JD Pirtle - JD Pirtle

Aug 4, 2023 6 min read

Is ChatGPT Use in the Classroom Truly Inevitable?

AI-powered tools in education are not a foregone conclusion, but it’s time for educators and policymakers to proactively imagine how they want AI to be used with students — before it’s too

Jul 25, 2023 6 min read

EdTech: Tool, Toy, or Gimmick?

Can’t decide? It might seem strange, but an 18th Century German Educator Can Help You Choose EdTech Resources for Your Classroom. In the late 1700s, Fredrich Froebel took a crooked yet determined

Jul 19, 2023 13 min read

A Decade of Maker Education: Where Do We Go From Here?

Ten years after Dale Doughtery coined the term Maker Education, schools are increasingly building Maker Spaces--purpose-built labs, areas of existing classrooms, or any free space equipped with 3D printers, CNC mills, laser cutters,

Jun 27, 2023 5 min read

You Will Need the Heart of a Poet

For the final project in a class on adolescent development, we were asked to write a speech for adolescents on the cusp of graduating. So this speech is dedicated to all the graduates

Jun 27, 2023 4 min read

Forests, Trees, and the Dire Results of High-Stakes Testing in the United States

I attended primary/secondary school in the 1980–90s and took many standardized tests. With the exception of those used for college admissions in the United States (SAT and ACT), the purpose of