Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

“I’d prefer it to be true” is not evidence.

Teleological language when describing natural selection annoys me. It is so inaccurate and gives folks a false sense of how it works.

Competence over Compliance
https://hackscience.education/2019/08/14/competence-over-compliance/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

We expect politicians to argue against straw men. When folks posing at academics do it, it is troubling.

“Everything is a technology.” Really? Many things can be applied to human purposes, but that doesn’t make them all technology.

Here is your reminder that technology you find comfortable may not be effective.

Substantive questions belong in the curriculum.

What happens when learning outside the classroom becomes more relevant to students?

Curriculum intended to teach everyone everything is too broad to teach anything.

Teachers and Mindsets
https://hackscience.education/2019/08/13/teachers-and-mindsets/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Hey school leaders... if your IT folks don't give special ed teachers, nurses, and other who deal with very sensitive data their own printers/ scanners/ copiers you need to make them. If you can't make them, you need to replace them.

Hey IT... let's not limit what people can do because it is easier for us to mange simple tools.

All technology is scary... until you realize what it can do for you... if you partner with it.

Over time, educators and IT professionals realized Wikipedia is about as reliable as other encyclopedias and there are many advantages to using it, including a wider collection of articles that are updated more frequently compared to printed encyclopedias.

Education for the Future
https://hackscience.education/2019/08/12/education-for-the-future/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

Schools reflect the society that creates them.

“Cool data. What is missing from it?”

This is usually met with a blank stare.

It’s always interesting to me that people, including many educators, don’t realize “4th grade math” (and choose your own grade & subject) isn’t really a thing.

There is a group of educators who quickly went from “we need to figure out how to use AI” to “let’s catch and punish those who use it.”

When done “at scale,” a standard curriculum must become information centric, and view students as recipients of that information. To do otherwise introduces too many variables to be manageable.