Thursday, August 07, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-08-06
- Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-08-05 http://s3nt.com/iod #
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(continue reading &aquo;)Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-08-05
- Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-08-04 http://s3nt.com/ije #
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(continue reading &aquo;)Monday, August 04, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-08-04
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-08-03 http://s3nt.com/if5 #
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Twitter Updates for 2008-08-03
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Sunday, August 03, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-08-02
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-08-01 http://s3nt.com/ib2 #
Blog Post: Learning theory 101 http://s3nt.com/ic4 #
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Saturday, August 02, 2008
Learning theory 101
Creating Passionate Users: Crash course in learning theoryAny teacher at any level would be well-advised to read this before stepping across the classroom threshold (virtual or otherwise) this fall.The graphics are priceless. (continue reading &aquo;)
Friday, August 01, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-08-01
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-31 http://s3nt.com/h8m #
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-31
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/31/2008 http://s3nt.com/h3a #
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-30 http://s3nt.com/h4f #
Gotta get some grading done today. Gotta. #
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Gotta get some grading done today. Gotta. #
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-30
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-29 http://s3nt.com/h0c #
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Tellio\'s InterWeb Notes 07/31/2008
40 Places for College Students to Find Free Unabridged Books Online -- Education-Portal.comtags: no_tagHyFlex Course Designtags: hyflex, technology, edu_trends, administrator, techintegrator (continue reading &aquo;)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-28
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/28/2008 http://s3nt.com/hf4 #
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Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/29/2008
What We Use: The Lifehacker Editors' Favorite Software and HardwareLots of practicaltags: technology, edu_newapp, edu_trends, web2 (continue reading &aquo;)
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-27
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/27/2008 http://s3nt.com/heb #
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-26 http://s3nt.com/he9 #
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Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/28/2008
The Leitner System - Internet Flashcard Databasetags: no_tagSocial Networks in Education » hometags: education, ning, teaching, web2.0, community (continue reading &aquo;)
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-26
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/26/2008 http://s3nt.com/hbu #
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-25 http://s3nt.com/hcy #
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Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-25 http://s3nt.com/hcy #
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Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/27/2008
Print Your Own Cardstags: cards, bestpractices, lotech (continue reading &aquo;)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-25
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-24 http://s3nt.com/g7n #
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Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/26/2008
plasticbag.org: What you should know before starting a doctorate...tags: doctoral_education (continue reading &aquo;)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-24
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-23 http://s3nt.com/g25 #
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-23
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-22 http://s3nt.com/gxv #
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-22
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/22/2008 http://s3nt.com/gq5 #
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-21
Blog Post: The Learning Knife That Cuts Both Ways http://s3nt.com/gi2 # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-20 http://s3nt.com/gkm #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/22/2008
8 Destructive thinking patterns and how to change them | Change your thoughtstags: no_tagTo change your thinking pattern you have to RecogniseBe awareSlowly change and introduce a new thinking patternKeep working on all your destructive thinking patternsWill at Work Learning: New Design for My Smile Sheettags: no_tag (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/22/2008
8 Destructive thinking patterns and how to change them | Change your thoughtstags: no_tagTo change your thinking pattern you have to RecogniseBe awareSlowly change and introduce a new thinking patternKeep working on all your destructive thinking patternsWill at Work Learning: New Design for My Smile Sheettags: no_tag (continue reading &aquo;)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-20
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/20/2008 http://s3nt.com/gcz # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-19 http://s3nt.com/gem #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
