Author Archives: dottoremark

I’ve noticed a profileration of offers in my Facebook news feed and email inboxes, regarding a scramble to professional educators to augment our fields of expertise, with new credentials, geared toward going online and remaining online — is this the new normal, and has the future arrived early? Here’s an example of what’s on offer:Continue reading “In this post-Covid-19 pandemic world, are we observing a temporary change with permanent implications, regarding distance learning / online instruction?”

This summer I’ve been hyper-sensitized to the essential need for Instructional Design expertise, triggered by the middle-of-Spring Term rush to get students and classrooms converted to Zoom, Skype and Google Meet make-shift online lessons, due the emergency of the shelter-in-place / lockdown orders spread nationwide by the Covid-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, I became aware of theContinue reading “The Inequality Elephant in the Living Room: Families with no computer, no WiFi, no learning space for Distance Learning Students”

Around 2006 I began to explore the use of blogs, launched via Google Blog, to share my research with colleagues and the public, and to build a network of folks who might be supportive of my research projects. This led to building other blogs, some which were specifically used to create a clearinghouse of onlineContinue reading “My historical relationship to Social Media: Google Blog, Pt. 2”

In September of 2006, whilst lecturing at a British university, where I was also completing my doctoral degree, a colleague invited me to engage an “experiment” with a new social media platform called, “Facebook”. I joined, and around the beginning of Oct. 2006, I invited my students to join me there, as an alternative forumContinue reading “My historical relationship to Social Media: Facebook, Pt. 1”

I’m standing in my post-Covid-19 quaratene shelter-in-place guestroom / home office and beating a metal cake pan with a wooden spoon, hoping someone will hear my lament: The rush the return to classes, fueled by the rush to free-up parents to work, the rush to get new undergrads in dorms, etc., is obscuring sound discourseContinue reading “Are students, parents, admin and teachers rejecting post-Covid-19 online learning, before it has ample time for the adjustments needed to deliver quality learning & teaching?”

This is an interesting article from a recent journal issue, that traces the history leading up to Personal Learning Networks (PLN). The article gives a couple key case studies, which are held up for their effective integration of key functions on each platform, into the structure and goals of traditional classrooms: “One of the powerfulContinue reading “Social Learning Platforms and the Flipped Classroom”

Our college very proactively shifted to online classes midway through the Spring 2020 semester, and we’re continuing with our online classes through the entire Summer 2020 term. We hope to return to the classroom in the Fall 2020, but we are also considering a hybrid approach, where modules that lend themselves to online teaching remainContinue reading “The politics of Covid-19 and “emergency online learning” vs. “remote learning””

As we enter this twilight period when governments and Chambers of Commerce are pushing rapid reopenings of economies, schools and other parts of society, it’s important to note who’s been invited to the table to plan + discuss the particular details of said reopening, and who’s been excluded or ignored. In this case, journalists aren’tContinue reading “Glaring omissions in every discussion about post-Covid-19 learning models: 1) the health + well-being of instructors, admin + staff; 2) the logistics of simultaneously conducting video classes while also maintaining in-person classroom control; 3) Training + equipment costs reinbursements to teachers who work from home.”

This week’s Educational Week magazine has an interesting article, that foregrounds the role of Instructional Designers in the rush to move entire campuses to online learning. It would seem that administrators and instructors are waking up to the fact, that it requires expertise and revised methodology to teach effectively online. Matters including classroom management, studentContinue reading “Expertise of Instructional Designers emphasized in post-coronavirus online pedagogical modalities”

There’s a song in the musical Bye Bye Birdie where the kids sing while gossiping on the telephone, which in the time period of the stage play and film’s setting seems like a new-fangled innovation that the kids have normalized, much to the annoyance of their parents. The song, Telephone Hour, contrasts the practical usageContinue reading “prototypes of social media: Broadway’s Bye Bye Birdie — split screens + party lines”