Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

#edtech for #edleaders: Internet-only Operating Systems
https://hackscience.education/2019/02/12/edtech-for-edleaders-internet-only-operating-systems/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." -Carl Sagan

"The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question." -Stephen Jay Gould

If your IT team provides and supports a system, but you don't use it, then you can't complan they don't support you.

Hey IT... you know that change you are excited about? It is going to decrease productivity for a large part of your users.

#edtech for #edleaders: Mobile Operating Systems
https://hackscience.education/2019/02/12/edtech-for-edleaders-mobile-operating-systems/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Once your systems are secure and stable, then you can think about improving them.

New IT leaders must have open conversations with the IT team and with the users to figure out what they are facing. It is unfortunate that many IT leaders do not understand they can alienate their team or users if they mishandle the conversations.

How one reacts to surprising new situations tells a lot about them. Personally, I like to find a group of folks who want to understand it then react reasonably.

Is it just me or does this generative AI stuff make you think about "the hard problem of consciousness?"

What if AI is solving the wrong problems?

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.