the conclusion GI is still GO.

Consequences. The unintended consequences are sometimes the more influential.

I'm not in K-12 any longer. Did they ever decide Zoom meetings were a good option for engaging parents?

On Training and Change
https://hackscience.education/2019/11/20/on-training-and-change/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Do you want to know why folks go to "YouTube" to find answers to their questions? Becasue that's where the answer are.

I work in #edtech. I spend much of my time handling requests for support for tools I've never heard of but teachers adopted because "my friend uses it." I get how social influences affect choices, but I don't have time to learn every poorly designed tool out there.

Human cognition is a zero-sum quantity; each individual has a limited quantity of cognition available at any moment, and that cognition used for one purpose is not available for another purpose. Consider that when designing materials for your students.

Extraneous cognitive load is that which is wasted by the learners managing bad design or poor organization of information or information technology tools.