Scholarship on Teaching

In our current screen-saturated culture, we take in more information through visual means than at any point in history. The computers and smart phones that constantly flood us with images do more than simply convey information. They structure our relationship to information through graphical formats. Learning to interpret how visual forms not only present but produce knowledge, says Johanna Drucker, has become an essential contemporary skill. Graphesis provides a descriptive critical language for the analysis of graphical knowledge. In an interdisciplinary study fusing digital humanities with media studies and graphic design history, Drucker outlines the principles by which visual formats organize meaningful content. Among the most significant of these formats is the graphical user interface (GUI)—the dominant feature of the screens of nearly all consumer electronic devices. Because so much of our personal and professional lives is mediated through visual interfaces, it is important to start thinking critically about how they shape knowledge, our behavior, and even our identity. Information graphics bear tell-tale signs of the disciplines in which they originated: statistics, business, and the empirical sciences. Drucker makes the case for studying visuality from a humanistic perspective, exploring how graphic languages can serve fields where qualitative judgments take priority over quantitative statements of fact. Graphesis offers a new epistemology of the ways we process information, embracing the full potential of visual forms and formats of knowledge production. (From the Publisher)

This is an annotated bibliography looking at what recent research on the human brain and its development can tell us about how traditional college-age students learn.

Overview of a study where developmental psychologist William Perry suggests that your perspective on learning will change and mature as your college experience unfolds. Gives expected levels of development.

The Serve Program combines academic study of theology w/year-long community service project combating poverty. Analysis of the program during 2008–09 revealed that students demonstrated a significant increase in interest in theology; a greater desire to enroll in theology coursework; and a deeper interest in theology than non-participating classmates.

Article that walks you through your own understandings of diversity, how to creat an inclusive classroom including assignments.

Great for student group-work projects. Share docs, have virtual meetings, share calendar, send emails, and create websites all through this one site.

An instructor reports, from the benefit of hindsight, on the mistakes he made when assigning students a multimedia project (podcasting, in this case). Commenters offer their own insights on pedagogically sound multimedia assignments.

In this series (click through to parts one and two), Williams provides annotated links to resources for building Web and other digital resources that are appropriately accessible to learners with physical or cognitive disabilities.

Click Here for Book Review Abstract: To improve our teaching methods, we must understand what our current teaching methods are. And this is impossible to do this based only on our own perceptions or even feedback from observers. A classroom is a dynamic environment and there is always a lot going on that can be missed in the moment. The solution, according to renowned professional development expert Jim Knight, is video. In Focus on Teaching, Knight turns to the vast and disruptive potential of video recording to reach new levels of excellence in schools. This book builds on Knight’s prior bestsellers to show how every classroom can easily benefit from setting up a camera and hitting “record”.  The book includes • Strategies that teachers, instructional coaches, teams, and administrators can use to get the most out of using video • Tips for ensuring that video recordings are used in accordance with ethical standards and teacher/student comfort levels • Protocols, data gathering forms, and many other tools to get the most out of watching video With Jim Knight’s expertise and the latest in video technology, positive change in your classroom will be immediate and long-lasting.