Dr. Gary Ackerman

I’ve always found those who truly “understand” concepts are not bothered by ambiguous definitions at any level. They know we make some progress, reach our limit, then dig in again.

Are learning outcomes used to guide learning or manage educators?

Note to school administrators: if your new data comes from teachers filling out forms, you data are incomplete. Very incomplete.

I'm considering charlatan as my retirement career. All I have to do is figure out the fraud that will be most lucrative as I don't want to work very hard.

Sometimes I wish folks would spend as much time planning, editing, and reviewing their graphs as they do their text.

Yeah, I heard what you said, but your actions were much louder.

Einstein said, “the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.”

Yeah, he was right

Let’s not conflate remembering (which we enhance via interleaving, spaced practice, etc.) with “knowing,” “understanding,” or “able to use elsewhere.”

Infographics are fine, but I always wonder about accessibility. How do we alt-text them? How do we convince folks to convey the information in non-graphic format too?

“This was meaningful for me, thus it should be meaningful for you” is one of the weakest rationales.

“Ours is a checklist culture….”

I can’t disagree.

I don’t believe fiction deserves the exclusive claim to transforming readers some seem to believe it deserves.

I read nonfiction. I see myself and the world differently when I finish a really well-written and insightful book.

Reading is more that getting info off a page. Writing is more than putting it there. Math is more than manipulating numbers. Technology is more than coding.

To collect data without a clear question to be answered, appropriate analysis methods identified, and reporting plans in place (not to mention informed consent) is unethical.

I’m always in awe of the foolishness of those “experts” who think they know other fields better than those experts.

Our town has been targeted for a mass mailing of religious propaganda. I opened the book randomly and read three sentences. I’m a pretty good reader, but I could not make sense of any of the sentences.

If you can’t identify data that would prove you wrong, you are not really data-driven.

Being skeptical and denying reality are different approaches to the world.

My hunch based on my experience teaching other fields and hanging out with skilled reading teachers for a few decades… is that there is no one single approach that teaches the diverse set of skills we call reading.

Your goals and your students’ goals are likely not the same.

If we didn’t believe the pattern existed in the data, we wouldn’t see it.

I attended class in which teachers wrote text on boards. Now I see video of it and I really don’t see that as an effective or efficient strategy.

Reading Jared Diamond confirms that one cannot look to “primitive society” for any answers. Their cultural practices vary… some depending on circumstances, some (seemingly) depending on whim.

Challenging conventional thinking and denying it are different things. One move it closer to reality, the other further from it.

Some people weaponize email CC’s… they include everyone they can think of.

I’ve never seen that practice do anything but alienate those whose support they need.

Yes, you are entitled to your opinion.

No, I’m not obligated to take it seriously.

If students can be excluded from class for not having a pencil, can teachers be excluded from training for the same reason?

Remember when we used to block Wikipedia? I do.

One reason educators are reluctant to change is they interpret change as “what I’ve been doing isn’t good.”

I’d like to interact with you, but I have no idea what the acronyms mean.