"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
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?
In the past, I have touched on the importance in teaching practice of asking students good questions rather than focus on rote memorization of answers. An example was my post here. Or to go back further, a question Enoch Hale raised about a Future Faculty class we both sat in (taught by Jeff Nugent): What… Read more AI and the UnGoogleable Question
Several readings that crossed my desk this week had my brain buzzing. Back in the days of the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence, I used to start the week over coffee with Jeff Nugent and Bud Deihl, and as we exchanged ideas, Bud would say “My brain is just buzzing as I try and connect… Read more Stepping Lively into the Horizon Report
Jim Lang is out with his Second Edition to Small Teaching. Anyone who follows me knows that I have liked this series, blogging about the First Edition here and the companion book that Flower Darby and Jim wrote on Small Teaching Online here. I first met Jim Lang at a local brainstorming session in Boston… Read more Small Teaching Revisited
On Monday evening, I was in a Zoom conference with some Fall students and fellow doctoral teachers doing an overview of the fall class. Towards the end of the hour, one student began to vent about the fact that we were not lowering out standards during a time of high stress. He could not believe… Read more Empathy, Stress and Teaching Philosophies
Mike Wesch has been a hero of mine for years … ever since he posted “Web 2.0 – The Web is Us/ing Us” in 2007. Mike is an associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, and I was lucky to not only hear him at several conferences, but also to meet him when… Read more Quick Weekly Intros Using Tips from Mike Wesch
When I worked as an Online Learning Specialist at the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence, we typically had four types of clients who wished to transition their courses online. First, there were faculty interested in moving courses online who took advantage of our year-long course development process, which involved a summer retreat, a mock online… Read more Updated Online Teaching and Learning Guide
This week, my 8-week Northeastern class, EDU-6323 – Technology as a Medium for Learning, started. Before diving in to various technologies while working through Michelle Miller’s book Minds Online, we spend the first week exploring what learning in a networked world might actually mean. Readings include: Brown, Dehoney, and Millichap. (2015). The Next Generation Digital… Read more Truth 3.0
I was out walking today listening to Pandora, and Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall came on. One of my favorites … and it reminded me of a recent blog post by Seth Godin on The Learning / Doing Gap. As Godin noted, “To quote the ancient rockers, ‘We don’t need no… education.’ But… Read more Are You Another Brick?
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