The Learning Knife That Cuts Both Ways
A Service-Oriented Virtual Learning Environment at e-LiterateOur position in the learning environment debate can be summarised by the following statement. As well as students being able to create their custom learning environments, we believe that it is important that teachers, too, are able to create their custom teaching environments. (continue reading &aquo;)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-19
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-18 http://s3nt.com/f8o #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/20/2008
20 Useful Bookmarklets - Stepcase Lifehacktags: no_tagGoogle Docs Templatestags: no_tag13 Most Unusual Search Engines You Should Remember - Opensource, Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developerstags: searchengine, opensourceInternet Service Deals » 100 Free Online Alternatives to Popular Office Appstags: apps, alternatives, edu_newapp, web2Portable Applications on a USB Memory Stick - Internettags: usb, stick, portableUniversal Education Search - ccLearntags: learningbrokers (continue reading &aquo;)
Friday, July 18, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-18
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-17 http://s3nt.com/f03 # Blog Post: Without Borders? Teachers or Educators http://s3nt.com/f3m # Sore from yesterday's workout. Got a month for a boatload of projects. #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Without Borders? Teachers or Educators
Teachers without Borders - a compass for worldwide educational reform in the information ageOr is this just another ploy by the world government radicals?Or a folk uprising?Ideas are all in the framing. The world is as we see it. Thank God. (continue reading &aquo;)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-17
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-16 http://s3nt.com/ftu #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-16
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-15 http://s3nt.com/fmm #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-15
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/15/2008 http://s3nt.com/fe1 # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-14 http://s3nt.com/ff8 #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-14
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/14/2008 http://s3nt.com/e8s # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-13 http://s3nt.com/e9s #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/15/2008
Shawn F. Murphytags: technology, techintegrator, wild, pattern_language (continue reading &aquo;)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-13
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/13/2008 http://s3nt.com/e2t # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-12 http://s3nt.com/e5b # Blog Post: Issuu: Create Your Own Magazine http://s3nt.com/e6g #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/14/2008
Technology as a Tool for Professional Development [e-Lead]tags: elearning, techintegrator, technology, technology_leadershipUNC School of Educationtags: educational_leadership, techintegrator, technologyHer work is grounded in social constructivism as espoused by Bakhtin: "Truth is not to be found inside the head of an individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction."Sara Dexter: vitaetags: educational, educational_leadership, technology, techintegratorAmerican Science & Surplus : Must Gotags: no_tagAmerican Science & Surplus : Household Odds and Endstags: no_tag (continue reading &aquo;)
Issuu: Create Your Own Magazine
Such a beautiful product. Check out what others have done, then see if you can do it. I know just the person to send this to. I especially liked the issuu of Wild Swim: (continue reading &aquo;)
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-12
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-11 http://s3nt.com/epk #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/13/2008
Why are public schools so bad at hiring good teachers? - By Ray Fisman - Slate Magazine - Annotatedtags: no_tagIs the teacher who helps raise test scores the same as the teacher who helps our students learn in the long run? In other words does the test measure what is good to learn? Is there a relationship between what we expect them to learn and what they will use as they become adults and citizens? - post by tellioWhat economists have found is that only one thing tells us how much a teacher will boost his students' test scores next year: the amount he raised test scores in previous years. A good teacher this year will very likely be a good teacher next year.ISTE Classroom Observation Tooltags: no_tagNice use of adobe air. Self tool. - post by tellio (continue reading &aquo;)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-11
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-10 http://s3nt.com/ej4 #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-10
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-09 http://s3nt.com/efc #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-09
Blog Post: Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/09/2008 http://s3nt.com/d87 # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-08 http://s3nt.com/d98 #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-08
Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-07 http://s3nt.com/d6s #Powered by Twitter Tools. (continue reading &aquo;)
Tellio's InterWeb Notes 07/09/2008
DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS ONLINE [35]tags: no_tagDoctorate Life: Re Content and Reputation - Ideas spurred by George Siemenstags: no_tag (continue reading &aquo;)
Monday, July 07, 2008
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Twitter Updates for 2008-07-06
