I posted a tweet recently that seemed to motivate folks to engage. I posted: What if students learn, but can't perform on assessments? — Dr. Gary Ackerman (@GaryAckermanPhD) November 23, 2023 The responses to my tweet suggest there are some educators have not yet abandoned the platform, and those who remain are thoughtful about the Read More
Category: Theory
Three Types of Societies
Scholars have recently rediscovered the significant and active influence that information technology exerts on the nature of societies. They generally differentiate three types of societies and have documented different types of interaction and cognition in each. Cultures with Primary Orality Cultures without writing are referred to as demonstrating primary orality, and communication in those cultures Read More
Is Speech a Technology?
I recently made a seemingly obvious observation in a tweet: “Every technological innovation become obsolete.” (Yup, that is what I tweeted… I’m the worst copy editor of social media posts.) A follower (whom I also follow and with whom I occasionally interact) replied “Is speech a technology?” Realizing the response was to be too long Read More
It Is Time for Metamodernism
Over my career, I have been a natural scientist; my undergraduate preparation was in science education. I spent many delightful hours in science labs gathering and interpreting data, and I was fortunate that my professors (in botany) included original research. As a science and math teacher, my thinking and teaching was dominated by modernist Read More
On Systems
All of the systems have common elements. By looking for these characteristics, and using these characteristics when studying the systems of interest, technologists, scientists, and engineers can more quickly solve problems and design solutions. Order. All systems are recognized by some sort of order, parts and boundaries can be recognized and measured. Order also gives Read More
On Data
For more than 30 years, knowledge management has been organized around a hierarchy. According to the data-information-knowledge-wisdom (DIKW) model traced to Russell Ackoff in 1989, data comprises symbols representing the facts. Data becomes useful information as it answers questions. Information becomes knowledge as it is organized into generalizations and can be used to explain answers. Read More
Vygotsky was Right
Alex Kozulin noted in the prologue to his book Vygotsky’s Psychology (1990), For Vygotsky, one’s psychology is the product of complex dynamics between the individual and his or her social environment, and new discoveries raise more questions that can only be understood using inclusive methods. For Vygtosky, learning is a social process.
When Darwin First Presented
Historians of science speculate widely on the reasons why Charles Darwin waited so long to publish On the Origins of Species. (For those not familiar with the story, Darwin had conceived the theory of natural selection in the years after his voyage on the HMS Beagle ended in 1836, but he did not publish until Read More
The Nature of Innovations
According to Rogers (2003), the rate at which an innovation is adopted by a group is affected by four factors. First, the users must become aware of the innovation and perceive the ideas, tools, or practices as different from those currently in use. In the world dominated by rapid advances in information and other technology, Read More
Placing Deeper Learning
Schools have been caught in the middle of a debate over their purpose for a long time. In the United States one of the central players in that debate was John Dewey. He is well-known for founding and leading the University of Chicago Laboratory School in 1896. The school was designed to focus the teaching Read More