116: #Edtech for #Edleaders: Beta-Testing “Beta-testing” is a term that is kicked around in the vernacular and in the popular culture, but it is actually a part of the system design and deployment work of IT professionals that is taken very seriously by the most successful IT designers. Beta-testing refers to the stage in design Read More
The idea of wicked problems has been addressed in previous posts on this blog: Wicked Problems Transparent Taming of Wicked Problems Solving Wicked Problems In my definition of wicked problems, I pointed out that “Every Solution Matters,” specifically I wrote: Wicked problems are social, so when planners design and implement a solution, it affects the Read More
We know humans are learners… students sometimes do not learn in the way teachers want them to learn, but that is a problem with the structure of school, not with students as learners. “How do humans learn in informal or ‘real-world’ settings?“ is an interesting phenomenon to study. Scholars are actively studying it, but it Read More
Technicians are the individuals who have one of the most important roles in IT system operations in schools as they are the face of the IT department to most members of the organization. A technician is likely to spend his or her day troubleshooting and repairing end users’ devices such as PC’s, laptops, printers, and Read More
Once computer networks are installed and configured (usually in consultation with external engineers and technicians), system administrators employed by the school ensure they remain operational and functional. These professionals listen for network problems by both attending to reports of malfunctions from users and by monitoring system logs, and they both resolve problems that are identified Read More
Technology systems are evolutive; the systems and the components are in a perpetual state of development and refinement. This evolutive nature is exaggerated in modern ICT which evolves much more rapidly than other previous information systems. The forces that drive this evolution include both advances in the capacity of the ICT and changes in how Read More
Paulo Freire, an educator who worked in Brazil in the 1960s, is well-known for several essays including “Education as the Practice of Freedom” and “Extension and Communication” (Freire 1974). In these works, Freire argues that meaningful learning occurs when the learner reaches critical consciousness which enables the learner to reflect on and understand not only Read More
Appropriate Proper Reasonable Most technologies are local creations. Members of a population will identify a need, find naturally occurring phenomena that can be controlled and applied to meet that need, and then design a new hard or soft technology based on the phenomena or they will exapt an existing technology to meet a need. Different Read More
87: Humans as Learners Human beings are unique creatures. We walk upright, and this freed our forelimbs so we developed unusual dexterity allowing us to build and use tools. Because we walk upright, our pelvises are narrower than the pelvises of other primates. To accommodate birth through such a pelvis, human babies are born small Read More
86: Is #edtech Speeding Back to the 1960’s? By the early 1960s the price of mainframe computers had decreased to the point where sales to educational markets were possible. At about the same time the potential of using computers in schools was recognized, but some cynics have suggested that the educational applications of computing were Read More