All measurements are subject to error; this is well-known to carpenters who “measure twice and cut once,” and it is known to observers of elections in which recounts result in much different returns than the original count. Measurements in schools are subject to error as well. If a student is handed back a quiz with Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Understand Your IT Users
One of the challenges for designing information technology for school populations is the broad range of skills that users bring to the device. When we build IT for business users, we can usually assume their skills fall within a narrow range. Consider the range of literacy and numeracy skills as well as the physical characteristics Read More
The Concept of School
Stop reading this sentence and picture a school; in your mind enter a classroom where class in underway and look around. See the teachers in the room, see the students, imagine what they are doing. If you didn’t play along with the preceding sentence, recall a movie or television program you watched in which a Read More
On Social Learning
I had a discussion with some colleagues recently about active and social learning. We seem to have come to agreement on this elevator pitch: We know human brains are adapted to social learning. Just what we mean by social learning is open to interpretation and not every lesson is amenable to it. In situations where: Read More
Comparing IT and Education
When framing a problem, we define what we believe its cause to be along with the conditions that will indicate the problem has been solved. When attempting to solve problems, we take actions to reduce its effects and to prevent it from returning. When working with IT in schools, it becomes obvious there are differences Read More
Elevator Pitch on the Effects of Technology on Humans
Technology is a force that exerts strong influences on society and culture. For those living within a culture its effects are so familiar they are barely perceived and thought to be a natural part of every culture or society. What we expect of people (our peers, our leaders, our children, etc.) and out institutions (schools Read More
Thinking about IT Professionals and Technology in Schools
This is part of the introduction to my book Technology in Schools: It’s Not Like This in Business which was recently released under CC-BG-NC-SA. “The technology systems installed in schools support all many educational and operational functions.. These are seriously complex systems. In the vocabulary of IT professionals, they are enterprise systems (or perhaps business Read More
Elevator Pitch on Error
In science, we make our living as it were by measuring. As a human activity, measurement involvessome errors. When a making measurements, there are (usually) three potential sources of error: The person who is making the measurement could make a mistake. The same person who measures the same thing more than once is likely to Read More
Looking Back on the Internet
I recently found my summary of an article that appeared in Scientific American in 2010 in which Tim Berners-Lee looks back at the world wide web 20 years after it was invented. The issues seem as relevant today as then. Universality– Because all content is based on the same protocols (hyper text markup language at Read More
Repairing Links to Older Materials
I recently discovered some materials I uploaded to MERLOT had been orphaned after I moved my web site over a year ago. I have uploaded links to: Online Course Development Embed a Twitter Timeline in Your Virtual Classroom Introduction to Derivatives for Physics Students