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

Tag Archives: teaching

Scrivener, Scrivening, Scriverastic

March 8, 2010 in Productivity, Products by Prof. Hacker

Guest author Ryan Cordell returns to explain the Mac-based word processor, Scrivener.

Teaching Graduate Students

March 4, 2010 in Pedagogy by Prof. Hacker

In college, we can learn a bit about how to teach high school courses. In a master’s program, we can learn a bit about how to teach undergraduate courses. As TA and Ph.D. students, we can learn how to teach undergraduate courses in our specialty areas. It turns out, though, that we never really learn how to teach a graduate course. And then we are plopped into the middle of one.

How to keep track of all those keys

February 25, 2010 in Life, Pedagogy, Productivity by George H. Williams

Sometimes it's the simplest tools that make the biggest difference. For example, last semester I started using a couple of carabiners to organize all my keys into 2 sets that are easy to carry and easy to access. Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, right? Let me explain.

Redesigning the Classroom: Let’s Start with the Wall

February 18, 2010 in Pedagogy by Jeff McClurken

Beginning with a discussion of the potential uses of a large-scale, multi-touch interface in learning, this entry makes a few observations about classroom technology.

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

Reflexive Pedagogy

January 28, 2010 in Pedagogy by Billie Hara

Course evaluations contain important information for the instructor and the university, but they rarely measure what the students actually learned in that course. Self-reflexivity can help instructors and students understand and own that information.

Paperless Grading with GradeMark

January 6, 2010 in Pedagogy by Natalie Houston

Grading. Who wants to think about grading papers now, at the beginning of January, when the bitter end of last term might not have entirely faded from your memory? Yet the best time to consider changing the format or requirements for student work is now, before assignments are due. In this post, I'm going to discuss using Turnitin.com for receiving student work and its grading component, GradeMark, for digital grading.

Teacher-Centered vs. Student-Centered Pedagogy

September 18, 2009 in Pedagogy by Billie Hara

If you have been teaching for any length of time, you have probably heard the phrases "student-centered" pedagogy or "teacher-centered" pedagogy. The use of these strategies (positively or negatively) can affect student learning, teaching evaluations, or even tenure and promotion decisions.

So now you’re a teacher…

September 8, 2009 in Pedagogy by Brian Croxall
I recently participated in Emory’s teacher training program, which is intended for all of the Graduate School’s students immediately before they begin teaching for the first time. One of the mini courses that I taught several times over the three days that the program runs was titled “What I wish I’d known.” The idea was [...]

Learning Student Names

August 24, 2009 in Pedagogy by Natalie Houston
Learning your students’ names quickly is a crucial element in building rapport, creating community within a discussion-based course, and facilitating many classroom management tasks like grading participation or attendance.    Even if you do not consider yourself to be naturally “good at names,” you can improve your recall by following a few simple tips. [...]

Syllabus: extreme makeover

August 21, 2009 in Pedagogy by Natalie Houston
If you are creating your very first syllabus, there are a number of online resources and tutorials that will guide you through the process, whether it’s creating the actual syllabus document or designing a course from scratch. But if you’ve been teaching for a while, it’s more likely that rather than start from scratch, you’ll be [...]

The Catch-Up Day

August 18, 2009 in Pedagogy by Natalie Houston

The best syllabus hack I know is really, really simple, but sometimes hard to commit to. In the schedule of readings/topics, clear at least one day of all readings, assignments, discussions, etc., and label it a “catch-up day.”