Blog Data. Information. Knowledge. Wisdom. This is a familiar continuum. The question for those of us who value wise decisions both in our personal lives and amongst those with whom we share society and climate is “How do we promote the movement towards wisdom?” In this post, I will provide an answer. Yes, it is Read More
Category: Using Data
An Example of Data
Data can become evidence only if it is reliable. Reliability is based on the degree to which the same observations can be made under similar circumstances but at different times, and also one the degree to which different measures of the same effect agree. Theory allows managers and leaders to make predictions about what they Read More
Are They Learning? How Do We Know?
I posted a tweet recently that seemed to motivate folks to engage. I posted: What if students learn, but can't perform on assessments? — Dr. Gary Ackerman (@GaryAckermanPhD) November 23, 2023 The responses to my tweet suggest there are some educators have not yet abandoned the platform, and those who remain are thoughtful about the Read More
Why Aren’t They Doing the Work?
A colleague asked for an appointment this morning. She wanted to be sure she was properly reading the logs from the LMS. If you did not know, your LMS tracks everything that you do. What you clicked, when you clicked it, and from where you clicked it are all recorded by the LMS. I have Read More
Limitations of Open Mindedness
We all should be open-minded. When we allow the possibility that we don’t have the answers, that better answers exist, that our information may be incomplete or incorrect, or that others bring new and valuable perspectives, then we can change our minds and make better decisions. When I was a younger man (like from the Read More
On Myths in Curriculum
Increasingly, we recognize many of the things that are “true” in society are myths. In education, we hear lots of folks promote “learning styles,” but that idea is a debunked myth. In education, we also hold that curriculum and teaching should not be political. It is reasoned teachers’ job is to teach the facts and Read More
On Using Data
We hear lots of folks talking about how data-driven they are today, but it seems these folks are often woefully unaware of the fundamental principles of data collection, analysis and presentation. Specific principles I see missing in “data-driven” folks are: If we are to claim to be data-driven in our decisions, then we are responsible Read More
On Data
For more than 30 years, knowledge management has been organized around a hierarchy. According to the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) model traced to Russell Ackoff in 1989, data comprises symbols representing the facts. Data becomes useful information as it answers questions. Information becomes knowledge as it is organized into generalizations and can be used to explain answers. Read More
On Zeros in Grading
Grades. Formative assessments. Summative assessments. Whatever we call these things, teachers have the responsibility to report the degree to which students have learned what they were supposed to learn. While this seems a straight-forward aspect of the work, it is highly contentious, and different educators have very different perspectives on it. I have addressed this Read More
When Darwin First Presented
Historians of science speculate widely on the reasons why Charles Darwin waited so long to publish On the Origins of Species. (For those not familiar with the story, Darwin had conceived the theory of natural selection in the years after his voyage on the HMS Beagle ended in 1836, but he did not publish until Read More