Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

What if AI is solving the wrong problems?

@freeschool thanks for fixing it

@freeschool oops, I just noticed my name is incorrect… I have only one r in my name.

@freeschool Looks good.

While school leaders often tout the changes they are making in the teaching and school operation, schools are generally recognized as being very conservative organizations, especially compared to businesses.

@freeschool A little about the origins of my audio. I direct a teaching and learning center and have refreshed a disused television broadcast studio to be a multimedia studio where students and faculty can create their own media. This is the station where I recorded today.

Many initiatives in school are proposed, and even undertaken, without complete consideration of the technology implications. The opposite is true as well; IT professionals often undertake technology initiatives without complete consideration of the educational implications.

Because the officials who fund and govern schools are elected, their selection and their decisions are the result of political processes.

There is ample evidence that high school-aged people benefit and learning improves if the school days starts in the late morning, but few schools have adjusted their schedules to align with this finding.

It may seem unnecessary to state it, but schools are places where children are present. Lots of children. Children who reflect the social, racial, ethnic, and other characteristics of the local population.

When one thinks of a classroom, they picture the teachers standing in front of the seated (in rows) students with the teachers telling students what they need to know. For IT professionals, this is a familiar and comfortable place for which to design technology: Give the teacher a computer and projector with web access and a presentation application and let them teach.

One of the most puzzling aspects of teaching for many adults to accept is that teaching is a much more interactive and dynamic activity than many experienced (or remember) or that they see in the popular culture.

When looking carefully at problems in education, we discover they cannot be isolated; and solutions may resolve symptoms but not causes.

n the domain of information technology, all problems are solvable. We all know what IT systems are supposed to do, and we get frustrated when they do not. IT professionals know the function of each component; they adopt systematic troubleshooting steps and most problems can be isolated and resolved in minutes or a few hours.

Many problems are not really solved for all populations, and in many cases one solution creates new problems. Problem solver rarely recognize these realities .

#edtech for #edleaders: On-boarding and IT
https://hackscience.education/2019/02/12/edtech-for-edleaders-on-boarding-and-it/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them. ~ Steve Jobs

Autonomy and Innovation
https://hackscience.education/2019/02/07/autonomy-and-innovation/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

To be a true expert, one must also be able to accurately self-assess the limits and boundaries of your expertise.

Recognizing and rejecting quackery is a good predictor of expertise.