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#edtech for IT: Digital Divides

Since about 2010, one-to-one computing and cloud-based computing have come to dominate school computing. In many schools, students carry Chromebook with them, and sometimes they take them home. (While the market share of educational computing devices is difficult to ascertain, estimates are that Chromebooks represent over 60% of the devices purchased for school users.)  Some Read More

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edtech for IT: Elevator Pitch on Users in Schools

Assumptions about the users’ capacity to operate the devices, adapt to changes, and operate the systems effectively all affect how systems are designed. For those who have experience managing IT in organizations where all the users are adults and those who have completed typical IT programs in schools (including trade schools, community colleges, and universities) Read More

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Elevator pitch on gaps in education

Education is a field characterized by gaps: Teachers and school administrators view scholars with suspicion as they believe scholars are disconnected from the realities of the classroom. Scholars are suspicious of teachers and school administrators as they believe educators are unsystematic in their work. Educational theorists advocate for reform of schooling so that students are Read More

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Elevator Pitch on Educational Expertise

The expertise we need to improve education comes not from business leaders nor the other citizens who dedicate their time and energy to serving on boards of education or in the legislature, nor even from education leaders (most of whom have built careers building compromises that satisfy different constituencies). The expertise comes from scholars who Read More

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Buzz-word Driven Education: A Brief Rant

One of the defining characteristics of “buzz-word-driven” teaching is its advocates’ insistence that its universal applicability. Those advocating the approach will maintain the methods work for all students in all classes in all circumstances. This is supported with dubious evidence at best, and often there is no evidence that the methods will actually produce the Read More

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Elevator Pitch on the Application of Knowledge

As students experience deeper learning, they frame, understand, and attempt to solve problems as they interact with foundational knowledge. This facilitates their ability to remember what they learned, and they also become more skilled at assessing what they know and what they do not know. Advocates for deeper learning differentiate the use of foundational knowledge Read More