A few years ago, I attended weekend seminar "Designing Courses for More Significant Learning" - a prior version of NMC's August professional development program. I used Dee Fink's approach twice in major course designs, and I've been pleased with the results....
We create models for several reasons. We use them to analyze and understand what's happening around us, we use them to predict and control behaviors or outcomes and we use them for entertainment. There are bad models that don't work very well. We usually do away with...
Over the past week I spent my time with a bunch of Data Geeks talking about Student Success and Outcomes in Austin. There were 13,000 others talking Data from all walks of life. Education, Retail, Healthcare, you name it the industry was accounted for. Being with all...
You’ve probably heard us talking a lot about Headings and creating structure in your documents and how important that is. Not only are headings great design practice, they can help in removing potential navigational barriers for students. It’s a great step in...
Our over-the-range microwave oven experienced a meltdown this week. After we'd turned in for the night, an unusual noise emanated from "somewhere else" in the house. A short jaunt through dark hallways found our microwave's door wide open, a bit of unexpected light...
Ada is 7. She is an identical twin. She has autism and other developmental and cognitive disabilities. Everything is hard for Ada. She did not walk until she was two. She had two bouts of deafness in her early years. Talking is very challenging for her. She has...
Yesterday in my ENG 99 class, students at two tables were swapping Snapchat names so they could start Snapchatting each other. Another table saw them, and said, laughingly, “You guys are just doing that now? Our table did that the first week!” It was completely...
Jesus wept. When I was in college, we ate our meals family-style. At the beginning of the meal, the senior class and freshman class would have a competition of trivia. We had to think of a question that would stump the other class. Usually there was some wager,...
Last week, I discussed how service learning could provide a real context for students to learn writing skills I’m trying to teach them (such as making appeals to an audience effectively). Focusing on an issue that is current and relevant in a local context can...