Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

“I’ve the single method that’ll work to teach anyone anything.”

Avoid these people. Seriously avoid them!

If you start your explanation with, “it’s simple,” I stop listening because you clearly don’t understand it.

It’s interesting to me how some folks can be faculty members for decades, yet never internalize the reality that faculty have the least political influence of any group in the school.

The problem is that the most important aspects of education cannot be measured on a test, and the stuff we can test is the least important.

Familiarity is often confused with understanding.

I have a colleague who wants the ability to edit our web site. They are very inconsistent with capitalization. They aren’t getting access anytime soon.

What “enhances learning?” Is an interesting question. If you listen to answers, you understand just how different concepts of learning are.

I used to include “Always state the opinions upon which you state your facts” in my email signature. I deleted it because so many people were pointing out I had it wrong.

A blog post for students preparing for the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam focung on the networking and content delivery module:
https://hackscience.education/2025/10/13/aws-networking-and-content-delivery/

Administrators ask for advice, then reject it immediately.

I learned than in 1988. It was true in 2018, when I left k-12. It’s still true now that I work in higher education.

I started reading a book about autocracies and democracies... it was written in 2024... before the elections. That makes the contents much scarier.

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
- Thomas Paine

I recently encountered a site that organizes people alphabetically by their first name. It works, but is unusual enough that it interferes with its use.

The purposes of education: A blog post, now with audio:
https://hackscience.education/2018/12/17/the-purposes-of-education/

Some people weaponize email CC’s… they include everyone they can think of.

I’ve never seen that practice do anything but alienate those whose support they need.

Administrators ask for advice, then reject it immediately.

I learned than in 1988. It was true in 2018, when I left k-12. It’s still true now that I work in higher education.

Yeah, I heard what you said, but your actions were much louder.

Asimov begins his Guide to Science by suggesting mobile organisms must be curious about their surroundings. “As early as that, curiosity concerning the environment was enforced as the price of survival.”

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
- Isaac Asimov

We are so easily boondoggled... I'd like to say this is a new phenomenon, but I'm old and I remember.