It’s been a long time since the last blog entry, because I finished and defended my dissertation on June 15. Despite the time commitment involved in finishing the dissertation, I’ve still been active in the Chicago Center for Teaching, helping to train new teaching consultations, helping to develop the details of our new Teaching Fellows program, assisting with a workshop, etc. But one of the most interesting pedagogical projects that I’ve been exposed to in the last year or so is the online journal, Hybrid Pedagogy. I met Chris Friend, managing editor, at a networking event for new Ph.Ds, and besides the fact that it’s just plain fun to geek out about pedagogy with an expert in the field, it was a great learning experience for me.

As the website points out, “all learning is necessarily hybrid” – whether we’re talking wax tablets, rote memorization, or the newest technology, learning has always involved something outside the learner. I have sympathy for instructors who prohibit laptops and tech, but I also think that to do so is not only untenable in the long-term, but also potentially neglecting a valuable learning tool. Technology is here to stay, so why not make it into something useful? Hybrid Pedagogy wants to help with that project. So this is just a brief note between edits to plug a project that strikes me as very important for the future.