By John Warner. I believe there is a disconnect between writing as it is taught in secondary education and what happens in the college composition classroom.
I know I am not the only instructor who believes that the early part of the semester (and beyond) involves a kind of “deprogramming” of some beliefs and habits that have been inculcated prior to students arriving in college. Read more...
Youthful Mistakes and the Journalists Who Leap Upon Them
By John Warner. This is a memory I’ve successfully suppressed for years, but it came flooding back to me last week.
When I was a college junior I submitted one of my short stories to the New Yorker. Read more...
Solver Communities
Students would then have to think through the challenge systematically, identify underlying problems, conduct research, evaluate alternative approaches to the challenge, and generate a solution. Read more...
Give Your Syllabus an Extreme Redesign for the New Year
By Travis Grandy. Do you ever feel like you want to get more out of your syllabus? Sure, it plays center-stage during the first day of class, but does it really have to end there? Perhaps it’s a matter of presentation. Read more...
Why and How to Automate Your Teaching
By Anne Guarnera. If you’re a teaching assistant reading this today, congratulations! You’re almost done with the fall semester. Read more...
With a Little Help From My Friends
By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald. Grad school can be a lonely place. While we enter with a cohort with whom we take classes in our first years of study, eventually we begin to specialize and the sense of community that might have once felt strong dissipates. Read more...
Ready for Your Close Up?
By Heather VanMouwerik. I was woefully unprepared to create my first online lecture. I was also enthusiastic and naively optimistic, so I embraced the challenge and ran headfirst into a load of trouble. Read more...
A Domestic Disturbance: Wedded Bliss and Working Together
By Patrick Bigsby. For me, Thanksgiving marks the start of a series of pilgrimages to my parents’ and my in-laws’ homes. These family gatherings frequently include some fiercely competitive game nights, and a chance to forget about classrooms and dissertations in favor of wiping the floor with my wife in a round of charades or getting utterly demolished by her keen artistic eye in Pictionary. Read more...
Showing Teachers They Matter
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Showing Teachers They Matter
Angela Maiers, 2015/12/15
There's a certain set of people that believe awards are important in recognizing contributions to a discipline. And I agree that the recognition is important. More...
Thinking critically
By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Thinking critically
Jarold Jarche, adapting to perpetual beta, 2015/12/15
"Critical thinking," writes Harold Jarche, "can be looked at as four main activities:
- Observing and studying our fields
- Participating in professional communities
- Building tentative opinions
- Challenging and evaluating ideas."
Here's a better model. More...