AI has been here for a much longer than “ChatGPT” which has been garnering so much attention since late 2022. There have been a number of books and articles and special journal issues dedicated to the understanding it, considering its potential effects, and advising individuals and group on how to successfully navigate this new world. Read More
Category: Book Review
When I Started Computing
I graduated from high school in 1983. My New England school had a book storage room that had been converted into a “computer lab” with about 6 desktop computers. Two were standalone computers with programs loaded from 5 ¼ inch floppy disks inserted before the machine was powered on. The others were connected to Dartmouth Read More
On Myths in Curriculum
Increasingly, we recognize many of the things that are “true” in society are myths. In education, we hear lots of folks promote “learning styles,” but that idea is a debunked myth. In education, we also hold that curriculum and teaching should not be political. It is reasoned teachers’ job is to teach the facts and Read More
Ethics are Active
Stephanie Moore and Heather Tillberg-Webb’s Ethics and Educational Technology: Reflection, Interrogation, and Design as a Framework for Practice by Stephanie L. Moore and Heather K. Tillberg-Webb (9780415895088) continues to deliver on the promise summarized on the cover. Ethics, we have seen, should be approached from a design perspective. As designers, we are encouraged to be Read More
How We Handle Ethics in #edtech
Ethics and Educational Technology: Reflection, Interrogation, and Design as a Framework for Practice by Stephanie L. Moore and Heather K. Tillberg-Webb (9780415895088) could not have arrived as a more propitious time. For six months, we in education (k-12, community college, university, professional, and all other settings) have been dealing with ChatGPT and other generative AI. Read More
The Extended Mind
Human cognition is largely understood to be a process that happens inside a single human brain. Well… in schools… western schools like the ones in which I was taught and in which I taught and still work are grounded in the assumption that our cognitive abilities are based on what we can do with our Read More
Gregor Mendel- Lessons on Politics and Science
Science is a valuable endeavor for humans. It is through these efforts to understand how nature works that we fulfil our curiosity, contemplate our place in the universe, improve the health of humans, and otherwise affect our environments. Of course, when scientific discoveries are used to create technological “solutions,” things get far more complicated. In Read More
Program or Be Programmed
I was recently cleaning out some digital files, and found some materials I had developed for secondary students focusing on Douglas Rushkoff’s 2011 book Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. The work arrived on bookstore shelves a decade ago, but the rules for digital life seem as relevant today as back Read More
On Collapse
Rereading Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed has been on my “to do” list for some time. I first read it about when the second edition was published. I’m a fan of Diamond’s work. I especially appreciate the detailed evidence and analysis he adds to popular writing. While I am not Read More
On Change
In their 2010 book Change, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, scholars and business leader who study change, attributed resistance to change to three factors. These are observed regardless of the type of change. First, until new practices become habit, people must exert self-control to adopt them; this self-control is necessary to continue using the new Read More