I was reading Jenny's post the other day on What is Academic Rigor and it got me to question my own conceptions of academic rigor.  I think many academics treat rigor just like supreme court judges treat pornography: They know it when they see it. I too have been guilty of not defining rigor, and just saying "oh that's not rigorous" when I recognize that something isn't rigorous (or at least I

Nothing really dies on the internet :-)  Sometimes that is a bad thing, sometimes it's a good thing! A few years back, I had wanted to join a social network (like MySpace and Facebook) but where the language was Greek.  I discovered a few like Zuni (facebook-like in that it was only for college students at the time, it's now defunct), and fatsa (Greek for "face" or rather "mug"). Fatsa

I was reading a post that I came across on Change MOOC this last week, the title was Can Educational Research be both Rigorous and Relevant? This article was an interesting read for both people who are researchers and people who are practitioners. The main theme of the article is that research articles have been rigorous enough to pass peer-review but they haven't necessarily had an impact; and at

I don't follow the main presenters much on Change11 any more, partly because of the gaps in the schedule, and partly because some things seem like repetitions of previous topics...and partly because I started a new job and have little time.  I do however follow the daily newsletter and when I see posts from people that I've interacted with in the past, like Jenny, Jupidu, Jaap and Serena I put

This past week I've been trying like a mad man to find a photo that I took in 2005, using Photo Booth on MacOS 10.4 when it first came out.  At the time, I was employed by Media Services and worked with a great group of people.  Alas, my office was reminiscent of the Batcave. Despite being on the first floor there were no windows, the fluorescent lighting felt piercing to the eye (so I had

I had come across Jupidu's post on Sensemaking in a MOOC a while back, but I haven't had much time to respond to it just yet (until now I guess ;-)  ).  I was actually thinking of my participation in MOOCs in general; as well as the two MOOCs I am now participating in - those being Change11 and DS106.  I was actually thinking of points 1, 2, 4 and 5 in specifically and I thought I would

My video introduction to the research methods course (for instructional designers) that I am teaching this semester came in.  Yay!  Even though I think I could have benefited from some make-up, the video came out pretty good.  (if the embedded player isn't working, here is the direct link to the video introduction) brightcove.createExperiences();

While I am not the biggest of Blackboard cheerleaders, using Blackboard Coursesites (with Mobile Learn enabled!) has really had a big influence in changing my perceptions of how good blackboard can be. Our evaluation instance this past summer, due in large part to our migrated courses looking like a truck ran over them, didn't inspire confidence, but my usage of coursesites over the past nine months

A couple of years back I was taking a lunch-time walk around the harbor walk which goes by my university campus. In the summer I walk every day (3-5 miles) at lunch time, but when the weather gets colder I tend to cut back. In any case, this was taken in the fall, it was a bit chilly and drizzling (not a big deal) and there he was, Elmo, abandoned (there are condos nearby so some kid probably

This is my first semester teaching (yay!) and since we're eventually migrating to Blackboard Lean 9 on my campus I've decided to be part of a pre-pilot using Coursesites (fantastic and free service, by the way, if you are looking for a free LMS). One of the perks of coursesites, that briefly was taken away from us last year but is now back, is access to Blackboard Mobile on iOS, Android and Blackberry