[Lee Skallerup Bessette is a Faculty Instructional Consultant at the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CELT) at the University of Kentucky. She primarily works with faculty on digital pedagogy and digital humanities. She blogs at College Ready Writing and you can find her tweeting prolifically at @readywriting.--@JBJ]
I’ve recently taken on a new role in Faculty Development, which in my case means that I primarily help professors who want to improve their teaching. I’m really enjoying it but there is a learning curve that I’m still scaling. One of the coping mechanisms I have found effective in the past is to become an active part of the community, and this has been no different. I attended my first POD conference (the annual conference of the national organization for faculty developers) and extended my network of fellow faculty developers and instructional designers on Twitter.
But what I do best to cope is to blog. I was familiar with the conventions and conversations of those who blog about teaching in academia, but what were those same conventions and conversations within the faculty development blogosphere? I knew that a lot of Teaching and Learning Centers have their own blogs for teaching tips and best practices, but I was particularly interested in the blogs by individual faculty developers that are about being a faculty developer.
Below is a preliminary list of faculty development blogs and bloggers. They are an eclectic mix (as any list of blogs and bloggers tends to be), and they provide insight into the profession, advice, and (yes) teaching tips and best practices.
- Science Edventures by Peter Newbury, Associate Director of the Center for Teaching Development at the University of California, San Diego.
- A Lifetime’s Training by Josh Eyler, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Rice University.
- Teach Better by Douglas McKee, Associate Chair and Senior Lecturer, Economics at Yale University.
- Teaching and Learning in Higher Ed by Paul T. Corrigan, Assistant Professor of English at Southeastern University. (This is actually a group blog)
- Of Courses Online by Kelvin Thompson, Assistant Director of the Center for Distributed Learning at the University of Central Florida.
- Re-Imagining Teaching and Learning by Ashley Kehoe, Instructional Designer at Dartmouth College.
- Bryan Alexander, Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE).
- Technology and Learning by Joshua Kim, Director of Digital Learning Initiatives at the Dartmouth center for the Advancement of Learning.
- Fringe Educational Technology by Dave Ghidiu, Instructional Designer at Monroe Community College.
- Cassidy in View by Alice Cassidy, In View Education and Professional Development.
- Natasha Kenny, Director of Educational Development at the University of Calgary.
- Teaching Without Walls by Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Instructional Technologist for Online and Blended Learning at CSU, Channel Islands.
- Grazing by Stephen C. Ehrmann, Associate Director for Research and Evaluation at the University System of Maryland’s Center for Academic Innovation.
- Flip It Blog by Flip It Consulting.
- Tim Lepczyk, Director of Faculty Instructional Technology at Hendrix College.
- Agile Learning by Derek Bruff, Director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
- Hapgood by Mike Caufield, Director of Blended and Networked Learning at Washing State University Vancouver.
- Online Learning Insights by Debbie Morrison, Instructional Designer and Online Educator Consultant.
Do you have a favorite blog by faculty developers and instructional designers? Share it in the comments.
Photo “Connecting Developments” by Flickr user Kenny Louie / Creative Commons licensed BY-2.0
