"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
Our team continues to explore the theoretical framework of Garrison and others known as the Community of Inquiry. As Karen Swan, Randy Garrison, and Jennifer Richardson note in “A Constructivist Approach to Online Learning: The Community of Inquiry Framework,” the CoI framework is “a process model of online learning.” Swan goes on to say that… Read more Does Inquiry Equal Learning?
Funerals always bring out thoughts about time. I am on the road today to attend the funeral of a old family friend. Bill Schriefer passed away at the age of 89 after fighting lung cancer. His wife of 61 years passed away last year. Bill and Laura lived next door to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law,… Read more A Very Full Sense of Time
Our team study group continues to meet weekly to explore the Community of Inquiry framework. As mentioned last week, we have all read Randy Garrison’s 2011 Second Edition of E-Learning in the Twenty-First Century. Garrison asserts in his book that the framework has been researched enough to be called a theoretical framework. We are still… Read more Cogitating on Cognitive Presence
With my colleagues at the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence, we have challenged ourselves this Fall to dedicate time each week to exploring a learning framework that has informed our work for years – the Community of Inquiry Framework. Or as Bud Deihl so eloquently stated, we are starting a Community of Inquiry about the… Read more Inquiring into CoI
According to a new infographic shared by Paul Corrigan of Southeastern University, the answer is NO. In “Grow the 8%“, Paul cites research that suggests that only a quarter of higher education professors use something other than lecture as their primary method of instruction, and only 8 percent of faculty take into account the research… Read more Does Research Inform Teaching?
. I saw this image this morning, and my first impression is that this was a great metaphor for the kind of learner I would like to be … and the kind of enthusiasm and joy for learning that I would hope to imbue in my students. Every morning, my first website after emails is… Read more My Kind of Learner
After finishing Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age by Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe, that I discussed in my last post, I have moved to a book I have meant to read for years – The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer. Self confession time. I do read a lot, but not all my books… Read more Courage to Teach Online
In my last post, I discussed how I was rethinking some fundamentals based on our White Paper. “Rethinking” must be in vogue. Yesterday, I received my copy of a new edition of a book edited by Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe – Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing for 21st Century Learning (Routledge, 2013).… Read more Rethinking Pedagogy
These are exciting times at our Center for Teaching Excellence at VCU. Gardner Campbell is reporting next week as our new Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Student Success. Jon Becker started yesterday as our interim Director of Online Education. We are saying goodbye to Phillip Edwards as he leaves for the Ohio State University Center… Read more Rethinking Fundamentals
Today is our final packing day here at the Center for Teaching Excellence at VCU. Over the weekend, movers will haul our stuff across the street to our new academic building. My new office will be halfway down the top floor. So, after nearly seven years here at the CTE, my third office. We were… Read more Moving Day at the CTE