The availability of generative AI has answered a question that has been debated amongst the educators with whom I have worked for the last four decades. It has been asked in various ways, but it comes down to “What matters in learning?” The debate centers around two generally given answers: Educators believe learning can be Read More
Blog Data. Information. Knowledge. Wisdom. This is a familiar continuum. The question for those of us who value wise decisions both in our personal lives and amongst those with whom we share society and climate is “How do we promote the movement towards wisdom?” In this post, I will provide an answer. Yes, it is Read More
When we are responsible for managing information technology networks, especially those that are used by children and those that contain data that needs special security, we take steps to control the data that makes it onto and out of our systems. In general, we deploy three types of protections. While these will not prevent all Read More
125: School Leaders, Technology, and “Spin” “Spin” is a fact of life for school leaders. They are faced with uncomfortable situations, and they must describe them in a positive light. I have seen this firsthand during my entire adult life which has been spent in education. It is difficult to ascertain if leaders believe their Read More
The story is compelling; it is one of the most important and challenging questions we can face: What makes us unique? It is well told and includes sufficient detail to be informative, while written in language that general audiences will find approachable. Bennett seems to have adopted Stephen Jay Gould’s approach to never “dumb down” Read More
12: A Harsh Reality About IT and School Leaders Information technology. All schools need it. All schools have it. All schools hire individuals with expertise in managing it to… well… manage it. In this post, I describe a reality that many recognize in their schools, but they are reluctant to admit it. This post calls Read More
Educators assume tests and other types of assignments in which students restate when they have learned, or perhaps apply what they learned to familiar problems, are an accurate demonstration of what students learned. While this may accurately measure changes in memory, it may not indicate the learner’s capacity to be critical, creative, or pragmatic with Read More
Most folks assume the curriculum comprises the information students are expected to learn, and that it is well-known, agreed upon, and accurately reflects the world. This is not true for many courses. Human knowledge is far more than information, and what we learn or when we apply what we have learned, it is rarely as Read More
IT professionals can expect to be asked to support accessibility checkers in the productivity suites they deploy. These tools (which may be built into the applications or may require add-ons to be installed) will identify parts of the presentations that are not compliant with ADA requirements. For example, they will identify missing metadata, missing navigation Read More
Because schools are public institutions, they are compelled to follow the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This means teachers who create multimedia for use in their classrooms must ensure the materials are accessible. Accessibility of multimedia means, for example, video is closed captioned, slides have unique names, descriptive alternative text is added to Read More