Failure - But Major Success

I failed yesterday. I didn't write a blog post. It's not that I gave up. I had a crazy busy day and just plain forgot. And I'm quite mad at myself for it. I'm taking Allan's suggestion and making up my missed post as well as writing an extra one. That'll teach me. I'm still mad though.

Yesterday I was contacted by Carie Page from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative to give some examples of what Penn State is doing to address the top five challenges in teaching and learning with technology. The challenges are:

1. Creating learning environments that promote active learning, critical thinking, collaborative learning, and knowledge creation.
2. Developing 21st century literacies (information, digital, and visual) among students and faculty.
3. Reaching and engaging today's learner.
4. Encouraging faculty adoption and innovation in teaching and learning with IT.
5. Advancing innovation in teaching and learning with technology in an era of budget cuts.

I met Carie at the EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference when I shared some examples of introducing real-life simulations as teaching tools for engaging 21st today's learners. Carie remembered and contacted me when she started writing a paper about the top five challenges and what various universities are doing to address each challenge.

In any case the top challenges are what we at ETS strive to address every day, so essentially we could answer all five. That doesn't make for well-rounded discussion though so we're hoping to publish under two (numbers two and three above). Even better, we'll be listed as co-authors if our submissions are used!