Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

I am increasingly intolerant of those who continue to improve schools through old tired ideas that or those that ignore what we know about teaching and learning.

When an educational leader argues that we should follow the philanthropists because “they are paying for it,” that leader loses credibility immediately and permanently.

Have you ever noticed schools often have multiple initiatives that are contrary to each other, but the leaders are oblivious to that fact? I have.

I am cynical about much that is presented as education, especially by outsiders.

If we did not hire narcissists, work would be more pleasant, but there would be lots of vacancies in leadership positions.

Bullying begins in settings where there is “the” way to do “things.”

Two questions:

Who won the Nobel prize in medicine for the last 10 years and what discoveries led to the award?

Are people in your community affected by the discoveries made by Nobel winners?

School values one, but not the other.

If we don't agree it is a problem, we surely will not all agree on the solution.

What if we designed school around problems that did not have clear solutions.

Research requires multiple data sources. For some research questions, the data exist and the researcher must find it, analyze it, and draw conclusions. For other research questions, the data do not exist and he or she must design methods for collecting it.

With the invention of writing, permanent (or relatively permanent) records of communication events became possible.

Whereas previous generations were prepared for a lifetime consuming and creating information with basic reading and writing skills, digital generations have new devices and new information sources available each year.

Being a digital organization is not about appearing to be connected with what is “cool.” Being a digital organization is about interacting with humans in a manner that they find natural.

Universality is one feature of the web that allows for innovation; anyone can create a service on the web that can then be connected and reconnected by anyone.

Think science is an opinion? Check out how that worked for those who believed Lysenko.

While pre-prepared curriculum does free instructors to devote more time to assessing students’ work and it does allow for quality control by the managers of the school, it does limit teachers’ freedom to expand the curriculum, include emerging ideas, or respond to events that may influence how the content is perceived by the students.

While individuals in each group do select their preferred classroom for recognized reasons (e.g. online learners’ preference for flexible attendance schedules), the best students in both settings are those who engage with the content, classmates, and the teacher.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, but it does allow individuals to write and publish any "information" they choose.

Fact and opinion, fantasy and sarcasm are not clearly differentiated on the Internet.

"It is their personality to be a jerk." Sure... but that will affect my relationship with them, and they will not get my best. That is my personality.