I was involved recently in an interesting email “discussion” prompted by a query from a professor interested in how other profs manage student conduct in class. The professor had been experiencing a significant number of students using their laptops, cell phones, and iPods during the lecture and was asking for suggestions on how other instructors were addressing situations where students were using laptops during classes to answer emails, look at unrelated web sites, play games etc. Continue reading Laptops and Student Learning – Katherine Lithgow
Month: April 2009
Teaching Excellence Academy 2009 – Trevor Holmes
This year marks the fifth time the Teaching Excellence Academy (TEA) has run at the University of Waterloo. Fifteen faculty members at a variety of career stages were nominated to attend this four-day course redesign workshop, culminating in an event to which their Chairs, Directors and Deans are invited to see the results, displayed as posters showing “before and after” course outlines. Continue reading Teaching Excellence Academy 2009 – Trevor Holmes
Classroom Disruptions: The Common Cold of the University Classroom – Amanda Clark
I’m sure you’ve all experienced disruptions in the classroom at one point or another. In fact, they are as prevalent as the common cold – and equally bothersome I might add. Whether it be excessive chattiness, overly argumentative students, late comers/early departers or students engaging in non-class related activities like reading a newspaper or playing on their laptop, we all face some sort of disruption challenge at one point or another. Many instructors I’ve encountered take a hard line on this topic and strictly enforce classroom guidelines for acceptable behaviour while others seemingly ignore the glaring disruptions. Continue reading Classroom Disruptions: The Common Cold of the University Classroom – Amanda Clark
Twitter and Higher Ed – Mark Morton
You’ve probably already heard about Twitter, a micro-blogging application that appeared in 2006 and which has surged in popularity over the past year. Oprah, for example, is now on Twitter, and CNN offers news updates via Twitter. Posts to Twitter (which are called tweets) are brief — no longer than 140 characters, which is perfect for sharing a quick update about what you’re doing or reading, for disseminating a web address to a useful site, or for asking your Twitter “followers” a question. Universities have also begun to use Twitter to good purpose. Continue reading Twitter and Higher Ed – Mark Morton
International TA Training: One year in service – Walid Omran (ITA Developer)
How am I going to teach these students? Will they laugh at me because of my accent and language mistakes? How will I control their behavior in the class? Is it true that culture can affect the students-TA relationship? How can I prove that I am a good TA? These were just some of the questions I had in mind when I received my first TA assignment, four months after arriving to Canada as an international graduate student. Now, after spending three years at the University of Waterloo and being a TA for a number of courses, I still think that teaching in the Canadian classroom can be a challenge for many international TAs (ITAs). This is mainly due to language barriers, cultural differences and uncommon backgrounds. Continue reading International TA Training: One year in service – Walid Omran (ITA Developer)
Wikis: Which One is Right for You? – Mark Morton
Wikis are an online tool that allow numerous individuals to access and edit the same document at the same time. They are a powerful educational tool in the right situations, but the problem is that there are scores of wiki applications — which one is best for your purposes? Well, to help you choose, you might make use of the online Wiki Wizard, which asks you a series of questions and then recommends a handful based upon your responses. Try the Wiki Wizard here.
Are undergraduates really less prepared than three years ago? – Trevor Holmes
So… last night Dave DeVidi of UW’s Philosophy Department (and current FAUW Prez) was on TV. I love it when philosophers are on TV (that’s an aside). I always like to hear what Dr. DeVidi has to say, and often find myself agreeing. In this case he was talking about a survey recently done by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, in which just over a thousand faculty of the 2000 surveyed believe that students are less prepared than they were even three years ago. Continue reading Are undergraduates really less prepared than three years ago? – Trevor Holmes