Working Up

Working Up in Project Management, Systems Engineering, Technology, and Writing

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Tech and Education

September 24th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Big tech advise$ educator$ to drop the coding and teach the AI. Every few years, rich people advise educators on what to educate. This advice often comes as, “Here is money for an after-school program,” and “here is money for in-school programs,” and “here is money, do what we say or else.” […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Education · Learning · Money · Programming · Teaching · Technology

A Short History of Banning Tools in School

September 21st, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We tend to ban the latest tools in school so that students won’t “cheat.” Today’s kids laugh at what prior generations banned. My granddaughter is in high school (I have to take a moment to comprehend how that happened so fast). We had a short discussion last night on tools for learning. […]

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Tags: Childhood · Conversation · Education · Generation Y · Learning · Teaching · Tools

AI Ate My Homework

April 20th, 2026 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips We have a new twist on the old excuse, “My dog ate my homework.” That excuse about the dog and the homework goes back to 1905 (some sources report, but then again, there may be earlier instances, but the dog ate the stories and …). John Steinbeck even said that his dog […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Conversation · Excuses · Learning · Teaching

Fundamentals and Fads

December 11th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips It must be difficult running a college and deciding what departments to create and what degrees to offer. It seems only yesterday that colleges started offering degrees in Data Science. Data Science was the sexiest job of the century or so said an article in Harvard Business Review. I guess they missed […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Data Science · Learning · Systems · Teaching

AI, Education, Teaching, and Learning

August 4th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips AI has upended large parts of the education system. What to do? Back to basics. Decide what is important to learn and teach that. Teachers give an assignment. Students use one of these chattering bots to write the answer. Task done. No learning, but the task is done so move on. This […]

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Tags: Artificial Intelligence · Computing · Education · Learning · Programming · Requirements · Teaching · Technology

Listen to Me NOT dat-information

July 14th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips There is too much talk out there online. Companies should block that so people can read reliable sources. I know just the source for them. The Internet cost$ nothing. Well, a few dollars a month to Xfinity or someone or something, but really, the cost is nothing. I can access all sorts […]

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Tags: Analysis · Censorship · Information · Publishing · Teaching · Writing

Learning by Reading the Answer

June 30th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I learned the wrong way. I learned. Is there a wrong way to learn? Once in 7th grade, I was on a self-study path in a math class. I read a few pages, took a test, graded my test (usually a bad grade), read the correct answers, and, “Oh, that’s the answer. […]

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Tags: Alternatives · Choose · Learning · Teaching

The Suggestion in the Form of a Question

June 9th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Like the TV game show Jeopardy, lets make suggestions in the form of a question. The TV show Jeopardy always had the answer in the form of a question. This always seemed silly to me, but the show was and still is successful, so what do I know about TV game show […]

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Tags: Communication · Ideas · Leadership · Learning · Questions · Teaching · Thinking

A Problem with the Specific Example

March 31st, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips I can introduce problems by asking others to consider a specific example. Often, a general example works better. Years ago, author and consultant Jerry Weinberg was leading a session on how to lead sessions. Jerry began with, “feel the sand between your toes on the exotic beach with the surf gently sounding […]

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Tags: Concepts · Context · Experiment · Learning · Problems · Teaching · Thinking

Other Improvement

January 30th, 2025 · No Comments

by Dwayne Phillips Sometimes the better type of improvement is when all the other people improve. That tends to help me improve, too. This is about working with others in a manner that they become smarter and better. Some would describe this as leadership, but often I think of leadership dedicated to the designated leader […]

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Tags: Improvement · Leadership · Learning · Management · Teaching