When I was in high school, I had a calculus teacher who would sometimes disparage some of his fixed-mindset colleagues. “In her lesson plans, there’s a week-long gap at the end of November,” he’d say. “It just says ‘No School — Kennedy was shot.’” Of course, he was exaggerating. This was 25 years after the Kennedy assassination. His point was that some teachers seem to … Continue reading Prepared for Anything
Generative artificial intelligence has been with us for a little over three years now. At the time, I called ChatGPT “astonishing” and “revolutionary.” That’s high praise from me. It’s one of the very rare disrupters: it has the potential to change both the why and the what of school. Just like ubiquitous Internet access and Smartphones changed the purpose of school 15 years ago, AI … Continue reading Should We Stop Using AI in School?
Over break, I read “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” an account of Bruce Springsteen’s recording of the Nebraska album. Sandwiched between the successful River tour and the record-breaking Born in the USA album, Nebraska is quiet, simple, contemplative, and depressing. Springsteen wrote the songs and recorded demos of them on his TEAC 144 Portastudio, a “home studio” machine that could make multitrack recordings on cassette tape. … Continue reading Incompatible
“No unread messages in conversations or conferences” It was the message, all those years ago, in the world of dialup and text conferencing, that told you it was time to log off and go do something else. “There’s nothing to see here. You’ve already read everything.” There’s no email to read. There are no new posts in the online communities. You’re at the end. No … Continue reading No Unread Messages
Where is the school? The school that empowers our children to create the better world that we have decided to eschew?The school that fosters curious, lifelong learners?The school that invites skepticism and expects students to point out inconsistencies between the things we say and the things we do?The school that embraces Christian values, and Muslim values, and Hindu values, and Jewish values: that taking care … Continue reading Where is the School?
“Has your district implemented any AI literacy materials for staff and/or students?” It’s a reasonable question. I was in a virtual meeting with about 60 other educators earlier this week. We were talking about artificial intelligence, and how schools are working to embrace it, manage it, leverage it, govern it. It’s a working group. We’re trying to figure things out. There are no right answers. … Continue reading AI Literacy
I took an online graduate level course last month. The course was called “AI and Society: Redefining Learning, Work, & Human Potential” and it was offered through an accreddited instution of higher learning. I earned three semester workshop hours, which means that I can use those hours to renew my professional license. If I were a teacher, I could also use those hours for salary … Continue reading Where Credit is Due
I’ve played the guitar for 30 years. Unless you’re family or a very close friend, you haven’t heard me play. That’s probably for the best. I know the chords. I understand quite a bit of music theory. I can strum some cowboy chords and sing a passable melody most of the time. But I’m not a contender for a Grammy award or anything. I don’t … Continue reading Audience
It’s not easy having the same name as your dad. To be honest, the Schinkers are not known for their creativity in naming the boys. I’m John, and my brother is George. Our father is John, and he had a brother named George. Their father was George, and he had a brother named John. Their father was George, and he had a brother named… Michael. … Continue reading Dad
It’s been a tough year for education. There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty. We’re seeing abrupt changes to practices and policies. Many of those appear to be rooted in fear or political priorities. Others seem to focus on discrediting educators and pushing the narrative that public schools are inept or ineffective. There are constant attacks on funding sources, and increased measures to funnel public dollars … Continue reading The Most Important Thing
In 1997, the Dickey Amendment was inserted into an appropriations bill. It prohibited the use of funds by the Centers for Disease Control to “advocate or promote gun control.” It was paired with a $2.6 million budget cut to the CDC: the exact amount used by that agency for firearm research the year before. The implication was clear: the CDC needs to stay away from … Continue reading Who Tells Your Story?
Fifteen years ago, I mentioned that my school district was receiving 20,000 email messages per day. That was four times the email volume that we had seen five years prior. At the time, we were switching to Google for email, and we were planning to provide email accounts to students for the first time. That kind of growth is impressive, but it’s not unusual. Nearly … Continue reading The Speeding Up is Slowing Down
Taste of Tech 