My adventures in digital history.
These are my remarks as written (if not exactly as delivered) in Paul Harvey's history seminar at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs this morning: I recently wrote an…
MOOCs: A Postmortem
MOOCs are dead. "How can I possibly argue that MOOCs are dead?," you may ask. After all, to borrow the stats just from Coursera, they have: 1600 courses, 130+ specializations,…
Get your side hustle off.
I've been streaming a lot of Simpsons with my son lately. Backwards. Since I quit watching the show regularly sometime in the late-90s, this was the best way that we…
More mistakes from my first semester teaching the US History survey online.
My first semester as an online instructor is almost over. Who knows where the time goes? Curating a respectable online survey course experience comes with a lot of responsibility. In…
I’ve come out of MOOC retirement.
I remember exactly when I took my first MOOC. It was Fall 2012 (during the run up to the last presidential election) and I was on sabbatical. If I didn't…
My favorite mistake.
When I decided to teach online for the first time this semester, I was determined to throw out my old survey class and rebuild a new one from the…
“I don’t need your civil war.”
All us historians let out a loud sigh when we read that story about Republican Senator Ron Johnson wanting to replace us all with Ken Burns videos. It's an incredibly…
Why America’s MOOC pioneers have abandoned ship.
On November 7, 1872, the American ship Mary Celeste left New York Harbor en route to Genoa, Italy. On December 5, 1872, a British brig discovered that vessel drifting in…
Think different.
I've been an Apple user since the early-1980s. I don't think I qualify as a fanatic since I haven't bought anywhere near everything the company ever put out. Heck, I…
Repeat after me: “You are an expert in your own teaching!”
via GIPHY So I have an announcement: Next year I will be the faculty fellow at CSU-Pueblo's Center for Teaching and Learning. First you go for the free food. Next…
