Monthly Archives: May 2012

Being a winner

Posted on May 29, 2012 by

In my mental image of me, I’m not the sort of person who wins things.  So when I do win something, I’m quite chuffed. Yesterday, I got to the status of being very chuffed indeed to win the nanoteach prize … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Activities, Feedback & Reflection, Simon Usherwood | Leave a comment

Political Scientists: Marching Toward Oblivion?

Posted on May 28, 2012 by

A quick blurb about something related to my post on the coming extinction of the university as we know it: The June issue of Perspectives on Politics has an article by Lisa Anderson, president of the American University in Cairo, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Chad Raymond, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What are exams for?

Posted on May 22, 2012 by

For most people, the question posed in the title is either blindingly obvious or completely left-field: exams are to test people, duh.  However, you are most people so let’s try asking the question again: what are exams for?  I ask … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Simon Usherwood, Writing | 1 Comment

More Thoughts on Modular Course Architecture

Posted on May 20, 2012 by

My spring semester is over. Undergraduate students have completed an anonymous evaluation of my comparative politics course, in which I experimented with modular architecture. In this course, students chose one of five different themes to focus on for the semester — … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, Chad Raymond, Comparative Politics, Group Collaboration | Tagged | Leave a comment

Sticking it to the man

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

We’ve already reached the last week of teaching this semester, so it’s been time for me to round up my feedback from students.  In particular, I’ve been keen to find out what they thought of both my use of sticks … Continue reading →

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How Soon Is Now? The End of the University As We Know It

Posted on May 13, 2012 by

The university as we know it is headed for extinction. Imagine the system of U.S. higher education in 1960 – universities were awash in government money because of the Cold War; enrollments were surging because of the GI bill and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Chad Raymond, Online Classes, Problem solving, Projects, Social Networking/Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

More Lego-based learning

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

This weekend I’ve been learning about learning from a young boy of my acquaintance.  Upon arrival at a weekend of wedding celebrations for his aunt, he discovered that while he had brought his recently-acquired Lego X-Wing starfighter – dismantled into its … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Exercises, Simon Usherwood | Tagged | Leave a comment

Googling

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

The importance of information literacy can be difficult for undergraduates to grasp. For most of them, all information is created equal and it comes from Google. Now Google is helping to educate students out of these habits. The website includes sample … Continue reading →

Posted in Assignments, Chad Raymond, Exercises, Information Literacy, Research Methods, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Do I mind about mind maps?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

I’ve always had an ambivalent relationships with mind maps*.  Despite the frequent suggestion from various quarters about how great they are, lots of freeware online and their obvious value in helping to visualise relationships within a subject, I have tended to … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, European Union, Exercises, Problem solving, Seminars, Simon Usherwood, Small Classes | Leave a comment