WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 You know that universally recognized feeling 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.459 of sitting down at your desk on a Monday morning. 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:07.599 You've got your coffee, you boot up your computer, 00:00:07.820 --> 00:00:09.980 and you realize your company pushed a massive 00:00:09.980 --> 00:00:12.560 software update over the weekend. Oh yeah, pure 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.199 dread. Right. You just stare at the screen, the 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.280 interface is completely unfamiliar, all the buttons 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:20.320 have moved, you like click something hoping for 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:23.120 a drop -down menu, and suddenly you've accidentally 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:25.280 synced all your personal photos to the company 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:28.500 server. We've all been there. It is a nightmare. 00:00:28.739 --> 00:00:31.920 And in that moment of just sheer ice cold panic, 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:35.939 one singular question pops into your head. Who 00:00:35.939 --> 00:00:37.880 was actually supposed to teach me how to use 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:40.039 this thing? Exactly. And it's funny because that 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:42.359 is exactly what we are looking at today. We're 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:44.359 tackling a piece of writing that attempts to 00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:47.679 answer that exact question. Yeah, it's this really 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:50.880 insightful and honestly, a surprisingly contentious 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:54.280 post from educational technology expert Dr. Gary 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:57.219 Ackerman. It's pulled from his blog, Hack Science, 00:00:57.619 --> 00:00:59.780 and it's simply titled, On Teaching Computers. 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:02.439 It's just a brilliant distillation of a problem 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:05.280 we literally all face. I mean, we are constantly 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.159 handed these incredibly powerful, incredibly 00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:09.620 complex digital tools, whether that's at work 00:01:09.620 --> 00:01:11.900 or in the classroom, but the instruction manual 00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:15.060 is... Somehow always missing. Yeah, it never 00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:17.879 comes with the device and dr. Ackerman has spent 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:21.000 years in the trenches of k -12 education, right 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.959 working specifically at that intense friction 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:27.060 point where human beings collide with mandatory 00:01:27.060 --> 00:01:29.019 technology, right? He's been the guy trying to 00:01:29.019 --> 00:01:31.329 make it all work So the mission of today's deep 00:01:31.329 --> 00:01:33.769 dive is to trace the historical evolution of 00:01:33.769 --> 00:01:36.409 how computers actually entered our learning environments. 00:01:37.030 --> 00:01:39.549 Because as it turns out, that history directly 00:01:39.549 --> 00:01:42.170 dictates who we blame when the screen freezes. 00:01:42.370 --> 00:01:44.189 It really does. It shapes our whole mindset. 00:01:44.310 --> 00:01:46.709 We're going to explore whose job it is to actually 00:01:46.709 --> 00:01:49.769 teach us how to navigate our digital tools. I 00:01:49.769 --> 00:01:52.189 mean, is it the IT department? Is it your manager? 00:01:52.629 --> 00:01:55.370 Is it your teacher? Or is it entirely up to you? 00:01:55.530 --> 00:01:58.750 OK, let's unpack this. So to understand that 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:02.040 modern frustration, you know, the forced software 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:04.959 update or a new digital curriculum, Ackerman, 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:07.760 points out that we have to look back at the physical 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:10.379 location of technology over the past few decades. 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:12.580 The physical location, like where the computer 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:15.439 literally sat in the room. Exactly. The physical 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:17.680 footprint of the computer historically established 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:19.860 the entire philosophy of who was responsible 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:22.719 for maintaining it and, more importantly, teaching 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:26.139 it. Oh, wow. OK, yeah, he lays out this distinct 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:28.939 timeline. He starts with what he calls the marginal 00:02:28.939 --> 00:02:32.039 tools era. The marginal tools era. Yeah. And 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:35.759 if you were in a classroom in like the late 80s, 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:38.400 early 90s, you know, this era, there was usually 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:42.300 one incredibly heavy beige machine physically 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:44.379 shoved into the back corner of the room. It was 00:02:44.379 --> 00:02:46.240 practically a piece of furniture that occasionally 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:48.360 blinked. Right. And during that early phase, 00:02:48.819 --> 00:02:51.039 that machine was definitely not the center of 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:53.159 the learning experience. It was just an accessory. 