Now there is a question I would guess many people have either asked or been asked. For blended and online developments in particular I have this conversation time and time again. Of course there is a particular pedagogical paradigm and …

For many of us, our students are first-time college students which means they are first time adults. For many of these students this means this is the first time they are given the chance to choose for themselves. Their whole lives someone has been making all of the...

You may have seen the headline, “Teacher Fired for Giving Students Zeros for not Turning in Assignments”. Certainly great click-bait from a publisher’s standpoint, but what is this really about. At a conference roundtable I attended many years ago, we discussed this...

Welcome back to my serial piece--I’ll pick up where I left off last week, on the idea that it is difficult to abandon old techniques and move toward new ones, argumentatively. Something that exacerbates the comment-section mentality is that we’re experiencing...

Well, at least many students think they are very cool. I have slowly moved my courses to a quest-based assignment system. I have taken my regular assignments and tests and broken them up over the semester so students are doing many small things rather than a few big...

Free Affordable Community College for All Making college more affordable is a hot topic right now. Student loan debt is soaring into the trillions of dollars and 4.7 million borrowers are in default on their student loans. We all know that the cost of college today is...

My last post was about going gradeless for part of a communications class. The experience was rewarding. Needs tweaking, but valuable. 

Here are some further thoughts on the process and results:

1. Having students self-assess does not mean less work. …

When was the last time you greeted your class in a warm and sincere way?  Have you ever said “I’m glad you’re here today” or “I’m really happy to see you! How was your …

In 1933, John Dewey, wondering how an alien race might see the American educational landscape pondered, “The Utopians believed that the pattern which exists in economic society in our time affected the general habits of thought; that because personal acquisition …

During this fall PD, I had the opportunity to attend some amazing sessions. I especially appreciated learning from my peers in other departments. I discussed a book (The Power of Moments by the Heath Brothers-I recommend it!) with human resources, public relations,...