When I was an undergraduate student, my major was science education. Specifically, I wanted to be a biology teacher; within biology, I was primarily interested in zoology. I took a botany course to meet distraction requirements, and immediately enjoyed the smaller class (most of the courses like cel biology and animal physiology were filled with Read More
Here is yet another post from 20 years ago. I originally wrote this an article to go into to newsletter written for middle school educators. The human brain is the focus of education. If our students are to have the ability to use the lessons we teach as they solve problems in the future then Read More
Here is another bit of discovered writing in my “clean out the files on the thumb drive” project. I orginally worte in 2010. Little did I know how much worse things would get in the interveneing years. Charles Dickens begins his famous novel set during the French Revolution with what may be best opening lines Read More
A common complain among students in teacher education programs is that that coursework focuses too much attention on theory. As an undergraduate student seeking a career in science education, I was fond of saying “I don’t care about all of this, I just want to know how to teach.” Well, it wasn’t until I got Read More
With the beginning of another school year, we get another flurry of “how was your summer” questions. I have told people it was a “summer of adapting” for me. There were some circumstances I expected were going to occur, they did, and now I have been adapting. The responses from people to my “summer of Read More
I continue to clean old files and find some valvable pieces that are getting cleaned up and posted. Here is an example. 241: Types of Problem Domains | RSS.com Most human endeavors can be placed in one of three categories; they are differentiated by the nature of the systems within which one works or that Read More
This in an excerpt from my 2026 book Efficacious Educational Technology. It is available under a Creative Commons license. My rationale if that theories are rules we should follow when designing educational technology systems. The “gold standard” of research used to develop theories is the double-blind random experiment. When researchers conduct experiments, they review existing theory and define Read More
Conditional release is a strategy whereby we make materials in our online course available to students only after a certain date or after they have done things we decide such as review other materials or even pass a test. This is a way we can force students to review materials or ensure they have learned Read More
An excerpt from by 2026 book: Efficacious Educational Technology. Find the references in the full version of the book. Despite educators’ complaints that students are disinterested learners, humans are active learners about what makes them curious. Johnson and Majewska (2022) define and summarize informal learning as a complex and largely voluntary activity that accounts for Read More
237: De-Biasing the Classroom: Why Your Personal Schooling Memories Can Blind You to Modern Learning Most adults share a common trait: we have spent thousands of hours sitting in classrooms. Because of this lifelong familiarity, it is incredibly easy to assume we instinctively understand what a school is, how it should function, and what “good” Read More