Pingfm is here. Let freedom ping! # Blog Post: Twitter Updates for 2008-07-06:test of pingfm $post: I am testing pingfm. # @textwoal testing blog
Test of Ping to My Blogs
OK, let freedom ping! This is a test of the cross social services/cross blog posting tool, Pingfm.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Is It Over? I Don't Hear No Fat Lady Singin'
We only have nine days left of this project and our continued time together will be over.Google Reader (63) Sherri Pryon
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
How You Blog WKUWP23
I have pulled a few posts randomly from the WKUWP23blogs as just a light sample of your work. Very cool, toes dipped in the cold, but glorious tech water. Now...just jump in.Memos from the Conference Room » Thoughts on Pig Meat
Affordability-Pork is cheaper than steak. Period. With that, it’s much more likely that I would partake of a culinary wonder drenched in a heavenly sauce from a man selling pork out the back of his van than going to Chez Snooty’s and enjoying steak au poivre with grilled asparagus and mashed cauliflower with a balsamic reduction. Give me a beer and a few ribs and I will be a much happier man. Alex
GoodMy Blog » Blog Archive » June 6, 2008
morning. We have had a very active morning, learning more about
technology. I didn’t know that there were so many things that you can
do on the computer. I thought that I knew things about computers, but
then I met Terry. WOW. It will take the rest of the writing project to
digest the things he told us this morning. Amy
My writing wasMy Blog
abruptly put on hold while my children were little. Thoughts were still
scribbled onto paper-ideas for a story or a poem. Once I shared my
writing with my husband, who did not appreciate them at all. He thought
writing was a waste of time and made me feel like why anyone would want
to read my words. So my words were locked away for several years.Years
flew by and the children grew. I soon found my self to be a single mom
struggling to make ends meet starting college for the first time. In a
class, I was asked to write. My teacher was as old as the hills; yet
unlike another teacher long ago, this lady told me I had a gift. And to
unlock my heart and let my worlds flow. Nancy D
Yesterday ILife Has its Moments » About me…
was a little overwhelmed with all the information we received and I was
simply amazed by the fact that I now have a blog site. I was so amazed
that I forgot to really mention anything about me. My name is Hanna
Gill and I am 26 years old. I will be starting my fourth year of
teaching in August at Butler County High School where I teach
English/Journalism/Leadership. I am currently a member of the Writing
Project at WKU and I feel so blessed to be here. This is an amazing
experience. I am excited to learn all these new things that I can take
back to my students and pass on to them. Hanna
TheBlah Blah Blog » tgif
first week of the writing project has flown by! Many new friends and
colleagues to share experiences and apprehensions. Tons of technology
paths to remember.. is there a techno mapquest? If so, sign me up.I
know how my students feel when I introduce a new concept and expect
them to wrap their little brains around it post haste. So, in a way, I
have “been in their shoes.” This is an important experience for me,
because now I can empathize with their wide eyes and overloaded brain
cells.So much for the first week. Bring on the potluck! Kim
Hello,My Blog » Blog Archive » Writing Project, Day4
everyone! This is day four of the writing project. So far, it has been
a jam-packed experience full of information, technology, sharing, food,
and fun times. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the time here
this summer! I’m sure I’m going to learn so many valuable things I can
take back with me to share with my school!Now, for a little bit of
information about me. I have never had a blog before. It’s something
new and exciting, and a little bit scary at the same time. We’ll see
how it goes… :) Some more info…I’ll be teaching at Edmonson County High
School this coming school year. I’m so excited! Here’s the school
website. Leanne
One of theMy Blog » Blog Archive » My First Blog
first memories I recall regarding writing involves a snowy Christmas
morning during my preteen years. For some reason, I had convinced
myself and apparently Santa, a.k.a. - my mother, that I needed a diary.
I had deceived myself into thinking I needed a secure location to store
all the secrets a 12-year-old girl could gather. The diary was found
under the Christmas tree that year, and the rest is history. This
inexpensive treasure was the catalyst for a life-long love affair with
writing. From that point in my life, I have always surrounded myself
with some type of journal and all the essential tools required to be
the owner of one. Rita
Okay, IMy Blog » Blog Archive » Jumping In
am leaping, I am jumping from blog reader to blog writer. This is a
surprising part of Writing Project 23. I didn’t know how much I would
get to learn about technology. I am pretty technology aware, I’m not a
novice, but I’m not distinguished either. Great chance to learn
more.I’m really enjoying NWP interactive. There are some amazing pieces
posted there. I think I am getting addicted.I may even get my own
weather blog, just like John Belski! Weather is another one of my
passions! Sherri B
Well todayMy Blog » June, 6, 2008- Day 6 of WKU Writing Project
completes my first full week with the writing project. I am excited by
all that I have learned during my journey this week but am exhausted
from all the late night reading and writing I so willingly did. I am
charged with the same excitement I remember from my first college days.
