A Year in the Spiral

It is the last day of 2008, and as with many others, it is a time for reflection. 2008 was certainly a very different year from my 57 previous ones.  Even though I had worked with computers for years and had engaged in online learning for the past dozen years, in many ways I was… Read more A Year in the Spiral

Am I An Outlier?

I have just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success (2008).  For those who have not yet read it, it is a terrific book.  Rather than focusing on intelligence and ambition as cause agents for success, Gladwell instead argues that success is more complex, linked to chance events and accidents of birth.  Gladwell… Read more Am I An Outlier?

Seasons Greetings

My wife and I visited the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens last night, which are decorated for the season in lights.  Our “holiday card” to all of you are the following pictures I shot last night.  I was also testing out my Christmas present – a Nikon D60: View from Visitor Center Spider Web Spiders along… Read more Seasons Greetings

Bear Scat?

A few weeks ago, Tom Peters used some recently deposited bear scat to illustrate his point about the current economic times: A little graphic but it got Tom’s point across.  Sometimes crap is what crap is.  I was thinking about this today when I found out that Edublogs has been adding advertisements in a stealth… Read more Bear Scat?

Thanksgiving 2009

Linda and I will be travelling to my parent’s home in Augusta, Georgia, to spend Thanksgiving with them and my brother’s family.  Before hitting the road, it seems a good time to reflect on the meaning of this coming holiday. I have so much for which to be thankful.  First and foremost, a wonderful wife… Read more Thanksgiving 2009

Email is For Old People

Yesterday, Jeff Nugent and I had the opportunity to present at the 2008 Virginia School Board Association annual convention.  We had around 40 people attend our session entitled “Email Is For Old People.”  Two were school administrators and the rest were all school board members from around the state. These were our presentations slides: Vsba2008… Read more Email is For Old People

Blogging Instructionally

I was slated to run a session today on “Blogging in the Academy” but ended up going a different direction instead.  Our workshop description stated: Blogs have begun to move beyond personal journaling to emerge as a possible form of academic publishing.  Blogs today provide a reflective medium for publication of teaching and research, and… Read more Blogging Instructionally

What is Online Learning?

(…or “It’s All Fracking Online!!!”) I was looking over the session schedule for the SLOAN-C Conference on Online Learning and was a bit disappointed in what I saw.  Here, as in elsewhere throughout the blogosphere and more importantly the mainstream education journals, one sees the term “online learning” continually bantered around.  Yet, it is a… Read more What is Online Learning?