DIIA Blog

DIIA Faculty Development Specialist Leslie Jarmon received a grant from the Transforming Undergraduate Education program to support a University of Texas System innovative teaching initiative based in Second Life. Dr. Jarmon leads the nation’s first system-wide program to stimulate creative approaches to instruction, increase student access and success, and manage or reduce instructional costs.

The program will “use the virtual world environment to cultivate working communities of learning and discovery transcending the complex, interdisciplinary UT System, empowering students to become innovators and thought leaders throughout Texas, the U.S., and the world,” according to this week’s DIIA spotlight article by Michael Barrett.

The Chronicle of Higher Education picked up on the project here, and Dr. Jarmon was featured in a UT-Austin OnCampus accolade here.

Even after posting approximately 60 entries, clearing 2,364 spam comments, and live-blogging SXSWi and AccessU, I still can hardly believe it has been a whole year since the DIIA Blog came online.  The experts say that a blog is only as good as its content, and I sincerely hope that readers found the DIIA Blog to be a rich source of up-to-date information, insight, amusement, resources, and perspective.

It was personally gratifying to see page hits approaching the 100,000 mark while live-blogging at SXSWi, knowing that we were spreading the word about DIIA among the industry movers and shakers.

AccessU, although smaller in scale, brought attention to the vital importance of accessibility to everyone who uses the World Wide Web. It was there that I coined my mantra, “Curb cuts for computers!” as an analogy for how accessible design benefits all of us. Glenda Sims (UT), Sharron Rush (Knowbility), and all the caring geniuses who developed the standards have made me a life-long advocate of designing for usability. We will all most likely face obstacles in communicating via the Internet as we age, so why not plan ahead?

Most of all, I have enjoyed learning more about the world we live in–from my blogging colleagues, and from the research I’ve engaged in to find something worth blogging about. I hope to hear from more DIIA voices in the years ahead, bringing wider-ranging, thought-provoking information to our attention, and engaging in dialogue through comments–although not the spammy ones, please!

If you use a Mac platform, Amy Miller has developed some nifty widgets to ping you when a new post goes up. Dana DeLoca, DIIA’s creative videographer and photographer has added a rich visual dimension through the “Photo of the Day” to complement our wordy posts, along with her fantastic sidekick AJ Landeros (Mr. iPhone). Truly, it takes a village…

My birthday wish for the DIIA Blog is to see it expand and grow, touching more lives, enhancing the University of Texas at Austin experience for faculty, staff, and students, and drawing in a wider circle of commenters to challenge and engage us in fruitful dialogue.

Blog on!

I was recently (hours ago) enlightened about the impact of Ruby Payne on instructional policy. Evidently, her thinking and writing on poverty has gained a large following. Others, including this 14 yr old boy on you tube aren’t convinced that she should be as revered.

Among those critiquing her work are Randy Bomer, Joel E. Dworin, Laura May & Peggy Semingson in Miseducating Teachers about the Poor: A Critical Analysis of Ruby Payne’s Claims about Poverty 2008.

Enough said by me; both of the above references make their points well. What are your thoughts? (I also wonder how many of our students, non-education majors) will end up teaching in K-12 environments. Also, to what degree are we responsible, from a societal-impact perspective, for thoughtfully preparing our grad students for possible teaching roles?)

I’ve been invited by DIIA to participate (be a guest columnist) by posting regular (weekly) blog entries to the divisional blog. I’ve struggled over the course of the last week with the construct of positionality, specifically with how my role(s) as employee, GSI Program Coordinator and Educational Psychology doctoral student, as well as my maleness, whiteness, and seasoned status (as a snuggle up to my 2nd 50 yrs on earth), impact my perceptions, my interactions and the manner in which others might, could, and do engage me. (Here is another informative article on researcher positionality by H. Richard Milner IV — the Betts Assistant Professor of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, Peabody College, Department of Teaching and Learning, Nashville, TN — Race, Culture, and Researcher Positionality: Working Through Dangers Seen, Unseen, and Unforeseen)

So, what I’ve decided to do (at least until the blog moderator tells me otherwise) is take a exploratory path towards defining who I can become as a blogger. When it comes to my posts, expect some mix between John Kelso of the Austin American Statesman and recent Pulitzer-winner Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. Well, don’t expect, at least from the get-go, the same quality as offered by Kelso and Robinson, but I hope to provide at least a smidgen of passionate irony.

More. . . in minutes. (oh yeah, expect binge-like behavior; I tend to gorge, but I can’t make myself purge until I’m ready.)