Welcome, one and most, to the final regular episode for this THIRD season of the EnT! Academic year 2024/25 has been one for the books… and not just geopolitically, either! This episode sees us talking about marking… and a whole host of associated issues! Please check it out, as per your preferences!

I guess it (the end of the term) hasn’t really hit us yet! #ednontech

77 episodes in, and we’re just getting started! #ednontech

And that is it!

Time, gentlemen! Gentlewomen! Gentlefolk!

It’s time. Exams are over! Classes, too! Piles were created, eliminated, recreated, shifted into numerical and alphabeticized data formats… from rich to flat… from multimodal to binary!

We’ve been given our orders, and boy did we march!

I’m doing my best to stay general here! After the marking done, what else is there? For this itinerant educator fella… a repositioning, of sorts! From one rich, significant context to another! Severance will ease the transition!

My point remains: it is better to be an educator in Canada than anywhere else in the world! It’s my dumb luck to be of this place! And especially the Maritime place(s)! What’s to stop anyone with a desire to self-improve to take that 10,000 hours and turn it into a thing for life… beyond the commercial applications!

Writing, for me, is life stuff. It’s DNA stuff. It’s what I think about, and it’s how I think! It’s well prior to the educational endeavor chronologically, mentally, and spiritually! Teaching is a thing of the spirit. So is music. So is writing.

I’d like to think we try to give that creative spirit, writ large, some space and some exploration through this show and our various and sundry and associated and non-mutually-exclusive other endeavors!

This is all to say: education is freedom! We are pursuing this with commitment and conviction! And we are grateful to you, or anyone, who takes an interest in this for any reason whatsoever!

We’ll see you again in the fall!

Out of the discussion of the last fifteen years we find one point of absolute agreement, namely, that we should overhaul thoroughly the methods by which we measure the outcome of instruction in the public schools. 

Rugg, H. O. (1918). Teachers’ marks and the reconstruction of the marking system. The Elementary School Journal, 18(9), 701-719.

Secondary school teachers reported an average workload of 47.6 hours per week, made up of:

A number of teachers highlighted the cyclical nature of their marking workload, confirming that the hours spent on marking increased at certain peak points during the school year such as assessment, examination and reporting periods. As one teacher remarked, ‘These times change throughout the year. During musical time, reporting periods, senior marking, these hours double if not triple’

Manuel, J., Carter, D., & Dutton, J. (2018). ‘As much as I love being in the classroom…’: Understanding secondary English teachers’ workload. English in Australia, 53(3), 5-22.

Without considering the 21st Century teaching and learning activities, there are factors that are often left out in teaching workload calculation. Among of those factors are: 

… the assessment of student learning was the single most important contributor to the academic workload which taking on average 2.5 hours per student per semester.

Ujir, H., Salleh, S. F., Marzuki, A. S. W., Hashim, H. F., & Alias, A. A. (2020). Teaching Workload in 21st Century Higher Education Learning Setting. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 9(1), 221-227.

Overall pupil attainment and progress remained constant or improved. In some cases (such as certain alternative marking and feedback strategies), reducing workload outside of class may in fact improve attainment. 

Churches, R. (2020). Supporting teachers through the school workload reduction toolkit. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f08d616d3bf7f0416418520/Supporting_teachers_through_the_school_workload_reduction_toolkit_March_2020.pdf

Discussion categories:

With ever increasing student focused assessment there is an increase in required marking time, which has not been reflected in workload adjustments and may not be economically achievable for universities.

Henderson-Brooks, C. (2021). Marking as emotional labour: A discussion of the affective impact of assessment feedback on enabling educators. Access: Critical explorations of equity in higher education, 8(1), 110-121.

Marking

How can educators complete cyclical grading with less of an emotional toll?

It puts you in a false sense of competition with those around you

&

Grading is the pez dispenser of education

Hey there, hither and yon! We are most def gratitudinal (sic) to see you here and now! In this episode, Doug went way in the way back machine and brought out a topic and possibly the start of his part of these notes back in fall of 2023! We’re always trying to fully use what we create on the way to these notes, and it’s always great to be able to go back and rescue topics and ideas that had perhaps fallen to the side!

Folks, we are talking loss & grief in education… and it does get heavy!

We are committed to these discussions! And we are excruciatingly handsome! #ednontech

Unsurprisingly, we have some exceedingly handsome audio hereabouts as well! #ednontech

Listen, I’d be remiss here not to observe the following that have been shaping my viewpoint on certain aspects of how communication works in our new Trumpian, post-social media shitshow that is passing for culture!

The Pope died on Easter Sunday the day after meeting a senior executive from one of the most chaotic, problematic US administrations in modern history.

This same Easter weekend has also coincided with the normal 4/20 stoner fest to celebrate legal weed.

As far as significant rock things go, we are also this same weekend with Easter, the death of the Pope, and 4/20… today, as I write this, Easter Monday of 2025… is the fifth anniversary of the passing of Prince, the legendary genius generational musician and cultural icon… and, at bottom, basketball-loving Minneapolis homebody! They’re a type, actually!

It’s also Iggy Pop’s birthday today, cause why the fuck not?

In the times of MAGA and the complete annihilation of economic, cultural, and political norms… people are feeling stressed, angry, exhausted!

