Anyone who follows the current pedagogical discussions in higher education has encountered the vilification of the lecture. It’s pretentious (the much-reviled stereotype of the sage on stage), it’s boring, it’s passive, it’s anti-learning. It’s not too often that one comes across a research-based, full-throated defence of the lecture. Such is the book I want to[…]
First off, we’re all stressed out, and this Tik Tok of Gloria Gaynor washing her hands for 19 seconds while singing I Will Survive is EVERYTHING. Don’t say I never give you anything nice. [Tik Tok is generally bad but every once in a while, there’s a stroke of genius.] Obviously, we all have a[…]
But there is this pandemic thing. What do we do if the college has to close because of the COVID-19? We know quite a few campuses have already closed and others are taking measures in case they have to. In this post, I do not want to discuss what our institutional response should be. You[…]
I am one of those people who like to maker her work simpler and more streamlined, hence my elation at the discovery of the date management tool in Blackboard, which I posted about in an earlier post. The second key tool I use to streamline my workflow in Blackboard is the column organization page, accessed[…]
Obligatory disclaimer: I am not a designer. This is not my field. I’m just a community college prof trying to use best practice to the best of my abilities. In this post, I want to showcase some of the tools that I use the most commonly with respect to design. Again, I make no claim[…]
Death by the powerpoint. We’ve all experienced it, more often than we’d like. You know what it is: that lengthy presentation with a speaker reading slides tightly packed with text, font size -16. It’s deadly. We usually remember nothing from such presentations except our own boredom and our promise of never again being subjected to[…]
This post is a two-fer. It is part book review and part tech tool. At this point, we all have to contend with the fact that our students do not use effective studying / learning strategies. More than that, they may use strategies that are detrimental to their learning. There is ample research demonstrating this.[…]
In this second part, I want to show you how useful mind maps can be in mapping actual content. I have already mentioned the benefits I see in mapping as opposed to traditional assignments and papers. Most often, I use mapping when students work with videos. This is going to sound weird, but our students[…]
No, seriously. Ok, here goes: And by thing I mean papers. There, I’ve said it. But seriously, I do. They do nothing for me that can’t be accomplished through better means. I mostly teach introduction to sociology here, so, my main goal is to make students understand what sociology is, how to apply its core[…]
A tougher read from the usual pedagogy stuff I usually read. Derek Bruff organizes his book alongside strategies and principles derived from the scholarship of teaching and learning: For each, he provides a principle and a series of example from a variety of disciplines, although there is an overrepresentation of Vanderbilt, where he works. Each[…]