Teachers are the second largest number of school IT users, and they are the users who have the most diverse IT needs. In addition to using computers for instructional purposes, teachers use their devices to create materials, manage student data, and complete school operations tasks. In addition to their work-related tasks, most school acceptable use Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
The Nature of Innovations
According to Rogers (2003), the rate at which an innovation is adopted by a group is affected by four factors. First, the users must become aware of the innovation and perceive the ideas, tools, or practices as different from those currently in use. In the world dominated by rapid advances in information and other technology, Read More
Technology Problems vs. Education Problems
My career has been spent in the space between different populations and translating the language of one population into the language of another. The differences in language are largely the result of different types of problems and situations technologists and educators are prepared to manage and spend their time managing. Compared to the social milieu Read More
On Technology-Rich Schools
Schools have always been information technology-rich places. That makes sense as one of the fundamental purposes of school is to prepare students to use the technology common in the systems they will enter when they leave. When print was the dominant information technology, we used books and other paper-based media in schools and prepared students Read More
Reasonable Implementation of #edtech
School boards hire superintendents and other high-level administrators to make the ultimate decisions about what happens in the school. These leaders are charged with ensuring all decisions, including those related to appropriate design and proper configuration of IT systems are reasonable. Reasonableness is defined by: Budgets—All decisions must fall within the available budgets and the Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Understanding Computing Capacity
The capacity of a computer determines the nature of the information tasks that can be accomplished with it. Systems with greater capacity can process more data in a shorter time so users can use more sophisticated data sources and create more sophisticated data products using systems. When one attempts to use a computer with insufficient Read More
Elevator Pitch: Statistical Learning
Similar to conditioning is learning that results when the learner is exposed to consistent patterns for many, many repetitions; statistical learning is understood to be a largely unconscious process. One of the best illustrations of statistical learning in informal setting s how humans learn language. We learn how to form sentences and the rules of Read More
Users: The Reasons IT in School is Different from IT in Business
Many IT professional find the strategies that made them successful in business and industry do not transfer into educational institutions. What used to keep users of IT and their leaders and manager content does not produce the same results. The differences between IT users in other organizations and IT user in school can be summarized Read More
#edtech for #edleaders wifi and SSID’s
Usually access points are connected to the Ethernet network via a cable and given a static IP address, then attached to the ceiling where their health is indicated by LED lights. Inside each access point, there is an antenna that transmits and receives radio waves. To connect to the wireless signal, a computer or mobile Read More
“Pedagogically Mature” Educators
Young educators are enthusiastic. They spend years preparing: They learn the content they will teach, they learn how brains work, they learn pedagogical theory, and they practice various strategies. Of course, the details of what they learn depends on the specific regulatory agencies to which their teacher preparation program reports, but they learn in classrooms Read More