We are published on the Kindle!

Check it out and forward the link to your freinds, famly, and others who may be interested.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CX8YOO

The link is directly to the Kindle version.  In a few days, they will link the book to the Kindle version so that you can get either from the same location on Amazon.com.

Note:  The Kindle site (and the book site) list me as author.  I am not trying to grab more glory than I deserve.  This is an artifact of CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing.  They must have at least one name that is the "author". 

We are on Kindle - Almost

Today, I got the files from the publisher to upload to the Kindle service.  I uploaded them.

In 2-3 days, we will be for sale for the Kindle for $19.95.  This will allow instant downloads worldwide.

Authentic Instruction and the Role of the Instructor

One of the main themes of our book was the concept of Authentic Instruction which, Jennifer Diamond, author of chapter 9, refers to as “a learning environment in which students prepare for the workplace”.  Many of us incorporate different strategies to try to model the workplace in our classrooms and/or Blackboard shells, but what does this mean in terms of the role the instructor?  How does this change what we should or should not be doing?

Having just read the comments from the End of Course Evaluation for spring, I can see how the role of the instructor can be an issue.  When we attempt to create an authentic learning environment, many of us assume the role of learning facilitator; we help our students discover new knowledge on their own in ways that are personally relevant and meaningful to them.  But is there a wrong way to do this?

I had a number of comments on the EOCEs that seemed to indicate that the facilitation of authentic instruction was being mistaken, by a few students, as a disengaged instructor.  Comments like “The instructor isn’t teaching us but is only facilitating our learning” or “I pay a lot of money to just have an instructor who expects to show me how to learn things on my own” seem to indicate that some of our attempts to facilitate authentic instruction are not being perceived as valuable by some of our students.

How can we address this?  How can we help our students see the facilitation of authentic instruction as a valuable process?  Please share any ideas that you have, or any proven practices that you might be aware of to help your colleagues with this process.

Just Released...

Authentic Instruction and Online Delivery

Available from Amazon.com:

Authentic Instruction and Online Delivery

This blog will be a place for readers of this book to share their ideas and additional proven practices in the education of adult students.  We welcome your comments and ideas as we aim to expand the number of university educators who are willing to share, with their colleagues around the world, their proven practices that have been successful in educating adult students both in-class and online.

In the spirit of experience being the best educator, we invite university faculty to share their experiences through this blog.