Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

I recently found the picture I took at a "new school year kickoff" a few years back. The principal shared a slide with the 12 initiatives they had underway. the acronyms made a letter salad on the screen.

There is plenty wrong with education, but "it's not it was" is not one of them,.

Just because it is what you experienced, does not mean it is better.

If you find it in an obscure place on the internet, your should assume it is incorrect.

I read more books now when I listen to them while walking that when I look at printed pages. I really enjoy both, and do both as often as I can, but I do not differentiate the expereinces as "reading" and "not reading."

Banning a technology rarely results in in being unused.

Schools are perpetually in a state of horizontal reform. They are always beginning new practices, and none is ever allowed to have deep influences on pedagogy and student experiences.

"We have changed your freemium account to a free trial" is probably not going to convince a long-time users of the freemium account.

When it comes to school policy: "The politically powerful appear to be those who are the least aware of the nature of human learning." I think I was correct 10 years ago.

I checked on on the train wreck on that is now twitter and found that after 6 weeks of inactivity, I seem to have added 200 followers (at least I recall having 200 fewer followers 6 week sago, when iI quit posting). Its almost like those followers are bots.

"Rich in rhetoric, but fundamentally bankrupt" is the most appropriate description of #edreform I have ever read.

It amazes me when IT folks try to BS me. Then they get ticked off when I call them on it.

Especially in this century, education has become the focus of much political attention.

Learning is social knowledge-building rather than individual cognition.

Decade or so ago it was predicted top-down, standardized curriculum and test-dominated assessment would be replaced by collaborative curriculum and performance-based assessment. This has not been realized.

Advocates for technology integration approach curriculum and instruction planning as predictable; educators proceed as if they know unambiguously and in advance which technologies will accomplish which goals. This is dubious.

Cognition is a zero-sum quantity; so the amount used for one purpose is unavailable for other purposes.

Educators can and should assume responsibility for being able to use (or quickly learn to use) new or updated operating systems, productivity software, and emerging Internet-based information sources.

When computers first arrived in classrooms, they were unfamiliar to many teachers. The simplest tasks of powering computers on and loading programs required training. It is surprising how common such request continue to be,

Educators whose careers extend more than a few years, will experience the arrival of new devices, platforms, and information sources multiple times.