Where’s the Faculty?

Way back in 1984, Wendy’s introduced an advertisement that in modern terms would be seen as having gone “viral.”  Three elderly ladies are at a fast food counter ordering a Big Bun, and one says: As I read Educause’s article on the IDEAS Framework this past week, a similar reaction hit me.  Where’s the faculty?… Read more Where’s the Faculty?

What Is Retirement?

One of my granddaughters and I have had a running joke for the past decade around the word “retirement”.  As a pre-teen, she struggled with the idea that I could “retire” from a full-time job but keep teaching…and then retire from teaching but keep advising doctoral students, and so on. Well, I guess the joke… Read more What Is Retirement?

New Chapter

Those on Twitter are already aware, but a few days ago, I posted: I have been teaching for 26 years since retiring from the Navy, and today is the last day of my last class. #EDU6323 was a good way to finish, with great students past and present. Next adventure is kicking Stage 4 metastatic… Read more New Chapter

A Janus 2020 Look

Janus was an ancient Roman god of beginnings, transitions, time, passages, and endings.  He has two faces, as he always looks both at the past and the future.  The past year has certainly been a passage, with the global pandemic and the recent American elections…and as the year draws to a close, looking back and… Read more A Janus 2020 Look

Two Questions to My Class

We are starting the second week of an 8-week online graduate course for Northeastern University titled Technology as a Medium for Learning (EDU-6323). During this course, the middle six weeks explore different aspects of edtech, while we read and reflect on the learning science lessons embedded in Michelle Miller’s book Minds Online.  This week, the… Read more Two Questions to My Class

The Purpose of Online Learning

In a five-part series, Canadian Tony Bates looked at the overall purpose of online courses, in reaction to recent moves by the Canadian government: Ontario’s strategy to use online learning to ease pressure on high schools using online learning to reduce the cost of higher education  using online education to support disadvantaged students: no online… Read more The Purpose of Online Learning

On Being There

An interesting conversation developed today in my class hashtag on Twitter.  One student shared Mary Ludden’s post “How to connect in a connectionless environment…”, which suggested that three key areas of focus were: Be present. Be connected. Be real. For some reason, the old book Fish! and the Fish Philosophy jumped to my mind. I… Read more On Being There