Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Is it only educational leaders who reject sound ideas because they did not think of them first? I see it rampant in schools, but don’t have enough experience in other fields to say.

Arguing over tenths of a percentage is wasted time, energy, emotion, and cognition. We only have so much cognitive capacity, and the brainpower used to process unjustified grading data cannot be used to build new knowledge.

Elevating IT support means blending technical skills with human connection. Focus on genuine empathy, a thick skin against frustration, and clear, jargon-free communication.

Can we really measure a student's knowledge down to a fraction of a percent?

Hey students... those things you ask your teacher to do to make it "easier" are interfering with your ability to learn the material.

Teaching focused on providing correct answers is useful, but it cannot be the dominant approach… if you hope to prepare students for their future.

Rule #1 for IT support: Show empathy without being patronizing. Users want to know you take their problems seriously, so avoid using insincere, overly scripted apologies like “I'm sorry that happened."

Learn how to search well. Your computer processor
can search for terms of interest far quicker than you
can.

Advice I give to technology users: Pay attention to your youngest clients; adopt the
technologies they are adopting.

Pay attention to emerging trends… even if you aren’t particularly interested. If you are not interested or you are not willing to learn new technologies, then plan to pay someone to pay attention to emerging technologies and work with them to meet
your organization’s strategic and logistic goals.

Advice I give technology users: Remember that everything that is done online is tracked and permanent; behave yourself.

“All observation is partnership between mind and nature, and all good partnerships require compromise.” -Stephen Jay Gould

Yeah, as long as we realize, we are going to do all of the compromising.

Stories help humans learn, but sometimes we must misunderstand the moral.

I enjoy the incredulous looks on teachers’ faces when they complain about the amount of grading they need to do and I ask, “Who assigned all of that work anyways?”

Here us your regular reminder that the saying should be “if I didn’t believe it, I never would have seen it.”

Wait. We have to interpret and reflect on data… including why and how it was collected and we have to decide if it is good?

I thought we just let it drive us. You know, we could be passive. Understanding it seems way too much work.

Reality emerges as our technologies and concepts mature, not as we get better or more information.

“Systems are marked by long stability.” Yea, seems right. At least until they change. Then things get interesting.

Parasocial interactions are those that appear social, but lack reciprocity. Maybe this is why “social” interactions in classrooms are unlike those “in the wild.” Hierarchy is systemic in classrooms.

You know how we teach algebra, when statistics & arithmetic is what folks need?

I think there is similar situation with coding and databases. What data is kept, why, how, and where and how it is used seems the pressing technical knowledge we avoid.