I know this because I’ve made an intentional effort to reach an American audience for podcasts and other media offerings vis-à-vis the “adding friend” feature on FB! Here are the points that I made this afternoon when somebody reached out! It seems best to share these verbatim! Honestly, I think this says it all!

I have a PhD in a thing called educational technology! I teach English at a college here in Alberta! I’ve been doing somewhat of a multifaceted social media experiment.

I’m using 5 different social media platforms with pretty specific purposes in order to amplify content that I produce related to: an education podcast, a music podcast, a literary interview series, plus bespoke indie media production.

As of 6 weeks ago, I had around 115 followers… a normal, selective amount for a middle-aged separated educator guy.

Then, after your president fucked over the world economy, I decided to start poking back through very specific and disruptive techniques equating to spam, but with advanced cultural and technological messaging behind it.

Cause you know, 4 university degrees, temporary English contract, away from my kids, single, basic bored sober dude.

I’m trying to be as transparent as possible to anyone who asks.

I have a very legitimate 20 year practice as PhD level educator in the language, learning technology, training and development spaces.

I have seen MAGA use very basic features and approaches through Meta tools, largely FB and IG but also Whatsapp.

The Democrats are utterly fucked at running counter messaging.

I am a basic overeducated Canadian dude whose Grandfather fought in Korea alongside American troops in the first conflict against Soviet-Russian backed forces following WWII.

I take this bullshit from your fucked up bigoted dictator personally.

I am using very basic counter propaganda techniques to put out messaging which is educationally and cultural valid, while also causing the other side to scramble with my advanced writing skills and my basic ability to use media creation tools and web marketing techniques to disrupt some very bogus and lazy narratives being propagated by very very lazy, mid, mostly male, mostly white privileged assholes

Thanks for attending my TED talk, lol

And thanks, as ever, to Doug for being such an outstanding partner in this endeavor! It would literally not exist in any way, shape or form without him! Thanks, pal! And thanks to all/any new pals checking out this podcast and associated media and notes for the first time!

The use of the arts and humanities, as a teaching and learning strategy, is achievable through the bringing together of different art and media by a skilled educator to facilitate reflection.  

Johnson, A., & Jackson, D. (2005). Using the arts and humanities to support learning about loss, suffering and death. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 11(8), 438-443.

There is minimal research relating to grief and loss education in the field of counseling or other helping professions.

… a grief and loss course specific to death and dying concerns: 

Doughty Horn, E. A., Crews, J. A., & Harrawood, L. K. (2013). Grief and loss education: Recommendations for curricular inclusion. Counselor Education and Supervision, 52(1), 70-80.

Loss, impermanence, and death are facts of life difficult to face squarely. Our own mortality and that of loved ones feels painful and threatening, the mortality of the biosphere unthinkable.  Consequently, we do our best to dodge these thoughts, and the current globalizing culture supports and colludes in our evasiveness. 

Affifi, R., & Christie, B. (2019). Facing loss: Pedagogy of death. Environmental Education Research, 25(8), 1143-1157.

Loss

How can education help with the loss of important people in educator lives?

Seneca knows what he is talking about.

Hey there! Welcome one and most to this uh… dual-purpose episode of the EnT, falling as the recording session did… on both Easter Sunday and also 4/20! To get full stunt production value out of this convergence, we are releasing two different but in some ways thematically overlapping issues within a short timespan! First up is our chat on repossessing education from the throes of bad jargon and the accompanying lack of attendant conceptual clarity!

Video capable, if you’ve gumption enough! #ednontech

We’ve got your (semantic) back, Jack! #ednontech

To my mind, any conversation that I get to have with Dr. Doug Reid is pure gold!

Let’s be really real here for a moment! Due to the incessant deluge of chaos from certain significant geopolitical entities, it’s hard to believe how much things have changed in many of our lives since the beginning of 2025!

I’ve said for months now that mental health and wellness are vital! You have to be proactive, in my opinion! Those who have observed my recent pivot in terms of my very specific and intentional uses of Meta apps, particularly Facebook, may have some questions at what some of the actions there signify on a wider scale! Let me say first that anyone who has asked directly has received a proper explanation! These parties include my mom, my dad, my students at Keyano, my kids, my best friend, and my podcasting partners!

In full transparency, I am engaged in a valid form of peaceful protest of what I perceive as propagandistic tactics and approaches by various state and non-state entities by emulating social media’s algorithmic content sharing practices and exponential reach through a highly porous and ad hoc social networking “outer layer”. This porous outer layer of social interactions is actually a small subset of how Meta makes money off secondary and tertiary marketing of aggregated heaps of mega-data to various other commercial and noncommercial enterprises and entities and actors.

As such…

I’m essentially using the features of Facebook to offer a critique of the platform and problems associated with rendering significant cultural issues down to clickbait in between highly problematic ads, with a user ecosystem rife with malicious, dishonest user accounts… and a great, great many bots!

At some point, a wider and deeper explanation of the mindset that led to this, the practices, and lessons learned may be warranted! At the moment it is simply interesting to discover new areas of practice within the ed tech endeavor which I have been participating in for nearly twenty years!

Thanks as ever to Doug for a compelling topic and a great conversation!

