Gary’s Blog

  • Comfort Zone Technology
    One of the challenges of being a school technology leader (and probably in other fields as well, but my area of greatest expertise is in education) is what I (and probably others) call “Comfort Zone Technology.” Here is the general situation: A new leader is hired into whatever is their field. It may be in Read More
  • Your Online Course Is Draining Student Brainpower: Four Simple Fixes from Learning Science
    150: Spinning Up Distance Learning Classes Quickly I uploaded the syllabus for a course I planned, but never taught, to NotebookLM which generated this post Introduction: The Challenge of the “Empty Classroom” If you’re an educator, you’re likely familiar with this scenario: you’re handed an empty digital “course shell” in your learning management system and Read More
  • Statistics
    An AI-generated podcast I generated based on items I had prepared for a workforce development course in data analytics. Statistics
  • Supporting Education in Rural Schools With Open Source Technology
    I’m messing around with rehashing my old writing with AI… here is an example from a chapter I wrote several years ago. In the chapter, I described several projects in which we supported education in rural areas using open source technology. Rural educators and school leaders face an often-exacerbated set of challenges, including limited financial Read More
  • On the (Limited) Value of “Big Idea” People
    A colleague recently arrived at my door with a “great idea.” I listened patiently and finally told him “sure, that sounds like a good idea. I think your first step would be to….” He interrupted me to say, “I thought you would do that. I’m more of a ‘big idea’ person. You know, I come Read More
  • Open Source Technology
    I’m messing around with rehashing my old writing with AI… here is an example from a chapter I wrote several years ago Open-source technology is defined by its dimensions of transparency and freedom. This type of software is produced by a growing community and has begun to compete with and complement commercial products in both Read More