Free Range Learning

A movement that later became the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther began with a simple premise: the Christian church had become overly professional. The Priests were the only ones who had both the education and the access to be able to read and interpret Scripture. The average person had no way of knowing, much less disputing, whether the hierarchy of the church was being faithful to the tradition handed down by the Apostles.

Luther understood that for Scripture to have real power, it needed …

Yesterday was the first night of class for me - I've enrolled in an eight-week pottery class . Among other things, Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind , inspired me to take the course. Pink's main argument is that our once left-brained society is changing into a more right-brained one. And if we want to thrive, we better prepare ourselves. It's a great read with lots of suggestions for creative outlets.

Apart from music and words, I've never created anything with my hands so …

While much of what we do here in Learning Design & Technology is focused around curricular learning, we're also very much interested in learning how to take care of ourselves; we want to pass that learning on!

It was fun to have our Seminary Parish Nurse, Karen Treat, pass on this fantastic video on how/how not to sneeze! It's really quite funny.

Tomorrow's Professor Blog has a great article listing the worst mistakes teachers can make in the classroom. It's an insightful (and research-driven) article. We talk often at Luther about some of the big-picture mistakes, like not having learning-objectives in mind in course design . Yet (from both a former student and a learning design point-of-view) I found some of the "smaller" listings here helpful as well, especially on a day-to-day teaching level.

"Mistake #10 . When you …

Today, Boing Boing posted a great little music video of Meet the Elements, a new song by They Might Be Giants. This is a great little educational ditty which makes excellent use of song and images to teach about the Periodic Table.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story this week about José A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, who is encouraging people to "Teach Naked" or not use computers in the classroom in order to up the engagement of students.

Bowen is no luddite, rather, he suggests teachers should not use PowerPoint lectures in the classroom, lectures should be delivered online as podcasts that students watch prior to coming to class. Class time is then used for people to process the lecture, …

Most faculty and many students at Luther Seminary know the work of Dr. Stephen Brookfield, of the University of St. Thomas. For several years, Stephen has worked with pre-tenure teaching and learning groups at Luther, and in the last year, he and Mary Hess have co-edited Teaching Reflectively in Theological Contexts . What you may not know is that Stephen has provided dozens of teaching and learning resources on his website. 

One of my favorite resources is Stephen's PowerPoint on Discussion …

We in Learning Design & Technology (LDT) can often be implicitly accused of promoting technological innovation as a be-all, end-all solution to problems in education. And while none of us fully believe that myth, we do take technology seriously. Web technologies can open up possibilities that were not present in the past. Social media can bring a diversity of voices and experiences to the table that may not have been previously heard. These are beliefs we hold dear.

But what happens when we …

This week, in conjunction with the Library , we are excited to begin new, bi-weekly Tech Talks . These thirty-minute talks will cover some new or exciting aspect of technology and will be offered Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons, every other week.

We'll spend the first few minutes of each talk providing a very high-level overview of the technology and then open it up for discussion to generate ideas about creative and useful ways to use the technology.

Having people from all sides of the …

Tomorrow's Professor has a great article on e-portfolios and their usefulness in student learning.

The practices associated with e-portfolio-e.g., designing "authentic" assignments, using engaging and active pedagogy, periodic self-, peer- and teacher-formative assessments, and requiring students to reflect on their learning-help to move both professors and students into a teacher/learner relationship where "guiding" really works. Emphasis shifts from delivering content toward …