Organizations are created to serve a purpose. For schools, it is (ostensibly) to make people “smart.” We know, of course, that when systems are created, their purpose immediately changes to sustaining itself rather than fulfilling its purpose, but let’s ignore that for this post. We who work in organizations complete tasks and solve problems that Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Assumptions That Are Likely False
• curriculum comprises well-defined information and skills that represent necessary human knowledge • the purpose of schools is to ensure students get the information and skills into their brains, thus become educated • educators know how to deliver instruction so the curriculum is transferred into students’ brains • the most efficient instruction occurs from simple Read More
Education is Not Business
In recent decades, educators have adopted the language and models of business processes (some of us prefer to say this way of understanding our work was foisted on the profession). Business is deconstructed into inputs, business processes and outputs. Success is measured in quality and quality of outputs (in business outputs can be reduced in Read More
On Changing Information Technologies
The role of microcomputers in curriculum and instruction has been debated since the first arrived in schools; some advocate for quick adoption of every new tool while others advocate for avoiding digital technology altogether. Disparate perception of emerging information technologies among educators is not a new phenomenon. In his 2011 book The Information: A History, Read More
Elevator Pitch: Changing Media
Information technology available and used in a society exerts strong and active, although often unseen, influences on that society. . We are in the midst of a nearly complete replacement of print by electronic information, but schools still struggle to reorganize teaching and learning to reflect that reality. Students arrive in classrooms with brains that Read More
Research in Education
The research paper has long-been a staple of school curriculum at many levels. Most students write their first reports in elementary school and continue writing research papers until they graduate. Educators with master’s degrees probably wrote a thesis as part of their degree program, and the culminating experience in any doctoral program is writing and defending Read More
Where the Rationale for School IT Breaks Down
In my experience, that last point is where school IT decision-making breaks down. Organizations have different strategic goals, and they accomplish those goals by setting different priorities and adopting different strategies. IT professionals who have learned their craft in organizations other than schools are often unfamiliar with the urgency of malfunctioning academic systems. During my Read More
Are They Learning? How Do We Know?
I posted a tweet recently that seemed to motivate folks to engage. I posted: What if students learn, but can't perform on assessments? — Dr. Gary Ackerman (@GaryAckermanPhD) November 23, 2023 The responses to my tweet suggest there are some educators have not yet abandoned the platform, and those who remain are thoughtful about the Read More
On Rationales
Educational leaders are recognizing that some populations have been dissuaded from perusing higher education because of attitudes, practices, and structures that prevented them from enrolling and studying. I hesitate to make a list of these populations as it will exclude some who have experiences of exclusion. For many educational leaders, the effort to increase the Read More
Special Use IT in Schools
In addition to the fleets of computers maintained for populations such as students and teachers, schools are places where special purpose computers and peripherals are found. In makerspaces, science laboratories, studios, workshops, and other special teaching spaces, there are computing devices necessary for specialized educational activities. Examples include: