CARG workshop at SBL

Today Mary Hinkle and I spent the day presenting a workshop on teaching and the web at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Atlanta. We had a great group of participants, and I have to admit to feeling a little bit wiped out and disappointed at the end of this day. I would have enjoyed spending more time having the group share amongst themselves, and we didn’t really create as much space for that as I would have liked. On the other hand, I think people came wanting to learn quite a lot (more than we could possibly uncover in one day), and probably would have been frustrated with less? It’s so hard to know. And now is probably not the time for me to reflect back on it because I’m so tired! One of the issues that seemed to bubble up to the surface again and again had to do with with whether or not teaching with web components, or teaching entirely online, was “as good as” teaching in more typical settings. I wish I had an eloquent response to that question, but it’s a complex issue and for me has as much to do with what we mean by good teaching as it does with “technology”! I wish people didn’t seem to so often assume that what we do in the classroom is the “gold standard” by which all else should be judged. It seems to me that we ought to be focused (as Wiggins and McTighe are) are what the enduring understandings are that we want to support, then what evidence we might appropriately gather to document such understanding, and only then on what learning tasks might generate such evidence. They call it “backward design,” or “understanding by design,” and I’m convinced that they’re right. But I don’t think I did a very good job today of following their process in sharing their ideas. Sigh. Oh well… tonight it’s Emily Saliers and Don Saliers together! I’m looking forward to that…