ETC Podcast: iPhone Apps to Keep You Productive on the Road | Emerging Technologies ConsultingMy first solo podcast.  If anyone wants to join me for an interview or has ideas for topics, please let me know. iphone, podcast, mobile blogging Please consider donating to my efforts in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the [...]

Yesterday, I got a request from our school district to fill out a survey about “21st Century Learning.” I did. They asked a lot of the right questions. Although they did ask about whether all children should have laptops, most of their questions were about whether web 2.0 tools should be used and how and [...]

I’ve been working on various things that have to do with taking advantage of social software to create active, collaborative learning environments for students. When I talk about using social software, I’m talking about using blogs or wikis or Facebook or Twitter or other freely available web applications and leveraging them for educational purposes. Anyone [...]

There’s been a fair amount of digital ink spilled already about this report from CDW about faculty, IT staff, and student perceptions of technology use in teaching. My response was, “Duh.” The biggest barrier to use: lack of knowledge on the part of faculty. The problem is, as I’ve said over and over, is that [...]

Laptops. I have seen this attitude of banning electronic devices in the classroom. I sympathize. It is somewhat disconcerting to stare out at a classroom full of screens and not know for sure if students are paying attention. Although I think professors being replaced by laptops is extreme, I do think that faculty aren’t thinking [...]

Thomas Benton once again writes about issues in teaching the digital natives. I’m going to leave aside the argument about whether we’re getting more stupid. I’m not entirely sure we are. I want to comment on two things. One, he mentions the problem of college students not being exposed to different generations (more true for [...]

I think I can safely say that most, if not all, faculty go into a classroom with the idea that their students will learn something. Many spend a lot of trying to guarantee that learning will happen. They think long and hard about what students should learn and the process by which they should learn [...]

The quote came in response to a question from the audience about how to create more faculty like Michael Wesch. Michael said, “Get out of my way.” This is just my perspective, based on my 5 years’ experience in this specific role and my over 10 years’ experience in higher ed. Many IT people and [...]

In addition my own recent posts, there have been several others discussing the relationship between technologists and faculty. I’m also leading a discussion with a mixed group of faculty and staff tomorrow that may touch on (I hope) some of the issues raised by the online discussions I’ve been reading. Just as the issue of [...]

I’m so blown away by this article in the Chronicle, I don’t even know where to begin. It expresses some of my deepest-held notions about what institutions need to do in order to incorporate technology more fully into their curricula. As I’ve said time and again, my struggle to change the way faculty teach by [...]