Category Archives: Critical Examination of Technology
Face-to-Face vs. Online
I’ve been skeptical of online education for quite some time. First, putting courses online is often pursued for economic gain. Unfortunately, the infrastructue costs and low class sizes needed to make online courses effective mean the margin for profit is … Continue reading
Capture the Flag
I originally wrote this post in 2011. I fear the issue has only gotten worse. ——————- Right now, the TV is on, but Shelby and I are each working on our laptops – in the same room, but somewhere else. … Continue reading
3 reasons I use technology every time I teach
I recently co-taught a graduate course for inservice teachers. One of the modules I was leading was about educational technology. So, given the limited time (about 4 instructional hours), I had to do some hard thinking about what I wanted … Continue reading
Critical of ALL Technology
I know I come off harsh on technology. I consider myself to be an early experimenter with technology in education. I had my students use twitter in class before they knew what twitter was (that was in 2007). While I am … Continue reading
Trying to Make Educational Technology Applicable
In past versions of my educational technology course, I’ve had students complete “tech projects” in which they learn about specific technologies and discuss ways they would use the technologies (or preferably have students use the technology) in their classroom. This … Continue reading
Questioning Technology Reform
Dan Meyer has been channeling the nature of technology lately in his critique of various reform efforts. Most recently he commented on the trade-offs associated with technology use in the Rocketship approach: This is “differentiation,” says John Merrow, and it’s … Continue reading
Technology Gives and Takes Away
From Dan Meyer: But the very technology that lets Khan Academy assess hundreds of concepts at global scale — random number generators, string splices, and algorithmically generated hints — has downgraded, perhaps unavoidably, what it means to know math. I … Continue reading
Zombie apocalypse & education
I’ll let a excerpt from Larry Cuban’s recent post speak for itself: The repeated return of mistaken ideas captures well my experiences with technologies in schools and what I have researched over decades. The zombie idea that is rapidly being … Continue reading
Flipped Class – a student perspective
Below are some thoughts from one of my former middle school students who is now in high school & in a flipped classroom. I’ll let her words speak for themselves, but think her words speak to the state of science … Continue reading
Engaged or Entertained?
The following is from a book chapter I’m working on: Perhaps more insidious is how technology changes views of engagement in learning. While engagement is an important aspect of learning, technologies have likely changed our definition of “engaged”. Rather than … Continue reading
Teaching as Dynamic 