Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

A blog post on parge language model, now with audio:
https://hackscience.education/2025/05/07/large-language-models/

A blog post for students in my database design and management course:
https://hackscience.education/2025/06/11/database-schema/

A blog post for students in my database design and management course:
https://hackscience.education/2025/06/11/database-schema/

Darwin used vox populi, vox dei (the voice of the people us the voice of God) to suggest “knowledge that we all know to be true” often blocks understanding. He was right.

Problems. Interesting problems.
I have taught long enough to realize they are way more important than learning outcomes.

“Students didn’t do the reading, so I must lecture...” maybe if the reading led to an interesting and engaging activity in class, they would do the reading?

Seriously, how did we eat pizza before they started making hot honey?

Seriously. How did we write before citation management software?

Inaccurate, biased, incomplete data is one factor that led me to leave public education... along with leaders who failed to realize it.

Once you understand the parts don’t explain the whole, you are beginning to understand a complex problem.

“Openness to differences, openness to alternatives, openness to other people.” Yeah, that’s were our future lies, whether we like it or not.

The debates about what we should teach students, are all the same. They seek to answer the question "which technologies are the correct ones for students to learn?"

"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem--neat, .plausible, and wrong."
- H. L. Mencken

Wonder is what we call the thinking in which we conduct thought experiments. It is valuable in many situations. Too bad school does not appreciate its role in solving important and troubling problems.

Wisdom begins with wonder. - Socrates

May all writers have the time to write a shorter book : )

Maybe we can get Microsoft to change the default "alt text" for images... I suggest "The author was too lazy to change this." Maybe that would shame us into making files accessible.

So, I had a goal of getting my current draft of my introduction and chapter 1 to 10,000 words by the end of the day... had only 30 word to go. Significant rewrite of one section... “alright, here we go,” I thought. Select the chapters... word count is still 9970. Seriously?

If your trendy new pedagogy does not shift away from teacher-dominated delivery of content, it is just a flashy way to fail. #teaching

When you realize #education is designed to force your to challenge your beliefs rather than confirm your beliefs, you are finally getting the point.