This entry is part 2 of 35 in the series Teaching TransparentlyOne of the reasons I love to teach is that I get to learn. Be it from my students or the people who come to our class… every semester I acquire new knowledge, ideas, and perspectives thanks to what happens in the classroom. As(…)
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Building my ePortfolioMy colleague Sean runs a workshop and blog called “The Better Presenter.” Sean has a great eye for visual design, and is really good at explaining and demonstrating how to make presentations suck less. Although I still have a very, very long way(…)
This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Building my ePortfolioSince my last post in March, my portfolio-building process has gone something like this: Write a blog post explaining what I want to do and why. Pull together a list of items to include in my portfolio. Visit my portfolio site every couple(…)
This entry is part 4 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently Readers of LLU might remember a series of blog posts I did entitled “Teaching What You Thought You Knew,” in which I chronicled my struggles with the realization that I was teaching my students what I knew about Colombia, a place that I(…)
I’m going to give a lecture today that basically is the toughest one I’ve ever had to give, and for some of you it’s the toughest one you’ve ever had to hear. Last month, Jonathan Turley posted an entry about Richard Quinn, an instructor at the University of Central Florida who confronted his class after(…)
Time for a confession: I watch Glee. And I love it. Yes, yes I know in real life they are all Broadway stars and/or adults playing people 20 years their junior. The plot lines are wildly improbable, it’s auto-tuned to the max, and hopelessly saccharine, but I don’t care. It’s a great way to pass(…)
Ryan is attending an Ed Tech conference this week and sends me this email from the venue: WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN? (bullet points from an actual powerpoint preso) – Explore better system functionality and/or approaches to pushing content dynamically into LMS – Capitalize on future library and learning management systems enhancements to generate more(…)
As I mentioned in previous posts, when the economy goes sour, that is often a time when language educators and language technologists are at their most vulnerable…not because of anything they have or have not done, but because of how easily our role(s) in the Academy are misunderstood, or worse, dismissed. The economy continues to(…)
I have been flipping in and out of webstreams of two conferences that had the good sense to be Ustreamed or Elluminated this week. Webcasting conference content is indeed a wonderful tool in these cash strapped/no travel budget times…allowing folks like me out here in the cornfields to peek in and see what is happening(…)
I work in the turret of a castle-like building built in 1885. The building was scheduled for demolition several years ago, but thankfully the funding came together to save it. She is a beautiful place to work. The language departments are housed in this building. The computer assisted language learning center where I work is(…)
This entry is part 32 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently February 1, 2009:I have spent the day crafting a document that ended up being less of a step by step syllabus, and more of a “what we want the outcome of this class to be” treatise. The document is parked over here with(…)
This entry is part 33 of 35 in the series Teaching Transparently with thanks to Pisces Dreamer for the permission to use this Flickr picJanuary 31, 2009: It’s the Saturday night before the second semester begins and once again I am awash in panic. Well, I guess it is not as much panic as it(…)