Beginning in 2011, the Department of Labor awarded four rounds of grants under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program. This was designed to designed to support community colleges as they developed resources and programs for workforce development purposes. For full disclosure: I was employed under a TAACCCT grant as a Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Diversity of Learning Theories
The learning science is a relatively new field of study. The major journals in the field began publishing in the early 1990’s and the first conferences recognizing this field also date to that time. Learning science emerged out of the cognitive sciences as field dedicated to the problem of designing classroom and other learning spaces Read More
LiveCode
In the early 1990’s, I was a fan of HyperCard, the program from Apple that allowed users to create “cards,” each with text, images, and buttons (along with other controls) that could be programmed using an easy to understand scripting language. My students and I wrote scripts to simulate genetics experiments, explore probability, and draw Read More
Experts and “Expertiness” in Education
94: Experts and “Expertiness” in Education In the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, an American comedian coined the term “truthiness” to capture an idea that individual or groups held as true although there was little evidence of the truth. That comedian applied this term to political situations and the satire was Read More
Education and the Study of Education
In recent decades, scholars have recognized that education is influenced by diverse factors and those factors exert complex and previously unknown influences. Shasha Barab, a scholar from Indiana University, Bloomington, and Kurt Squire, a scholar from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, reasoned that “learning, cognition, knowing, and context are irreducib[ly] co-constructed and cannot be treated Read More
The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness
105: The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness Last summer, I was attending a conference and the keynote speaker mentioned Todd Rose’s book The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness. I took the step that was not possible when I started my career, Read More
#Edtech for #Edleaders: Whom to Hire: Technology Integration Specialists
99: #Edtech for #Edleaders: Whom to Hire: Technology Integration Specialists For decades, those responsible for organizing and presenting in-service professional development for educators have used a variety of models for providing learning experiences for teachers, and these have been designed to support all aspects of TPCK and to accommodate the needs of individual learners. These Read More
Technologies and Structural Deepening
98: Technologies and Structural Deepening When a technology developed for one purpose is applied to another purpose, the receiving technology is said to be structurally deeper as it becomes more complex than it was before the new module was added. Structural deepening can arise from several different causes: Users of a technology will actively seek Read More
#Edtech for #Edleaders: Network Planning and Installation
96: #Edtech for #Edleaders: Network Planning and Installation An information technology network is much like other technologies as the expertise needed to design and build it is much more specialized and expensive to than the expertise needed to manage and operate it once it exists. Consider how an IT system in a school is similar Read More
Edtech for Edleaders: Whom to Hire: Data Specialists
A relatively new specialist to join the IT staff is the data specialist. The need for this specialist arises from both the skills necessary to manage the databases in which demographic, health, behavioral, academic, and other information that is housed regarding students and the increasing demand for data-driven practices. Schools store vast amounts of data Read More