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:56.129 A novelty. And because it sat in the domain of 00:02:56.129 --> 00:02:58.629 a specific classroom, the responsibility for 00:02:58.629 --> 00:03:00.710 it fell entirely on the shoulders of that specific 00:03:00.710 --> 00:03:03.909 teacher. But there was a catch to that. A big 00:03:03.909 --> 00:03:06.150 catch. The catch was that nobody was actually 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:09.530 forcing them to use it. The teachers who championed 00:03:09.530 --> 00:03:12.949 those early devices were entirely self -motivated 00:03:12.949 --> 00:03:15.330 enthusiasts. Yeah, they were total autodidacts. 00:03:15.849 --> 00:03:17.610 Exactly. They had to figure out how to boot the 00:03:17.610 --> 00:03:20.490 system, how to load a floppy disk, and how to 00:03:20.490 --> 00:03:22.610 troubleshoot these weird error codes entirely 00:03:22.610 --> 00:03:25.669 on their own. There was no dedicated IT support 00:03:25.669 --> 00:03:28.110 coming down to room 204 to help them out. But 00:03:28.110 --> 00:03:31.099 that silent enthusiasm, you know... It just couldn't 00:03:31.099 --> 00:03:33.419 scale. As schools realized computers were not 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:36.020 just a passing fad, they had to provide access 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:38.900 to every student. And that ushered in the second 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:41.280 phase of Ackerman's timeline, which is the era 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:45.139 of the computer lab. Ah, the computer lab. Yes. 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:48.400 This was a massive architectural and philosophical 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:51.139 shift. Schools literally took the technology 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:53.479 out of the individual classrooms and centralized 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:56.620 it into one dedicated space. That mystical room 00:03:56.620 --> 00:03:58.900 down the hall with 20 glowing screens and the 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:00.780 humming air conditioner. That's the one. And 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:02.819 when schools centralized the hardware, they also 00:04:02.819 --> 00:04:05.340 centralized the expertise. They hired dedicated 00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:08.219 specialists to run that room. Meaning the regular 00:04:08.219 --> 00:04:10.819 classroom teachers. were suddenly off the hook. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:12.740 Totally off the hook. They would march their 00:04:12.740 --> 00:04:14.719 students down the hall, drop them off with a 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:17.579 specialist for an hour of basic typing practice, 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:20.379 or maybe a little Oregon trail, and then they'd 00:04:20.379 --> 00:04:23.199 leave. Yeah, it's very much like... Well, actually, 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:25.639 it's like taking a vacation to a foreign country, 00:04:25.660 --> 00:04:28.240 right? Yeah. Where that computer lab specialist 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.699 acts as your dedicated tour guide. I like that. 00:04:30.920 --> 00:04:33.779 You arrive, the guide translates the local language 00:04:33.779 --> 00:04:35.680 for you, they make sure you don't get lost in 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:38.360 the operating system, and when the hour is up... 00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:41.769 your vacation ends. You return to your normal 00:04:41.769 --> 00:04:44.670 analog classroom. You visit the digital world, 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:47.660 but you certainly don't live there. What's fascinating 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:50.399 here is how that physical separation created 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.800 a really deep psychological separation. Because 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:55.839 the computers were quarantined in a specific 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:58.819 room, the knowledge of how to use them was also 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:00.779 quarantined. Oh, that makes so much sense. Right. 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:03.060 The general education teacher didn't need to 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:06.040 know how the network functioned or how to troubleshoot 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:09.079 a frozen screen because, well, that was the tour 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:11.899 guide's job. It created this culture of, like, 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:15.319 learned helplessness. Exactly. Learned helplessness 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:17.819 among general educators regarding technology. 