“Stay in your lane” is the advice leaders give to those who they have “empowered” to take leadership positions. When committee chairs or other individuals begin to make suggestions or ask questions that are perceived to be beyond their duties or the charge of the committee they are told to “stay in your lane.” Ostensibly Read More
In the recent move to remote teaching, the interest in and “need” for online proctoring of tests students complete at a distance has come to the front of many educators’ and instructional leaders’ attention. increasingly, as well, this discussion focuses on the question “Should we use these tools?” Personally, I see little value in these Read More
Paulo Freire, an educator who worked in Brazil in the 1960’s, is well-known for several essays including “Education for Critical Consciousness” and “Extension and Communication” (Freire, 1974). In these works, Freire argues that meaningful learning occurs when the learner reaches critical consciousness which enables the learner to reflect on and understand not only what they Read More
For all of the rhetoric around being data driven for the last few decades, educators are generally woeful users of data when it comes to making classroom decisions. In my opinion, this is due to the fact that data (quantitative date that is) can only be meaningfully be applied to large data set. We might Read More
The stream of “how to teach online” books and materials to support those faculty who are teaching online. I enjoy these. They are increasingly aligned with what we know about learning (and we know much more than my teachers did… we know more than any teachers did even 10 years ago). One of the great Read More
My social media feeds recently have been filled with calls that “you” not be political. I am included in the “you” because I am an educator (retired from almost 30 years in K-12 and continuing to teach and support teachers in community colleges). I am also included in the “you” as I have a background Read More
185: ADA Compliance & Inclusivityn In recent months, I’ve been working with faculty who have been asked to make the resources in their online courses accessible…. make sure alt-tex is available, use colors that exceed 4.5:1 for a color contrast ratio, run accessibility checkers before releasing files, closed caption videos, and provide transcripts. These are Read More
In the months since “remote” teaching became a “thing,” the tension between educators and technology professionals seems to have become more obvious. I believe this arises in port form the fact that many who were successfully avoiding technology in their teaching no longer have that option. This hassled me to revisit the “technology planning cycle” Read More
In my first teaching position in a middle school in rural Vermont, my team had a daily “exploratory” period scheduled. Teachers were responsible for supervising an activity that was supposed to allow students to explore an interest without the traditional limits of academic classes. One of the exploratory activities that I offered which proved to Read More
Case based learning is similar to problem-based learning, but the cases that introduce problems into the curriculum tend to be more pragmatic. When introducing case-based learning, faculty will often define a situation in which the students are likely to find themselves applying what they are studying in the real world. Case-based learning can be implemented Read More