Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

How we define “learning” matters. It really does.

Yes, that method worked for you, but your students are not all like you.

Working on a tactful way to day, “If you really care about students learning, then you would organize you class differently.”

When the primary goal of education is creating data... it has failed its real purpose.

Do more words clarify? Sometimes... but not as often as you think.

If you class is designed to prepare students for the next class, it probably doesn’t, and it surely does not prepare them if their path changes.

“What do you mean by that?” annoys many... those who have been through dissertations get the message.

Strange how many people say “data” when they really mean “my opinion.”

"AI allows us to be cognitively sedentary, and writing is a gym for human thought we will
need more than ever." Ya think?

“LLMs excel at reasoning within constrained contexts….” I don’t think anyone familiar with them disagree. Maybe if education focuses less on “constrained contexts” we can see them as a less threat than now.

My junior high school had kitchen, sewing studio, ceramic studio, wood shop, metal shop, and drafting studio when I was a student... they were all gone soon after I left my position teaching there... a decision motivated because I saw what they were planning for spaces I valued.

Surveys (the way they are usually done) are probably the least reliable and accurate data one can gather.

Remember when we used to have shops and kitchens in schools? That was great.

I’m watching some algorithm-driven predictions carefully for the last few months... GIGO is still a thing.

If you don’t read a paper after you submit it, do the typos you always find really exist?

I’ve been thinking about networks, and it occurred to me education focuses so much on naming nodes. The real action is interactions and relationships between nodes, but we ignore ‘em.

I don’t care what the research says, I’m more productive when my office is filled with Bach.

What if our classroom tasks were as messy as real-world tasks?

So much that is “data driven” turns out to be “myth driven.”

Don’t overestimate the power of data. Sound interpretation of data is far more useful.