Similar to conditioning is learning that results when the learner is exposed to consistent patterns for many, many repetitions; statistical learning is understood to be a largely unconscious process. One of the best illustrations of statistical learning in informal setting s how humans learn language. We learn how to form sentences and the rules of Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Users: The Reasons IT in School is Different from IT in Business
Many IT professional find the strategies that made them successful in business and industry do not transfer into educational institutions. What used to keep users of IT and their leaders and manager content does not produce the same results. The differences between IT users in other organizations and IT user in school can be summarized Read More
#edtech for #edleaders wifi and SSID’s
Usually access points are connected to the Ethernet network via a cable and given a static IP address, then attached to the ceiling where their health is indicated by LED lights. Inside each access point, there is an antenna that transmits and receives radio waves. To connect to the wireless signal, a computer or mobile Read More
“Pedagogically Mature” Educators
Young educators are enthusiastic. They spend years preparing: They learn the content they will teach, they learn how brains work, they learn pedagogical theory, and they practice various strategies. Of course, the details of what they learn depends on the specific regulatory agencies to which their teacher preparation program reports, but they learn in classrooms Read More
On 1:1 Computing in Schools
In the United States, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) is recognized as the first large-scale effort to provide school-owned computers to students. In 2002, middle school students in the New England state were provided Macintosh laptops. Since then, one-to-one initiatives have been widely adopted. In some schools, students are allowed to take their devices Read More
What Matters When Designing Technology Solutions
A brief excerpt from a research project: The more active role for the school leaders in these technology decisions appears to have been grounded in their ability to apply their judgement to four variables of the systems and to criticize the technology in these terms. Improvement: Did the solution solve the problem? Ease of use: Read More
On Grading on 100-Point Scales
Quantification of knowledge has a dubious history. Stephen Jay Gould’s book The Mismeasure of Man described the disturbing history of intelligence testing in the 20th century, the rocky science upon which it is based, and the on-going unjustified application of it in education and public policy. In this post, I consider the quantification of knowledge Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Reasonable Implementation
School boards hire superintendents and other high-level administrators to make the ultimate decisions about what happens in the school. These leaders are charged with ensuring all decisions, including those related to appropriate design and proper configuration of IT systems are reasonable. Reasonableness is defined by: Budgets—All decisions must fall within the available budgets and the Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Appropriate Design
Schools are places where learning is supposed to occur. Educators, including teachers and curriculum leaders, are the professionals who are responsible for defining what should be taught. They are also responsible for deciding how it will be taught. These comprise curriculum and instruction decisions. While many curriculum and instruction decisions are made for lessons that Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Properly Configured IT
It is the role of the IT professionals to ensure that technology is properly configured to both provide the services educators need, plus reflect the responsible configuration of the system. Remember, we do not want IT professionals running schools and we do not want educators to be running IT systems. Proper configuration of the IT Read More