In schools today, most professionals who work with technology typically fall into one of six groups. The descriptions of the duties assigned to these individuals illustrate the range of tasks necessary to manage and use the very complex information technology infrastructure encountered in a typical school and the scale of the system that requires support: Read More
Cognitive load theorists recognize three types of cognitive load: Intrinsic cognitive load is associated with the learner thinking about the information and the task. Intrinsic load does increase as the task becomes more complex, but steps to break the task down into parts and the use graphic organizers (for example) to help store and organize Read More
In general, one can surmise there is consensus regarding the role of formal educational systems: the public supports and maintains the system to prepare youngsters to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society. The nature of the experiences designed to meet this purpose changes over time. Traditionally, the domain of education includes Read More
“Those who can do. Those who can’t teach.” We have all seen this quote and observed (accurately) that it doesn’t show the great wit that many who toss it around think. Poems have been written about it; keynote speeches have been given about it. Books and articles have been written about it. We all despise Read More
Early in the history of computers in schools, they typically purchased and supported only one operating system. Schools were “Apple” schools or “IBM” schools; later they were Macintosh or Windows schools. Ostensibly, decisions were made for financial reasons (PC’s were generally assumed to be less expensive than Macintoshes) or for educational reasons (“PC’s are what Read More
Because education and schools are technologies, they are not neutral. What happens in school is politically relevant, it matters to humans. This may seem a silly statement, but frequently, adults in schools proceed with their work and appear to be ignorant of this. The effect is especially observed in those classrooms in which the goal Read More
… allow us to conclude:
Educational reform tends to follow a cycle that is familiar to many: First, an initiative (supported with little or dubious evidence from the learning sciences) is introduced and implemented (with little or dubious support and rationale). Second, problems with the initiative appear. These can originate from poor or incomplete implementation or support, discrepancies between the Read More
170: Technology and Communication Problems | RSS.com Organizations are created to serve a purpose. For schools, it is (ostensibly) to make people “smart.” We know, of course, that when systems are created, their purpose immediately changes to sustaining itself rather than fulfilling its purpose, but let’s ignore that for this post. We who work in Read More
• curriculum comprises well-defined information and skills that represent necessary human knowledge • the purpose of schools is to ensure students get the information and skills into their brains, thus become educated • educators know how to deliver instruction so the curriculum is transferred into students’ brains • the most efficient instruction occurs from simple Read More