Higher Education Observer

This article appeared in Inside Higher Ed (a favorite publication of mine).  I think it has some valid information. Having started a teaching and learning center myself, I have a lot of opinions on the process.  I also wrote my doctoral dissertation on faculty (educational) development, so I kind of know a little about this. The T and L director (or whatever other title has been given to the lead professional development person) has to be winsome about bringing faculty--from all disciplines, not just the one that the director may represent--into the center.  Part of this winsomeness is balancing evangelism of a particular pedagogy or even trendy practice with appreciation of what the faculty are already doing.  Any time you ask a person to change you must guarantee that the benefit of the change will be greater than the cost. If a teacher who primarily lectures (oh, my, no!) has good results from the students in terms of learning outcomes and test results (or ...

For anyone who stumbles across this blog and cares to know, this is who I am:  Professor of Communication at Dalton State College and Chair of the Department of Communication, which in our case encompasses performing arts (theatre and music), foreign languages (French and Spanish), and communication.  I am also Editor of the Journal for Academic Excellence , a publication of our Center for Academic Excellence (Teaching and Learning or Faculty Development Center).  Follow this link to find it; there are some really good articles in it, but our pipeline has dried up.   Campus Champion for Open Educational Resources and Affordable Learning Georgia and co-author of Exploring Public Speaking:  The Free Dalton State College Public Speaking Book with Dr. Kris Barton (free PDF download, but it's a big file) Immediate Past President of the Georgia Communication Association Former Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs (Interim) 2015 Ed.D. graduate of ...

Yesterday I spoke at a conference (very good one!) on Faculty Creation of Open Educational R e sources because a colleague and I wrote a textbook for a basic public speaking course.  I will be posting about it and my talk in the future (working on lengthy article which I'll post in parts) but I wanted to post this list of references for those who need help with the question of research that has been done on student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction, and achievement of learning outcomes with open educational resources.    • Azevedo , A.  (2013, February 1).  Pay nothing?  Easier said than done.  Chronicle of Higher Education, 59 (21), A18-A19 . • Allen, G., Guzman-Alvarez, A., Smith, A., Gamage , A., Molinaro , M., & Larsen, D. S. (2015). Evaluating the effectiveness of the open-access ChemWiki resource as a replacement for traditional general chemistry textbooks. Chemistry Education Research And Practice , 16 (4), 939 . • Allen, I....

I found this article today and it expresses better than I my reflections on teaching critical thinking.  As is usual with these articles, the comments are equally thoughtful.   https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/11/29/roadblocks-better-critical-thinking-skills-are-embedded-college-experience-essay?mc_cid=e5fd55094b&mc_eid=ab27a3f05f My thoughts: 1.  Critical thinking has a variety of meanings and definitions. 2.  One has to have something to think critically about. 3.  "Educated people" think they are already critical thinkers and tend not to question their own assumptions; that's why there is an orthodoxy in higher ed. 4.  Redesigning a course to emphasize critical thinking does take a lot of effort. 5.  Logical fallacies is a good place to start. 6.  Critical thinking is related to disciplinary ways of thinking and processing.

This semester I am the instructor of record on six sections or courses.  I have one online course in professional communication and the traditional version of the same; I have a First Year Experience Seminar with a theme of Liberal Arts Education and what it means for the student; a section of basic public speaking (which I have taught for 38 years); a capstone course for Interdisciplinary studies majors; and one student in an internship.  Needless to say, I am a bit overwhelmed by this, on top of being the department chair and having some other responsibilities.  Consequently I am exhausted, had to cancel a family reunion trip this weekend, and am getting a nuclear stress test in two weeks because of certain symptoms I am having.  Even now typing this I am feeling shortness of breath. Stress is often an excuse used by students (and their professors) for why student plagiarize, which is the real subject of this blog post.  Having too much expected of them just...

My Franklin Covey planner's quote for the day is "Education is not the filling of a pail.  It is the lighting of a fire." I like the quote.  It looks good on a poster or a Franklin Covey planner. Academics by nature don't accept things on face value, at least I was not trained to, so I am scrutinizing this.  It is by William Butler Yeats, a great poet (I used one of his in my first novel) but I don't know if he ever taught.  There's a big difference between making pronouncements about education and actually teaching day-in, day-out. Paolo Freire took up this theme with the idea of the banking model of education, which I call the tea pitcher model (I live in the South, but it's not sweet tea).  We of course don't just pour knowledge into students' heads. They do construct some knowledge themselves, but not without access to what has come before, which, well, was poured in. No model or quote or metaphor can encompass everything about learning...

Hopefully this isn't behind a password, because it's the best thing I've read on higher education practice in a long time. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/08/05/defining-students-nontraditional-inaccurate-and-damaging-essay?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=6e820cc26b-DNU20160805&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-6e820cc26b-198482621 Today is the last Friday I am off due to our college's "no Friday in summer" policy.  I am glad for it, because it was a rough week. But I was doing some errands and went to the bank.  One of my former students (I have thousands of those) works there and came up while I was dealing with an account issue.  I recognized him and was trying to do my "Oh, let me remember you" game and I had to be reminded of his name, and it was only a year ago. He is having a hard time getting the classes he needs to fit around his work schedule due to our college's behindness to online co...