Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Education is fundamentally an endeavor grounded in guesses. Well, that may be hyperbole, but our curriculum is a guess at what our students may need to know for their future. We really can’t know what they are going to do, how things are going to change, or what we missed that we should have taught.

Educators who claim to know what students will need in the future are among the most delusional among us.

If you ask someone to design something for you, but give no feedback on drafts, it is your fault if you are dissatisfied with the results.

Ethics and Data
https://hackscience.education/2019/07/26/ethics-and-data/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

We want to improve x, we are going to measure it through y.
OK, just realize y isn't x, so you are probably not going to improve x.
If you don't get this, you misunderstand data.

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov

I remember “the good ole days” to which you want to return… they weren’t so great.

Nonplussed is a word I never looked up until today. The two definitions seem contrary. I guess I still don’t know what it means.

How do you know?

Some folks are offended by this question. They annoy me.

The Transition to #edtech
https://hackscience.education/2019/07/25/the-transition-to-edtech/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Sometimes you are the least qualified to decide what you need. It’s not bullying or control, it’s objective observation.

“Technology take inventiveness and imagination out of teaching.” No, standards and the data worship did that.

They investigate questions, gather experience, immerse themselves in their data which captures the part of the world that holds their interest. From their data, they identify generalizations that appear to be supported by their data and they seek to apply those generalizations to other situations.

“They are producing test-grading machines….” So proclaimed the author in 1970. This is not new folks.

“Education is a long, slow, uncertain process….” Some folks have it right. Even in 1970, they had it right.

“Individuals’ brains are critically shaped by social relationships, and the information they learn through these relationships supports both their emotions and their knowledge about facts, procedures, motivation, and interests."

On Communication
https://hackscience.education/2019/07/23/on-communication/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

I predict teachers will become mentors and coaches. They will give advice and direction on techniques of learning rather than providers of information.

I predict formal education will become more important, but traditional schools will become less important.

“Effective schools” is a nebulous term. We could define schools in which students earn top scores on standardized tests as effective; likewise, we could define schools in which students write cogent essays (or create paintings, music, and dance) expounding the evils of standardized tests as effective.