Paul Cornell’s Saucer Country (published by DC’s Vertigo imprint) is the sort of thing I wish I could come up with—and that I (at some level, anyway) have been waiting for my entire UFOlogical life.  I recently re-read all 14 extant issues (the 1st “season”—more will be, supposedly, forthcoming).

On one level, the story of a New Mexico governor running for President of the United States, it is also a journey though the many layers of UFO/Flying saucer mythology.  Referencing everything from MIBs to Richard Shaver to Georges King and Adamski, Cornell deftly navigates the different divide within the saucer community, making the mythological vs. nuts-and-bolts debate a key feature of the narrative and demonstrating that he did his homework not just on the popularly known tropes of the subject but also its lesser known pieces of history.

I want more of this.  Soon!

via Tumblr http://saucerio.tumblr.com/post/48928309023

Being a full-time faculty member at a large community college, my work is first and foremost teaching.  This semester, I’ve got five sections (3 “traditional”, 2 online) and in all of them, I’ve been thinking of ways to change up what I’m doing.  Many of these potential changes involve digital things.  Since the next classes I’m teaching will be compressed 7 1/2 week classes, a rethink is in order, regardless.  Here are some things I’m thinking about (subject to change–few of these ideas will be set in stone before the first day of classes and, maybe, not even then).

Visual Dynamism

I really enjoyed using Google Earth in the classroom (see below) and the students seemed to be more engaged with historical data mapped over satellite imagery than they usually are with the maps that I use.  This got me thinking about other, more visually dynamic ways to present information.  Prezi, of course, is popular, but I can’t afford the amount of Dramamine necessary for me to cope with using it.  There are a variety of interactive timeline tools which may be useful as well.

Get the students to talk more

I’ve been teaching, in one way or another, for around a decade at this point and the biggest weakness I have is–without a doubt–encouraging useful discussion in the classroom.  Whether it’s because I like the sound of my own voice too much (likely) or because the mass of students are intimidated (or annoyed) by the usual handful of students who do 90% of the talking, it’s something that I need to work on.  One key, clearly, is to find ways to ensure that students are familiar enough with material to usefully discuss it.

Exams are terrible

I hate grading them, students hate taking them, and my assurance that they’re the best (or even a good) way to assess students is decreasing every semester.  In my online classes, I’ve been experimenting with weekly cumulative assessment as a way to replace exams in a manner that is relatively low-stress, but “high-yield” (yes, I think of student learning as a field full of soy beans).  It needs tweaking, but I may be on to something.  Or not.

Students, in general, seem to like history, hate history classes

I am, however, teaching a history class, so…yeah.  Problem here.  Working on it.

BlackBoard

Over the past few years, I’ve used both BlackBoard and self-hosted websites as a means of digitally-disseminating information to students as well as for recording grades.  This semester, I’ve been using Bb exclusively and while there have been headaches, the students seem to engaged with the material there more than they do on non-Bb sites.  Despite my usability concern with Bb and my desire for more open tools, I also have a compelling need to consider the students.  I’m still thinking this one over.

Omnia Mutantur

Everything changes, all the time.  What works one semester may not work the next.  What works one day might not work the next.  We often have to adjust and adapt to the students to whatever degree that it is practical.  If it is the students who must adjust to us, then we must provide tools to support and guide that change.  Often, we are in the position of having to not only teach our subjects, but also the skills of being a student.  These skills change over time.

These are disconnected thoughts, rather than a solution or manifesto.  There are dozens of books about teaching “today’s” students.  Some of them are worth reading, if only to argue with.  

This ended up longer than I expected.  TIme to hit the publish button and get back to work.

Knowing that assessment (and, especially, documentation of this assessment) plays an increasing role in higher education, I developed a plan to create a series of online resources (with assessment activities) keyed to our survey course outcomes as well as the college-wide general education outcomes of

• critical thinking,
• global awareness, and
• citizenship

A mock-up that I showed off during the application process is located here (see if you can find the horrible typo somewhere, it’s fun!).  Like most of these sorts of projects, the difficult part will be creating the content rather than actually building the site.  I’m envisioning  (probably) the word-equivalent of (very) brief book, available to faculty, students, and anyone else freely on the ‘net.   The goal is to get much of the planning out of the way in the Fall semester, then devote winter to construction and deployment.

It’s the tech consultant office at MCC’s Center for Teaching and Learning.  Along with two of my colleagues we hold office hours, workshops, and email-missives devoted to helping faculty (full- and part-time) as well as staff and administrators more effectively use technology in their teaching and work.

Today, I just got done trying to help one of the folks in our Disability Services office figure out a way to set up BlackBoard to have different time limits on exams–one for most students, and varying ones for students who are entitled to extended testing times.  Bb doesn’t make it easy but I think I’ve got it figured out.  My next step will be to refine the process and (probably) do a little screencast video for their training purposes.

We’re giving a workshop about this very type of thing at the upcoming Teaching Professor conference in New Orleans.  We’re very fortunate that MCC recognized the value of having teaching faculty help other teaching faculty with these issues in addition to having a non-teaching help desk for questions and training.

Students seem to find it interesting and more engaging than a static map in a PowerPoint (which is what I have used in the past).  Here’s an action shot:

I need to do more of this sort of thing, especially making my own maps.  I’ve used Google Fusion tables before and I may try out one I made showing landing sites in the Allied invasion of North Africa in WW2, which I’m covering this afternoon.

Here on time. First up is triaging the email, then off to talk about Africa, Islam, and a score of other things. Digitality may be involved!

Day of DH is awkwardly placed this year– I’ll be teaching pretty much all day.  I’ll try to give some insight into how I use “the digital” in the classroom and out, as well as discuss some of my other digital activities, including my non-teaching work and my upcoming sabbatical project.

Expect pictures.

Extraterrestrials and the American Zeitgeist is moving through the publisher’s pipeline.  I spent a shameful afternoon responding to copy edit queries and wondering why I never see mistakes the first (or second, or third, or fourth…) time.  That bit’s done now and it’s moving on to the final phases leading to publication.

Similarly, Doctor Who in Time and Space, to which I contributed a chapter, is due to be released soon. This was pretty fun to do, even if it involved me having to watch (and think deeply about) the 1996 Fox Doctor Who television movie.

OPERATION LEMURIA, which I can’t talk about because I’m deeply superstitious, is completed and in other people’s hands; I’m just waiting for feedback at this point.

RANDOM ANACONDA, a revision of course outcomes for MCC’s “History of the Holocaust” course, is done and the paperwork is moving through the bureaucracy.  The only remaining work is explaining the changes at a bunch of meetings.

In amongst all of this stuff, I’m implementing some changes in my online classes.  It’s been a busy Winter so far, but I’m hoping that the work I’m putting in this semester will, down the road, save me some time.

Now, to get some grading done.