Momentum Monday: Podcasts: like you, only in pajamas

In a post earlier this year, I spoke about some of the hazards of teaching online courses.  I won’t enumerate all of the issues yet again, but I will tell you that I have found a way to supplement my online discussion boards and assignments.  You’ve got it–podcasts.  I know that I could film videocasts [...]

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Entitlements Come to Academia?

Today I fielded several emails from a student that asked that I “respectfully reconsider” his “extremely low grade” of a B-, which made him “very disappointed, after all [his] hard work.”  A student also told me last semester that she couldn’t believe that I graded with red pen because her education department classes suggested that teachers [...]

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Escaping Pygmalion? More on the Virtues of On-line Learning

On-line Education’s Powers of Democratization and Obfuscation
A reader, Michele, makes some very nice points in our ongoing discussion (see Part I and Part II) of the value of on-line classes and fully on-line higher education degrees:
“The one question I would throw out for consideration is: to what extent would a student with an all on-line [...]

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Rate (and award a bonus to) Your Professor?

Yesterday Charles Huckabee of The Chronicle posted this story about Texas A&M’s decision to award salary bonuses to professors receiving high evaluation ratings:
The chancellor of the Texas A&M University system wants to give faculty members bonuses of up to $10,000, based on student evaluations, but some professors are raising concerns about the plan, saying it could become [...]

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The Virtual Classroom and Loss of Aura?

Thanks to Michele for her comments on Amy’s first post on “The Virtual ‘Classroom’.” I have limited experience with the on-line classroom; I have taught a “hybrid” course where the first half of the semester met in class, and the second half of the semester was all on-line. This was a writing course, so the [...]

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The Virtual “Classroom”

The history of self-paced, at-home study is one that goes back nearly three centuries in this country beginning in March of 1728 when the Boston Gazette published an advertisement from Caleb Phillipps, “Teacher of the New Method of Short Hand,” advising that any “Persons in the Country desirous to Learn this Art, may by having the several [...]

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Clarification

I wanted to be sure and clarify part of yesterday’s post on the MLA session regarding Negotiating Family and Graduate Studies. Daisy Delagu points out that she indeed taught in graduate school before and after her first child was born. And, I wanted to add that I am in awe of her ability to manage family [...]

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MLA Session on Negotiating Family and Graduate Studies

I attended several sessions at the MLA conference in San Francisco over the holiday, but there was one distinct highlight: on Monday afternoon at the Hilton there was a session on “Negotiating Family and Graduate Studies” arranged by the Committee on the Status of Graduate Students in the Profession. I am not entirely sure, but [...]

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Weekend: Let it Snow!

While we have had snow and some rather damaging ice recently, this weekend marks Boston’s first big snow storm of the season. Below are scenes from Jen’s backyard along with the cozy grading area I set up in the dining room for the best view.
Outside in Jen’s backyard
Looking out through the back picture [...]

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Fashion Friday 10/03/08

If the L.L. Bean “Duck” shoe and Manolo Blahnik had a baby:

I love these shoes for campus work! They’re made by Italian shoe maker, Casadei, and they provide that perfect balance between bad-weather practicality and professional polish when you need it. I’ll wear them forever.

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