Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org
- On the web:
- https://hackscience.education/
Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at a community college in New England
Retired k-12 science/ math/ technology teacher/ technology integration specialist/ coordinator
Joined Nov 2022
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
The Talking Heads were right.
Most computer users would not knowingly spread malware, so hackers and phishers must use stealth methods to install the software.
While they are expected to teach “the standards,” teachers must recognize they are artificial, and may restrict students in many circumstances.
There may be other places where astrology may be appropriate curriculum (maybe in social science classes, maybe as creative writing activities), but science teachers have a responsibility to teach science, even if students (or others) prefer non-scientific ideas.
Thinking About Social Justice Education
https://hackscience.education/2019/10/10/thinking-about-social-justice-education/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
Humans use technology for useful purposes. Sometimes the ones envisioned by the developers; always the ones they find useful.
In reading what commentators wrote about science and society 40 years ago, I see the rejection of science is a problem we have had for generations.
Curriculum intended to teach everyone everything is going to be too broad to teach anything.
Students do have interests unlike the interests of others. These are a valuable source of motivation that we miss when we teach a standard curriculum, and they represent valuable (economically, socially, and personally) skills that are undeveloped during their schooling.
When I hear about school IT, I hear lots about Chromebooks. I know that is the dominant devices for students. I understand it. They are inexpensive and easy to manage. They do not, however, help students to be facile computer users.
Just because it is deterministic does not mean it is predictable.
The things you learn when you read books.
In the decades I have been working with computers and students, I have found that students are very content following reasonable rules about computing that are well-explained to them. Explaining the potential threats is more effective than punishments.
Human knowledge is far more than information, and what we learn or when we apply what we have learned, it is rarely as clearly bounded as our curriculum would have it.
“Knowing stuff” may be necessary to apply it, but teachers who think their work done when students have demonstrated knowing are leaving the most important work undone.
Of all the jobs done in schools, managing the IT is the one they would be least prepared to assume if they needed to.
Plato observed, “You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom” about writing.
What we think, how we think, and the types of thinking we value depend largely on the nature of the information technology we experience.
- On the web:
- https://hackscience.education/
Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation at a community college in New England
Retired k-12 science/ math/ technology teacher/ technology integration specialist/ coordinator
Joined Nov 2022
