Shame on Me, Shame on Us

Shame on Me, Shame on Us! Last Tuesday, like many of you, I watched the election results in disbelief.  How could we have gotten the polling so wrong and how could the American populous have elected Donald Trump as President?  As I thought about facing my colleagues...

Keep coming back

The semester is winding down and the panic is setting in.  There seems to be the immediate need to catch-up with the material.  I was asked today if we are going to review all the stuff we learned in the semester.   There was a disconnect in viewing the current...

Addition and the Aggregate: Getting Students to Revise and Edit

I’m coming to the time in the semester when I focus more on getting students to revise and edit their essays. After we finish our third major project, we will move into portfolio revision in the period after Thanksgiving. For this portfolio work, I ask students to...
Considering Situational Factors

Considering Situational Factors

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...
Infallible Result System Computer/Word Processor Model

Infallible Result System Computer/Word Processor Model

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...
New Glasses: New Opportunity

New Glasses: New Opportunity

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...