All of the systems have common elements. By looking for these characteristics, and using these characteristics when studying the systems of interest, technologists, scientists, and engineers can more quickly solve problems and design solutions. Order. All systems are recognized by some sort of order, parts and boundaries can be recognized and measured. Order also gives Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
On Using Data
We hear lots of folks talking about how data-driven they are today, but it seems these folks are often woefully unaware of the fundamental principles of data collection, analysis and presentation. Specific principles I see missing in “data-driven” folks are: If we are to claim to be data-driven in our decisions, then we are responsible Read More
On Data
For more than 30 years, knowledge management has been organized around a hierarchy. According to the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) model traced to Russell Ackoff in 1989, data comprises symbols representing the facts. Data becomes useful information as it answers questions. Information becomes knowledge as it is organized into generalizations and can be used to explain answers. Read More
IT Audits in Schools
Organizations invest significant time, energy, and money in information technology systems, and leaders hire skilled information technology professionals to ensure the IT contributes to the success of the organization. Despite the investment and the level of expertise IT professionals bring to their work, many conclude the IT installed and its management is less than satisfactory. Read More
On Educational Technology Rather the IT in Schools
In 1993, Seymour Papert imagined two time-traveling professionals from 100 years earlier; he speculated the physician would be flummoxed by the activity and the technology in the 20th century clinic, but the teacher would find the activity and the technology in a 20th century classroom very familiar. Papert based his speculations on the degree to Read More
On Data Collection for edtech Decisions
Regardless of the type of data collected, researchers and efficacious IT managers must attend to sampling (how will subjects be selected) and they must ensure the instruments they are using are both valid (measuring what they claim to be measuring) and sufficiently precise for the purposes. In addition, IT managers have a responsibility to gather Read More
On QR Codes
We are beginning to see QR (quick response) codes more frequently. At least I am seeing them in advertisements and other places where we have heard for decades they were going to arrive. The idea behind a QR code is rather simple. A URL is changed into a square (or different shaped) composed of a Read More
edtech for IT: Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
In 2000, the United States federal government passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) which is intended to protect children from inappropriate information on the Internet. Specifically, CIPA requires schools that receive e-rate funds to install and maintain filters to restrict access to inappropriate sites. CIPA does allow the filter to be disabled when only adults are Read More
edtech for IT: On IT Users in Schools
Compared to IT users in business, IT users in schools are much different. They bring different skills to the IT they use, they need more flexibility more often than business users, and their needs change over time (only to return to the original need). These characteristics arise from the facts that students have emerging literacies; Read More
On Problems in Education
In education, problems are not so easy to isolate and fix. Students and teachers are vastly more complicated than IT and their lives are affected by far more variables than even the most sophisticated IT systems. When looking carefully at problems in education, we discover they cannot be isolated; and solutions may resolve symptoms but Read More