Being Hannah Gadsby: Some Thoughts on Disciplinarity
I recently rewatched Hannah Gadsby's two Netflix specials, Nanette and Douglas. I've linked here to the trailers for each of these specials but the trailers don't hint at the brilliance…
Why Wordle Matters
I'm sure you've heard of Wordle, the new word game that has taken the Internet by storm in the last couple of months. I'm always curious about why some games…
My Bullet Journal Experience
In my last blog post, I mentioned that I recently started using a bullet journal. I came across the idea when I was doing research about habit formation. There are…
Developing Academic Habits
Last semester, I had a student who told me that he had been the kind of student in high school who just sort of skated through his classes, not taking…
Cultivating Creativity
I wrote two new chapters, Creative Thought in PSU's Gen Ed Program and Cultivating Creativity, for my Creating Games OER. I think there are a lot of lessons for me…
Info-Environmentalism
Now that the Fall 2021 semester has ended, I have been thinking a lot about how my section of Tackling a Wicked Problem (TWP) went. My section was focused on…
What is Tackling a Wicked Problem? Revisited
Back near the start of the Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community (CPLC) at PSU, I wrote a blog post called "What is Tackling a Wicked Problem?", documenting the history of our…
Cluster Learning: Focus on Process and Complexity
To prepare for the next meeting of the Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community (CPLC) at Plymouth State University, I (re)read three articles, each of which is focused on one aspect of…
The Cluster Initiative at PSU
For the past five years, Plymouth State University has been working on the Integrated Cluster Initiative, the vision of President Donald Birx. Our ideas of this initiative have evolved but…
Teaching Philosophies
In June, a group of Plymouth State University faculty members, including me, participated in "a month-long emergent exploration about the intentional design of teaching and learning," called Design Forward. At…
The MDA Framework and Teaching
I've been thinking a lot about instructional design lately because I'm participating in Design Forward, "a month-long emergent exploration of the intentional design of teaching and learning" created by Martha…
What Can I Salvage?
I don't think anyone would disagree that this has been a challenging year. As part of the work of the Cluster Pedagogy Learning Community at Plymouth State University, my colleague…
Biographies of Creative Women
I wrote in my previous post about one of the main things I've been focused on during the pandemic. But since the pandemic started, I also have been listening to…
Cancer: A Timeline
I was diagnosed with cancer in September of last year. I decided to record the timeline of my treatment progression, mostly so I can remember it. But I thought…
Thinking about Educational Cooperatives
One of the many biographies of women artists that I listened to on my daily walks this year was Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. Lange was…
Raspberry Pi Christmas Project
Like a lot of people, I am spending this Christmas/New Year holiday by myself because of COVID-19. It really hasn't been a bad thing but I did want to plan…
Design for Collaboration
Every Fall I teach a class called Tackling a Wicked Problem (TWP) for first year students at Plymouth State University. A major goal of this class is for students to…
Data Analytics and the Science of Learning
Now that this shortened, very challenging Fall 2020 semester is over, I have started thinking about January followed by the Spring 2021 semester. As I posted back in October, we…
Data Analytics Learning Community
I was excited to send this email to my colleagues today. I am looking forward to participating in this learning community: It is my pleasure to announce that Plymouth State…
The Dispossessed
I'm reading Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed and am fascinated by the portrait of the three societies in the novel. An interesting side note is that my copy of the…
