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…
Online Asynchronous Collaboration: Mid-Semester Reflection
As is typical in the Fall semesters, I am teaching a section of our first year, project-based course Tackling a Wicked Problem. Back before we knew the extent of the…
Moving From File Repository to Narrative Journey
On May 18, 2020, The Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching published a timely article that I am finding helpful as I begin my thinking about teaching Tackling a WIcked…
Tackling a Wicked Problem Online
Because of the uncertainty about the Fall 2020 semester, my university has decided that if a first year student wants to take all of their classes online, we would have…
Project-Based Learning in the Age of COVID-19
Last week, Plymouth State University faculty participated in an event called Slipper Camp ("like boot camp but softer and on Zoom") in which we discussed various issues related to designing…
Climate Change Projects
My students in Tackling a Wicked Problem engaged in their first project on Friday of last week when they participated in the Climate Strike. They decided that instead of coming…
PSU at the Institute for Project Based Learning
For the last five summers, the Center for Project-Based Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has offered a project-based learning institute for teams from colleges and universities who are interested…
INCAP Pilot Update
I can't believe how quickly half of the Spring semester has flown by! There is a lot going on in the world of General Education at Plymouth State University and…
Integrated Capstone Course for General Education
One of the President's Four Tools of Clusters is an integrated capstone experience for all students. PSU's Integration Connection (INCO) course was originally designed to be a capstone course for…
Why is PSU Moving to Clusters?
President Birx wrote a blog post (which I've referenced more times than I can count) about the Four Tools of Clusters. It's important to note that three of the four…
The New Education: First Year Seminar
I've been busy for the last month or so IndieWebifying my web site. That's been really fun. But I've also been started planning for my new position as Coordinator of…
The New Education
I recently read The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University and Prepare Students For a World in Flux by Cathy N. Davidson. Davidson has long been an academic hero…
PCA 2018
I went to the Popular Culture Association Conference last week. My presentation was called Wicked Problems in Popular Culture: An Open Pedagogy Experiment in Engagement in which I talked about my experience with…
Students’ Signature Work: Conference Debrief
The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the Davis Educational Foundation sponsored a one day institute in Boston this weekend for institutions of higher education who want to…
Making Things and Drawing Boundaries
If you read my About the Author page, you will see that I have a BA, an MS, and a PhD, all in Computer Science. What you won't see is…
Assessment That Works
We at Plymouth State University have been talking about appropriate assessment of our General Education program for most of the 20 years that I have been here. When we instituted…
Lifelong Kindergarten
I'm on sabbatical for the Spring 2018 semester. My first sabbatical project, getting my knee replaced, began in earnest on January 12 and I've made great progress on it over…
