Teaching & Learning in Online Spaces

I am writing this blog post while on a plane to Hawaii. All around me I see the glow of small (and not-so-small) screens as people are viewing stored movies, accessing their Kindle libraries, playing games. I have abandoned my playlist in favor of a soothing batch of “nature sounds” tracks on my Android phone’s Ambient Noise app – it helps my nerves during the turbulence we are experiencing. I am tremendously grateful the small children on board are two aisles over and engrossed in their mother’s iPad. We are no longer told to turn off electronics other than setting our phones to “Airplane” mode at takeoff. My laptop is open, and I am working a bit, preparing for the three online classes I will be teaching shortly, and updating my work calendar and making notes to be organized when I get back. I am also thinking about my New Years Resolutions, considering what I’ll tackle in 2015. This is a flight ritual for me in this Age of Electronics: I purge my brain of work on the way t...