My experiences have convinced me that computer-mediated communication is fundamental to life in the 21st century; humans adopt (with increasing rapidity) the information technologies in their environment and humans adapt their communication habits to the tools. Humans also exapt technology; they find new and unintended uses for technologies. In biology exaptations are those structures and Read More
Author: Gary Ackerman
An Observation of #Teachers
Teachers complain. They complain a lot. No, really. You can’t imagine the things teachers say about students, colleagues, administrators, parents, and everyone else. After more than three decades of hearing it, I may nod, but it is like white noise to me; with one exception. When I hear, “I taught it, but they didn’t learn Read More
What Makes Us Human?
This question was posed to me by one asking with a sarcastic tone. Here is my response: Human beings are social creatures; it is through working together that we have met our survival needs from our first days on the African savannah to the busy life in the 21st century city. We share information about Read More
Can You? Really?
I have started and restarted and restarted my third book several times… It finally is becoming clear what I want to say. I happened to be telling a former colleague about it, including the theme of “deeper learning” and how we teach for deeper learning. She expressed some interest and suggested that elements of my Read More
Training vs. Education
It is important for instructors to understand the difference between training in workplace settings and teaching in community college classrooms. Training is organized and delivered to meet very specific goals. New equipment may have been delivered, new software installed, new procedures adopted, or new regulations that the organization must follow. In each of these situations, Read More
What Gould Wrote About Intelligence
In his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man, the late biologist Stephen Jay Gould reviewed the history of measuring intelligence. He observed that that intelligence has become reified in our concept of knowledge and learning. He noted that mental capacity is important to humans, that “We therefore give the word ‘intelligence’ to this wondrously complex Read More
Another Elevator Pitch on Learning…
… specifically for educators who perceive their role very narrowly. Learning comprises many different types of abilities and actions. While not all may be applicable to every area, many teachers are too quick to dismiss those they deem “marginal in my field.” Those who are knowledgeable and can reason in any field demonstrate what they Read More
Inert Knowledge
Alfred North Whitehead was a British philosopher and mathematician who worked in the early decades of the 20th century. He is best-remembered among educators by an essay entitled “The Aims of Education” in which he introduced the idea of inert learning. He criticized schools that focused on teaching in a manner that developed “’inert ideas’—that Read More
Leadership and the Adoption of Innovative Planning
Reach out @garyackermanphd if you are interested in the entire chapter. ABSTRACT Schools have become places filled with digital tools. Despite this fact, school leaders find technology planning to be an area of relative weakness. This chapter describes the experience of four school leaders who adopted an unfamiliar strategy for making technology decisions. The leader participated in a Read More
On Training and Change
The need to train and retrain teachers has taken on increased importance as digital computers have arrived in schools. As an undergraduate student enrolled in a course on teaching methods, I made an appointment with the staff at a small media office and had them sign a sheet confirming that I successfully threaded a film Read More