How We Use Theories

This is an exceprt from my book Efficacious Educational Technology. It is available under a Creative Commons license. You can find a link to it inder the “Get Gary’s Books” menu above. Educational researchers are almost always in search of interventions that will improve learning. When designing experiments to accomplish this, the changes made are Read More

Parsimony

 This is an excerpt from my recent book. You can find it under the “Get Gary’s Books” menu above. The title is Efficacious Educational Technology. This section is from the chapter on theories and educational technololgy. When a theory is parsimonious it is the least complex it can be. An example of increasing parsimony in Read More

Elevator Pitch on Theory and Teaching

A common complain among students in teacher education programs is that that coursework focuses too much attention on theory. As an undergraduate student seeking a career in science education, I was fond of saying “I don’t care about all of this, I just want to know how to teach.” Well, it wasn’t until I got Read More

Stuff Happens

With the beginning of another school year, we get another flurry of “how was your summer” questions. I have told people it was a “summer of adapting” for me. There were some circumstances I expected were going to occur, they did, and now I have been adapting. The responses from people to my “summer of Read More

How Theories Arise

Appropriate Proper Reasonable | RSS.com This in an excerpt from my 2026 book Efficacious Educational Technology. It is available under a Creative Commons license. My rationale if that theories are rules we should follow when designing educational technology systems. The “gold standard” of research used to develop theories is the double-blind random experiment. When researchers conduct Read More

Thoughts on Literacy and Political Power

“In cultures that lack writing, all individuals participate in the communication life of the group without need for special training or skill. Once writing is introduced, a hierarchy of political power becomes possible with the more skilled readers and writers holding a greater share of the power. Abstract concepts such as property, law based on Read More

Thoughts on Data from Two Decades Ago

As an educator, I cannot go to a meeting where “the data show” is used in one version or another. I appreciate the role of data when we draw conclusions. This character of my nature is deeply embedded in my professional life; it started with my undergraduate studies in science and continued during my life Read More

Technology Companies “Certifying” Educators

Technology Companies “Certifying” Educators I don’t often have time to listen to the radio during the afternoon, but today, I caught the last few minutes of “The start of social media’s legal reckoning” on 1A which I listened to on Vermont Public’s radio broadcast. I only caught the tail end of the commentary, but one Read More

Are You Being Scientific?

If you have read recent posts, you will know I have connected with a book written before I was born about the nature of science. In this final post, I continue to reflect on the fact that science depends on two types of knowledge, but that is often ignored in most descriptions of science. Nash Read More