Before I Take My Classes Online (3 of 3): “So, I’ll Be Able to See All Their Faces, Right?”Posted on February 5, 2015 by A+ Brooke Lester, CuratorFor the face-to-face teacher and learner, entering the online teaching environment is a cross-cultural experience. It’s natural to try to hold on to the familiar, even when aware that this can interfere with a genuinely immersive, transformative experience of an unfamiliar environment. Find your points of discomfort, and ask questions (like those in this blog series) of instructors who already teach online….
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?”…
Counteracting Global Ignorance with Synchronous Online LearningPosted on July 23, 2013 by Nathan LoewenBringing web-based technology into the world religions classroom is often destructive. It’s wrong because the web technologies easily foster the worst kinds of tendencies that erode what is good about general education. The adoption of the web into religious studies teaching must adapt the technology towards properly-considered competencies for general education. I will propose and justify one means of doing just that.