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garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman
@garyackermanphd.bsky.social
1.3K followers 2.8K following 3.6K posts
Teaching. Learning. Technology. https://hackscience.education
hackscience.education
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garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 11h
I work in IT. I spent all day reminding people we stopped using that system years ago.
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garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 13h
One thing I learned during 30 years in education: while you are focusing on improving one thing, another becomes a crisis.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 14h
“There is a free tier” isn’t “open source.”
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 15h
Classroom grades reflect one’s capacity to succeed in a social hierarchical situation. Let’s recognize that and teachers’ biases… it easier to call them out as they can’t hide behind “objectivity.”
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 15h
Your data… that “evidence your interventions work" may well be the Hawthorne Effect.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 16h
Abandon topics and outcomes to focus lesson. Use questions or problems instead. It will improve your teaching and students’ learning.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 18h
“Explain you thinking” helps until it doesn’t. The trick is for teachers to know when to stop.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 18h
I work in IT. I spend all days watching spinning icons.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 20h
The more teachers talk about how they report only academic learning in their grades (whatever they are), the more “other stuff” is included in what they are evaluating.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
Over the weekend, I watched no football games, but many matches.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
In education, we do some things very well. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily the things we should be doing.
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garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
Classrooms with seats in rows.

This elicits vastly different responses from teachers.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
When I was an undergraduate student doing botany research, we realized our measurements were proxies for something else. They were not reified in our minds. One thing that drive me out of k-12 teaching in the US, was the fact that test scores had become reified.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
It never ceases to amaze me to observe two or more people discussing “learning” and seeing they each have vastly different concepts of it but no one realizes it, yet they argue on. #education #teaching
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garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
“Taking a class in it” and “knowing it” are not the same thing.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
Learning. A human activity full of myth and mystery, and dedicated to creating fading and false memories.
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garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
Learning. Such a simple idea. We all have done it for our whole lives. As humans, we have done it since the inception of the species. It has been the subject of philosophical discourse for centuries. Yet we seem to act like we have no idea how it might work.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
"We are taking accessibility seriously," but we excuse leaders whose presentations are not.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 1d
If you can’t tell me what’s wrong with your data, I’m not interested in hearing what you think is right about it.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 2d
Averaging is about the worst way to report learning.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 2d
So many who argue “it will motivate them” do not understand motivation nor do they understand the individuals who are to be motivated.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 2d
When the consequences or rewards don’t work, don’t look for effective ones, look for a different theory.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 2d
One event isn’t a trend. Two aren’t either. Once you get to three, you can start being curious… but get some math to back up your argument if you start claiming a trend.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 2d
You say, “it’s this or that,” but in reality, there are far more options. Digital processing is the one obvious exception.
garyackermanphd.bsky.social
Dr. Gary Ackerman @garyackermanphd.bsky.social · 2d
Objectively measuring the value of anything seems dubious… except maybe money and votes.