Resources

It's official. I'm on summer break. I'm also healthy enough to be back to exercising and hanging out with the kids.

My mind is full of all the things I would like to do during the break to make the 2015-2016 academic year better than this past one. I had a good time teaching, but just felt like I was running to keep up the entire time. People say that's normal with two small children at home, but I yearn for a bit more preparation to occur before diving back in again.

In the meantime, I do want to recharge my batteries and capitalize on the opportunities to try and learn new things. Here are a few actions I've taken in the past to try to turbo-charge my summer that have worked well:

Share a meal with someone in a different discipline

One of the many things I'm grateful for about getting to do the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast is all of the experts I get to talk to in such different disciplines than mine. At first, I was incredibly intimidated to speak with some who I only had the most  shallow understanding of what they teach. However, I'm glad I pressed on, as I've found I'm learning far more than I bargained for when the podcast began.

If you're not able to get together for lunch or dinner, perhaps try the next best thing.

Listen to a podcast in an entirely different discipline than yours

Doug McKee recommended the Very Bad Wizards podcast to me a few months ago. It is a dialog between Tamler Sommers (a philosopher) and David Pizarro (a psychologist). They describe themselves as people who “share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science.” They also are quite funny and crass (in the best way possible).

I've enjoyed being challenged by the few episodes I've listened to so far. One recommendation I would have for those of you who really want to maximize your learning is to review the show notes for an episode before you listen to it and read the articles they post before listening.

Watch something purely for the fun of it

As I mentioned on episode #049, I spent another week in May with a cold. There's something seriously wrong when you can't keep yourself healthier than the people who stick things they find on the ground in their mouths on a regular basis. One upside to being ill was the excuse to binge watch House of Cards, a Netflix original series.

Now I'm going to want to listen to some of Slate's podcasts about House of Cards, as I understand they have some experts come and and compare real-world politics with the fictitious politics in House of Cards.

[reminder]How will you be maximizing any time off you have to turbo-charge your summer? [/reminder]

I'm preparing to record episode 50 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and I need your help.

Share a take-away and a recommendation for episode 50

Please call our podcast voicemail line and leave a message for the show. Share a take-away you've had from any of the episodes this past year and give one recommendation you have for other members of the Teaching in Higher Ed community.

949-38-LEARN

1-949-385-3276

I will use as many of your messages as I can on episode 50 and we can all look forward to rediscovering some of the lessons from the show so far.

Top Ten Most Downloaded Episodes

(as of 4/14/15; the download counts fluctuate greatly, as new people discover the show)

1. #023: How to engage students in the classroom and online (guest: Jay Howard)
2. #015: How to get students to participate in a discussion (guest: Stephen Brookfield)
3. #034: Practical productivity in academia (guest: Natalie Houston)
4. #037: Developing critical thinking skills (guest: Tine Reimers)
5. #018: How technology is changing higher education (guest: Audrey Watters)
6. #036: What the best college teachers do (guest: Ken Bain)
7. #041: What to do before you act on all you've captured (co-host: Dave Stachowiak)
8. #028: How to see what we've been missing (guest: Cathy Davidson)
9. #030: Teaching naked (guest: Jose Bowen)
10. #032: Lower your stress with a better approach to capture (co-host: Dave Stachowiak)

Top Ten Blog Posts This Month

1. EdTech recommendations for the Mac Power Users
2. How to make a seemingly boring topic come to alive
3. HeadsUp game is a lively edtech tool
4. Find the right reference manager
5. Creating micro lectures for blended or online courses
6. Getting things done gets re-done
7. 5 apps that will help you be more organized in the new school year
8. How to apologize [as a professor]
9. How to develop library research skills in college students
10. The danger of making assumptions as educators

[reminder]If you prefer not to leave a voicemail, please consider adding a comment with your take-away and recommendation.[/reminder]

A few episodes ago, I recommended the podcast called Serial.

