Presentation_NELMS_2025

Assumptions That Are Likely False

• curriculum comprises well-defined information and skills that represent necessary human knowledge  • the purpose of schools is to ensure students get the information and skills into their brains, thus become educated • educators know how to deliver instruction so the curriculum is transferred into students’ brains • the most efficient instruction occurs from simple Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

Who Decides IT in Schools?

I’ve seen the requests from many desktop support teams: “Before you add technology to grants, please include us in your planning.” I understand their rationale. They are responsible for installing, configuring, and managing it. It must integrate with existing systems and be reliable, robust, and secure. I would be sensitive to their requests and I Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

On Educators’ Reluctance to Change

In biology, exaptations are those structures and functions that evolved for one purpose, but then were applied to a different purpose. The typical example is feathers, which were originally structures adaptations that allowed for thermoregulation, and later were adapted for flight. An analogous process occurs with technology; it is used for purposes unimagined by the Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

Educators’ Technology Skills

Now that networked devices have been available for decades and become mainstream as greater parts of the population became users, it seems reasonable to expect that anyone who seeks to work as a professional in education will arrive on the job prepared to operate or learn to operate desktop, laptops, and even tablet computers they Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

On Learning to Teach

The one thing that has not changed during my 35 years in education is that teachers complain about anything they perceive as “not practical.” When I was an undergraduate student, by classmates and I sat in the corridors of the building s in which education classes met (usually drinking coffee– a truly useful skill for Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

Dealing with Conflict

I’ve worked in educational institutions since 1988. My jobs have been in public k-12 schools, public community colleges, and various universities as an adjunct faculty member. In addition, I have participated in (and been a leader of) multiple educational organizations. Almost all these organizations have been marked by have some level of workplace conflict. In Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

On Nicknames

Nicknames have been on my mind recently. Around my 40th high school reunion this summer, I thought about the nicknames we had for friends. We all referred to each other which them and remembering missing and lost friends by their nicknames, I realized just how cruel they were.   I also live in the town Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

On Student Autonomy

A recent tweet and my reply (along with the replies of others) got me thinking about students’ role in deciding curriculum, learning activities, and products through which they demonstrate their learning. Earlier in my career, colleagues and I spoke of “student voice and choice.”   As with all dimensions of classroom organization and activity, there is Read More

Presentation_NELMS_2025

Ethics are Active

Stephanie Moore and Heather Tillberg-Webb’s Ethics and Educational Technology: Reflection, Interrogation, and Design as a Framework for Practice by Stephanie L. Moore and Heather K. Tillberg-Webb (9780415895088) continues to deliver on the promise summarized on the cover. Ethics, we have seen, should be approached from a design perspective. As designers, we are encouraged to be Read More