Today Terry Elliott caught up with us again and gave us more info on
how to manage the blogs he helped us to create. My notes seemed so
clear as I was jotting down each new website or tool he mentioned, but
I am concerned it may all look like greek to me later when I finally
get a chance to really try it out. I’m so glad to have a resource for
managing the blog and look forward to learning more from him! Once
again we were given time to work on writing and/or reading projects, so
my partner and I worked on our demonstration project for Monday. We
really polished it up, and I feel much more comfortable with presenting
on Monday. We stopped for a delicious pot luck lunch and then headed
over to the WKU Library & Museum. What fascinating history! I
really enjoyed seeing the snapshots of the past and their connections
with the present. As week one comes to a close, I look forward to
stopping for some R&R over the weekend. Until next week… Sherri D
Do youPryor Writing » Blog Archive » Hot and Cold
ever wonder how hot summer weather and colds go together? Pondering on
this idea since about 2am I wonder WHY they go together so well? Trying
not to turn our house into an igloo (so I can breathe) and yet when I
step outside to view the Tractor Parade in a few minutes- I won’t be
able to breathe there either. So many things go together hot/cold: pie
and ice cream, snow and hot cocoa, well you begin to understand.What
does not go together…summer weather and colds. Sherri P
Hi!My Blog » Blog Archive » First Posting
This is my new blog page—Wow!! I am soooooooooo proud!! This is the
fourth day of the Writing Project—it is so very exciting. We are all
learning so much and sharing reading, writing, and just life in
general. It is such a joy to be here. I’m not too good with tech
stuff!! But, this is so awesome!! Veronica M
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Complexity is a Bitch! Root hog, or die!
I wrote this as a comment in Will Richardson's Weblogged as a response to a post about change in education.
Humans as a race have always found a way to adapt. That is a very fair statement and one backed up by evolutionary history and biology. Our many-layered brain is a physical text of this adaptation. Given this premise the question remains: how will we adapt? More specifically, how will teachers adapt to this changing environment. We can continue to game and tweak the status quo. We can strike out toward some new 'thing' that we cannot call 'school' but can claim is learning. Or we can do both: lay tracks for the new right next to the old. Or we can try a million other new new things. Nicholas Taleb says that the only certainty in these scenarios is that we cannot predict which one of these new parallel tracks will be the right one. In other words, what we as teachers need to do is to remain learners, to be bloodhounds for this new scent, and to be ready to try on and cast off many of the trails we discover before we find one that works for our learners. And then keep doing that.
It means (to switch metaphors) that we need to value the adaptive over the institutional model. An adaptive teaching model in our current predicament most probably requires a wildly adaptable institutional model. We need a way that says the only charter a school needs is to help its students learn and to be accountable in some reasonable way for that learning. What we need is a way to make schools-of-one just as viable as schools-of-many. What we need is a world full of learning brokers or coaches or entrepreneurs or what-have-ye who can coggle together a virtual architecture of formal and informal systems to help us learn.
I can think of two examples that exemplify this: Ravelry and Stronglifts. These are both 'convivial' tools in the best Illich-ian sense. The former is a knitting site that is so much more. It is a school where you can learn to knit. It is a place to teach others. It is a place to ask questions and provide answers. It is formal (the site has a structure and rules) but it is also informal (the site has as many forum on as many topics as can be imagined). My wife is a better knitter because of it. Plus, she is now much better versed in the tools of our socially networked metaverse.
The latter, stronglifts, is a personal training website specializing in showing its participants how to get stronger. I have been reading this site from its inception where it has gone from zero to 15,000 subscribers in a year. Its owner/blogger/manager is a Belgian named Mehdi. Recently, he started doing personal training. One might well ask how someone can teach weight lifting over the web. He combines some old school and some new. He has a forum on his website run on good ol' phpbb. He has a paying forum within that site for his students. In this weight lifting academy he has individual training logs for each student. I keep diet and training logs every day or nearly so and he comments daily. The most interesting part is that I make videos of myself as I lift and then upload them to YouTube. I mark them private and send a share invite to him. He watches the vids and makes suggestions. This dance of feedback and change works for me (although he is a fierce taskmaster whom I have nicknamed Torquemada).
