Gary’s Blog

  • BYOD and School Networks
    To minimize the expense of one-to-one initiatives, some schools choose to participate in bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives. This finds schools encouraging students to bring devices they own to school, connecting them to an SSID, and using them for their schoolwork. This can pose several difficulties for IT professionals; security being the most important. Others raise concern about equity as individuals may not be able to afford their own devices or Read More
  • The Computer You Draw: Inside tldraw’s “Natural Language” OS
    If you asked someone to design the future of computing, they’d probably picture a sleek brain-computer interface or a 3D spatial reality headset. They probably wouldn’t picture a whiteboard. But tldraw—the team behind the beloved open-source infinite canvas—has been quietly building one of the most radical reimaginings of how we interact with software. It’s called Read More
  • The Ethics of Educational Platforms: Data, Privacy, and Technoethical Audits
    152: The Ethics of Educational Platforms: Data, Privacy, and Technoethical Audits I am reviewing some recent books and chapters I have written as I prepare my next book. As I review, I am have AI blog posts. This is an example. The modern school is fundamentally dependent on digital technology for nearly every aspect of Read More
  • Not Your Average User: Why School IT Is Different from Business IT
    151: Not Your Average User: Why School IT Is Different from Business IT This is an AI-generated post based on a chapter from a book I published under a Creative Commons license a few years ago When we talk about Information Technology (IT) in schools today, we are almost always referring to complex systems utilizing Read More
  • Comfort Zone Technology
    One of the challenges of being a school technology leader (and probably in other fields as well, but my area of greatest expertise is in education) is what I (and probably others) call “Comfort Zone Technology.” Here is the general situation: A new leader is hired into whatever is their field. It may be in Read More
  • Your Online Course Is Draining Student Brainpower: Four Simple Fixes from Learning Science
    150: Spinning Up Distance Learning Classes Quickly I uploaded the syllabus for a course I planned, but never taught, to NotebookLM which generated this post Introduction: The Challenge of the “Empty Classroom” If you’re an educator, you’re likely familiar with this scenario: you’re handed an empty digital “course shell” in your learning management system and Read More