CTC Ed Tech News April 15, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Well, we're approaching the end game. Less than two weeks until finals! I can feel the end of semester energy building.

Syllabus Thoughts

My thoughts about what a syllabus is and is not have evolved. Now, for me, it's not a document cast in stone, but a document that might change as the semester progresses. It's the plan for the course with the intended outcomes. Here are the guidelines on the syllabus in the Faculty Handbook:

A course syllabus will be given to each student at the first class meeting. The syllabus shall explain the teacher's expectations of students, the grading criteria that will be followed, the extent of the material to be covered, the class objectives and student learning outcomes, the attendance policy, and a bibliography. (Faculty Handbook, 2014, p. 12)

The three essential functions of a syllabus according to James M. Lang are to orient your students, make promises, and provide transparency. The "make promises" function surprised me – the syllabus shows your passion and knowledge of the material and what the course will mean for them. Lang explores his ideas based on informal data collected from student tutors.

The late New York Times journalist David Carr taught a journalism course at Boston University last fall. His online syllabus fulfills these functions  and is just beautiful.

Asynchronous Improvisation

This sweet little article tackles the inflexibility in what I have considered to be the one of the most inflexible of teaching formats, the asynchronous online course. The author suggests learning activities that encourage the students to take a more active role in discerning/deciding topics of discussion.

Procrastination – Just Don't Do It

Yes, I am a procrastinator. There are some days I have to set up systems to get work done, others where I can just dive in. This piece is a lovely reminder of this all-too-human foible and ways to confront it. 

A new productivity tool in my toolbox is Momentum. "Momentum is a personal dashboard designed to eliminate distraction and provide inspiration, focus, and productivity" (from their website). Momentum runs on Chrome; there is also an extension for Safari.