Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

It seems we did not learn that video discussions are better than text-based during the pandemic.

Have you ever noticed the faculty who complain the most “why don’t students read the syllabus?” are the same who need to meet because they can’t read the directions you sent them? I have. #edtech

Those goals you set for us… they are contrary to the goals you set for us last year. You didn’t think we’d notice did you?

“Organizational anarchies” is my new favorite term.

If you are not going to discuss gender or racial identity should the data be gathered and reported? I suppose it helps understand the population, but I’m not sure I need to know anything more than generalities if the researchers are going to frame the study in those terms.

After a long struggle, we were ready to make a decision. One who had been the strongest advocate for acting pulled their support at the last minute which scuttled it. Now they are complaining no decision was made. Sabotage?

What if discussions were focused on students’ questions and not the teacher’s

One reason to adopt “innovative” practices is they introduce novel activities into classrooms and humans pay attention to a little novelty.

The best education adapts to the content being taught, the purpose of the teaching, and the nature of the students.

The most flawed educational proposals proceed from the position that education is an engineering problem, and thus we can build educational systems that produce measurable achievement reliably.

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.