00:05:18.339 --> 00:05:21.040 But obviously, that paradigm could not last. 00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:23.959 Eventually, we entered the modern era of one 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:27.439 -to -one initiatives. The laptop on every single 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:30.899 desk in every single subject. To build on that 00:05:30.899 --> 00:05:34.019 foreign country analogy, the students and teachers 00:05:34.019 --> 00:05:36.100 are no longer just visiting for an hour a week. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.579 The border walls came down and they had been 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:41.160 forced to move to that country permanently. Yes. 00:05:41.579 --> 00:05:44.160 The technology is now the air they breathe. It's 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:46.899 deeply integrated into the daily rhythm of learning. 00:05:47.220 --> 00:05:48.819 Which brings us to the fundamental collision 00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:51.120 Ackerman writes about. The tour guide is gone. 00:05:51.290 --> 00:05:54.029 The tour guide is gone, and the general education 00:05:54.029 --> 00:05:56.949 teacher, who for decades was implicitly told 00:05:56.949 --> 00:05:59.029 that technology was someone else's department, 00:05:59.490 --> 00:06:02.290 is now standing in a room full of digital devices. 00:06:02.689 --> 00:06:04.990 And they are expected to seamlessly integrate 00:06:04.990 --> 00:06:07.189 them into a lesson plan. And that friction, I 00:06:07.189 --> 00:06:09.490 mean, it absolutely peaked during the ultimate 00:06:09.490 --> 00:06:11.870 pressure cooker for educational technology, the 00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:14.329 COVID -19 pandemic. Oh, without a doubt. Ackerman 00:06:14.329 --> 00:06:17.850 mentions. hearing acquaintances recount stories 00:06:17.850 --> 00:06:19.889 of their colleagues in the teaching profession 00:06:19.889 --> 00:06:23.050 actively complaining, saying that it shouldn't 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:25.410 be their job to teach students how to use the 00:06:25.410 --> 00:06:27.689 required hardware and software. They felt they 00:06:27.689 --> 00:06:30.410 were being forced into an IT role. And Ackerman 00:06:30.410 --> 00:06:32.670 approaches those complaints from a very specific 00:06:32.670 --> 00:06:35.029 vantage point. You have to remember, from 2014 00:06:35.029 --> 00:06:37.870 to 2019, right before the pandemic hit, he worked 00:06:37.870 --> 00:06:40.810 in a K -12 co -teaching role. Okay, so he was 00:06:40.810 --> 00:06:43.019 right in the middle of it. He was he wasn't just 00:06:43.019 --> 00:06:46.379 dropping off software. He was actively designing 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:49.360 tech solutions alongside teachers. He actually 00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:51.540 notes that he spent just as much time teaching 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.220 the educators as he did the students trying to 00:06:54.220 --> 00:06:56.819 build this collaborative bridge. Wow. But then 00:06:56.819 --> 00:06:59.100 when COVID hit and forced everyone into a fully 00:06:59.100 --> 00:07:02.060 digital space, he watched that bridge basically 00:07:02.060 --> 00:07:04.560 catch fire. Teachers retreated to the stance 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:06.959 of, you know, this isn't my job. OK, I have to 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:08.980 jump in here and play devil's advocate on behalf 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:11.980 of the listener because there's a very real human 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:14.160 element to this burnout. Sure. Let's look at, 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:16.620 say, a veteran biology teacher or a literature 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:20.139 professor. Their profound specialized expertise 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:23.600 is cellular mitosis or Shakespearean syntax. 00:07:24.579 --> 00:07:27.040 Is it genuinely fair to demand that they suddenly 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.759 act as ad hoc IT support for a digital room full 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:33.100 of 30 panicked students who can't get their microphones 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:36.319 to unmute? It's a lot to ask. It seems like we 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:38.459 are demanding they perform two completely different, 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:41.540 highly specialized jobs at the exact same time. 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:44.379 I mean the cognitive load alone would destroy 00:07:44.379 --> 00:07:46.360 their ability to actually teach the subject matter. 00:07:46.540 --> 00:07:48.459 That is the core tension of modern education 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:51.040 and frankly the modern workplace too. The burnout 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:54.160 is incredibly real. But Ackerman argues that 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:55.959 treating the subject matter and the technology 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.560 as two separate jobs is a fundamental misunderstanding 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:01.220 of what education is today. How so? Well, if 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:03.399 we connect this to the bigger picture, Ackerman 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.399 introduces this vital concept of information 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:09.839 ecologies. Information ecologies. So he is essentially 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.399 arguing that we aren't just handing kids tools. 