Educators Succeed Despite Adversity

education is supposed to be about nurturing thoughtful creativity, yet we are often forced to “stay on script.”

San Diego and Geospatial Education

Once a year, for about a week, San Diego becomes home to thousands of geeks, nerds, technophiles, and other creative people who seek out each other to share, collaborate, network, eat, drink, and run around the Gaslamp District. No, I’m not referring to the San Diego Comic-Con, the most important event in pop culture geekery.…

From Where Inspiration Arises

One can never tell from where inspiration arises. The Maker Movement is one of the best, most inspiration movements to have arisen in the United States since the Boy or Girls Scouts. The Maker Movement draws inspiration from circumstances and people from all walks of life, is not limited by race or gender, and is…

Ramblings on Latitude and Longitude Using a Lightboard

Fall 2015 my university commissioned one of our on-campus engineers to design and build not one but two Lightboards. If you aren’t familiar with what a Lightboard is you’ve come to the proper blog. On Tuesday, March 1st, I gave a mess of lecture about the size and shape of the Earth, and double-down on…

60 Seconds on Teaching (Actually 75 seconds)

This is not my TEDTalk by any stretch of the imagination. In my wanderings and associated interactions around campus I’ve met a few people involved with teaching and technology. These individuals associate teaching and technology with me, too. Our local faculty development center IT manager asked me last week if I’d like to do a…

Overcoming the “College Students As Children” Mindset

In 2007 I began working for a nearby community college, my third such institution in Kentucky. In Kentucky, the community college system operates by a set of guiding principles and policies yet each institution also operates as a sort of franchise. The best way I can describe this is the application process. A person must…

Staying Enthusiastic As Higher Education Sickens

I know. My post’s title is morbid, especially coming on the heels of my previous post about the passing of my director and mentor. He would have appreciated the irony. During what would result in Dr. Wesler’s last semester teaching Kit co-taught a course with the dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts…

Small Schools Can Make A Big Difference

You probably have never heard of Julius Rosenwald. Even if you grew up in Chicago the name, “Julius Rosenwald,” may not mean a thing, may ring no memory bells. However, if you have ever visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago you have him to thank. He was one of the important benefactors…

My Comments On Geography-themed Writing Assignments

Below, I have provided the word-for-word Announcement I posted to Canvas today to convey some thoughts to my 100-level World Geography class. I post my Announcements here, on my blog, to see if people agree with me, to and show an example of an Announcement, as I am frequently looking for good examples of communicating…

When Students Are Ready To Listen

Tonight, I had an interesting conversation with a college drop-out. She is young so she still has a chance at a decent future for herself. This young lady will have a decent future for herself when she is ready to listen. When she is ready to stop talking and start listening she may be able…