Gary’s Blog

  • Review of Evolutionary Intelligence: How Technology Will Make Us Smarter
    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
  • Elevator Pitch on Digital Equity
    It is an unfortunate reality that there remains a digital divide in the United States; disadvantaged students have less access to technology tools, and even if they do have access to the tools, they are more likely to be used for efficient instruction of procedural and declarative knowledge rather than more effective or efficacious purposes. Read More
  • On Declarative Knowledge
    Information that a learner remembers and can restate comprises their declarative knowledge. Having learned a large body of declarative knowledge adds to individuals’ efficiency with answering questions and applying that information. For this reason, many teachers facilitate students’ learning facts in classes. The default approach to learning facts has been memorization and teachers introduce mnemonics Read More
  • Elevator Pitch on John Dewey
    John Dewey, the American philosopher is often credited with differentiating traditional from progressive education. In general, traditional education approaches the curriculum as a known collection of content, and teachers select a path through the content, ensuring students learn by rewarding expected answers and correcting inaccurate answers. Progressive education, on the other hand, is designed to Read More
  • On the Obsolescence of #edtech
    For the first two decades of the history of personal computers in schools (from about 1980 until about 2000), the primary goal of school and technology leaders was to put computers on educators’ and students’ desks. During that period, educators were installing the school’s first computers, then replacing those with multimedia-capable computers, and then replacing Read More
  • Passing, Practicing, Progressing
    As educators, we have our students’ future in mind. I am resisting the urge to write about the misguided strategy of adults looking to their past to predict students’ future. I am writing instead about the timelines wise educators use when they are looking towards students’ futures. We really should be concerned with three futures. Read More