For my educational non-dollar, I’d strongly recommend this interview with one of the greatest actors of his, or any, generation!

What is the youthful mind curious about – at least till we deaden it with our preposterous schools – but about these very marvels of creation which we do our best to spoil for him with our learned jargon and our grammar rules?

Atkinson, W. (1872). Primary School Education. (2), 46-46.

The use of jargon in education is a problem where it is not used consistently. This inconsistency limits how people within the profession communicate with each other and also how those professionals communicate with others.

Hollingshead, S. L. P. (1994). The use of jargon in education, 1920-1990. University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

This book is good reading when you have just a few flee moments and when you have had a conversation with a teacher and are not quite sure about the terminology mentioned. Bottom line: Essential.

Jargon book is a terminology book through which preservice language teachers keep significant terms and methods that are related to language teaching.

Özkan, Y. (2018). Fostering reflectivity through jargon books in a teacher education context. PASAA, 55(1), 32-56.

… the use of jargon may be confusing to individuals without similar training, which could be a hindrance to successful interdisciplinary work, such as in consultation with schoolteachers.
Martin, S. (2022). The Effects of Jargon on School-Based Consultation (Master’s thesis, University of Kansas).

https://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html

Jargon

How can educators engage with jargon that welcomes others to this discipline?

MCAA – Make competence awesome again

Thanks for joining us here at the EnT! We take a deep dive into personnel and/or personal factors associated with the educational endeavour, writ large! We hope you will be as stoked about this as we are!

When we started all we had were our handsomeness, talent, and experience! Then we started to figure out what we’re doing! #ednontech

It’s yours to keep, this audio, if you want! #ednontech

Here we are! In the past 28 or so hours since recording this episode, we’ve put 3 new episodes of the new Writers on Writing series of interviews associated with my role as an English prof! Plus putting together this here EnT! As such, I’ve precious, precious little to add here… as I’m teaching in a few hours and have a lecture still to prepare!

I am grateful to Doug for this topic! Personality, personal integrity, accountability, and other considerations of the person as a whole are significant to the educational endeavour, generally! Looking back on it now, I see that the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model and particularly the construct of social presence— which I studied as part of my University of Calgary Education Doctorate (Ed.D)— informs my perspective on much of what we discussed today! And, further, the case study research method as well!

Given these outstanding areas yet to be fully explored, I’m hopeful we’ll be able to revisit this topic again before too long… and possibly further explorations may be warranted!

My reading list at the moment is veering towards the texts I’m teaching for my classes this term, and also lately a collection of Nietzsche’s essays On Truth and Untruth… I am finding this somewhat bracing, and even strengthening in the… uh… rather unique economic and political times we find ourselves entangled in! And of course, taking into account the effects these can have on a person’s general sense of wellness and wellbeing!

As such, my real last word for now is: take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Make adjustments to your plans or activities as needed. Wellness first, in all things, pals!

Much appreciation and respect to Doug for leading this stellar convo!

Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched historical accounts, but how I saw and encountered developments in my personal life.

Trying to develop a vision for teaching and learning

Bates, Tony. “Https://www.tonybates.ca/2025/03/25/a-personal-history-29-strategic-planning-for-e-learning-a-personal-case-study/.” Online Learning and Distance Education Resources, edited by Tony Bates, Contact North, 25 Mar. 2025, www.tonybates.ca/2025/03/25/a-personal-history-29-strategic-planning-for-e-learning-a-personal-case-study/

Recently, theorists have argued for a cultural dimension in the design process and the need to provide culturally sensitive learning environments.

McLoughlin, C., & Oliver, R. (2000). Designing learning environments for cultural inclusivity: A case study of indigenous online learning at tertiary level. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 16(1).

Edtech is also an area to which people come from other disciplines, so there is no shared set of concepts or history. This can be liberating but also infuriating. I’m sure I was not alone in emitting the occasional sigh when during the MOOC rush of 2012, so many “new” discoveries about online learning were reported—discoveries that were already tired concepts in the edtech field.

Weller, M. (2018). Twenty years of EdTech. Educause Review Online, 53(4), 34-48.

“But government rarely acts on the basis of need, want, fact, or logic.”

Teillet, J. (2019). The North-West is our Mother: The story of Louis Riel’s people, the Métis Nation. HarperCollins.

In this special issue, “A New Era for Educational Technology: Opportunities and Conversations,” we invited eight teams to share insights from their research on innovative uses of educational technologies. As we hope you will see throughout this issue, these papers address crucial and interconnected issues and develop shared insight into EdTech.

We hope that this special issue sparks further conversation among researchers, educators, policymakers, and EdTech developers regarding the growing and diversifying roles of educational technology at all levels.

Kim, D., Borowiec, K., & Wortham, S. (2024). A New Era in EdTech: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities. ECNU Review of Education, 7(2), 252-257.

Join us as we delve into these subjects and more, sharing our perspectives and experiences along the way.

https://oyos.ca/ENT/

Please visit the Ed non-Tech Sandbox for examples, experiments, memes, and other ephemera discussed during the podcast!

Stranach, Matt, and Doug Reid. “Conversations about education, technology, and culture.” #Ed non-Tech (EnT) Podcast, edited by Matt Stranach, 506 Consulting NB, 22 Mar. 2025, analogue-trope.ca/podcast/.

