Gary’s Blog

  • Tech for Educators: Planning and Installing Networks
    Enterprise networks are incredibly sophisticated and complex systems. They combine hardware and network software that must be scaled for hundreds or thousands of users on campus. There are three adjectives that describe every network if it is in a school or any other business:  Ensuring a network is all three necessitates expertise in network architecture. Decisions must be made about the hardware and software and configuration necessary to meet Read More
  • A Response to “Is Schoolwork Optional Now?”
    “Is Schoolwork Optional Now?” showed up in my feed recently. It is an article by Lila Shroff that appeared in The Atlantic (in the online version) on April 10, 2026. The article should cause concern for educators. They will read how AI has been used to complete schoolwork. The rationale behind the decision by those Read More
  • Tech for Educators: Three Classes of Networks
    Ethernet is the dominant network technology used in schools (and just about every other organization). When connecting computers and other devices to Ethernet, we use the same protocols and the same devices no matter how many nodes are connected. The devices we use to create computer networks are designed to meet three different classes of networks.   One Read More
  • Capacity of Computers
    When making decisions about the type of computing devices to install in schools, school and technology leaders must define the capacity of the devcies necesary for their purpose. This post sumarizes the factors that affect capacity. Capacity is determined by several factors. In general, these factors dictate the rate at which a system can access, Read More
  • Generative AI: We Are Getting What We Asked For
    195: Generative AI: We Are Getting What We Asked For I just finished reading of a pre-print paper on AI (Shaw & Nave, 2026). It is a paper I expect to be the subject of a longer post in the future, but I was struck by a sentence in the “Societal Implications” section of the Read More
  • Inquiry and Authentic Assessment
    194: Inquiry and Authentic Assessment I have been looking through old papers I wrote as an undergraduate and graduate student years ago… actually decades ago. In 1997, I enrolled in a curriculum development course and a graduate student, and made this observation: An inquiry-based science curriculum that includes authentic assessment is not familiar to most Read More