EduGeek Journal

No matter how student-centered you are, no matter how often you tell others you are not a “teacher” but a “coach”, at some point you are going to be putting some content in to your course.  Even coaches will sit down their players and show them how to do things on a regular basis. Your [...]

Think back to some of the best courses you took during college. What made those courses so great for you? Well, other than the ones that were an easy A – what made them interesting to you over other courses? Probably one factor was an interesting instructor. Many instructors like to just read from the [...]

I’ve been pondering an article called “Future Ed: Remote learning, 3D screens” for a few days now.  While this article covers some interesting geeky stuff (such as ocular implants and 3-D screens), there are also some great nuggets of wisdom in there about how what we teach needs to change –   along with our [...]

Finally… someone dared to speak out about some of the problems they have with open education.  And not just some old fuddy-duddy outsider that doesn’t get it, but an insider that is well versed in all angles.
I’m no fuddy-duddy open education hater myself… but I have felt a little discomfort over several aspects surrounding the [...]

As many of the more geeky EduGeek readers know, last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. I took advantage of this by catching up on Marvel’s fun and compelling Sinister Six (which was not free, by the way). This event has me thinking of a tool that I have used in the past which [...]

When we want to move our student’s learning environment into the ether of the web, we can be hard pressed to go beyond simply assigning more reading.  In the days of multimedia, interactivity and all things web 2.0, assigning links to on-line articles will not cause many students to leap up for their netbooks with [...]

Many people have had great success integrating various Web2.0 tools and sites into their online classes.  Still others try very hard but come away frustrated with the results.  Is Web2.0 just a random concept that gives some instructors success while confusing others with no discern-able pattern?  Or is there a reason why some well-planned activities [...]

Here’s another emerging trend for you: Microlectures.  The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article on microlectures called “These Lectures Are Gone in 60 Seconds.”  Basically, one would create a microlecture in this fashion:
Take a 60-minute lecture. Cut the excess verbiage, do away with most of the details, and pare it down to key [...]

“Recent studies suggest that laptops in class detract from lecture-based learning”
Lecture-based learning?  Isn’t that an oxymoron?  How much can you really learn by sitting and soaking?  :)
Okay, so I’m showing my constructivism bias here.  The article I am reading, Can I have your half-attention, please?, actually is an interesting read about how instructors are getting [...]

The Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology published an excellent article at the end of last year titled “An absolutely riveting online course: Nine principles for excellence in web-based teaching.”  My short time as an instructional designer has taught me that all of these principles are true.  Also of interest is how this article includes [...]