Root hog or die. That's what one of my music acquaintences, Mojo Nixon says. I know that this is hard. I spent $150 on gas last week for my various vehicles. I am going to have to learn how to reduce this burden or find other work, but I am already moving towards that change on several fronts. What I am saying is that school can no longer afford to look like it does any more than I can tolerate 30% increases in transportation each year. Garmston's suggestions in your post, Will, are all well and good, but I don't think most folks will tolerate the consequences that flow from it. It's like the suggestions in the new book, Brain Rules. We know what we ought, yet we do not. I do believe that as our affordances change so too will the ways out. Just like a real hog, schools will find a way, but I guarantee you that they will appear to us in ways that are unexpected, new, surprising, and perhaps both better and worse than what we now have. Complexity is a bitch. Get over it.
Humans as a race have always found a way to adapt. That is a very fair statement and one backed up by evolutionary history and biology. Our many-layered brain is a physical text of this adaptation. Given this premise the question remains: how will we adapt? More specifically, how will teachers adapt to this changing environment. We can continue to game and tweak the status quo. We can strike out toward some new 'thing' that we cannot call 'school' but can claim is learning. Or we can do both: lay tracks for the new right next to the old. Or we can try a million other new new things. Nicholas Taleb says that the only certainty in these scenarios is that we cannot predict which one of these new parallel tracks will be the right one. In other words, what we as teachers need to do is to remain learners, to be bloodhounds for this new scent, and to be ready to try on and cast off many of the trails we discover before we find one that works for our learners. And then keep doing that.
It means (to switch metaphors) that we need to value the adaptive over the institutional model. An adaptive teaching model in our current predicament most probably requires a wildly adaptable institutional model. We need a way that says the only charter a school needs is to help its students learn and to be accountable in some reasonable way for that learning. What we need is a way to make schools-of-one just as viable as schools-of-many. What we need is a world full of learning brokers or coaches or entrepreneurs or what-have-ye who can coggle together a virtual architecture of formal and informal systems to help us learn.
I can think of two examples that exemplify this: Ravelry and Stronglifts. These are both 'convivial' tools in the best Illich-ian sense. The former is a knitting site that is so much more. It is a school where you can learn to knit. It is a place to teach others. It is a place to ask questions and provide answers. It is formal (the site has a structure and rules) but it is also informal (the site has as many forum on as many topics as can be imagined). My wife is a better knitter because of it. Plus, she is now much better versed in the tools of our socially networked metaverse.
The latter, stronglifts, is a personal training website specializing in showing its participants how to get stronger. I have been reading this site from its inception where it has gone from zero to 15,000 subscribers in a year. Its owner/blogger/manager is a Belgian named Mehdi. Recently, he started doing personal training. One might well ask how someone can teach weight lifting over the web. He combines some old school and some new. He has a forum on his website run on good ol' phpbb. He has a paying forum within that site for his students. In this weight lifting academy he has individual training logs for each student. I keep diet and training logs every day or nearly so and he comments daily. The most interesting part is that I make videos of myself as I lift and then upload them to YouTube. I mark them private and send a share invite to him. He watches the vids and makes suggestions. This dance of feedback and change works for me (although he is a fierce taskmaster whom I have nicknamed Torquemada).
Root hog or die. That's what one of my music acquaintences, Mojo Nixon says. I know that this is hard. I spent $150 on gas last week for my various vehicles. I am going to have to learn how to reduce this burden or find other work, but I am already moving towards that change on several fronts. What I am saying is that school can no longer afford to look like it does any more than I can tolerate 30% increases in transportation each year. Garmston's suggestions in your post, Will, are all well and good, but I don't think most folks will tolerate the consequences that flow from it. It's like the suggestions in the new book, Brain Rules. We know what we ought, yet we do not. I do believe that as our affordances change so too will the ways out. Just like a real hog, schools will find a way, but I guarantee you that they will appear to us in ways that are unexpected, new, surprising, and perhaps both better and worse than what we now have. Complexity is a bitch. Get over it.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Research Proposal
Annual Activity Report, School Year 2006-2007, Terry Elliott
In the 2006-2007 school year I taught all of the general education English classes. They continue to prove a fresh challenge to both my teaching methods and my teaching content. I doubt I will ever be a burnout. A rust-out, perhaps, but never a burnout.
