The diffusion of innovations has been studied in both formal and informal populations. Among the examples that Rogers used often in his books were farmers. Innovations in farming practice tend to diffuse through social systems of farmers who grow similar crops in similar environments, and adoption rates are affected by many both market factors and Read More
In the 1970’s two professors of planning from California published ana important paper in which they defined “tame” and “wicked” problems. While each can be challenging, the two are differentiated by the how we approach problem and judge if they have been solved. Technology problems are typically tame problems, while teaching is a wicked one. Read More
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been law in the United States since 2000. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy and the personal information of children. In general, this is the law used by social media and other companies that restrict access to their platforms to individuals under 13 Read More
IT professionals know the danger of using computers when logged on with an account that has administrator permissions. When logged on with an administrator account, users have access to controls to change configurations, install software, and manage other users. All of these have potential to be set improperly. Most IT professionals have two accounts; they Read More
This comes from Technology in Schools: Its Not Like this in Business, the book I recently released under a Creative Commons license. When looking at information technology in schools, we can break it into five levels (see table 1). As one proceeds from “IT Systems” to “Students and Teachers Using IT for Teaching Tasks,” each Read More
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
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
Computers intruded into the world of education starting in the 1970’s. Sure, “intrusion” may not be the appropriate verb, but the arrival of the devices meant educators, administrators, staff, and students were forced into new ways of teaching and learning and managing the institution’s operations. New infrastructure was added to buildings, new personnel had to Read More
Teacher burnout is something we hear about frequently in the time since the pandemic. The problem appears to be worse than it ever has, and teachers are leaving the profession as a result. Educators are focusing on teacher burnout on social media as well. For example, this tweet: prompted my reply: I was challenged to Read More
IT professionals are familiar with system requirements, and they are comfortable helping to define them, exceed them in budgets and design specifications, test them, and confirm them. We write them when planning IT installation in schools as well. The reality, however, is that system requirements (the nature of the hardware, software, and connections) do not Read More