Learning In a Flat World

Last week in GRAD-602, Jeff Nugent led an exploration on assessment.  We noted that a distinction can be made between learning for mastery versus the traditional approach that typically leads to sorting and sifting students.  This provided a segway to the evening’s focus on formative and summative assessment. In class, we brainstormed ways in which [...]

In our GRAD 602 class last week, we spent some time surfacing our students’ beliefs about learning.  As Laura noted in her blog, we “dabbled in the classic ‘See one, do one, teach one.’” From there, we then discussed some of the work of John Bransford on How People Learn, as well as the opening [...]

Happy New Year, everyone.  Welcome to 2013!  I have two “open” new years resolutions. We have been talking about how the web has become increasingly open, social and participatory for the past four years…yet with the arrival of the MOOC bandwagon last year, “open” took on new significance.  So, as 2013 gets rolling, I and [...]

It has been my privilege to teach the eight-week summer course, ADLT 640 – The Theory and Practice of eLearning – for the VCU School of Education Adult Learning program.  I blogged in late June and early July about teaching this course. Tonight, we wrap up the course with our final session.  Sonja’s comment in [...]

This week in our Teaching, Learning and Technology course, GRAD-602, we will explore active learning.  I was delighted that one of our students jumped in to the topic early with her post, “Educators Against Active Learning.” Now, EvoAcademic is not against active learning herself.  Rather, she is commenting about Kevin Mattson‘s 2005 article, “Why ‘Active [...]

During the past spring in the course I co-taught with Jeffrey Nugent, we asked our graduate students in the Preparing Future Faculty program to create a personal teaching project.  Many chose to develop a teaching philosophy.  Several good ones are here and here and here. It occurred to me that I have not updated my [...]

My wife was shopping at Jo-Ann‘s Fabrics this afternoon, which meant I was across the street with a cup of coffee and my Nook ereader.  I have just started Larry Rosen’s 2010 book Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. So far, I am only up through Chapter 2, but I came across [...]

At a meeting this week, my colleague Mary Secret was discussing her online classes.  Mary has been an active member of our Online Advisory Committee and teaches both online and face-to-face in our Masters of Social Work program.  She had done research in assessing online classes, and she suggested that it would be good if [...]

Last Friday, I facilitated a brown bag lunch session on “World Class Quality in University Coursework.”  If interested in listening to the conversation, I am linking to an Echo360 recording of this session. Government officials, employers, accrediting agencies, university administrators, institutional researchers, faculty, faculty development specialists, and even students all have something to share concerning [...]

Over the past five weeks, the graduate students in my Educational Technology and School Leaders class embarked on a journey into cyberspace  – a first for many of them and one for many of them as mystical as the illustration here.  Five weeks ago, my students were self-described technophobes.  They were worried not only about [...]