Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Schools are interesting and rewarding workplaces for IT professionals, but they can be challenging as well. The differences between business and industry and schools can make the strategies and methods they developed less effect than they might predict when applied in schools.

“Science is an integral part of culture. It's not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It's one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.”
― Stephen Jay Gould

“I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops”
― Stephen J. Gould

People may not be motivated by money, but they do decline job offers when the pay is low.

On Working in Schools https://hackscience.net/2024/02/25/on-working-in-schools/

IT professionals in schools often undertake technology initiatives without complete consideration of the educational implications.

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.

For school IT professionals, many of the requests they hear seem foreign as they contradict much that they “know” about teaching and learning and schooling. We will also see those requests contradict what they believe about IT configurations as well.

Many adults pursue work in schools with the intent of replicating the structures and instruction they experienced, but that may not be what all students need.

The diverse nature of students and the broad nature of the curriculum is part of what make schools unusual places to work for IT professionals.

One of the most distressing realizations one makes when they become a teacher is that the best lesson plans one makes are just guesses. Students will have their say about how effective it is.

IT for Teaching https://hackscience.net/2024/02/25/it-for-teaching/

I appreciate the folks who encourage students to buy copies (either hardcopy or ebook) versions of my book that is available under Creative Commons.

Once users begin interacting with IT systems, additional variables are introduced based on users’ capacity and preferences, and those variables cannot be known by the designers.

Why am I learning this?

Too often students cannot answer this… and they don’t believe their teachers.

Todd Rose begins his 2015 book The End of Average with the story of fighter pilots in the 1940’s who were unable to control their planes because the cockpits were designed for the “average” body. Once cockpits were designed to adjust to the actual bodies of pilots, they found pilots more able to control them.

Thinking you know what your students’ future will be is a special kind of hubris.

When we ignore evidence that is contrary to our opinions, we make terrible decisions.

What do you do if you realize your lesson isn’t working?

And don’t tell me, all of your lessons “work.”

Well, you may tell me that and come out as delusional.

I don’t know about you, but “learning intentions” seems less aggressive than “learning objectives.”