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In Faculty Words: From Desire to Educated Ability to Promote Inclusivity
Faculty Development. A phrase I’ve long considered rather odd and incongruous. Maybe it’s because I’ve been emotionally damaged by the words of one of my ID professors in grad school. He told me that faculty (in his world) hate the term “faculty development” because they are already developed. They don’t need to develop anymore. They are possibly open to training, but not development. Another reputable ed psych and edtech professor who upon learning that I was going to tread the path of a practitioner (and not join the hallowed halls…
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3 More Myths about Instructional Designers
[Draft 1: April 6, 12:38am; Updated: April 6, 9:45am] In the past, I’ve written about the myths and mischaracterization of instructional designers (ID). I realize that such perceptions (or misperceptions) exist across many fields and disciplines, but I think I found more to add to my growing list of misperceptions about IDs as I work in the field. This post seeks to increase understanding about IDs and filter more silt from the muddy waters. [FYI, I’m not going to tread on contentious turf about learning designer vs. instructional designer. Joshua Kim…
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Online Teaching is like Learning a New Language
Online Teaching is Like Learning a New Language Is online teaching like learning a new language? Do bilingual (or multilingual) teachers find it easier to switch from face-to-face to online teaching? For several weeks, I pondered these questions as I tarried at the intersection of two/three facets of my life — online teaching, online course design and learning French (Français or Française?). The second question is a hypothesis I intend to investigate! Le magazine de l’Alliance de Singapour 1993 [Back Story: When I was twelve or thirteen, I wanted to learn…
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Designing a Course Worth Learning 1
Over the next few weeks or months, my goal is to reflect on what and how I think as I design (big and small, d/Design) UNIV 291 in the roles of an instructional designer and instructor. There are many design decisions to consider. But there are a few BIG questions I must address. Uppermost in my mind is a question I borrow from David Perkins, a scholar I greatly admire for his ideas on thinking, teaching/learning, and clarity of thought. With only 8 weeks for a summer online elective course,…
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Faculty & Student Perceptions of Teaching Resource Use
A comparison of VCU student (n=337) and faculty responses (n=323) in the 2014 ECAR Surveys regarding tools/resources they wish their instructors would use MORE of (rated 5 on a scale of 1-5) and those that faculty MOST wish to be skillful at (click on image to enlarge): Ranking of faculty and student perceptions of resources students want more use of and faculty want to be more skillful at. A comparison of VCU student and faculty responses in the 2014 ECAR Surveys regarding tools/resources they wish their instructors would use LESS of (rated…
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Photowalks
The above two photos were taken on July 30, 2014, on my first photo safari with my colleagues. The next 4 were taken on January 16, 2015 with my new colleagues, Emma and Max, with Tom leading. All photos were taken using my Samsung Galaxy phone. I find this throne-like chair that is blocking the doorway curious. I have a penchant for snapping pictures of trees — blooming, withered, snarling. They are easily symbols of life and death. Architecture is another fave subject. “Don’t they all look the same after…
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Olé Days 2 & 3
Days 2 and 3 of OLE offered participants more new ideas to refresh pedagogical perspectives and work on their course sites. 1. Moving Images (In both sense of the word “moving”) Collage of video stills from course trailers of 4 VCU professors Molly Ransome shared with the participants course trailers of Ryan Cales, Jason Coats, Dianne Jennings, Gardner Campbell and a few other instructors. The trailers were each fabulous in their own ways. Gardner’s trailer is a self-made one that made us chuckle (and I’m not saying this because he…
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Olé, Olé, Olé
According to Wikipedia (Oops! The mention of this word might start a friendly argument!), the word “olé” might refer to several things, including a football chant, with the star footballer’s name added to the end. In my case, I refer to both a rah-rah cheer (Go! VCU OLE!) and a program the ALT Lab is running.Today was Day 1 of the Institute and has been a pretty intense time with lots of ideas presented to participants. We are all going to spend some time tonight doing HW, yup, Home Work!…
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Assessing Student Learning in Online Education Part 1
Assessment types. Besides learning engagement, assessing student learning is one of the top concerns (top 3?) of teachers. This burden is no less lighter for online teachers. Much as teachers might like to banish this bane of teaching from their jobs, assessment (evaluation, retention, accreditation, and all related concerns) won’t go away because “measuring” learning and giving a score/grade to course completion is a deeply embedded element of the institutional culture of formal education. How to give a grade meaningfully is a priority of mine. Recently, the role of rubrics…
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Supporting Faculty to Teach Creatively & Teach For Creativity
[Context: This has been a challenging post to write. I had what I would call a creative-and-memory hangup. So long has lapsed since I started reading this book that I found myself asking, “Why did I underline these texts? Why the sticky notes?” But I’m going ahead to publish these thoughts anyway because this is what learning is all about — not easy at times. A toast to visible learning!] Wagner, T. (2012). Creating innovators: The making of young people who will change the world. New York: Scribner. [Purchased: February…
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Online Teaching and “Body Language”
Image description: A quotation by Jenifer Ringer, “Terry taught ballet as if it were very important and precious.” Vignette 1: “Terry taught ballet as if it were very important and precious.” – Jenifer Ringer, Dancing Through It: My Journey in the Ballet. Image Description: Feet clad in ballet shoes standing on pointe position A line in a book given to me during the early days of losing my parents; supposedly the heroine’s victory over her struggles would inspire me. A short sentence fraught with meaning and implications. I especially love…
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Help! I am teaching online
I thought about adding these 5 words (my blogpost title) to the trending hashtag in Twitter, #ScaryStoriesIn5Words. Those tweets made Halloween Day somewhat more Halloween for me, lots of drama and jokes. Scary? Not so much at the ALT Lab where I was stationed for livestreamed sessions from the Online Learning Consortium’s International Conference (OLC). Which is a good thing. The turnout wasn’t ideal but a real and urgent need of some faculty or future faculty members emerged from conversations with some attendees. Some major questions were: “I think I’m going to…
