Beyond the Skills Gap
I first learned of Beyond the Skills Gap in an October, 2016 article in Inside Higher Ed. In January, my small book club (Ann McClellan, Pat Cantor, and I) decided…
PSU and the National GE Conversation
As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities' 2017 General Education and Assessment Conference. Nearly every session I attended was directly…
AAC&U General Education Conference
Annette Holba, Annemarie Conlon, Sandra Van Gundy, Hilary Swank, and I attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) General Education Conference in Phoenix last week. The AAC&U is…
White Balance in Digital Photography
I've been experimenting with all the different settings on my camera. Yesterday's experimentation focused on the "white balance" control. This is a concept that I never learned when I was…
Lessons Learned from Reviewing Cluster Project Proposals
One of the sessions that I was involved in during the January Jamboree was about the lessons learned regarding successful cluster projects so far. Annette Holba, Cindy Waltman, Laura Dykstra and…
Arts and Technologies Curriculum Discussion
During PSU's January Jamboree (JJ), I was involved in four sessions: First Year Seminar Update, General Education Update, Lessons Learned from Cluster Project Proposals, and the Arts and Technologies Curriculum…
Holdover Design
Although I've categorized this post as related to Integrated Clusters, I've done that for my own ease of finding it in the future. The post is really about Design Thinking which…
What Makes the PSU Cluster Initiative Unique?
I was interviewed on Monday about the cluster initiative for a new podcast focused on higher education in general and Plymouth State University in particular. I think the interview went…
The First Year Seminar and Wicked Problems
The First Year Seminar Coordinating Council (FYSCC) is facilitating a workshop during Plymouth State University's January Jamboree. We will be discussing the changes we envision as the First Year Seminar (FYS) becomes…
Designing Your Life
As part of my work as a cluster guide, I've been continuing to read about design thinking. One of the books that I recently finished (in a mini-book club with my…
Design Thinking and Wicked Problems
When I visited Spain in 2008, I was impressed by all the little things the country was doing to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. There were wind farms all…
Student Engagement
I took advantage of our unexpected ice day today to write about the cluster initiative and student engagement. Two ideas that have arisen from conversations about clusters that might have…
Moonlight
I see a lot of movies and I don't usually write much about them. But the movie I saw last weekend, Moonlight, has really stuck with me and I hope…
Clustering Gen Ed
The General Education Committee and the cluster guides have been meeting once a week since the start of the semester to talk about potential changes to the General Education program. The…
Bennington College’s experiment with short-term, pop-up courses
Two parts of this idea that I really like are 1. that these courses engage students with what is currently going on in the world, and 2. that these courses…
Continued Cluster Communication
Last week was a busy one for me as a cluster guide. One topic that wove through most of the conversations had to do with internal communication about what's going…
Clusters and Curriculum
Conversations about various aspects of cluster implementation are continuing. Since I last wrote about my personal activities regarding clusters, I have been involved in three conversations that have given me…
This Week in Clusters
A lot of people gave me feedback on my last blog post. Those conversations have been really helpful for me in understanding how design thinking could help us in our…
Design Thinking and the Curriculum Planning Guide
If you've read any of my previous blog posts, you know that I am working with a group of faculty to modify Plymouth State University's First Year Seminar (FYS). We've…
Cluster Progress
One of the (many) difficulties with keeping the campus up to date about what's going on with clusters is that we (the guides) are doing a lot of work but we…
