A colleague and I recently had a conversation about “data” and its role in education. I maintained that advocated for using data have a fundamental misunderstanding of science and evidence. I further maintained that misapplication of the principles of science and inquiry makes the decisions made by “data-driven leaders” in schools dubious at best. This Read More
We can see that education is a technology by reviewing several characteristics of technology: One of the underlying assumptions about technology is that it makes life easier or more efficient. This turns out to be a false assumption. When computers arrived in offices, secretaries did not spend less time writing memos. They wrote (and rewrote Read More
As I have been thinking about learning… and teaching… and how the two are not positively associated in the manner we often plan, I have been focusing on several assumptions that I make about learning which are not always shared with others: Motivation to learning is a multifaceted endeavor. Learners are driven to arrive in Read More
I recently rediscovered a glossary that a colleague and I started a few years ago… we had been collecting terms we heard educational leaders using for years, and we reflected on what they meant when they used them. These still seem very appropriate today, so they will be appearing in this blog until the collection Read More
I found this quote in the data for a chapter I am preparing for publication: We spent so much time trying to decide if the goals were specific, measurable, and all of the other adjectives for the acronym, we had no time to think about what we were going to do. Even when we decided Read More
In order to assess the degree to which educational technology is influencing teaching and learning in any school data must be gathered from three different perspectives. It is reasoned that together these provide the most complete assessment of all five dimensions of the instructional and information (I & IT) systems installed in the school. Users’ Read More
Sufficient Devices Are there sufficient computing devices available in the school? Sufficiency exists when there exists: Enough devices so teachers’ decisions are not limited; Enough capacity that students can create products teachers deem appropriate; Methods to easily share limited resources. Robust, Reliable, and Secure Network Is the school’s information technology network reliable, robust, and secure? Read More
Whereas the effects of instruction are generally understood to be determined by measuring learners’ ability to answer questions in a testing situation after the instruction has concluded, the outcomes of authentic learning (Herrington, Reeves, Oliver, 2014) are generally understood to be demonstrated in products and performances. Artifacts of those products and performances (along with learners’ Read More
The newest type of device to enter the educational market is the Internet-only notebook. When these devices were first marketed, they had no functionality without the Internet, but later generations have added some offline functionality. Still, however, these devices are most useful in schools when they are connected to the Internet. The dominant device used Read More
The two dominant mobile operating systems are Apple’s iOS (which is installed on iPads and iPhones) and Google’s Android operating system (which is installed on a range of tablets and phones). Microsoft makes a version of Windows available for mobile devices and the open source community also makes version of Linux available, but these are Read More