Monthly Archives: August 2012

Knowing Your Resources: Help a Colleague, Help Yourself

Posted on August 29, 2012 by

The other day a colleague came into my office and said “hey–  I have class in twenty minutes on X.  Any ideas for a game I could use?”  I wish I could say that I immediately pulled a game on … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, Exercises, Games, International Relations | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Managing Transitions

Posted on August 28, 2012 by

After my summer hiatus, I find myself back in the office, working through the pile of things that has accumulated on my desk in my absence. At one level, it’s a classic case of work-as-usual, in that there’s nothing that … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Role-playing, Simon Usherwood, Technology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Questions Every Prospective College Student (and Parents Thereof) Should Ask

Posted on August 25, 2012 by

If you’re a university faculty member like me, you occasionally stumble into the path of a group of prospective students and their parents getting a guided tour of the campus. Hardly ever do you hear anyone in the group ask … Continue reading →

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Posted on August 25, 2012 by

The Word Problem Problem Recently I was faced with the question of whether to use some of the same books in two different courses. Isn’t each course supposed to have distinctive content? But what about the unity of knowledge? My internal … Continue reading →

Posted in Chad Raymond, Cognitive Science and Psychology, Problem solving, Skills, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Teaching Failure

Posted on August 21, 2012 by

Everyone should check out this fascinating piece on Inside Higher Ed, about how to help students learn from failure.  The instructor reserves 5% of the final grade for ‘quality of failure’, assessed by a reflective essay at the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, Assessment, Feedback & Reflection, Films and Fiction, Games, Getting Them to Read, Problem solving, Research Methods | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

When Technology Almost Gets The Upper Hand

Posted on August 18, 2012 by

After two weeks, two laptops, one iPad, one iMac, four webcams, five microphones, a motley collection of light fixtures, and various pieces of software, I’ve finally put together a combination of equipment that allows me to produce video lectures of … Continue reading →

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Posted on August 12, 2012 by

Another skill-building exercise related to information literacy that I will be using in my upcoming thesis writing course is “How to Read a Journal Article.” Students will need to locate several peer-reviewed journal articles on their thesis topics and complete … Continue reading →

Posted in Chad Raymond, Information Literacy, Skills | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Fingerprints and Breadcrumbs

Posted on August 12, 2012 by

As a follow-up to Amanda’s post about information illiteracy: This fall I am teaching a thesis seminar course for the first time. I have no idea what kind of research skills these students possess, and I’m a big advocate of … Continue reading →

Posted in Chad Raymond, Exercises, Information Literacy, Skills | Leave a comment

Online Sources in Papers: Why Allow them?

Posted on August 8, 2012 by

Is there any good reason to allow our students to use online sources in their papers?  I’m not talking about the online depositories for news articles, or using databases to find books, journals, and articles online, but the kinds of … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, Assessment, Assignments, Exercises, Exercises & Projects, Information Literacy, Online Classes, Research Methods | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Online Educational Games: Natural Disaster Preparation with ‘Stop Disasters’

Posted on August 2, 2012 by

I came across a neat online resource that compiles a bunch of online games available for educators (Chang et al, 2009).  Naturally I immediately started playing some of them, and I’ll share my findings here. The first game is called … Continue reading →

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