I found this short answer to the question, “How can we reduce bias in online teaching?” which I composed a couple of years ago. I’m curious about my suggestion that Standard English is a method whereby we can reduce bias. I’m not sure I would give that suggestion now. Is that inclusive language or not? Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
Assumptions Educators Make
Education is about changing humans. When our students leave, we hope they can do things, see things, and think things they could not before the class. That reality is rich with the potential for abuse and history shows it has been abused, but there is equal reality that education can be co-opted for other goals. Read More
Latent Learning
I’ve read an interesting article recently that challenges what appears to be to orthodox view that performance on tests and other assessments is predictive of long-term learning and the ability to apply what one has learned on other situations. Among the several points that support the authors’ claims are seemingly contrary observations. Latent learning is Read More
Performance and Learning
Recent decades have found educators sharply focusing on performance. This arises from the dominance of standards to guide curriculum. At all levels of education, we define what it is that students are supposed to know and do, translate that into learning objectives, then check students’ performance on assessments that (ostensibly) measure the degree to which Read More
Technology Literacy
Technology literacy has been on my mind. My definition is inexact, but I can recognize it in people. You might be able to judge your own technology literacy by reflecting on how you react to new technology. For this post, I am going to ignore those who enthusiastically accept any new device. These folks are goo to Read More
A Gap in Education
The foundational idea of education is that students are able to “do something” after the process is complete that they could not do before. What students can do depends on the experiences that comprise their education. There seems to be two competing versions of what we hope our students will be able to do after Read More
On Data Collection
“Data” has become the mantra of educators for more than a generation. In my observations of these folks, there seems to be little regard for the quality of our data or the ethics whereby it is collected. Forty years ago, the OECD published eight principles of data collection that still provide good guidance… as long Read More
On Doing Nothing
Decision making is an interesting activity. Ostensibly, we want leaders who step up and take action. We seek decisive leaders who step up and “get something done.” The reality, however, is that we often find those who make the best decisions do nothing… at least initially. Obviously, there are emergency situations in which one must Read More
Lessons Learned from a Lesson on the Freedom of Speech
Like many, I have been thinking a lot about freedom of speech lately. My purpose in this post is not to comment on that freedom. I have always been a strong advocate for free speech, but speech and actions are not the same. These events have brought me back to my high school days. I know how faulty Read More
Adding a Video Introduction to Your Virtual Classroom
The one feature of my online classroom that students always say they appreciate is the video introductions. (I teach completely online courses at a community college that offers face-to-face, hybrid, and online versions of courses I teach. My students typically are taking most of their courses in each of those three modalities.) There are three Read More