Teaching Through Coaching: Bringing IDEAS into the Economics Classroom
by Kevin Beckwith

Am I a coach or a teacher? I first asked this question as a candidate for a British Canoe Union coaching award. During my third day on the coaching techniques course, I became intrigued with the dualistic nature of the models we were discussing. Could these effective coaching techniques be applied in the classroom? As both a student and practitioner of these methods, I came to understand that these coaching techniques help students to deepen their understanding of concepts with which they are already familiar.

A Primer on Web 2.0 for Confused and Bewildered Faculty
by Jon Aske

Anyone who has been surfing the Web for a while, has probably noticed that the Web has changed somewhat in the past ten years. What are these revolutionary changes and what consequences do they have for educators? Here I will attempt to provide a primer on Web 2.0 for those who may have missed these new developments, focusing on their import for educators and concentrating on the major exponents of the new paradigm: Wikis, blogs, and podcasting, with a few others added for good measure.

Inquiring Minds and Adventures in Learning
by Mildred Hoover

Biology is undergoing a revolution, with breakthrough discoveries and new technologies and techniques transforming the kinds of questions we can ask and the ways investigations take place. It is clear that students become excited and interested in biology when we use teaching strategies that incorporate inquiry-approaches to learning. Students who participate in inquiry-based laboratory investigations have the opportunity to visualize, understand, and manipulate biological variables.

Teaching Online
by Hollis Pyatt

When I first heard about teaching online, I was skeptical. I had visions of taped lectures, impersonal interactions, and the hassle of getting students all together for a chat session. After doing some research into the subject  including talking to those who had successfully taught online, I realized that there are just as many ways to teach and learn effectively online as there are in a face-to-face (FTF) setting.

What Have You Learned This Semester From Your Classmates?
by Peter Oehlkers

“What have you learned this semester from your classmates? Not from me, or the text–your classmates?” I ask this question at the end of every semester in my online global communications class. Students will not only praise the open-mindedness and diversity of opinion among their classmates but will point to specific things they had never considered that a fellow student brought to their attention. I am convinced that this is linked to a specific tool I use in the class—a group blog.

“Connect, George. Connect”
by Mark Morgan

We are in a new era where the old understandings of what constitute works of theater versus music versus dance, etc., are increasingly breaking down. The distinction between what separates “high art” and “low art” are also disappearing. Younger people simply don’t consume (and I use the term deliberately) artistic product in the same way. In order then to educate artists for this new era, it is vital that we view their training in a far more holistic way.

Sluice Pond: A Local Environmental Archive and Geologic Laboratory
by Brad Hubeny

My research focuses on interpreting sediment records preserved at the bottom of lakes, marshes, and estuaries to reconstruct past environmental and climate variability. Locally, I study Sluice Pond in Lynn. This location is an excellent environmental archive, and serves as a dynamic laboratory for geology majors to conduct research and prepare for their professional lives.

Adequacy and its Discontents
by Chris Fauske

I was thinking of an episode of News Radio entitled “Adequate” recently as I participated in various gatherings where people indicated that Salem State College is doing a fine job because it is adequate, as demonstrated by the fact that we are right in the middle of the pack on almost any measure when it comes to our fellow state colleges or other peer institutions. If you are in the middle of the pack, there are, by definition, members of the pack ahead of you. How did those ahead of us get there? What can we learn from them?