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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Why We Compute on the Cloud

Vendors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) provide highly configurable systems that can be used to replicate many of the same functions that used to be configured on physical servers. Those vendors also provide many related services they can be enabled and configured on an “as needed” basis. The benefits of such systems are:   Security Read More