I was amazed recently to hear teachers talking about “the need for good technology training” in their school. That is not the amazing part; what amazed me was when I asked, “what do you mean?” The response was, “you know using Google to find stuff for a good slide show.” The conversation made me think Read More
Category: Teachers
“Activation Energy” and Instructional Technology
Appropriate Proper Reasonable 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 Read More
The Organization of Training, Learning, Design
This is a continuation of the Training, Learning, Design post. This theme continues as well in the post Design Defined. We know educators need three types of support when they are creating technology-rich teaching and learning. Previously, I introduced training, learning and design as the types and each is labeled based on the focus of Read More
Alternatives to the Standard Model of Education
This post continues the theme begun in The (Overturned) Model of Standard Education Many educational scholars and practitioners have recognized the inadequacy of the Standard Model in recent decades and they have proposed alternative models of education. The (incomplete) list of alternatives includes authentic learning (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2014), natural learning (Caine & Caine, 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
The (Overturned) Standard Model of Education
47: The (Overturned) Standard Model of Education Words are powerful tools for human thought; once “something” is named it can be recognized and humans can both communicate about it and interact with the concept in a way they could not previously. When the named thing is not an object, but an action (or collection of 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
The Future of Work
Since the turn of the century, a seemingly never-ending series of advocates have told whoever will listen about the changing nature of work in the coming decades. Graphs such as this one I adapted from Levy and Murname (2005) seems to convey the typical message: In general, these advocates predict employers will value different skills Read More
Observations of Narcissist Educators
35: Narcissistic Educators The label “narcissist” has become relevant in the United States in recent weeks and months. I will avoid comment on current events, but I will observe the concept is useful in understanding the actions of some educators. For the professional psychologist familiar with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a Read More