Nov 13, 2017
Do you remember how you felt about your favorite college professors–the one whose name you looked for when it came time to sign up for classes, the one whose teaching precipitated one of those sea changes in thinking that happen to college freshmen? I’ve had...
Nov 8, 2017
All of the above I believe, and in all areas of life. Without the above, I’d still be sitting home or in the Grand Rapids airport, wondering what next. Instead, I made it to my flight on time for a conference presentation–despite Murphy’s Law appearing this...
Nov 3, 2017
I just read a New Yorker article about the Sackler family who own the pharmaceutical company that makes Oxycontin. It is a shocking story of how the company, by marketing directly and aggressively to doctors, almost singlehandedly caused the current crisis of opioid...
Oct 31, 2017
Do you <3 your textbook? If you don’t, your students probably don’t either. What would it be like to teach a course with text materials that did exactly what you want them to do? This is the Holy Grail of the OER project. Yes, the price of textbooks is insane...
Oct 24, 2017
Teaching in higher ed, there are many times when we add requirements or resources to our class, only to wonder later if they are beneficial to the students. Below are some conversations with a freshman that echo my experiences with students over the last few years as...