Narrative

How can the personal narratives of educators help inform how we move forward?

Emitted an occasional sigh

Welcome to the EnT on disruption in education! This is the first time we’ve addressed this full-on, somehow! Please join us!

This video widget isn’t going to click itself! Or is it? #ednontech

Sound, meet radness! #Ednontech

These are the weeks where the sun is well and truly out!

We are well and truly into the torrents of spring, despite all the grimness of *ahem* certain GEOPOLITICAL GOINGS-ON (Editor: Easy now, fella).

I, myself, personally, and speaking only, solely, individually on my own behalf could stand somewhat LESS disruption across the board, generally! As much as the English teacher in me abhors using a negative statement to frame a point, it’s perfectly true to say: I wish things would stop bumping the fuck around so much, generally! Societal disruption is, effectively, the new norm! These are the headwinds we are navigating as a society!

This when the mental fortress Marcus writes of becomes paramount! You step into your calm place. You find your few simple doctrines. You find perfect calm. You return to the world. This is what Stoicism provides me, particularly through Marcus, but the other writers are all there too!

My experience is that kindness, care, mindfulness, respect for students’ lives as a whole all set the preconditions for successful learning. Ideally the class will be an island of calm, of sorts. The Stoics have a Greek word: εὐδαιμονία; Eudaimonia which I am always after and which I try as much as I can to encourage in others… in the Stoic sense, rather than the Greek colloquial, of perfect calm from being untroubled.

Untroubledness (new word alert!) is something I’ve come to greatly value over the years and weeks and hours and decades, particularly in middle age! As such, I would like to propose that wellness, self-care, looking out for yourselves and those around you proactively… can all be considered disruptive acts! Inasmuch as the current public spaces are designed in format and messaging to flatten and trivialize anything with a whiff of nuance or emotional resonance! I could go on! I have! I will! But not here, and not now!

Thanks as ever to Doug for being such a rad friend and collaborator! Thanks to you(s) for checking out this here EnT!

Some countries have governmental problems in allowing the import of transistors or radios for use by the populace.

Some characteristics and uses of radio identified in the review include:

In fact, radio has been shown to be as effective as “conventional methods.”

Grise Jr, P. J. (1974). Educational Radio: A Review of the Literature.

I’m not sure we always notice: sometimes when mainstreaming happens we don’t recognise it. When did e-learning become part of the fabric of education?

—Amber Thomas

van Mourik Broekman, P., Hall, G., Byfield, T., Hides, S., & Worthington, S. (2014). Open education: A study in disruption. Rowman & Littlefield.

Crisis requires society to renew itself, albeit in a disruptive way.

This sudden change has required universities to evolve toward online teaching in record time, implementing and adapting the technological resources available and involving professors and researchers who lack innate technological capacities for online teaching. The university system must be able to provide quality education in a scenario of digital transformation, disruptive technological innovation, and accelerated change in the educational framework.

García-Morales, V. J., Garrido-Moreno, A., & Martín-Rojas, R. (2021). The transformation of higher education after the COVID disruption: Emerging challenges in an online learning scenario. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 616059.

… wars disrupt the educational process making it harder for the

population in schooling age to achieve the desired level of education.

Ichino, A., & Winter-Ebmer, R. (2004). The long-run educational cost of World War II. Journal of Labor Economics, 22(1), 57-87.

The past century witnessed a dramatic expansion of mass education (Boli et al. 1985, Meyer et al. 1992a). Yet, the expansion of educational opportunities has not been accompanied by the corresponding expansion of equality of educational opportunities.

The reliance on exogenous, episodic periods of crisis or subsequent transformative adaptation does not leave much room for the agency in the discussion of change.

Toubeau, S. The Politics of Educational Reform in Great Britain (1945-2010). The process and implementation policy change and its consequence for educational inequality. MIROSLAV BEBLAVÝ AND MARCELA VESELKOVÁ, 116.

Radio Education

RAC Youth Education program

Educational Broadcasting

voicEd Radio

Disrupt

The AI disruption to education is just one in a long list of edtech impacts on education. How do you think we can weather this storm of change this time?

When that has been thwarted, you can not rebuild that lost trust.

Hey there all y’all! We’ve located, mixed-and-matched, calibrated, curated and brought to the fore… this here EnT on universal education! In multiple formats, as is the custom of these here times!

Where this video has been depends your deets, pardner(s)! #ednontech

This radio works fine! It’s just recontextualized! #ednontech

So it turns out, I’m writing these notes on the first day of spring!

It wasn’t intended thus, but here we are! I could… I have… I will… say that about a lot of things lately! And indeed, you can visit my Substack, or any of my social media, for much of that!

In the true spirit of this here WordPress, and the EnT… I’ll say that given the times we’re in, I’m grateful to be in the role of English and social studies-adjacent professor at an awesome publicly-funded college in an awesome community in a really cool part of a dynamic, surprising province*

*For now! (Editor: oh come on)

Anyway, there will be a time when I catch my breath and speak in a somewhat linear, comprehensive way to the tech interventions and approaches and whatnot for the past semester and, indeed, the entire preceding academic year. At the moment, my purposes are more immediate! To wit… getting this EnT out the door before the weekend and, presumably, recording EnT 73… but… as far as timelines and the topics and so forth… that all falls squarely within Dr. Doug’s purview!

