In the 1960’s, a television executive proposed the concept of the least objectionable program. According to this idea, programmers will broadcast the shows that are least likely to offend large parts of the population. It has been argued that adhering to this principle led television executives to support programming that was uninspired. In the time Read More
Educated individuals value the free expression of ideas, yet we recognize some ideas are distasteful, others harmful, and some are likely promoted by quacks. It is through our capacity to critically analyze ideas to decide which deserve our attention, which should be seriously considered, and which dismissed. Our human nature and our professional ethics lead us to Read More
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
One of the obvious effects of the pandemic has been the stress on teachers; there is some questions about whether we are really seeing teacher participating in “the great resignation,” but I know some folks have been asking me if I am interested in returning to k-12 teaching. For context, I began teaching in 1988. Read More
Everyone has experience in school. If you are reading this blog, it is likely you attended elementary, middle, and high school as a child. You may have some experience in higher education or professional training. In addition, you may have experience as a parent or caregiver who has interacted with schools. One of the most Read More
There are many reasons why IT professionals decide to work in schools. Some want to use their skills for a socially responsible purpose. Compared to other businesses and industries, schools tend to be relatively low stress for IT workers. Network disruptions that would be disastrous in other industries can be managed and the effects more Read More
Seriously teachers. Stop tweeting pictures of students. — Dr. Gary Ackerman (@GaryAckermanPhD) November 11, 2021 I recently had a tweet go “viral” in the non-celebrity sense… something like 80,000 impressions in a day which I attribute to the likes, replies, and retweets. In this post, I dig a little deeper into my rationale for the Read More
It may seem unnecessary to state it, but schools are places where children are present. Lots of children. Seriously, they are everywhere. They reflect the social, economic, racial, ethnic, religious, and other characteristics of the local population. They affect every decision made in schools. Whether those decisions are in the best interest of those children Read More
Stop reading this sentence and imagine a school. In your mind, enter a classroom where students and teacher are present, and class is in session. Look around. See the teacher in the room, see the students, and see what they are doing. If you didn’t play along with the preceding sentence, recall a movie or television program in which a classroom, teaching, and learning was portrayed. It doesn’t Read More
A theme I have addressed several times in this blog is the difference between information technology users in schools and technology users in other organizations. In this post, I focus specifically on the characteristics of student user that be unfamiliar to IT managers who learned their craft in businesses and industries. When IT professionals understand Read More