Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

The Hawthorne effect explains many “the data show...” decisions. #education #leadership

“a layman is easily fooled and is particularly susceptible to self-deception. In contrast, a scientist is easily fooled and is particularly susceptible to self-deception, and knows it.” -Richard Muller #science

Don’t confuse “a situation that worked for me/ us” with “this is something *everyone* *must* do.”

Learning from mistakes necessitates one first admit a mistake. That’s one reason such learning is a rarely-honed skill.

Don’t confuse a possible interpretation with a logical inference.

A blog post for network security students:
https://hackscience.education/2025/03/31/passive-footprinting/

A blog pos for cybersecurity students:
https://hackscience.education/2025/04/01/tools-in-you-cybersecurity-toolkit/

“Context matters. Truth is a circumstance, not a spot.” -Stephen Jay Gould

I always get worried when leaders say, “We need to be realistic.” They lack vision, capacity, understanding... are unwilling to take risk... are heavily invested in the status quo. Of course they might also understand limiting resources or other institutional factors I do not.

The most technology-literate are almost the most cautious adopters if it.

If it cannot be reduced to an algorithm, you are on the right track as a teacher.

Efficient decisions are made by groups comprising individuals who think the same. But often those decisions are misguided because they all missed some important factor. #leadership

Beware the advocates incapable of or unwilling to be critical of that which they promote. #leadership

“Ideas can be different, brilliant, subtle, and wrong....”

Errors arising from inattentiveness are different from those arising from misunderstanding, and they must be addressed differently.

Vague and incomplete answers must be questioned in the classroom.

William James' First Principle of Perception: “Whilstvpart of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our mind.”

“Exploration and creativity is a right.” Hmmm... Yeah, this seems to make sense, but it may have some unforeseen consequences. #creativity #schools #education #STEM #STEAM #makers #makerspace

So much we want and need to become is grounded in curiosity. Think about that when planning your lessons. #teachers

Philanthropy is fine. Paying taxes is better.