One of the biggest misconceptions underlying problems in education is that education is, at its core, simply the accumulation of content: memorizing facts and formulae somehow makes an education. Blame standardized testing if you like, since it’s much more cost-effective to test for content than for processes or skills. For the present argument, where theContinue reading “Content, Process, Skill: Heuristics for Evaluating Educational Foundations”
Category Archives: Technology
Stairs in Stair Quest Ranked
Stair Quest is a parody game that pays homage to all those memorable climbs in old Sierra games. It’s by No More For Today and if you haven’t played it, I really do recommend that you do. If you have any memory of Sierra games, you probably also have memory of at least one staircaseContinue reading “Stairs in Stair Quest Ranked”
About Those Staggered Due Dates…
Previously I wrote about my scheme this semester to stagger due dates by having students sign up for a date during a “due week,” and reported that it was doing pretty well. I wrote too soon. As you may have surmised, time simply has no meaning anymore. Even self-selected due dates became meaningless when myContinue reading “About Those Staggered Due Dates…”
Redundancy Is Good Praxis
I just got done setting up the second online module for my formerly face-to-face classes. When we all were preparing to go online, I knew I had some advantages: I’ve done this before (in fact, I’ve been plundering some of my previous online classes’ resources to help the shift), and I know from experience thatContinue reading “Redundancy Is Good Praxis”
The Good, The Bad, and The Covid-19
Yesterday, Ball State University announced that we will be suspending in-person classes for the remainder of the semester, effective Monday. I wasn’t surprised, honestly, and I’m actually a little relieved. I’m not given to panic. But I know I’ve been dragging lately, and honestly the requirement to entirely change my teaching strategy overnight excites me.Continue reading “The Good, The Bad, and The Covid-19”
Talking Disability and Accessibility in the Composition Classroom
Like many instructors, my composition students generally finish the semester making a multimodal/multimedia presentation of their topics to the rest of the class. I love this assignment; it’s creative, it’s real-world, it’s student-driven, it’s everything I love in an assignment. Let me explain the assignment a little: my students deal with “local” issues in theirContinue reading “Talking Disability and Accessibility in the Composition Classroom”
Academic Thanksgiving: We Love Librarians
It’s Thanksgiving in the USA, and for many of us it’s a tradition to name the things we’re grateful for. So today I want to name the group of people who are probably the most important part of academic work: librarians and archivists. We live in an age of easy information. Reasonable people can andContinue reading “Academic Thanksgiving: We Love Librarians”
Algorithms and Class Policies
For years, I’ve used the same late policy: work accepted up to a week late, 20% reduction in grade, no questions asked. And it’s been a pretty effective policy. I’ve been criticized for it being both too lenient (“They need to learn deadlines are real!”) and for it being too strict (“20% off even ifContinue reading “Algorithms and Class Policies”
Dr. Cox's Desk 