Two Feet In | Writing and the Institution

OK, Let's Teach Graduate Students Differently. But How? - Do Your Job Better - The Chronicle of Higher Education Summary: Stop preaching that grad students will find professorial jobs -- most won't Stop structuring grad school to make more professors Start teaching that a grad degree can open doors to many other professions Start restructuring the departments curriculum and  pedagogy, using new media and new sources Start building a culture where getting a non-professorial job isn't a mark of shame Redefine the discipline; let grad students work with students in other fields (just like they'll really do in the real world) Open the degrees to include courses other than just in-department (just like the real world) In the words of Auslander, "If we continue to behave like ostriches, we're dead." Forget the idea that "it will be better tomorrow," she says. If there is to be change for the better, professors must be "willing to b

How Technology Can Improve Learner-Centered Teaching - Faculty Focus The reasons, says our author, that tech facilitates learning in that ideal learner-centered classroom include: Shift the balance of power toward the learner Use content to organize activities Think of teaching as facilitating learning Responsibility for learning rests with the learner Evaluation provides a way to foster learning I'm ok with this, in general. The problem is that an amazing number of students are still techno-illiterate. I have students who don't know how to attach files to e-mail; those who don't know the difference between Firefox and IE; those who don't know how to do any advance searches with Google; those who don't know how to create a full PPT file, much less embed video in one; students who don't even know how to create a header in a Word doc. This is true both at the university and the two-year college, but especially in the latter, and especially in the rural