By Laura Tropp. Hillary Clinton is receiving attention again for weighing in on the current vaccine debate. She tweeted, “The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids.” However, the attention she is getting is not for her vaccine views but her hashtag: “#GrandmothersKnowBest.” Political blogs are discussing her use of the grandma role as a political maneuver for the upcoming Presidential election. Read more...
By John Warner. As I read Jeffrey R. Young’s article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Here Comes Professor Everybody,[1]” and I learned that a young man named Nick Walker, not long out of college, made $20,000 in a single day selling his self-produced course on making iPhone apps through Udemy (“the YouTube for courses”), my first thought was, maybe I could do something like that. Read more...
By Lee Skallerup Bessette. I'm currently obsessed with the song "I Wanna Get Better" by the Bleachers. The chorus rings out, "I didn't know I was lonely 'til I saw your face/I didn't know I was broken 'til I wanted to change." This is a story about me learning that I wanted to get better as a teacher. Read more...By Lee Skallerup Bessette. I’ve really appreciated the discussions that have taken place under my last two posts on Faculty Development. But I really want to address one comment about how “[m]ost teaching faculty members get along just fine [within their departments] without the whole apparatus of ‘faculty developers’ wasting their time.” I asked, and received no response, on what “just fine” really means. Because I have met a ton of faculty, both through my job, through social media, and through blogging, for whom this would be a very questionable statement. Read more...
By G. Rendell. One of my projects at Greenback U is the creation of a viable bicycle sharing system. We already provide students, faculty and staff with free shuttle service around campus, free ridership on bus routes near campus, car-sharing (short-term rental) options, and a ride-matching system to promote carpooling. And, of course, a lot of our students already bring bikes to campus. But every additional emission-free transportation choice is still a win in terms of bringing down Greenback's greenhouse gas inventory. And every additional opportunity for students to experience a sharing economy is a win in even larger terms. Read more...
By Liz Reisberg. I wish there was more strategic discussion on US campuses about how to respond to the abuse of human rights and other injustices being committed all over the world today. There is quite a lot that institutions and students can do in the interest of creating a better, more just, more humane world, but boycotting hummus? 
By Sabba Quidwai. Tom Daccord and Justin Reich, founders of EdTechTeacher say it best, “Technology should be used in the service of learning.” It is with this philosophy in mind, that Maria Maldonado, a practicing Physician Assistant and Instructor at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) Physician Assistant program, chose to re-examine how iPads were being used for teaching and learning in her curriculum. More...
By Thomas Carey. A “not invented here” bias on the part of faculty is often cited as a factor in inhibiting the spread and adaptation of innovations in teaching and learning practice. The “bias” part alludes to a prejudgment that what we create locally will be better-suited to our teaching needs and learning contexts than an adaptation of work done elsewhere would be. More...
By Matt Reed. Thanks to snowstorms, we’ve already lost the first two Monday nights of the semester to closings. According to the folks on the Weather Channel, it’s entirely possible that we’ll lose the third, too. Read more...By Matt Reed. I’ve been fascinated by accents since I was a kid. My Dad was from Tennessee originally, and even after decades away from the South, you could still hear it. I’d watch movies and get obsessed with a character’s accent. It struck me as amazing that most people in a given region would agree, informally, to speak differently than people using the same language elsewhere. Read more.../https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