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:15.040 We are preparing them to survive in a completely 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:18.459 digital habitat. An ecology is a living, breathing, 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:21.600 interconnected system. Precisely. Schools have 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.000 always existed to prepare students to participate 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.339 in the ecologies they will eventually enter as 00:08:26.339 --> 00:08:30.300 adults. Today, those ecologies—the physical places, 00:08:30.500 --> 00:08:32.679 the online spaces, the organizations, and the 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:35.259 corporate cultures we all navigate— They are 00:08:35.259 --> 00:08:38.220 entirely dominated by digital systems. Right. 00:08:38.299 --> 00:08:40.919 Think about your biology teacher example. You 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:44.059 cannot teach modern biology today without acknowledging 00:08:44.059 --> 00:08:47.460 the digital tools that actual biologists use. 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:50.799 Tools to sequence DNA, model protein folding, 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:53.899 or track migration patterns. So trying to teach 00:08:53.899 --> 00:08:56.240 biology without teaching the digital tools of 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.480 biology is like trying to teach marine biology 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:01.259 on dry land. You are ignoring the very water 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:03.320 the discipline swims in. That is the perfect 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.340 way to phrase it. Ackerman explicitly states 00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:07.460 that no matter the subject or the age of the 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:09.360 student, there are age -appropriate applications 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:11.919 of technology. You just cannot separate the medium 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:13.799 from the message anymore. It's all one thing. 00:09:14.059 --> 00:09:16.539 Right. Teaching the tool is teaching the subject. 00:09:16.789 --> 00:09:19.590 To prepare a student for the real world means 00:09:19.590 --> 00:09:22.669 preparing them to actively use the tools of that 00:09:22.669 --> 00:09:26.409 world. So, regarding your devil's advocate pushback, 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:29.409 Ackerman believes it absolutely is the teacher's 00:09:29.409 --> 00:09:31.889 responsibility to teach the technology because 00:09:31.889 --> 00:09:34.549 the technology and the subject are now part of 00:09:34.549 --> 00:09:38.350 the exact same ecology. Okay, but if we accept 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:41.279 that premise... that the subject and the digital 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:44.659 tool are inextricably linked, we still have to 00:09:44.659 --> 00:09:46.720 address the reality of the cognitive overload 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:49.039 we just talked about. Yes, we do. You can't just 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:51.620 tell an overwhelmed professional, hey, your job 00:09:51.620 --> 00:09:54.039 is now an information ecology, deal with it. 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.279 That doesn't prevent a system -wide collapse. 00:09:56.879 --> 00:09:59.500 If the biology teacher spends 40 minutes fixing 00:09:59.500 --> 00:10:01.820 Wi -Fi connections, the students don't learn 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:04.220 about cells. And Ackerman knows this, which is 00:10:04.220 --> 00:10:06.379 why he moves past the diagnosis and provides 00:10:06.379 --> 00:10:09.220 a concrete solution. He lays out three specific 00:10:09.220 --> 00:10:12.159 dependencies, three pillars that must be simultaneously 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.600 supported to make this integration actually work. 00:10:14.639 --> 00:10:16.659 And if any one of these pillars is weak? The 00:10:16.659 --> 00:10:19.279 entire ecology suffers. Let's break down these 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:22.159 pillars. Pillar number one places the initial 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.679 onus on the educators. Ackerman states that teachers 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:29.159 must become independent users and active troubleshooters. 00:10:29.289 --> 00:10:31.269 of the devices and the lessons they deliver. 00:10:31.470 --> 00:10:34.090 The phrase active troubleshooters is vital here. 00:10:34.470 --> 00:10:37.009 This is about breaking that psychological learned 00:10:37.009 --> 00:10:39.690 helplessness inherited from the computer lab 00:10:39.690 --> 00:10:43.409 era. When a link is broken, the default reaction 00:10:43.409 --> 00:10:45.470 cannot be to throw your hands up and wait for 00:10:45.470 --> 00:10:48.210 the tour guide to arrive. Right. The user has 00:10:48.210 --> 00:10:50.230 to take ownership of their immediate environment. 00:10:50.649 --> 00:10:52.909 But they aren't expected to do it in a vacuum, 00:10:53.309 --> 00:10:56.039 which brings us to pillar number two. Teachers 00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:58.580 must have access to specialists who help them 00:10:58.580 --> 00:11:01.340 develop those troubleshooting skills. Crucially 00:11:01.340 --> 00:11:04.100 though, Ackerman draws a very firm boundary here. 00:11:04.220 --> 00:11:06.679 These specialists cannot assume responsibility 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:08.799 for doing it all. Exactly. The specialist is 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:11.620 a coach, not a rescuer. If the specialist jumps 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:13.580 in and fixes the problem every time the system 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:15.740 glitches, the teacher never builds the mental 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:18.039 model required to become that independent user 00:11:18.039 --> 00:11:20.379 we talked about in Pillar 1. They just stay dependent. 