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
I have been asked about the potential for creating portfolios for a new organization. I the past, I created a series of documents outlining the work of work of creating portfolios. In an attempt to support my new colleagues, I am revising and posting some of the my earlier work. Regardless of the purpose of Read More
Diversity of Instructional Design Models/a> One of the most interesting aspects of teaching is the diversity of models that are appropriate in different classes. This is perhaps most noticeable amongst adults who start working in schools as a second career. These folks tend to believe “The Standard Model” of education is assumed to be, well, Read More
Yet another post drawn from some writing I found in cleaning up an old drive. My guess is this is about 20 years old, and it is still valid in most ways. Good students are good students. Students who engage with the course content, their classmates, and their instructors in a reflective and active manner Read More
Bricoleur The French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss developed the concept of the bricolage in 1960 to describe a human who adopts a particular approach to framing problems, solving problems and learning. Others have adopted the concept, and applied it to thinking about how to approach the use of information technology in schools. In my experience, being Read More
I walked past the books in the discount retailer I was visiting to purchase storage supplies for my wife’s home office. When she arrived at the section she needed, she noticed I was not with her. When I finally caught up with her, she noticed the book in my hands: Walter Isaacson’s 2014 The Innovators: Read More
Another post based on my file clean-up. This is from about 25 years ago, and it largely still accurate. So just what are the things that I believe about learning?