English 100
In English 100 I continue to require in-class and out-of-class essays using various discourse forms. I allow for constant revision, but with an increasing emphasis on “significance”. In other words I am requiring that students truly re-view what they have written in light of comments and class work so that revisions are at minimum more in line with the publishing world’s 20% new material requirement.
I discovered Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s They Say, I Say this past year and find it to be a revelation. When my enhanced 100 students begin the fall semester, many have no clue as to the ‘tribal’ rules of academic writing. They don’t know the game and they don’t know the moves. The idea that reading might be a conversation to which they are a party is new and strange to them, but TS/IS clues them in on some of the biggest secrets. The templates that the authors provide are a real comfort to students who are thrashing about for something to say in a way that won’t get them bloodied on their papers. This book provides a way out of this difficulty that makes sense and a way in that is useful for all of their university writing contexts.
I am beginning to move toward using weblogs more in my classes. Their capacity for generating public writing available for public comment is unparalleled. One of my arguments for creating a university-wide blog presence was that Blackboard couldn’t do this revolutionary job of providing a ‘printing press’ for each student while blogs can.
Last year I confined much of my blog work to the students’ semester long “I-Search” projects. Students used the weblogs to thrash out their topics, to generate first drafts, to get feedback from others, and to sometimes get responses from outside the classroom community. This year I plan on doing this again, but I also will be creating a class weblog, which will have its own rotating editorial board. This board will gather information from their classmates’ weblogs and from other sources relevant to the class community to be published on the class weblog.
Lack of confidence is the mark of most of my enhanced 100 students. I hope this responsibility will give them greater facility in their ability to enter into even more interesting conversations both inside our academic community and out.
All of the new initiatives are made possible by our new lab and by our room assignment there. The document camera alone makes for interesting new improvisations every day.
English 200
I spent 2006-2007 totally online with English 200 and I was totally uncomfortable. I thought that my experience with weblogs and other social writing platforms online (forums, wikis, etc.) would give me a leg up on this online business. In some ways it did, but mostly I discovered that teaching online is exactly the same as teaching face-to-face. It is about creating communities.
I discovered that my greatest strength as a teacher in the classroom had to be transformed. I am able to “read” a class in a F2F setting quite readily much as a salesman sizes up a potential customer. Their body language always gives them away and that “thin slice” of information from the first few minutes of class always stood me in good stead. It should have been obvious that I would not have that rich vein of data in an online class, but it was still a shock to me.
I spent the better part of the year re-configuring my teaching style for this new and alien community of learners. Teaching a winter term literature course online helped accelerate the process by allowing me to, as Richard Saul Wurman puts it, “Fail faster.” This sounds bad, but it really wasn’t. I think of online teaching last year as similar to the hundred little mid-course corrections a pilot makes in the course of a flight. The passengers get to their destination, but rarely even know about all the changes.
But I knew I had to have a better plan this year. This summer I went to two professional development courses that helped in very concrete ways. The first was an online seminar via the Sloan Consortium (http://www.sloan-c.org/) titled “Workload Management Strategies for Online Educators”. This course has provided me with dozens of immediately useful techniques to help create that online community.
For example, my students always had a hard time gathering all of the assignments for the week into a clear view of what needed doing and when. I put the deadlines down in what I assumed was clear view and assumed it was their job to pull it together. Wrong.
That approach was not disastrous, but it was hardly seamless. I found out a simple approach at Sloan-C that solved the problem. I now create a simple chart, which students can print out and check off as they complete the assignments. These charts have the added benefit of providing an excellent way to plan content and to see at a glance what my week’s workload will be. As usual, what’s good for the student is good for the instructor.