In my opinion, this episode jumps not leastly cause of Doug’s significant travel anecdotes of his significant travels to Egypt a few weeks back! It was Doug’s first time visiting the MENA region, which I called home for 6.5 years a good long time ago back in the Qatar days of my career!

Once you visit the Middle East, you’re a different person… beyond in merely obvious ways!

And so… a brief scan of the preceding confirms that indeed we have enough *premium educational content* hereabouts for me to hit publish on this for the day! Here’s hoping that the spring blasts forth with radness in all the right ways for you despite the uh… WIDESPREAD MAGA FUCKERY (Editor: this is your only warning, bruh).

Universal education in the modern meaning of the term has been closely bound up with three great movements in social evolution.

The first of these was the Protestant Reformation. Luther and Melanchthon laid great stress upon universal literacy as a prime essential if everyone were to read and interpret the Bible for himself.

The second great force in the development of the universal school was the first Industrial Revolution. Power-driven machinery, the growth of urban populations, and the evolution of the factory system combined to make the demand for universal literacy far more compelling than were the religious sanctions of an earlier time.

The third great movement in favor of the universal school was undergoing a marked development, namely, political democracy, with its gradual extension of the suffrage and the consequent demand for an electorate of trained and informed intelligence.

——

The universal school and universal literacy, however, are very recent exemplars of social progress.

Bagley, W. C. (1937). A century of the universal school.

According to the understanding of the process of education, Comenius considered that the school should be in the function of the well-being of the people, and that all knowledge and all scientific achievements belong to all people and all nations.

——

With his reformist views on the process of upbringing and education, recognizing the need for egalitarianism and the development of education based on the knowledge of the characteristics of children’s development

Maksimović, J., & Sretić, S. (2019). Principle of evidence of John Amos Comenius as a basis for the development of pedagogical research techniques and instruments. Siedleckie Zeszyty Komeniologiczne seria Pedagogika, 6, 243-256.

The suggested school system following the principle of graduality had the following structure:

1. School of infancy – in each home that was blessed by children where external senses are exercised;

2. Maternal school – (general school) – found in each municipality and encourages internal senses, imagination and memory;

3. Latin school (grammar school) –in bigger towns, develops understanding and reasoning and

4. Academy – raises the will, each country has one

Lukaš, M., & Munjiza, E. (2014). Education system of John Amos Comenius and its implications in modern didactics. Život i škola: časopis za teoriju i praksu odgoja i obrazovanja, 50(1), 32-44.

While it still costs a university time and money to produce a course, technology has made reproduction and distribution costs almost non-existent. A course can be sent electronically, or placed online, and any number of students can access the material. This marked decrease in costs has significant implications and allows distance educators to play an important role in the fulfillment of the promise of the right to universal education.

Caswell, T., Henson, S., Jensen, M., & Wiley, D. (2008). Open educational resources: Enabling universal education. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 9(1), 1-11.

The universal right to education has been enshrined in a range of international rights instruments. Yet despite the considerable secondary literature on the subject, there has been little discussion of the notion of education underpinning the right.

——

The unjust distribution of educational opportunities worldwide, and the perceived importance of education for national development generally, have led to sustained international attention.

McCowan, T. (2010). Reframing the universal right to education. Comparative Education, 46(4), 509-525.

Universal education

Does the quality of the education count?

I confuse most people when I talk.

Here it is again! We’re burning up the interwebs! We’re burning up the time! Please check the medias below for all the whizzing and banging we’re capable of within the rule of law!

Video for all your #ednontech purposes! & Then some!

Smoke from your ears will signify success! #ednontech

Though it’s been just a week since recording, I’m feeling remarkably separate from this topic!

So, in terms of what’s been whizzing! and banging! in my current milieu, I’m feeling extremely hopeful around my recent forays into Substack!

The 506 Report is going to be lit, but if it were merely a blogging platform I’d have little else to say! In fact, I’m saying that with fewer than five days on the platform, I’d be 100% fine stepping away from Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn!

There are lots of reasons for this, but the biggest is that as the newsletter is the basis for the wider format, it favors long-form writing, while also providing a feed-like scroll wherein following, liking, and retweeting of “notes” can happen easily… it has a social media ecosystem which is focussed on readers and readership, while also maintaining robust video and audio posting tools. In fact, many of the notes which are cropping up in my feed are to the effect of saying permanently goodbye to Instagram, Facebook, and/or the-platform-that-shall-not-be-named!

I can see it! So… if I disappear from all things Meta one of these months… you will know that I’m easily found!

Further to all this, I’ve started some early, but to my mind highly lit, experiments in using generative AI voice clones for the more efficient rendering of poetry and other writing from text-to-voice, then overlaid with (or is that grafted upon?) openly-licensed rhythm, melody, and visual elements… to effectively create a kind of trap music with corresponding bespoke video content!

Phew! Call the firefolk to put out that hot mess!

This is all to say that we’ll have more tangible and developed (and tangibly developed) examples and experiments to speak to when next we are out in these parts!

