Tag: college

Bruce Elgort believes…

  • We are our best selves when challenged.
  • Students gain far more from correcting their own answers than from being corrected by the instructor.
  • Learning to learn will help all students pass all their class, and develop their critical thinking skills.
  • All students should pass this class, and the next, and the next.
  • He is not an answer key.
  • If he were to answer “Is this correct?” questions from students, then students will quickly get the message that they cannot trust their own self-assessment skills. This is poor training for success on quizzes, exams, and especially the real world, where there are no answer keys.
  • Learning is slow, takes time and effort.
  • Asking questions is the best way to help yourself, and your group.
  • Knowing why your answer is right is just as important as the answer itself.
  • Answers are best said by students.
  • Instruction should be kept simple.
  • Reflection is the only way to see our larger truths.
  • Activities should be completed by the instructor multiple times.

Yeah, this…

This conversation took place late last night on Slack:

Student: Bruce I see you the Sublime Text editor.

Bruce: I have tried many of them out and prefer Sublime.

Student: I want to be a professional web developer one day. I also have some questions about the assignment that’s due tomorrow.

Bruce: A professional web developer wouldn’t start a project the day before it was due.

Student: Only the good pros do.

Bruce: It better be perfect then.

This Weeks Business Web Practices Guest Speaker: Cheryl Bledsoe

Our guest for week 4 of the Business Web Practices Speaker Series will be Cheryl Bledsoe who for many years been fundamental in helping define and implement the role of social media in time of crisis and emergency, most notably in roles in management in both Clark and Clackamas counties. You will likely come away from this session with new insights about the importance and potential of the web and social media in our society at large. The title of Cheryl’s talk is “The Ubiquity of  Social Media and Social Media as a Social Service”.

A schedule of all of the speakers participating in this year’s series as well as the video archive for the series can be found at http://bit.ly/CTEC165 and you can subscribe to our new YouTube CTEC 165 channel at http://bit.ly/CTEC165Videos.

This event will take place on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, at 4:30 PM in Foster Auditorium at Clark College. All are welcome.

Here is some more information about Cheryl:

Cheryl Bledsoe is the Technology Manager for the Clackamas County 911. She is also the Executive Director of the Virtual Emergency Management Association (www.virtualema.org) which aims to build partnerships between emerging technical companies, emergency services and higher education. Cheryl first became familiar with social media as the Southwest Washington. She has been responsible for implementing local, regional and state social media footprints which have included policy development, website redesign and managing blogs, Facebook and Twitter communications. Her most notable accomplishments have included the development of Virtual Operation Support Teams (VOST) to monitor social media during incidents of national and international significance and her creation of 30 Days, 30 Ways which has been one of the largest online social media games running each September during National Preparedness Month since 2010. She speaks regularly at national conferences, consults with government agencies and provides training to diverse audiences. Despite her incredible resume, she is probably best known for accidentally creating the hashtag #CookingWithCheryl by burning hard-boiled eggs, marrying her geeky fingerpainting partner from kindergarten at the Church of Elvis and, despite believing she would never have children, has spawned two little humans that are the light of her life.

 

Why I Teach Reason No. 17

I just received this feedback from Troy Uyan’s presentation at Clark College earlier this week:

I just finished Troy’s presentation. He is an extraordinary individual. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he had at least 5 to 10 years experience. He is extremely accomplished in such a short time. His story about realizing that if a textbook had 13 chapters and only 8 were covered he would finish the other five chapters was very telling about his desire to excel.

Troy was a former student of mine who completed the Web Development program at Clark College, located in Vancouver, Washington.

Watch Troy’s talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sPON2O4_q8

More College Student Worst Practices

Continuing on from my list of “College Student Worst Practices” post:

Worst Practice No. 4:

Waiting until the day an assignment is due to ask the instructor for assistance. As soon as an assignment is announced or made available, read through it in its entirety at least once and maybe twice. Don’t simply do the assignment to hit the rubric marks as quite often there is more to the assignment than what appears in the rubric.

Worst Practice No. 5:

Expecting to learn everything you need to learn during class. Also, expecting to finish your work in class.

Worst Practice No. 6:

Not reading the syllabus. A course syllabus is a contract between the instructor and each and every student. It contains all of the things that a student will need to know about assignments, exams, late work policies, how a student’s grade will be determined, a statement about procedures and school policies for students with disabilities and much more. Neglecting to read it at the beginning of the class and every now and then is also not a good thing to do.

What does the syllabus really say? All of the things that you are going to ask tomorrow.

College Student Worst Practices – The First Three

Worst Practice No. 1:

From an email sent to students: “If you have read this far and want 3 extra credit points, send a message to me by Tuesday at noon.” 5 days later and only 2 people replied.

If your teacher/instructor ever offers you extra credit points for reading a weekly announcement email, respond to them as soon as you read the words “extra credit”.

Worst Practice No. 2:

Don’t wait until the assignment or exam due date to ask for an extension. It’s ok to ask for an extension (in my classes). Communicate early and often. It’s ok. I’m human and sometimes life happens and I get that.

Worst Practice No. 3:

If you are the smartest person in the classroom, and you know more than most people, don’t use that as the platform to challenge or prove that the instructor is dumber than you or that you are smarter than everyone else, use it as an opportunity to help others in the class that may be struggling.