The second PD course was Quality Matters’ (http://qualitymatters.org/) Online Course Peer Review Program. This one-day course made me realize that I was leaving out important, navigational and learner engagement tools out of my online course. I also was re-introduced to the continuous improvement model that is at the root of all creative dissatisfaction. The QM rubric was thorough and useful in helping me re-view my own course with student eyes. I plan to undergo a rigorous, format review of my Introduction to Literature class this spring so that I can become a reviewer myself at WKU.
English 300
English 300 has always been a bit of an enigma for me. I understand our departmental goals and I am happy to work toward them, but it always seemed there was something missing from my research emphasis. When I walked through the doors of our new computer lab, Room 102, I knew what it was—the Internet and its connected power. Even though I was using the same text and much the same syllabus, I felt it was a completely different course, much more relevant and useful to my students.
I began to emphasize new tools for old tasks. For example, I taught students how to gather information in new ways. I demonstrated how to use USB drives to make their information portable. Let me explain. The problem many university students have with gathering research information online is that the tools they have in one lab might not be the tools they have at home or somewhere else on campus. If students put the browser, Firefox, on their own USB drive, then they can add any number of useful tools to that browser which might not be available in our labs. Once installed these “extensions” can be used anywhere that your USB drive can be used. That means that hard won research travels with the student and can be added to anywhere.
I always taught the use of these tools within the context of English 300 and never felt that they stole time from the larger goals of the course. On the contrary, I know they increased my efficiency as well as theirs. At the same time we introduce them to tools they will be expected to know in their work worlds.
Many of these tools have odd sounding names—Bloglines, Zotero, Diigo, de.licio.us, Google Alert and Notebook—but their function is to increase the efficacy of student research, learning, and writing. It is a rare tool that enables us to do more and do it better in the same amount of time so I will likely use the tools more often not less often.
Conclusion
Last year was my third one teaching at Western. I feel that my world here is mostly mine to define. I appreciate that gift, but I never know when something new will re-order my place in that world. Take the new critical thinking initiative. I am finding many of the suggestions from Dr. Paul’s remarks working their way into my courses. I am beginning to respect group work more and am teaching it better. I know that this three-year initiative will prove invaluable to me personally and professionally. May we be cursed with interesting times? I can’t wait.
In the 2006-2007 school year I taught all of the general education English classes. They continue to prove a fresh challenge to both my teaching methods and my teaching content. I doubt I will ever be a burnout. A rust-out, perhaps, but never a burnout.
English 100
In English 100 I continue to require in-class and out-of-class essays using various discourse forms. I allow for constant revision, but with an increasing emphasis on “significance”. In other words I am requiring that students truly re-view what they have written in light of comments and class work so that revisions are at minimum more in line with the publishing world’s 20% new material requirement.
I discovered Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff’s They Say, I Say this past year and find it to be a revelation. When my enhanced 100 students begin the fall semester, many have no clue as to the ‘tribal’ rules of academic writing. They don’t know the game and they don’t know the moves. The idea that reading might be a conversation to which they are a party is new and strange to them, but TS/IS clues them in on some of the biggest secrets. The templates that the authors provide are a real comfort to students who are thrashing about for something to say in a way that won’t get them bloodied on their papers. This book provides a way out of this difficulty that makes sense and a way in that is useful for all of their university writing contexts.
I am beginning to move toward using weblogs more in my classes. Their capacity for generating public writing available for public comment is unparalleled. One of my arguments for creating a university-wide blog presence was that Blackboard couldn’t do this revolutionary job of providing a ‘printing press’ for each student while blogs can.
Last year I confined much of my blog work to the students’ semester long “I-Search” projects. Students used the weblogs to thrash out their topics, to generate first drafts, to get feedback from others, and to sometimes get responses from outside the classroom community. This year I plan on doing this again, but I also will be creating a class weblog, which will have its own rotating editorial board. This board will gather information from their classmates’ weblogs and from other sources relevant to the class community to be published on the class weblog.
Lack of confidence is the mark of most of my enhanced 100 students. I hope this responsibility will give them greater facility in their ability to enter into even more interesting conversations both inside our academic community and out.
All of the new initiatives are made possible by our new lab and by our room assignment there. The document camera alone makes for interesting new improvisations every day.
