“We didn’t ban calculators. We taught math differently. We didn’t ban the internet. We taught research differently. So why are we trying to ban AI instead of doing the same?” We’ve been here before. I was a young teacher when the internet showed up in classrooms in the 90s. Educators panicked. Teachers worried it would make students lazy, that it would only be used for cheating, and that memorizing facts and dates would go out the window. They were right. Sort of. The internet did change things. But it didn’t destroy learning. It made us rethink what was worth teaching and how we wanted to spend instructional time. It pushed us away from memorizing trivia and toward analyzing, questioning, creating, and connecting. The same thing happened with calculators decades before. There was real fear that students would lose the ability to compute. But what actually happened was that students stopped getting stuck in multi-digit calculations and started spending more time doing real math. They m...
Breaking News: Silver Bullets for Student Learning Found! (Spoiler: They're Actually All Glitter) Or Marketing vs Research: How Do Educators Make PL&D Decisions? Or Why We Need to Rethink How We Support Professional Learning for Schools and Educators Part One! “When all is said and done, more is usually said than done.” -Lou Holtz Part of the “Barriers to Professional Learning & Doing” series… In my almost three decades in education and with the many schools I’ve worked with, it’s obvious that almost every education organization out there is seeking the “Silver Bullet” to support increased student learning. We seem to be enamored by the “newest thing” in education, usually some type of curriculum or approach that promises big returns. These “Silver Bullets” tend to be 1) flashy (or glittery!) or 2) have deep marketing budgets (hello big publishers!). Unfortunately, the marketing and excitement often overshadows the research and effectiveness behind the newest thing. ...