It is the first podcast that I have heard described as one you're going to want to binge-watch. The good news is that there haven't been that many episodes released yet, so you have plenty of time to catch up with the rest of us obsessed fans.

Lest you think that there's no practical value to listening as a professor, there are plenty of lessons in there about effective storytelling.

If you are just checking out the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and blog, you won't likely experience quite as much suspense as you will if you listen to Serial. However, we have had some great guests agree to come on the show and share their wisdom.

Top five podcast episodes

1. Role immersion games in the higher ed classroom with Dr. Marc Carnes (author of Minds on Fire)
2. How to move a course online and other community questions with cohosts Bonni & Dave Stachowiak
3. How to get students to participate in discussion with Dr. Stephen Brookfield
4. Back to school episode with Dr. Sandie Morgan
5. How technology is changing education with Audrey Watters

Five essential blog posts

While the following blog posts aren't necessarily ranked via objective criteria, such as hits, they stand out as essential reads to those looking to better their teaching:

1. Creating measurable learning objectives
2. Cultivating character
3. Stop yourself from becoming a digital hoarder
4. Shaping first impressions in the college classroom
5. The dangers of making assumptions as educators

If you have just joined the community, the resources listed above are a great place to start. I hope you'll join the conversation happening in the comments section of each episode and blog post.

I had the honor of interviewing Audrey Watters last week, for episode 18 of Teaching in Higher Ed. She cautions readers on her blog that she's the sometimes EdTech's Kassandra. She neglected to mention that conversations with her can get stuck in a person's mind and rattle around in there a lot.

A few minutes prior to recording with Audrey, I had more than a few chuckles listening to Aziz Ansari define and discuss feminism on The Late Show with David Letterman. I wound up sharing about the clip during the recommendations portion of the show. It was one of those hopeful minutes when it seems like we might be moving to a better place when it comes to equality.

Let's just say that the week did not turn out to be a very good week for gender equality.

Audrey writes about the week in the last paragraph of her weekly update.

#gamergate rages on, as more female gamers have had credible threats of violence made against them, because of their speaking out on sexism. Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella decided that women should rely on karma for achieving equitable compensation.

I'm grateful for the way in which Audrey challenges us to do better on a number of fronts in her writing. It is arguably part of her personal brand to make us uncomfortable as we identify ways in which we are contributors to the problem.

Lest you think that this issue is only being discussed by a small minority of self-declared rabble-rousers, you should know that David Sparks, the host of The Mac Power Users podcast crafted a post on the subject, hoping to start a dialog with his community.

Anyone who thinks that this isn't an issue beyond the tech world might find the State of the Women in America report revealing.

About a month ago, I was speaking to a different Teaching in Higher Ed podcast guest about his recommendations for future topics or guests. He suggested a professor/researcher to speak on the subject of race in higher ed. I'm leaving the specific name of the person who was suggested out of this post, since I haven't reached out to the individual yet. 

It was particularly timely, since the topic kept popping up on my list of potential podcast episodes. However, the whole subject of racial and gender equality can leave me feeling completely inadequate.

The number of times I've not handled it well when students have used gender or racial stereotypes overwhelms me. It is hard to know where to begin. Such a fundamental shift of perspective has to take place in order for students to recognize the flaws in their heuristics and it isn't a mental change that can be forced upon them.

Despite feeling completely inadequate, we all must persist toward doing the hard work it takes to bring us to a new day. We must not be silent (as emphasized so well in this TED talk with Jackson Katz).

I haven't ever written a post on this topic before. I know that it raises far more questions than it provides answers. However, just like David Sparks, I can continue the dialog and invite us all to challenge each other to do more to squelch the voices that would suggest anything other than equality.

[reminder]What do we need to be doing more of as educators in higher education to move toward greater gender equality? How do we work to transform the minds of students who come from an entirely different perspective when it comes to women being equal to men?[/reminder]