Adventures in Ungrading
I have been moving away from traditional grading schemes for a while. In teaching the INCAP course in Spring 2019 and Tackling a Wicked Problem in Fall 2019, I have…
The Vulnerability of Learning
I spent the last three days talking about learning and teaching at Plymouth State University's January Jamboree and the University System of New Hampshire's Academic Technology Institute meeting. Both events…
Complex Lives, Tragedies, and Empathy
As the General Education Coordinator at PSU, I've been working on the First Year Seminar Poster Symposium since before the Fall semester started. Like everyone else involved in the event,…
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…
National Survey of Student Engagement
Plymouth State University participates every other year in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which measures student participation in meaningful learning experiences. The survey is given to first year…
Creating OERs with Students
With the end of the Fall 2017 semester, I want to record my thoughts about creating the open educational resource (OER) Introduction to Media Studies with students in CM2770 (Intro to Media…
Disruptive Innovation in Education
I went to a conference sponsored by UBTech a few weeks ago. It was advertised as a "national summit on technology and leadership in higher education" and had a tag…
When is Failure Really Failure?
If you are involved in higher education in any way, you have heard about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). I first heard of them back in the Fall of 2011…
Gamification and Education
A trending buzzword in today's digital culture is gamification. According to most sources on the Internet, the term was coined in 2004 by Nick Pelling, a UK-based business consultant who…
The Problem with Educational Technology
I don't think anyone would accuse me of being a Luddite. I began to learn to program in the late 1970's when I was in high school, majored in computer…
Technology in Education
I just got back from a three day workshop on academic technology. As a computer scientist, I was intrigued by the idea of this workshop but I was worried that…
Game Design Education
I belong to the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) which has a fairly active listserv. The most recent discussion on the listserv was prompted by Brenda Brathwaite's rant at the most recent…
Original Research–Good or Bad?
I recently rewatched Julia, the 1977 film starring Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. It is based on a chapter in Lillian Hellman's memoir, Pentimento: A Book of Portraits. That chapter tells…
The iPad and Education
David Parry recently wrote a very interesting post on ProfHacker regarding the impact that the iPad is likely to have on education. Parry is an assistant professor of emerging media…
Whose Property Is It?
When I was in graduate school more than 12 years ago, a new company opened up in Tallahassee that caught the attention of many students (and probably faculty members) at…
Making Sense of All Things Digital
For the last few years, I have been volunteering my time at a local senior center, teaching computing skills. One of the struggles is to explain the subtle cues that…
Experiments in Online Education
Ian Schreiber, co-author of Challenges for Game Designers, is undertaking an interesting experiment in online education this summer. He is offering an online course called Game Design Concepts via Web…
Isn’t It Ironic?
The MediaShift blog on PBS's web site (written by Mark Glaser and which I highly recommend) recently reported an interesting story about the experience one of its interns had in…
AcademHack
My last post about my frustration with our faculty day speaker prompted some interesting discussion, with several people sharing their own, similar frustrations. So I thought I'd see if I…
How Not to Do Educational Technology
At the start of each academic year, my university hires a speaker to address the full faculty, presumably to inspire us to take on new challenges. Like most universities, mine…
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