With the growing complexity of the domain of teaching and learning, it is reasonable to conclude that educators will be engaged in increasingly dynamic learning in all aspects of their domain: the content they teach, the natural phenomena surrounding human learning, and the application of technology to curriculum and instruction design. Compared to 20th century Read More
Category: Teachers
Be A Bricoleur
Claude Levi-Strauss (a French anthropologist who died in 2009 less than a month before he turned 101) introduced the term bricoleur to western thinkers to describe a “jackof- all-trades” approach to technology (and other practices). He suggested the term after observing individuals in other cultures who would explore the potential uses of various new tools Read More
What is “Good” Technology-Rich Teaching?
I’m reviewing some recent observations I have made of lessons in which technology was used for education. One teachers explained her what she sees when she walks past some classes as they use the new Chromebooks for the math program that is recommended by the school district: You go in and see all of the Read More
A Teacher’s Realization that Literacy is Changing
I have been talking with teachers about the role of technology in their courses and the changing nature of the schooling experience. This one particular English teacher is realizing the traditional curriculum is no longer sufficient for her students. She described her recent realization: We have to face the fact that things like reading are Read More
Jerome Bruner’s Observation of Education
In describing education as a social invention, Bruner (1966) suggested each generation of educators engages in a process of revising educational theory and realigning the resulting practice in response to changes in human understanding. Bruner reasoned (a) the need to update education arises from advances in understanding of human growth, development, and learning; (b) advances Read More
My Grandfather’s Textbooks
My grandfather graduated from the University of Vermont in 1939 and I have some of his textbooks on my bookshelves along with the textbooks I used while an undergraduate student at the same institution 49 years later. The content of the textbooks (we both studied biology) is vastly different, but the literacy skills useful for Read More
My First Computer
I opened a random file on a hard drive I use to store archived files just for the fun of it. I discovered a draft of a piece written about 10 years ago; it contained this account of my entry into computing: As an undergraduate science education major, I concluded that computers were certainly a Read More
Education: Science? Art? Technology?
In general, humans like to categorize using dichotomies; an object is placed in one group or another. As an undergraduate student preparing to be a science teacher, I classified plants using dichotomous keys for a particular botany class, hours examining specimens (usually alone and with coffee) to decide if each demonstrated a trait described in Read More
Pedagogical Nihilism: An Idea Worth Exploring
One of the first steps I took as an undergraduate student to become in independent intellectual—which I define as taking an active role in defining the course of one’s own learning—was to begin reading essays by scientists. At the time, there were Lewis Thomas and Stephen Jay Gould who were regular contributors. It was a Read More
Misbehavior, Unethical Behavior, and Grades
I observed an interesting conversation recently. A teacher had observed a student cheating during an assessment. She brought it to the attention of a school administrator as she had contacted the student’s parents (which she is expected to do in this situation). The conversation quickly turned to the consequences. The teacher intended to not allow Read More