Education really has changed in recent decades. My reasons for concluding this is true are many, varied, and too complicated to detail here. It is tempting to blame education for the changes in society that we observe, but that will gain us nothing and the blame is not deserved. All schools serve the learners who Read More
38: Why We Scaffold | RSS.com Scaffolding is the term used to decribe a particular type of support for learners that are built into the lesson. Exactly what kinds of support is provided depends on the nature of the curriculum and task within the curriculum as well as the intent of the lessons. Wood, Bruner, Read More
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
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
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
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
189: On the Obsolescence of #edtech As a result, schools entered a cycle of technology obsolescence. They would expend significant capital in one year and a wave of new devices would arrive on campus. In the following years, the students and teachers would enjoy improved access to and improved function of the devices. Over time Read More
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
When I was an undergraduate student, the university had recently begun a project which found students in education programs spending time in schools early in their studies. Faculty realized a small fraction of their students discovered during their student-teaching, just before they graduated, that they did not like working in schools as adults. Even those Read More
124: IT for Teaching The tasks that teachers accomplish using IT systems can be differentiated into two categories. First, are the highly predictable tasks that resemble those performed by business users. IT professionals can plan and test functionality. These tasks include many of the data management tasks such as recording attendance and grades for which Read More