The brain functions associated with learning occur when neurons communicate with each other by the release and uptake of neurotransmitters. Many chemicals are known to function as neurotransmitters, and also many chemicals are known to influence the functioning of neurotransmitters. Further, cognitive scientists have identified several environmental factors that are associated with the production and Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
A Short Personal History in Education
Over the course of my career, I have maintained an obsessive focus on teaching and learning. My office at home is filled with books and magazines in which I have taken copious notes. I maintain notebooks (both pencil and paper notebooks and multiple digital notebooks) with thoughts and about how “something” can become a lesson Read More
Contingencies and School Structures: A Short Rant
The publicly funded schools for young people, commonly called K-12 schools in the United States are an example of general purpose schools. Modeled after liberal arts education, we can trace the history of these schools to one-room school houses maintained in villages and towns early in the nation’s history. Ostensibly, these schools were places where Read More
Elevator Pitch on #Schools as Wicked Solutions
Schools are organizations in which consensus is very difficult to achieve; the probability of sustaining commitment to any decision reached through consensus is lower still. Those decisions tend to be overturned when leadership changes or in response to other political influences. This is a source of real and reasonable frustration for teachers; it is unavoidable. Read More
The Problem with #edtech Integration
In the 2006 edition of a popular textbook for courses designed for educators learning to create technology-rich classrooms, Robyler (2006) defined integrating educational technology as “the process of determining which electronic tools and which methods of implementing them are appropriate responses to given classroom situations and problems” (p. 9). This idea had been a staple Read More
On #edtech Management
Management refers to those organizational practices that affect how decisions are made and how resources are used. The arrival of computers in schools did add another to the management tasks necessary in schools as it became necessary to draft and approve policies related to technology (acceptable use policies for example), to plan for both large Read More
On #edtech Changes
Comparing the first desktop computers used in schools to the computing devices available to students and teachers today, one can see important differences in the nature of the computing tasks that can be done, the rapidity and ease of data sharing, and the amount of data that can be shared, as well as the senses Read More
#edtech Access isn’t Sufficient
In 1993, Seymour Papert imagined two time-traveling professionals from 100 years earlier; he speculated the physician would be flummoxed by the technology as well as the work of doctors and nurses in the 20th century clinic, but the teacher would find the technology and the work in a 20th century classroom very familiar. Papert based Read More
When Computers Started School
182: When Computers Started School Historians of technology trace the beginnings of computers from the analytic machine of Charles Babbage in the 19th century. The history of electronic digital computing is usually measured from the creation of Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the computer built to handle the massive computations necessary for military applications Read More
Humans and Computers
My social media feeds have been filled with many stories about “the next big thing” in technology and education. I suppose we expect such lists to be popular at important (and arbitrary) transitions like the end of one decade and the beginning of next. (For me, I am a few short weeks from working as Read More