Thanks as ever to Doug for being such a great pal and partner on these here e-adventures!

Whizbang (noun)

A type of firework that made a whiz before exploding.

A small artillery shell.

Someone or something that holds an explosive amount of success, skill or effectiveness.

There are two major issues:

Gilbert, W. (1996, September). Supporting 50 classrooms full of whiz-bang technology. In Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM SIGUCCS conference on User services (pp. 65-66). Chicago

The projector, the operating system, and the educational software affect effective use of large-screen systems for whole-class instruction. Even when all of these factors are aligned, instructional benefits can only be realized when teaching methods are designed to take advantage of the new capabilities. 

Aspects of teaching that have been affected in classrooms observed include:

Planning and Preparation

Lesson Organization and Sequencing

Teacher Actions 

Bull, G., & Garofalo, J. (2006). The 20-Foot View. Learning & Leading with Technology, 33(5), 36-37. Chicago

Two computer-based technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent in the delivery of on-campus instruction: 

(1) online course management systems and specialized collaborative environments that permit electronic communication of classroom instruction materials to students, among students and between student and instructor; and (2) wireless network systems that allow faculty and students with mobile computers to communicate with their campus networks.

—

Teaching in the wireless classroom

Myers, S. C., & Talley, D. A. (2007). Looking beyond the Whiz-bang technology: using mobile learning technology tools to improve Economic instruction. Available at SSRN 957058. Chicago

The key is decisions, not just technology. 

—

But whiz-bang capabilities don’t create real value unless an organization incorporates these new techniques into its day-to-day operations. 

Mankins, M. C., & Sherer, L. (2015). Creating value through advanced analytics. Bain & Co., Feb, 11.

Whiz bang

How did I get so old using nostalgic phrases?

Whiz bang impact

You said you’re tired of this goddamn town.
You said you’re gonna burn it all down.
Drive your car to the end of the bridge.
Sit and watch the smoke rise. #ednontech

For our first episode of 2025, we’ve opened up our various variousnesses (sic) ahead of the winter semester proper to consider where we’ve been and where we hope to be in the early days of the new year!

Y’all don’t need a weatherfolk to know which way the wind blows! #ednontech

If it’s between your ears, feel free to share! #ednontech

Here I sit, in the waning days of 2024… very nearly down to the waning hours, if you want to know!

I’ve made a commitment to myself to be better at wellness… and particularly to my future self!

As we’ve gotten three episodes out in the past few days, I feel like I am finally getting ahead of something for a change! If I’m looking back at my 2024 personally and professionally I’m seeing a person in constant motion, having very little chance in the moment to process the significant changes… the severe motions afoot!

We’re talking hotel rooms, multiple cities, job interviews, cross-country travel, and some major peaks and valleys in key relationships and roles and you know, existentially!

Phew, I’m saying!

Doug let me know when we recorded the last episode yesterday that this would be a flotsam and/or jetsam and/or lagan and/or ballast… leaning into our digital clutter, perchance?

I think I’m going to keep beating this Microsoft 365 subscription thing for awhile. Ostensibly, all the apps that I’m using have their equivalents outside a subscription model. You’d think perhaps I’d get enough of these at work!

I’m here to tell you that this personal instance of 365 is showing me on my desktop in clear visuals how much time I have, and what I can achieve both in the work hours and outside out. My work 365 is, from a usage standpoint, a sub-instance within my larger personal education infrastructure (PEI). My educational practice is focused at my job, but also transcends those boundaries.

My PEI consists of the 365 instance; it also includes the WordPress sites for this podcast and other media efforts; and what elements of Google I’ve found preferable to any alternatives; notably YouTube and Drive! It would also include my social media presences which include Instagram and Facebook, with content from those being shared by default to a Threads profile. Perhaps ironically, the platform where I have the most “clout”… i.e., LinkedIn, another Microsoft product, is the one I engage with the least frequently!

All of this is meant to be used more mindfully and intentionally than I’ve done in the past. Much of that comes from new habits of mind and life and movement. The more time I spend away from my kids, the better an example I want to be for them… so that in the limited times we get to see each other, and when they are away from me for months at a time, that I can be a reasonable, kind, low-key kind of person. That’s what I’m aspiring for! At the end of the day, being a Dad is the most important aspect of who I am. So I’m trying to use that as my guiding principle… to wit, does any given behavior align with that goal? Does the same behavior move my ability to be an outstanding father forward? Those are the two questions I’ve been asking myself in just about any situation I’ve encountered lately. It’s a positive way of deciding what’s important, I think!

Thanks to Doug for being such an amazing creative partner in this endeavor! Thanks to anybody who checks these notes, the video, the audio, or any other aspect of this show for any reason whatsoever! We are grateful in all ways for your interest in our #ednontech!

Derelict – goods sank to the bottom and abandoned

Lagan – goods sank to the bottom and tethered by a marker to be potentially recovered

Jetsam – goods jettisoned and abandoned

Flotsam – goods floating on the surface and may be reclaimed

… demonstrate that campuses lack a robust Celebration, Appreciation, and Recognition (CAR).

There is a vast body of research that demonstrates that CAR improves motivation, morale, and performance within organizations.

