Blogs in Virtual Classrooms

Blogs have been a tool for self-publishing to the Internet since the late 1990’s. The model is simple: An individual creates a blog on the platform; they name it, configure it, and begin posting to it. The text, images, video, audio and other content that comprise their blog are displayed in reverse chronological order (newest Read More

Teaching Cannot be Atheoretical

“Lets’ talk about educational theory.” I probably should not have started this post with those words, because no sentence causes a teacher to start daydreaming in a presentation, close the book, or open a new tab in their web browser faster than that one. Teachers avoid discussions of theory for good reasons. They do not Read More

On Online Interaction

In face-to-face classrooms, teachers leading discussions can control the interaction like being the driver of a car as one can: ·      steer it back on topic; ·      stop it when it gets dangerous; ·      speed up when time is running out; ·      slow down and invite those Read More

On #edtech in the Wild

Only when teachers/ learning designers are doing their jobs! https://t.co/DNbvfwFoFy — Dr. Gary Ackerman (@GaryAckermanPhD) January 14, 2022 My snarky reply to Derek Moore’s tweet drew the “tell me more” response. I tried to compose a few 280-character responses, but I didn’t have time, so I took to my blog. There is a companion tweet Read More

On “Returning to Normal”

The “education industry” has been trying to navigate COVID for two years, and it looks like we will continue for the foreseeable future. One of the interesting aspects of this has been the insistence that we return to in-person teaching. I find this to be a puzzling situation. First, it is contrary to the pre-COVID Read More

Elevator Pitch on Virtual Classrooms

Faculty, especially those who teach at multiple institutions, complain about the learning management system. They wonder why they are expected to use an LMS that is not the one they prefer and they wonder why they are expected to use an LMS when they can use web 2.0 tools and email. I argue using an Read More

An Instructional Video Rubric

Teachers talking over slides (or images or diagrams or animations) has become an important teaching strategy during the pandemic. It is likely to continue to be a staple of teachers not just because it will make the pivot to remote teaching easier when it becomes necessary, but because it allows for alternative method of teaching Read More

Four Approaches to Teaching

To outsiders looking in, teaching seems a relatively simple endeavor. Even to some insiders who do not step back and try to understand what they are doing, teaching can be perceived to be a simple endeavor. The reality is that teaching should vary depending on the nature of the curriculum, the purpose of the teaching, Read More

Two Working Hypotheses for Teaching

If instructors and school leaders seek to create schools in which practices and structures are aligned with the realities of human learning, then they must work from two hypotheses: First, the students who arrive in schools are experienced learners. Their experiences are affected by their culture, motivation, academic, and personal experiences. Any list of the relevant Read More

Live Captioning in Google Chrome

Students and others who need the spoken words in audio content playing in a Chrome browser tab to be presented as text can enable live captioning in the Google Chrome web browser.  This can be used as a method of seeing captions when using: Video or audio in Google Drive that has no caption tracks Read More