I often think of the beginning of “A Midwinter’s Tale” when Michael Maloney talks about his nervous breakdown as a long slow buildup. Some nervous breakdowns come quickly, catastrophically, he says; others have more of a slow build. He, he says, is 33 years old and this nervous breakdown had started when he was 7 months old and was just […]
» Read moreI really enjoyed Michael Bérubé’s visit to Hofstra yesterday to discuss the future of liberal arts. I love his presentation style – I am a recovering English student, I love presentations sprinkled with Searle and rescues of Habermas. But more importantly I always find Dr. Bérubé to be a clear-minded thinker, as clear about the value of separating social facts […]
» Read moreSince 2006 we’ve been offering four-day workshops we call Catalyst Boot Camp every spring right after commencement and right before spring classes start. We’re right to call it a Boot Camp because it’s pretty intensive. For five hours a row every day we show faculty almost every technology in broad usage in American higher education. The technology comes in groups […]
» Read moreHappy new fall semester! Our students are back and while parking is a little tougher, I love the energy and freshness of the campus when classes start again in the fall. It’s a whole new year. So let’s start the year on this blog with a more in-depth discussion of the tool with which I encourage everyone to start if […]
» Read moreFor fall 2010 we’ve acquired two new tools at Hofstra that we think faculty will find very useful. All faculty now have access to VoiceThread. VoiceThreads can be embedded right in your Blackboard course. In a VoiceThread, there’s something that takes center stage; it can be a video, a chart, a photo, a document, an equation, a proof, anything. Students […]
» Read moreI find the ProfHacker columns at the Chronicle of Higher Education both useful and disturbing. Useful because they do often contain info on the newest tools, tips you can use (backup your files and TEST your backups!), and pointers to great resources that faculty don’t often find on their own. They’re disturbing to me as well, though, because I have […]
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