Kezar, A., & Elrod, S. (2020). Taken for granted: Improving the culture of celebration, appreciation, and recognition in higher education. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 52(5), 29-36.

Planning provides a thoughtful blueprint to guide our instruction. However, remember the learning environment is dynamic and ever-changing. 

Rice, A. H., & Mars, M. (2023). Planning for Effective Instruction. The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning. https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/teachagriculture/chapter/planning-for-effective-instruction/

“zelfsturing” has been the subject of much discussion. It is defined as the ability in self-management that students will need in the future and is a characteristic of learning processes in which students have a relatively large input and responsibility.

Voskamp, A., Kuiper, E., & Volman, M. (2022). Teaching practices for self-directed and self-regulated learning: Case studies in Dutch innovative secondary schools. Educational Studies, 48(6), 772-789.

** This is one of my favourite articles I have presented in the run of this podcast. **

… conclude that the human factor is often considered as the most influential factor on the chances of failure or success.

Educational innovations, such as implementing a new pedagogic method such as problem-based learning, are sometimes the result of an intuitive and hasty decision to change. And without a proper investigation of aspects as problems the innovation is supposed to solve, needs of the future users, willingness of different participants to cooperate and success and fail factors of this particular project, the success of the innovation is at stake. 

Kirschner, P. A., Hendricks, M., Paas, F., Wopereis, I., & Cordewener, B. (2004). Determinants for Failure and Success of Innovation Projects: The Road to Sustainable Educational Innovation. Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

Pressey’s Teaching Machine – originally only offered multiple choice questions

There are more people in the world than ever before, and a far greater part of them want an education. The demand cannot be met simply by building more schools and training more teachers. Education must become more efficient. … In any other field a demand for increased production would have led at once to the invention of labor-saving capital equipment. 

in the 192O’s, when Sidney L. Pressey designed several machines for the automatic testing of intelligence and information. … Pressey’s machines succumbed in part to cultural inertia; the world of education was not ready for them. 

Skinner, B. F. (1958). Teaching Machines: From the experimental study of learning come devices which arrange optimal conditions for self-instruction. Science, 128(3330), 969-977.

Lagan

What Derelict, Lagan, Jetsam, & Flotsam would the audience like us to address in more detail in a future podcast?

I’ve got that dataset.

&

Tirades, I thought I was done with them.

The party raged for seven days until it was complete
Bottles buried in the snow lay hidden until spring
Monuments abandoned #ednontech

We managed to squeak in another episode before December 31, 2024! This one is all about a subject near and dear to my heart… and my LinkedIn profile!… namely, the somewhat nebulous art of instructional design!

The non-flora and non-fauna abounds! #ednontech

The very last audio we’re prepared to commit to in 2024! #ednontech

We’re just about there! We’re more than a week out from the winter solstice! According to science, from hereon out the days are getting longer until June!

I nearly named this episode Map of the City as a nod to that fantastic song off the inimitable Royal Trux record… maybe their best, for my money… Thank You!

Instructional design… or what I now recognize as instructional design… saved me during my first six months of teaching English in South Korea! Applying a somewhat constructivist approach through the design and delivery of educational media for use in face-to-face, small seminar style delivery… all of which I lacked the terminology to describe as such at the time… circa 2006-07… gave me the sense of self-efficacy that I needed to better carry out other functions of my role. Having those activities physically started in the form of worksheets and the like was a serious step into intentional, mindful approaches that I have since tried to develop and hone in that setting and in others ever since! These efforts culminated in an ID-focussed M.Ed 2008-10… and have, for better or worse, informed my overall approach as an educator in the various roles and contracts and other initiatives I’ve been involved in since the early/mid ’10’s!

As the beginning of the new semester gets closer with each day, I’m looking at ID as my first line of planning! When I say there were lessons learned about engagement, evaluation, project management, and classroom delivery… you know I mean a lot of all of those!

And so, I’m finding a paid subscription to a personal instance of Microsoft 365, with particular use for Word, One Drive, and Outlook… ESPECIALLY Outlook… is helpful! I’m bricking in my classes and office time and prep time… but, more importantly, I’m bricking in my wellness time with specific activities associated with each block… for example, Cinema Saturdays!

As I move further into my two-year contract as an English instructor here in Fort Mac, I’m hopeful these investments in personal education infrastructure (PEI) will help me best contribute to this role to the full extent of my abilities within a bounded time-set! That is, Outlook to the rescue! It’s a matter of wanting to keep this job as long as I can to be sure, but it’s also about making the wisest use of what remaining time I have! Forty-six is still laughably early in middle age! But malaise can be real! Genetics and circumstances can work against you in an eye-blink!

Wellness is my watchword going into 2025. Without it, what does any one of us have? And how can we be of any good to anyone else whatsoever, never mind ourselves!

2024 going out like it came in! Nose down, eyes forward… both with this here #ednontech and in other areas! Here’s hoping what’s ahead is rad for you and yours!

