I just discovered this from a piece I wrote about 10 years ago. It seems timely given today’s fascination with generative AI. As has been established, the instructionism of the 20th century was designed to transfer information into student’s brains. Educative experiences necessitate a more sophisticated purpose for teaching. Data and information, which are the Read More
Category: Teaching & Learning
Challenges to Instructionism
The dominant educational paradigm in the 20th century was based on easily recognizable ideas about how the human brain works and how to design classrooms to help human brains learn. R. Keith Sawyer (2006), a scholar from the University of Washington, articulated five assumptions in which curriculum and instruction has been grounded: Those assumptions appear Read More
Five Layers of Educational Technology
Educational technology in schools is often perceived as a single entity, a collection of devices, software, and online platforms. However, beneath this surface simplicity lies a complex, multi-layered system. Effective integration of technology into teaching and learning requires IT leaders to recognize the characteristics of each. Decision-makers, including educators, IT professionals, and school leaders make Read More
Theory and Practice in Education
46: Bridging the Gap: Educational Theory and Practice Education is one of several soft technologies that share an interesting trait: The scholars who discover the science behind the natural phenomena that are the basis of the technology and the practitioners who apply that science to the human purpose are different people. Other examples of human Read More
Technology in Education
Recently, I have been involved in a number of projects designed to adapt generative AI to educationally relevant task. Along the way, I have been finding some adaptations of some of my writing that is spot-on. This post is comprises some questions and answers generated from a chapter entitled “Learner Tasks” in my 2015 book. Read More
AI Generated Post: The Challenge of Integrating Technology
Generative AI arrived in our schools a few years ago with ChatGPT and our collective concern about its future for our work. In the time since, we have been negotiating its place in education. We seem to be narrowing in on several applications that are useful in making people “smart.” One activity that has focused Read More
Dimensions of Assessment
Three Dimensions of Learning: Imagine the data we would get is we designed school assessment system to focus on three areas: Habits of Effective Learners: Measured using traditional Course Grades, capturing content knowledge, task completion, compliance, and participation. Comparison to Other Populations: Measured using Standardized Tests like SBAC, SAT, and PSAT, providing a benchmark against Read More
An Experiment with AI
A colleague and I have been leading forums on AI at our community college. Once per month, we meet with faculty and once per month with students. The discussions have been rich and we also share tools and ask other to share tools. At our most recent forum, we were exploring Notebook LM. This is Read More
Elevator Pitch: Leveraging #edtech
I used to recoil when the term “leverage” was applied to computers in educational settings; I had heard too many administrators and vendors describe how some tool could be “leveraged to improve student outcomes.” As we chatted while waiting for a meeting to begin, an English-teaching colleague pointed out that the word really does apply Read More