Engaged Learning

I attended this conference on Fri, 11/9. It was pretty good as conferences go. I especially enjoyed the keynote address by George Kuh. He was both funny and informative, and, as one of the main movers behind NSSE and CCSSE, he had a lot of data at his fingertips. And those data show that students [...]

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Metaphor

Beautiful, isn’t it? This was used at a collaborative learning seminar I led in 2002 as a metaphor for collaboration. The beauty of metaphor is that everyone sees a different aspect of the metaphoric relationship: the rowers’ different but essential roles in moving the boat forward; the journey that the boat represents as [...]

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New system starting Monday?

When we think about introducing new technology, we have to think about the entire rollout process: overview sessions, training, making the case for adoption of the technology — what needs it fills, ongoing support. It’s surprising that in 2007 organizations are still plopping new software on peoples’ desktops and expecting them to use it. Crazy, [...]

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Reflections on…

Reflection. In grad school, we were asked to write a number of reflection papers. I was involved in a experiential program (www.american.edu/auntl) where reflection papers were used to synthesize and make sense of experience. It works when it is done well. By “well,” I mean that the reflection requires true integration of the experience with [...]

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SOTL at CASTL

First the acronyms: SOTL: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; CASTL: Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
From the CASTL website, check out link below, which shows some examples of faculty portfolios. The portfolios document how the profs revised their courses or built new courses incorporating some SOTL best practices, including reflection, alternative [...]

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