Lev Vygotsky was a Russia psychologist who worked in the early part of the 20th century before he died at 38. Many educators who adopt methods that are commonly called constructivist ground their pedagogy in ideas he developed. One that is particularly useful in designing all curriculum is the Zone of Proximal Development. I often Read More
Category: Online Teaching
5 R’s of OER
Open educational resources are materials designed (usually) by teachers to support teaching and learning. An book may be an OER, a test or worksheet, a presentation, video or simulation, image, sound or any other work. Most who are new to OER have little trouble understanding the educational resource part of OER. Teacher recognize them as Read More
“Activation Energy” and Instructional Technology
Computers and information technologies have an interesting characteristic: We can use it to be more efficient in our work, but getting to that point requires a temporary decrease in efficiency. We can illustrate this with this picture: When we are using a “primitive” technology, we must exert a certain (and familiar) level of energy and Read More
TPCK: A Framework for IT Planning in Schools
Teacher education has traditionally been informed by a framework comprising the content dimension (what is to be taught or the curriculum) and the pedagogy dimension (how it is taught or instruction). Shulman (1987) suggested teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge cannot be developed in isolation, so he proposed “pedagogical content knowledge” (PCK) to describe the Read More
Training, Learning, Design
In educational technology, there are three distinct types of professional development activities that comprise a comprehensive system to support teachers as they become competent and confident users of information technology in their classrooms. School and technology leaders who: Train teachers to use systems; Facilitate learning about technology; Actively support design of technology-rich learning; tend to Read More
Making Files Accessible
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted to ensure those who cannot use media (text, audio, and other methods of communicating) have access to the information they need in a format they need. (Of course there are many aspects of life affected by the ADA, but this post focuses on digital media.) Teachers are Read More
The Lens of Cognitive Load
This idea is also the subject of the post Cognitive Load Theory Educators avoid theory whenever they can, and that is an unfortunate stance as a good theory is very useful when we want to understand what we do and why we do it. Cognitive load theory is an excellent example of a theory that Read More
A Rationale for Connected Classrooms
© 2016 Dr. Gary L. Ackerman Even through the third decade of the 21st century is quickly approaching, and information technology (IT) is deeply embedded in the lives of our students, many educators are still reluctant to find a role for computers (in all of their variations), digital information, and social media in their classrooms. Read More