Weekly Reader

The Problem is Not the Students
"Last week I posted what I considered to be an innocuous and mildly interesting post about a proposed formal definition of flipped learning. I figured it would generate a few retweets and start some conversations. Instead, it spawned one of the longest comment threads we’ve had around here in a while – probably the longest if you mod out all the Khan Academy posts." -- Robert Talbert, Casting Out Nines | Chronicle Blog, 4/8/14

How to Run a Group Authored Blog
"Independently of each other, a small number of people have recently asked about the workflow involved in publishing a group-authored blog like ProfHacker. Now I don’t pretend that the way we do things is the best way possible, but I’m happy to describe how we go about publishing 2 posts a day, 5 days a week. If you’re involved in a similar project that uses a different workflow, feel free to share the details in the comments to this post." -- George Williams, ProfHacker Blog, 4/3/14

Toward a Common Definition of Flipped Learning
"We’ve seen a significant ramping up of interest in – and exposure to – the flipped/inverted classroom over the last few years, and it’s been nice to see an uptick in the amount of research being done into its effectiveness. But one thing that’s been lacking has been a consensus on what the flipped classroom actually is." -- Robert Talbert, Casting Out Nines | Chronicle Blog, 4/1/14

Love on Ice: What Tonya Harding Teaches Us About the Academy
"I’m not much for proxy wars among nation-states or for feats of heroic athleticism, so the Winter Olympics largely escaped my notice—except for one thing. At the moment, we’re avidly revisiting a range of cultural phenomena on their 20th anniversaries (right now, for example, Gary Sinise is on my television, talking about playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump). And at the intersection of nostalgia and Olympic fever, much attention has been given to an anniversary of dubious distinction: the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships." --Jacqui Shine, Chronicle Vitae, 3/31/14

Campus Stung By Controversial Video Moves to Ban Recordings in Class
"The Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater has responded to a controversy over a surreptitiously obtained classroom video of a guest lecturer lambasting Republicans by moving to bar students from recording and disseminating such footage." -- Peter Schmidt, Faculty | The Chronicle, 3/28/14

6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students
"What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? It would be saying to students something like, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes -- no safety net, no parachute, no scaffolding -- just left blowing in the wind."-- Rebecca Alder, Teacher Leadership Blog | Edutopia, 1/24/14