00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.200 Exactly. The ecology requires the teacher to 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:25.379 build resilience. Here's where it gets really 00:11:25.379 --> 00:11:27.879 interesting. Because the third pillar shifts 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.720 the responsibility completely away from the classroom. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:33.820 It points the finger directly at the engineers 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:36.220 and developers building the tools in the first 00:11:36.220 --> 00:11:39.539 place. Yes. It's not all on the teachers. Ackerman 00:11:39.539 --> 00:11:42.740 says that IT system designers must understand 00:11:42.740 --> 00:11:47.980 two vital concepts. Perceived ease of use and 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:51.460 perceived effectiveness. These two concepts are 00:11:51.460 --> 00:11:53.740 what actually drive a human being's intention 00:11:53.740 --> 00:11:56.240 to use technology. And they are so important. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.100 Let's look at this through the lens of city planning. 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:01.600 The IT system designers are the architects and 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:03.980 urban planners building a new city. The specialists 00:12:03.980 --> 00:12:05.779 are the mayors and local guides trying to get 00:12:05.779 --> 00:12:07.860 people to move there. The teachers and students 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:09.559 are the citizens. Okay, I see where you're going. 00:12:09.740 --> 00:12:11.539 If the architects build a city with a layout 00:12:11.539 --> 00:12:14.399 that makes no logical sense, say a neighborhood 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.600 with no sidewalks and dead -end streets everywhere, 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.279 that is a failure of perceived ease of use. And 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:23.059 we can look at the psychology behind why that 00:12:23.059 --> 00:12:26.179 failure is so catastrophic. It comes down to 00:12:26.179 --> 00:12:28.919 cognitive load theory. If a teacher has to spend 00:12:28.919 --> 00:12:31.620 15 minutes just figuring out how to navigate 00:12:31.620 --> 00:12:34.960 a poorly designed software dashboard, it eats 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.700 up their limited working memory. Right. It drains 00:12:37.700 --> 00:12:40.419 them. The mental energy required to parse the 00:12:40.419 --> 00:12:44.759 clunky user interface is energy literally stolen 00:12:44.759 --> 00:12:47.379 from the act of teaching. Exactly. The citizen 00:12:47.379 --> 00:12:49.960 looks at the badly designed city and says, this 00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:52.779 is too exhausting to navigate. And then you have 00:12:52.779 --> 00:12:55.299 perceived effectiveness. If the software doesn't 00:12:55.299 --> 00:12:57.240 actually solve a real problem for the teacher, 00:12:57.820 --> 00:13:00.059 if it's just technology for technology's sake, 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:02.279 the citizen realizes there is no reason to visit 00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:04.259 that neighborhood anyway. It just won't go. Right. 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:06.019 No matter how much the specialist encourages 00:13:06.019 --> 00:13:08.379 them to use the new system, the teacher will 00:13:08.379 --> 00:13:11.080 reject it because the cost of using it outweighs 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:13.110 the benefit. This raises an important question 00:13:13.110 --> 00:13:15.309 about how we distribute blame when technology 00:13:15.309 --> 00:13:18.750 fails in an organization. What makes Ackerman's 00:13:18.750 --> 00:13:21.370 three -tiller framework so compelling is that 00:13:21.370 --> 00:13:23.870 it holds everyone accountable. Everyone plays 00:13:23.870 --> 00:13:26.649 a part. It is not just on the end user to stop 00:13:26.649 --> 00:13:29.429 complaining and figure it out. If the developers 00:13:29.429 --> 00:13:32.350 design a system that lacks perceived ease of 00:13:32.350 --> 00:13:35.389 use or effectiveness, the entire chain breaks 00:13:35.389 --> 00:13:37.830 down. The teacher refuses to engage with it, 00:13:38.110 --> 00:13:40.230 the students lose out on the learning, and the 00:13:40.230 --> 00:13:42.009 IT department sits in their office wondering 00:13:42.009 --> 00:13:44.629 why their incredibly expensive new software suite 00:13:44.629 --> 00:13:48.129 has a 0 % adoption rate. So what does this all 00:13:48.129 --> 00:13:50.850 mean for you listening right now? We've talked 00:13:50.850 --> 00:13:53.669 a lot about K -12 classrooms, but Ackerman's 00:13:53.669 --> 00:13:56.690 blueprint applies to literally anyone navigating 00:13:56.690 --> 00:13:59.029 the modern digital landscape. Absolutely anyone. 