"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
As I checked my Facebook account last night, a chat box popped up from a colleague from a former institution, Gwinnett Technical College, where I worked in Georgia. We chatted for a few minutes, and she relayed a nice complement. She had stopped by our old college to visit with friends and discussion turned to… Read more I’ll Find Out, Sir!
Like any major institution, there is sometimes overlap in training opportunities being offered around campus. We noticed this morning that I have a workshop on blogging today and Technology Services has one next week. Interestingly, mine is about web publishing and instructional opportunities (with 4 people signed up) while the other is about the mechanics… Read more Telling Your Story Differently
Had a great first day at the League for Innovation’s 2009 conference. While I work at a wonderful four-year research university, my doctoral dissertation and first ten years in higher education revolved around two-year colleges. So it was refreshing to once again rub elbows with the dedicated faculty and administrators who handle a significant segment… Read more Day One of Innovations 2009
After two 3+ hour flights and one flight delay, I have crossed the country to attend Innovations 2009 in Reno NV. Innovations is an annual conference of the League for Innovation in Community Colleges, and this is my fifth or sixth. While I am no longer associated with two-year colleges, I still stay in touch… Read more At Innovations 2009
Over the last four weeks, Jon Becker and I have facilitated a journey for our online students into the heretofore unknown world (for them) of Web 2.0. Our students are all K-12 teachers from three different states in our Education Technology and School Leadership course. After two weeks of typical “schoolroom” topical exploration and discussion,… Read more It Is the Journey, Not the Destination … Nor the Goat
I had the good fortune last Tuesday to participate in a podcast with Kathyrn Murphy-Judy, professor of French in the School of World Studies here at VCU. Facilitated by Jeff Nugent and joined by Bud Deihl, we spent nearly an hour discussing the uses of social media in our classes. As Jeff set the stage,… Read more Individual Assessment in a Collaborative World
We had a fruitful faculty brown bag lunch conversation today. The topic was Building Connections and Communities through the Web. Ten folks present locally, and since Jeff Nugent was using UStream, another crowd actively joined via the internet. I used these slides to guide the conversation: Building Connections and Communities through the Web View more… Read more Timesharing Dogs
There was an interesting point raised by one of my VIF students in our online class taught by Jon Becker and myself this weekend. Half of our online class are Visiting International Faculty studying for their Masters in Education here at VCU, and half are Virginia teachers studying in our Ed Leadership graduate program. When… Read more An International View
A week from tomorrow, I am scheduled to lead a Brown Bag lunch session on “Building Community and Connections Through the Web.” Bud Deihl and I were brainstorming this session (and he earlier also blogged about it). As we talked, we realized that “community” is very nuanced. The following slide emerged from our white board… Read more Communities and Tools
It is the last day of 2008, and as with many others, it is a time for reflection. 2008 was certainly a very different year from my 57 previous ones. Even though I had worked with computers for years and had engaged in online learning for the past dozen years, in many ways I was… Read more A Year in the Spiral