Tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.

Tag Archives: students

Student Contracts for Digital Projects

March 2, 2010 in Pedagogy by Jeff McClurken

Like many ProfHackers, I'm constantly tinkering with my syllabi and assignments, looking to improve the experience for the students and for me. For many of my writing assignments, this tinkering has meant that the guidelines for the assignments have grown longer and longer (as I address specific issues that have come up in previous iterations). However, in one class, I've taken the opposite approach, giving groups of students the broadest of guidelines and providing them with the opportunity to create their own assignments. This post explores my approach to having students write contracts for digital history projects.

Midsemester sanity maintenance

February 26, 2010 in Pedagogy by Amy Cavender

Midsemester is nearly upon us in many places. What are your plans for the midterm week? Frantically trying to maintain some sanity? Giving exams? Mid-term course evaluations?

Re-imagining the Student Computer Lab

February 11, 2010 in Pedagogy by Jason B. Jones
This semester I’m on a new committee*: An ad-hoc one that’s looking to re-design the student computer lab.  In fact, by the time this post goes live I think we’ll even have had an organizational meeting.  I expect that our goals will be to maximize access for students who don’t have their own computers; facilitate [...]

EduCon 2.2 — A ProfHacker Perspective

February 4, 2010 in Pedagogy by Jeff McClurken

We here at ProfHacker recognize the vital importance of K-12 education (both in the sense of a shared endeavor and in terms of the reality that successful K-12 teachers are essential for us to have any chance of succeeding in our own educational mission). In that spirit, this post explores an increasingly important K-12 education conference, EduCon.

Kindling the Classroom?

February 2, 2010 in Pedagogy by Erin E. Templeton

Rather than trying to tackle the question of which e-book device is best for which reader, I want to address the presence of the Kindle™ in the academic classroom

For Crying Out Loud

February 1, 2010 in Pedagogy by Erin E. Templeton

Regardless of why students cry, it’s something that most of us will have to deal with at some point in our career.

These Kids Today: How Not to Talk about Undergrads

January 19, 2010 in Pedagogy by Jason B. Jones

Sometimes faculty will claim that today’s undergraduates are fundamentally unteachable, and are more likely to snap back at professors’ criticisms than ever before. There’s no easy way to say this: When you find yourself making such a claim about your students, then . . . it’s not them. It’s you.

Disruptive Student Behavior: What’s That Smell?

December 4, 2009 in How-To, Pedagogy by Nels P. Highberg

Before class begins, Lethargic Larry/Laura walks by, and you notice a rather pungent, unusual smell. You realize that the smell comes from alcohol or marijuana. What do you do?

Getting the Most out of Your Evaluations

November 16, 2009 in Pedagogy, Productivity by Brian Croxall

It's that time of the semester again (or will be shortly): the moment when we ask our students to tell us what we do well or at least what they think we do well. This post explains two tried and true approaches for stimulating better (and more useful!) participation from your students.

Why It Does and Doesn’t Matter What Students Think about Professors’ Use of Tech

November 3, 2009 in Pedagogy by Jason B. Jones

62% of students apparently think professors don't understand technology. Should we care?

Creating GTD Action Lists for Students

November 3, 2009 in Pedagogy by Nels P. Highberg

If you're a GTD user who creates Action Lists for yourself, why not consider creating them for your students?

Why Students Cheat (and what to do about it)

November 2, 2009 in Pedagogy by Billie Hara

Students cheat for a variety of reasons. They cheat because they are fearful, they have not managed their time well, and they often believe that the act of cheating really doesn't matter (or that no one will ever know) in the artificial world of academia. Increasingly, students believe that "everyone does it" and if they don't cheat they'll be behind (for college admissions or in the search for jobs) those who do. Cheating, many believe, levels the playing field. [...]