The 8 Bit Experiment: a place for digital play

A discussion that continues to emerge in my time in academia is how can we support digital learning. Many institutions support faculty and staff by giving them digital space on their servers to host websites, blogs, etc. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case at our institution. So I started exploring my … Read more

ChatGPT: Clever, but not infallible

As I explored the capabilities of ChatGPT, I put it to the test by tasking it with generating an annotated bibliography entry for a well-known work, Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed“. To my surprise, it delivered a satisfactory entry in just 20 seconds. However, I decided to challenge ChatGPT … Read more

Big trouble in little trivia

When people ask me to do a trivia event, my first thought is… blurgskdaskjhga. That’s right, blurgskdaskjhga is a real thing. Well, kind of. It’s a combination of two words. The words “blurg” and “skdaskjhga”.  From Urban Dictionary, “blurg” is a “Versatile expression of confusion, annoyance, anger, boredom, or surprise, meaning … Read more

Making APA Style fun and engaging

Recently, I was approached by a colleague who requested my assistance in creating a fun and engaging activity to teach APA (American Psychology Association) citation in the classroom. Given that “APA citation” and “fun” are not often used in the same sentence, I knew this would be a challenge. However, … Read more

Pick 2: A simple approach to library instruction

Image depicts a young man between 2 paths

Years ago I saw this image popularized on social media and shared by an engineer friend of mine. Such a simple image had a huge impact on me and I have been reflecting on it as I consider my professional teaching philosophy. The image is clean, simple and concise and … Read more

Teaching Philosophy: Building good foundations

I love talking about teaching and more specifically innovative teaching practices. One of my goals this year is to actually sit down and write an official teaching philosophy. A teaching philosophy helps you define your values, goals, and beliefs regarding both teaching and learning. This is really challenging! So I’ve … Read more