00:13:59.169 --> 00:14:00.970 Whether you are prepping for a corporate board 00:14:00.970 --> 00:14:02.789 meeting, trying to catch up on a new field of 00:14:02.789 --> 00:14:05.250 research, or just trying to survive your own 00:14:05.250 --> 00:14:07.850 company's newly mandated project management software, 00:14:08.529 --> 00:14:10.769 you are operating inside your own information 00:14:10.769 --> 00:14:13.580 ecology. And to thrive in that ecology without 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:17.019 burning out, you need to demand this exact trifecta 00:14:17.019 --> 00:14:19.600 in your professional life. You need your organization 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:21.659 to provide well -designed systems that actually 00:14:21.659 --> 00:14:24.799 make your job easier. You need access to mentors 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:26.860 who can coach you through the learning curve. 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:30.000 Mentors not rescuers. Right. But ultimately, 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:32.139 you have to cultivate your own willingness to 00:14:32.139 --> 00:14:34.580 be an active troubleshooter. You cannot afford 00:14:34.580 --> 00:14:37.340 to be a passive user waiting for the IT tour 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:39.690 guide. Because the passive user is the one who 00:14:39.690 --> 00:14:42.429 gets left behind when the ecology naturally evolves. 00:14:43.429 --> 00:14:45.549 To recap the conceptual journey we've taken today, 00:14:46.210 --> 00:14:48.629 we started back in the day dropping kids off 00:14:48.629 --> 00:14:51.370 to play Oregon Trail in isolated specialized 00:14:51.370 --> 00:14:53.850 computer labs where technology was treated like 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:56.509 a fun little detour from actual learning. a vacation 00:14:56.509 --> 00:14:59.269 from the real classroom. Right. And we've traced 00:14:59.269 --> 00:15:02.049 that history all the way to today's fully integrated 00:15:02.049 --> 00:15:04.990 information ecologies, where digital literacy 00:15:04.990 --> 00:15:08.210 is no longer a siloed subject managed by a specialist 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:10.629 down the hall. It is the very medium of learning 00:15:10.629 --> 00:15:13.429 and working, inextricably linked to every subject 00:15:13.429 --> 00:15:16.139 and every profession. Understanding that historical 00:15:16.139 --> 00:15:18.360 shift from the physical lab to the ubiquitous 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:20.879 laptop, it really helps us contextualize the 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:23.559 friction we feel today. It is entirely natural 00:15:23.559 --> 00:15:25.460 to feel overwhelmed when the boundaries of our 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:28.379 jobs expand so dramatically. It is. But recognizing 00:15:28.379 --> 00:15:31.039 that an ecology requires all of us to be active 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:34.340 participants is the first step toward reclaiming 00:15:34.340 --> 00:15:36.779 our agency in a digital world. Now, before we 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:38.759 let you go, I want to leave you with one final 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.899 thought to mull over. Something that builds on 00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:44.620 Dr. Ackerman's framework but pushes it into a 00:15:44.620 --> 00:15:47.039 wildly provocative frontier. Okay, let's hear 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:50.600 it. If you look at his blog, Hack Science, he 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:53.080 categorizes his writing and among those categories 00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:56.919 are generative AI and AI in education. Oh wow, 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:59.860 yeah. If we accept the premise that schools and 00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:02.240 workplaces exist to prepare us for information 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.200 ecologies, what happens to our roles when the 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:08.240 technology fundamentally shifts again? What happens 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.519 when the tool you are supposed to actively troubleshoot 00:16:10.519 --> 00:16:13.000 isn't just a frozen screen or a complicated spreadsheet, 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:15.620 but an artificial intelligence that actively 00:16:15.620 --> 00:16:17.740 does the learning and the thinking for the student. 00:16:17.940 --> 00:16:20.500 That is a massive shift. Right. If the ecology 00:16:20.500 --> 00:16:22.580 becomes populated by systems that can generate 00:16:22.580 --> 00:16:25.019 their own knowledge, who takes responsibility 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:27.019 for teaching the human mind when the computer 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:30.139 can teach itself? It forces us to ask what active 00:16:30.139 --> 00:16:32.659 troubleshooting even means when the machine is 00:16:32.659 --> 00:16:35.580 smarter than the user. It makes that old Oregon 00:16:35.580 --> 00:16:38.259 Trail floppy disk look incredibly simple, doesn't 00:16:38.259 --> 00:16:40.580 it? It really does. Thank you for joining us 00:16:40.580 --> 00:16:42.899 on this deep dive into the evolution of teaching 00:16:42.899 --> 00:16:45.500 technology. We hope you walk away with a better 00:16:45.500 --> 00:16:48.039 understanding of the ecologies you navigate every 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:50.940 day. Thank you for listening. Until next time, 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.399 keep questioning the tools, keep troubleshooting 00:16:53.399 --> 00:16:55.860 the problems, and we will catch you on the next 00:16:55.860 --> 00:16:56.480 deep dive.