Gary’s Blog

I had a discussion with some colleagues recently about active and social learning. We seem to have come to agreement on this elevator pitch: We know human brains are adapted to social learning. Just what we mean by social learning is open to interpretation and not every lesson is amenable to it. In situations where:  Read More

When framing a problem, we define what we believe its cause to be along with the conditions that will indicate the problem has been solved. When attempting to solve problems, we take actions to reduce its effects and to prevent it from returning. When working with IT in schools, it becomes obvious there are differences Read More

Technology is a force that exerts strong influences on society and culture. For those living within a culture its effects are so familiar they are barely perceived and thought to be a natural part of every culture or society.   What we expect of people (our peers, our leaders, our children, etc.) and out institutions (schools Read More

This is part of the introduction to my book Technology in Schools: It’s Not Like This in Business which was recently released under CC-BG-NC-SA. “The technology systems installed in schools support all many educational and operational functions.. These are seriously complex systems. In the vocabulary of IT professionals, they are enterprise systems (or perhaps business Read More

I recently found my summary of an article that appeared in Scientific American in 2010 in which Tim Berners-Lee looks back at the world wide web 20 years after it was invented. The issues seem as relevant today as then. Universality– Because all content is based on the same protocols (hyper text markup language at Read More

I recently discovered some materials I uploaded to MERLOT had been orphaned after I moved my web site over a year ago. I have uploaded links to: Online Course Development Embed a Twitter Timeline in Your Virtual Classroom Introduction to Derivatives for Physics Students