Classrooms have Four Walls and Two Portals. Use Them!Posted on August 28, 2013 by Nathan LoewenI remember first being invited into my college’s boardroom for a meeting. I experienced several sentiments. “Wow! This is like being asked to the principal’s office, but in a good way!” And, “Yes! This is like being asked to sit at the cool kids’ table in the high school cafeteria!”I walked in and settled myself into one of the comfy, high-backed leather chairs. I looked around, and was stunned to see something I had always dreamed of having in my classroom: a gigantic LCD screen with a wide-angle video camera. I thought to myself, “Alright! This is like Skype on steroids! How do I get my students in here?”…
A Good Class Spoiled!Posted on August 28, 2013 by Jennifer ShepherdTwo years ago, I reached a point where I began to regard student evaluations as “a good course spoiled.” You may wonder about that phrase. Let me explain.There is a famous quote that “golf is a good walk spoiled.” You may have even said it. And for sure, it can be. It doesn’t matter how positive your attitude is, or how much you practice, or whether you have played the course 100 times. The results of your efforts are objective. You can either hit the ball or you can’t. You can’t hide your natural abilities, or lack thereof. They are on display for everyone to see….
ACE Series Part V: A Call to ACE Critical Reasoning for the Last TimePosted on August 21, 2013 by Richard NewtonWe are at a pedagogical turning point. Once we could impress students with our powers of memorization and recall. But that day is ending. Fast thumbs and fine-tuned algorithms can replicate the same thing.Sure, you can hold onto the belief that no one lectures quite the way you do. But what will you teach when your school uploads your lectures to iTunes University?Our task is becoming less about just transmitting content. Whatever our respective domains, we are increasingly called to train students in application, access, and analysis….
Teaching the Bible in General Education—2 of 2Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jane S. WebsterMany educators bemoan the fact that students seek the more secure career paths of sciences and professions, often at the expense of the Humanities. Research shows, however, that many students are interested in Religious Studies, especially for the sake of making personal meaning. As a result, students often take courses in Religious Studies as part of their General Education program, and of these courses, Biblical Studies are the most popular. So how do we approach teaching the Bible in order to meet the needs of the discipline, General Education, and student meaning-making?
Full Reverse! The OT/HB from Writings to TorahPosted on August 16, 2013 by A+ Brooke Lester, Curator“Say, I know! Let’s teach our students, at term’s beginning, a model of Pentateuch formation that requires many of them to make a major emotional adjustment, and further involves learning the ENTIRE TIME LINE AND POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY of a thousand years of ancient Israel! Because, pedagogically speaking, how could that go wrong?”JEDP as a starting point for Old Testament study: what have we been thinking?But I admit, that’s not the real reason that I began to teach the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (OT/HB) “in reverse”…