partsofspeaking

With Obama we get three presidents in one.  The incompetence of Jimmy Carter, the dishonesty of Richard Nixon, and the self-absorption of Bill Clinton. I am posting this to see if I get any attention.  It is intentionally low, but after he stooped to calling his opponent what he did in Rolling Stone, he deserves it.  He has taken the presidency to a new low.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6G3nwhPuR4 Absolutely shameful.

How will you know whether your blended learning course is sound prior to                   teaching it? I am not sure we can know for certain, since there are so many variables.   However, we have finally gotten a procedure for peer approval passed at my institution.   From now on, any new online or blended course has to be approved by a mentor, a panel of three peers, and the department head.   Since I have a new one coming up in the spring, I better get cracking!   It has to be done six weeks before the start of the semester, too, meaning no last minute preparation.   Now, how that will work in practice is another matter.   It may discourage faculty from starting new courses, really.   There has been resistance here to anyone having any input into another instructor’s online or hybrid course, just like it is for a traditional course.   So, my an...

In what experiences (direct or vicarious) will you have students participate during your blended learning course? In what ways do you see these experiences as part of the assessment process? Which experiences will result in student work that you score? How will you present content to students in the blended learning course you are designing? Will students encounter content only in one modality (e.g., face-to-face only), or will you devise an approach in which content is introduced in one modality and elaborated upon in the other? What will this look like? Will there be a consistent pattern to the presentation of content, introduction of learning activities, student submission of assignments, and instructor feedback (formal and informal) in your blended learning course? How can you ensure that students experience your course as one consistent whole rather than as two loosely connected learning environments? How can spec...

I have my version of Murphy’s Law, which I call Tucker’s Law:   If anyone can possibly find a way to misunderstand you, they will.   There is a corollary to Tucker’s Law:   In online course, this law is taken to the second power. Whether one’s assessments online are summative or formative, formal or informal, written or in some other mode, clarity of instruction is key.   Clarity in why it’s being assigned, how it’s to be completed, how it is to be submitted (and when), and how it will be evaluated (graded).   All the ways that you can clarify in a face-to-face course have to be pre-packaged in an online environment, OR you can expect lots of incorrect assignments or lots of emails asking for explanations. This principle is somewhat less true in the hybrid environment, but it still happens, especially if students are not engaged in the f2f portion of the class.   I prefer project-based education anyway, but tests and quizzes are necessary. ...

For my weekly blog post I am going to address these three questions. ·    Is there value in student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction in all courses regardless of discipline? • As you consider designing a blended learning course, what kinds of interactions can you envision occurring face-to-face, and how might you use the online environment for interactions? What opportunities are there for you to explore different instructional strategies in the blended course than you have in the past? • What factors might limit the feasibility of robust interaction face-to-face or online? At first, to me, this question does not seem to ask for a serious answer, only to make a point.   How could there possibly NOT be a value in student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction in all courses?   Isn’t the whole point of higher education supposed to be that interaction of minds to minds, iron sharpening iron, to quote the book of Proverbs?   ...