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
Author: Gary Ackerman
Review of Evolutionary Intelligence: How Technology Will Make Us Smarter
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
Elevator Pitch on Digital Equity
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
On Declarative Knowledge
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
Elevator Pitch on John Dewey
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
On the Obsolescence of #edtech
For the first two decades of the history of personal computers in schools (from about 1980 until about 2000), the primary goal of school and technology leaders was to put computers on educators’ and students’ desks. During that period, educators were installing the school’s first computers, then replacing those with multimedia-capable computers, and then replacing Read More
Passing, Practicing, Progressing
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
On Working in Schools
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
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 teachers are responsible. It Read More
On “Good Teaching”
Educators seem to view their practice as one of two evolutionary processes (here I am using evolution in the sense of change in a recognized direction). It is either: Those who have been in the field for more than a few years, will point out that these two often happen in cycles. The same change Read More