Despite these indications of vitality and growth, an undertone of criticism depicts instructional systems design as:

Anglin, G. J. (1995). Instructional technology. Past, present, and future, 15.
Chicago

… highlights two practices that have, over the years, formed the core of the field. These two practices are 

(a) the use of media for instructional purposes and 

(b) the use of systematic instructional design procedures (often simply called instructional design)

Reiser, R. A. (2001). A history of instructional design and technology: Part II: A history of instructional design. Educational technology research and development, 49(2), 57-67. Chicago

At the master’s level, the emphasis should shift from training students to be users of instructional technology to preparing them to manage, supervise, and inspire those who use instructional technology…” 

A doctoral student in instructional design should be able to identify, modify, and develop an instructional design theory. 

Irlbeck, S. A. (2011). Essay: Educating for an instructional design and technology future. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 1(2), 19-24.

… students might graduate with a degree in the field when they have actually learned and done very little concerning the actual practice of instructional design—or evaluation, or research. 

West, R. E., Thomas, R. A., Bodily, R., Wright, C., & Borup, J. (2017). An analysis of instructional design and technology departments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 65, 869-888.

… one of the themes running through the history of the field is that new technologies tend to crop up in the wake of new scientific advancements. For example, 

Molenda, M. H. (2022). History and development of instructional design and technology. In Handbook of open, distance and digital education (pp. 1-18). Singapore: Springer Singapore.

ID

How can instructional design get past the nebulous soft boundaries that are too often imposed on ID practitioners?

I recognize that, I do not recognize that, this will help to address gaps in my knowledge.

There’s a riot in my house
Chaos is blossoming
Run and hide, little mouse
Go on and get yourself together #ednontech

Another we sure did a ways back! A two-parter on innovation… as it turns out, we find this to be a muchly-abused word! I’m almost positive that is so!

Coming at you asynchronously from the other side of the Supercollider #ednontech

We can’t live under… for too much longer! Or can we? Tune in to find out! #ednontech

OK, so I’ll add a bit more here!

This episode and the previous were recorded at the same time!

It was from within personal circumstances that have subsequently changed, and in the midst of a college semester that is now more than a week over!

As such, I’ll say that to my past self: Past Self, for all the strain you may be experiencing or feeling… in a few weeks, it’s all gonna be fine! More than fine, honestly!

You’re going to have a low-key, dry holiday in Fort Mac! You’re going to miss your kids! You’re going to send many esoteric Instagram DM’s, many to individuals and/or entities you’ve only ever known through social media apps and, in some cases, the Righteous Power of Punk RockTM !

And… as to the newly refurbished only slightly worn and torn personal education infrastructure (aka PEI)? I have two words that are going to revolutionize the way you look at your personal time to professional time ratio (PT/PT-RTM):

Microsoft. Outlook.

Except for personal usage!

Your mind is blown, right? I can tell, sitting here in my apartment in Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, Canada… that your mind is blown!

More on this radical experiment in the next post!

Too often the assumption is made that student-teachers and teachers need to know how to use computer technology without first asking why they need to know and importantly, what they need to know…

Wild, M. (1996). Technology refusal: Rationalising the failure of student and beginning teachers to use computers. British Journal of Educational Technology, 27(2), 134-143. Chicago

Education is the area of enterprise that suffers the most from the baby and bath-water syndrome.  (adapted from John Dewey, 1920) 

Electronic (E) Learning (L), Management (M), Needs (N) 

E before the L/M/N: 

Technology is the answer; what is the question? 

N Before E/L/M: 

Is your project really necessary? 

M Before E/L/N:  

It’s not what you do, but the way you do it—that’s what gets results. 

L Before M, N, or E: 

Students + Teachers + Materials = Knowledge Sharing and Skills Mastery

Romiszowski, A. J. (2004). How’s the e-learning baby? Factors leading to success or failure of an educational technology innovation. Educational technology, 44(1), 5-27.

Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, critical researchers have noted the discrepancy between promises and improvements brought by education technology.

The catchphrase and an utopia has been over decades, if not for centuries, that technology will somehow ‘disrupt’ or revolutionize education.
Teräs, M., Suoranta, J., Teräs, H., & Curcher, M. (2020). Post-Covid-19 education and education technology ‘solutionism’: A seller’s market. Postdigital Science and Education, 2(3), 863-878. Chicago

Ultimately, how teachers respond to externally generated content and how teacher beliefs and practices influence technology integration in the classroom will determine the extent to which the cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes expected from ICT-led initiatives are realized.

Chand, V. S., Deshmukh, K. S., & Shukla, A. (2020). Why does technology integration fail? Teacher beliefs and content developer assumptions in an Indian initiative. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68(5), 2753-2774.

… we contend that an overly-narrow framing of digital technology is a crucial element in the persistent failure of the majority of these Ed-Tech initiatives.

… our own approach toward education and Ed-Tech initiatives is rooted in the conviction that one of the greatest responsibilities of today’s society is to educate people at the height of our time. This implies a keen critical awareness of the positive and negative legacy of the past, to understand and participate actively and responsibly in the present, and to be able to improve it in order to build a better future.

Sancho-Gil, J. M., Rivera-Vargas, P., & Miño-Puigcercós, R. (2020). Moving beyond the predictable failure of Ed-Tech initiatives. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), 61-75.

Discontinuance

What is a measurement for success in ed tech innovations?

Innovation failure

&

Pretty much everything I’ve got goes back to Dewey!

We can’t live under
For too much longer
We can’t live under
Supercollider once again #ednontech