Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

"Hire the talent, train the skill." Sounds great... what does it look like?

Seriously people... stop reading the slides in your presentations.

When I hear business people talking about what they need, I don't hear much about academic skills. I'm curious about the "grades need to reflect academic standards and that is all" attitude in schools.

In education, discomfort arises when we are not replacing one thing for another. Imagine if we defined good teaching (we know what it is, but the answer isn ’t simple and it isn’t amenable to standard tests) and did that... and kept doing it.

Stuff marketed to teachers with eclectic capitalization... you know to stress certain words... annoys me. No, the marketing doesn’t bother me, the fact they purchase and display it does.

When IT systems become unmanageable (usually due to age and coincident incompatibility with others), they must be replaced... users have no say in this. Of course, they must be perceived usable and appropriate training provided... IT has no say in this.

Oh, you’ve changed the name but not the practice. Cool. Um, no, that isn’t how innovation works.

Please don’t confuse “retrieval practice” with teaching. I see a place for it... a complement to a rich and varied curriculum... reducing stress of “cramming, etc... but it’s role must be minor. Like the relief pitcher who comes in to get 2 outs in the 8th inning.

Math should not be a “call and response” activity. Really? That wasn’t what my teachers thought or how they taught.

I’m increasingly convinced learning objectives are useful to keep instructors on track, but just add to the extraneous cognitive load of a lesson for students.

I never realized my life as an educational technology professional would be just sending email reminders of the email reminders of the email reminders I sent last month to announce the recommended method of how to get your PowerPoint presentations created in 2003 to "work."

Our experiences as students inform our understanding of *how* to teach... and that is vastly more important than what we teach.

The problem with getting educators to change is their admitting they have been less effective than they thought they were.

“Time. Training. Incentives. There will never be enough to satisfy those resistant to change. It’s gotta be something else.” This is a suggestion worth exploring.

Often “learning styles” does not mean Learning Styles... the term is used by lots of folks to mean “vary your instruction,” “unmotivated by irrelevant material,” “confused by my first explanation,” “distracted,” and the list could go on. I’ve started asking for clarification when folks use it,

The people who claim to know the most about teaching are those who preface the statements with, “I used to be a substitute teacher.”

An absolutely correct observation. Sensible. Supported by empirical evidence. Achieved by simple means using existing capacity. Cannot be captured in an acronym. No need for a consultant.

For all of these reasons, it will never catch on.

I’m convinced calling out leaders on inconsistencies between their words and deeds leads to less workplace stress... and it adds positions to the resume as well.

False evidence based on misinterpreting dubious data is preferred to not “knowing” in the culture of many organizations.

Saying, "I agree" in 15 sentences is still just saying, "I agree." Sage advice form an online teacher.