Gary’s Blog

Students are typically encouraged to perform well in school to “get a good job.” This suggests that each individual is the primary benefactor of his or her education. This is a rather recent, and limited, view of the benefits of becoming educated. If we assume that those who are educated are more efficient and more Read More

Defining the purpose of school is as a problem as wicked as any that we encounter in education. Many of the political discussions and debates are focused (either implicitly or explicitly) on negotiating the purpose of school, thus the structures and organizations that will accomplish that purpose. Ostensibly, all participants in these debates are focused Read More

Goals seem a natural part of human organizations and design; we define what we want, then take steps to achieve what we want. Those who have been involved with defining or achieving goals are likely familiar with the phenomenon of “moving goals.” We observe this when a goal is defined and when we are getting Read More

Another post from words I wrote years ago… this post is derived from something I wrote in 2013: Education. Ever since there have been humans, they have invented methods ofteaching. The need to teach arises from our nature as social and technology-usingcreatures. Humans need to teach the young how to survive (what to eat and Read More

When there is information organizations find their members need, the leaders of the organization will arrange training. The model is familiar to most everyone who has worked in a profession: “something” new is arriving (perhaps hardware, software, or a procedure) and time is taken away from “work” to learn what the information necessary is that Read More

Humans have a long history of using technology. It is reasonable to conclude that humans and their technologies cannot be separated. Without our tools, our species would not have become the Earth-altering species we have become.  When reviewing the history of our technology, we see that information technologies are a relatively recent invention, but for several thousand years, we Read More