English 200
I spent 2006-2007 totally online with English 200 and I was totally uncomfortable. I thought that my experience with weblogs and other social writing platforms online (forums, wikis, etc.) would give me a leg up on this online business. In some ways it did, but mostly I discovered that teaching online is exactly the same as teaching face-to-face. It is about creating communities.
I discovered that my greatest strength as a teacher in the classroom had to be transformed. I am able to “read” a class in a F2F setting quite readily much as a salesman sizes up a potential customer. Their body language always gives them away and that “thin slice” of information from the first few minutes of class always stood me in good stead. It should have been obvious that I would not have that rich vein of data in an online class, but it was still a shock to me.
I spent the better part of the year re-configuring my teaching style for this new and alien community of learners. Teaching a winter term literature course online helped accelerate the process by allowing me to, as Richard Saul Wurman puts it, “Fail faster.” This sounds bad, but it really wasn’t. I think of online teaching last year as similar to the hundred little mid-course corrections a pilot makes in the course of a flight. The passengers get to their destination, but rarely even know about all the changes.
But I knew I had to have a better plan this year. This summer I went to two professional development courses that helped in very concrete ways. The first was an online seminar via the Sloan Consortium (http://www.sloan-c.org/) titled “Workload Management Strategies for Online Educators”. This course has provided me with dozens of immediately useful techniques to help create that online community.
For example, my students always had a hard time gathering all of the assignments for the week into a clear view of what needed doing and when. I put the deadlines down in what I assumed was clear view and assumed it was their job to pull it together. Wrong.
That approach was not disastrous, but it was hardly seamless. I found out a simple approach at Sloan-C that solved the problem. I now create a simple chart, which students can print out and check off as they complete the assignments. These charts have the added benefit of providing an excellent way to plan content and to see at a glance what my week’s workload will be. As usual, what’s good for the student is good for the instructor.
The second PD course was Quality Matters’ (http://qualitymatters.org/) Online Course Peer Review Program. This one-day course made me realize that I was leaving out important, navigational and learner engagement tools out of my online course. I also was re-introduced to the continuous improvement model that is at the root of all creative dissatisfaction. The QM rubric was thorough and useful in helping me re-view my own course with student eyes. I plan to undergo a rigorous, format review of my Introduction to Literature class this spring so that I can become a reviewer myself at WKU.
English 300
English 300 has always been a bit of an enigma for me. I understand our departmental goals and I am happy to work toward them, but it always seemed there was something missing from my research emphasis. When I walked through the doors of our new computer lab, Room 102, I knew what it was—the Internet and its connected power. Even though I was using the same text and much the same syllabus, I felt it was a completely different course, much more relevant and useful to my students.
I began to emphasize new tools for old tasks. For example, I taught students how to gather information in new ways. I demonstrated how to use USB drives to make their information portable. Let me explain. The problem many university students have with gathering research information online is that the tools they have in one lab might not be the tools they have at home or somewhere else on campus. If students put the browser, Firefox, on their own USB drive, then they can add any number of useful tools to that browser which might not be available in our labs. Once installed these “extensions” can be used anywhere that your USB drive can be used. That means that hard won research travels with the student and can be added to anywhere.
I always taught the use of these tools within the context of English 300 and never felt that they stole time from the larger goals of the course. On the contrary, I know they increased my efficiency as well as theirs. At the same time we introduce them to tools they will be expected to know in their work worlds.
Many of these tools have odd sounding names—Bloglines, Zotero, Diigo, de.licio.us, Google Alert and Notebook—but their function is to increase the efficacy of student research, learning, and writing. It is a rare tool that enables us to do more and do it better in the same amount of time so I will likely use the tools more often not less often.
Conclusion
Last year was my third one teaching at Western. I feel that my world here is mostly mine to define. I appreciate that gift, but I never know when something new will re-order my place in that world. Take the new critical thinking initiative. I am finding many of the suggestions from Dr. Paul’s remarks working their way into my courses. I am beginning to respect group work more and am teaching it better. I know that this three-year initiative will prove invaluable to me personally and professionally. May we be cursed with interesting times? I can’t wait.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
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