Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

I’m old enough to remember when we were advised to avoid Cliff Notes and other summaries. Now they are encouraged to have AI summarize books. Is any of this different from researchers using abstracts to get a sense of the article?

“Accepting assumptions” isn’t the same as “having faith.” Assumptions are to be challenged and changed; faith is not.

Access to information isn’t a problem. Curating it, analyzing it, interpreting it, evaluating it, applying it, creating with it are the tasks that should occupy learners’ time today.

Hey students… the existence of the notes doesn’t matter. The thinking you do when you read/ listen and summarize then write it down… that thinking is what matters. Don’t be fooled by the advice to “have AI take your notes.”

“The data are messy and complicated.” Yeah, it might not be easy to analyze, but that’s where the good stuff is lurking.

Shouldn’t all cognition that happens outside the brain & body be called artificial intelligence? I believe it should, and the history of these technologies give us a view if the future once the hype over generative AI is over.

You get to the end of the course you are teaching and students conclude it was a waste of time. How do you respond?

We do lots of things to structure tasks for learning. If you can’t fade those supports over time, then they failed. #education #teaching

Imagine if our learning outcomes were curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and similar skills and habits.

Those who rage against the current generation forget what was said about them.

It is strange to me that so much of school is grounded in the assumption that students are incapable of learning unless it is specifically taught and graded.

The most ethical people update their “rules” as things change.

When you record grades to tenths, you demonstrate you don’t understand grading.

Unpopular opinion: All flags are designed to exclude people.

According to the biography of Albert Einstein, he graduated from one school with a 4.25 in math on a scale that went to 6. I can hear the question in the teacher meeting… “So what was his real grade?”

I work in educational technology. I have for decades. I still spend most of my time showing folks how to use search tools and how to use ctrl-F.

Whenever the ice breaker calls for me to share I place I visited recently I say, “Roswell, NM” and raise my hands and start humming.

Here is your regular reminder that “standards” were sold to education as “high quality for all,” but it became something much different.

One of the most depressing parts of education is the degree to which school leaders (folks with advanced degrees) accept and parrot the sales pitches as they introduce “paradigm-changing innovations."

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t someone who takes reason, logic, and empirical evidence seriously. I look at the delusional things that come across my feeds and I envy those who can confidently make such statements without concern for reality.