Storytime… About 20 years ago, I was looking to refocus my career. I had an interest in library science, so I found an online program and singed up for two courses with the intent of matriculating in the master’s program before the deadline during which I was to study. The two courses were interesting. I Read More
Category: Teaching & Learning
Even When They “Know” the Best Approach, Effective Teachers Develop, Use, and Refine Many Strategies
Your experiences in the field will serve you well as you teach. Your examples and stories will help your students understand the context of the ideas they study, see connections, and they will make your class more engaging and effective. Your experiences will limit you, also. We all adapt to the culture in which we Read More
Effective Teachers are Perpetually Learning about Teaching
Each instructor’s experience with teachers and learning has been unique to you. The strategies your teachers used and the approaches you brought to your own learning worked for you; you would not be in this position otherwise. Do not be fooled into thinking your path to becoming educated is the path that will work for Read More
What Roszak Wrote About Curriculum
Historian and philosopher Theodore Roszak (1994) minimizes the role of information in human cognition, and he even observes “humans think with ideas, not with information” [emphasis in the original] and affords ideas a central place in the human cognition by continuing, “Information may helpfully illustrate or decorate an idea; it may, where it works under the guidance of a contrasting idea, help to call other Read More
Thinking About Digital Reference Tools
Watching some children in my life (from a distance) grow to through into adolescence has led me to think about reference tools in emerging students’ lives. Specifically, I’m thinking about dictionaries, encyclopedias, and maps and I am led to the conclusion that the digital versions we have are better for two of these, but worse Read More
Leveraging ICT
Computers, networks and digital media are changing the types of tasks educators assign as students access, manipulate, and create information using previously unavailable technologies. Williams (2004) defined fundamental characteristics of tasks which influence how individuals understand the tasks they undertake: the perceived importance of the task; the frequency with which it is done; the time Read More
Using the LMS
Every instructor can expect their college will provide a course shell on the learning management system they support. The shell may be largely empty, or it may be completely filled with the materials for the course, or it may be partially filled. Student are likely to be enrolled in your course shell without the instructor’s Read More
What’s Wrong with Learning Outcomes
A generation of educators has been taught the value of “defining outcomes.” Taken to the extreme, I heard a principal remind his teachers they we “expected to have ‘I can’ statement written on the board” for every lesson. I’m old enough to have been teaching before such practiced were common, and I even have the Read More
“Why are we doing this?”
Educators are very familiar with the question that gives the title of the post. We hear students ask it… frequently. We speculate at their motivation: “Are they trying to distract me?” “Are they trying to get out of doing work?” “Are they challenging my authority?” are all reasonable interpretations of the question. Leaders are familiar Read More
Thoughts on “Education for Misinformation”
I’ve been kicking around the concept of “red herrings” for a few years, at least since I started to recognize them. I attribute this skill to the habits I developed while a doctoral student, but we all know how “reliable” such stories are about ourselves. For me, red herrings always appeared in our school structures, Read More