"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
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
I have to admit – 2011 seemed like a long year, and I am glad to see it go. 2012 seems more promising, even with a presidential election looming. 🙂 I did not blog much in 2011, but I also did little teaching in 2011 (and none online), and so did not feel that I… Read more Hello 2012 and a New Community for Learning
I have not blogged in three months…partly from not having the muse to do so, and partly because I have been so darn busy. But given the interesting things I have been involved in lately, I have been meaning to do some reflection … and now is as good a time as any…and of course,… Read more Pretty Good Looking Camel
In 10 days, we start our summer institute on online teaching and learning. This is an experiment of sorts for my institution. For the first time, our institute this year will be the start of an upcoming year-long process to help a cohort of faculty develop and teach online classes. Following the institute, each member… Read more Bridging the Chasm
Michael Bugeja’s opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Reduce the Technology, Rescue Your Job,” struck a nerve today. He started by noting that for “most of this decade, professors embraced the pedagogy of engagement, wooing students via technology and ignoring the costs because traditional methods, from textbooks to lectures, purportedly bored students who… Read more What Walls Need Tearing Down?
I just finished reading Curtis J. Bonk’s new book, The World is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will tell you that Wiley, the publisher, emailed me after I reviewed Dan Willingham’s book in a previous post and asked if they could send me Bonk’s book for… Read more Faculty Development in An Open World
I thoroughly enjoyed this second day at Blackboard World 2009. Bud Deihl and I presented this morning on weaving the social web into learning while still using the Blackboard learning management system for the things for which it was good. We used the class that Jon Becker and I taught last spring as an example. … Read more BbWorld09 Day Two
Just completed the first day at BbWorld 2009 in Washington DC. The setting has been wonderful – the new Gaylord Resort in National Harbor. Bud Deihl and I are attending together and it has been fun hearing his perspective on the various sessions. There has been an active Twitter backchannel linked here, so check that… Read more Unicorns in a Balloon Factory
In the past three posts, I have covered the first 39 “rules” from Alan Webber’s Rules of Thumb.: 52 Truths For Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self (2009). I found this book to be relevant not only for entrepreneurs in business, but for those changing the paradigm of teaching by moving online. This post… Read more The Fourth and Last Set of Rules
Earlier this week, I posted the first two posts reviewing Alan Webber’s Rules of Thumb.: 52 Truths For Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self (2009). I got a nice note from Alan at his website: “I just read your blog on Rules and I can’t thank you enough! Taking Rules and applying it to… Read more Still More Rules of Thumb