Teaching

A Class Gotta Have A Code

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

There isn’t a University-wide Honor Code at my current institution, as there was at my previous one, and I realized the first semester after I moved that it was something I missed. So, I wrote one myself which I have students read and sign in the first week of classes. For what it’s worth, I…

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A Defense of Technology in the Classroom

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

I promised my friend and fellow blogger Samir Chopra that I would write something about the recent uptick in conversation about technology in the classroom, the overwhelming majority of which has been condemnatory. Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of technology (even in the classroom), I consider myself a cautious techno-optimist, and so I am…

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Why I Invited Students To Give Me The Finger This Semester

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

Full disclosure: The title of this post is clickbait. I haven’t actually invited students to flip me the bird this semester. What I have done, however, is invite students to give me some kind of silent and subtle indication– we agreed on a flick of their pen or a slighttly-raised finger– whenever I use a word…

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Ten Things I Learned In My First Decade of Teaching

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

I only just recently realized that I’ll be completing my 10th year teaching in higher education at the end of this semester (not counting my time teaching or TA’ing in grad school). Whoa. In many ways, it feels like the last decade has flown by. There are days when I look out upon students’ faces…

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CBU Students Set To Hack the Future on December 10th

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Justice, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

For the past two months, students at Christian Brothers University have been working in small groups on the Technology and Human Values Project, which requires them to “devise a merely-possible technological solution to a real-world social, political, or moral problem.” Yesterday, five different classes chose the top two projects in their section to represent them this…

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Not Every Idea Needs a Tool, But Every Tool Needs an Idea

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

Last semester, I conducted a test-run on a new assignment I had devised for my courses– the “Technology and Human Values” project— and I was, quite frankly, floored by the work that students did for it. The basic assignment is for students to work in groups of four or fewer to devise a merely-possible technological solution…

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Email

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

I can’t quite remember exactly when email became such a nuisance in my life, but it must have been a long time ago now since I can barely remember it not being a nuisance anymore.  I think I got my first (AOL) email address in 1994.  Then, the familiar modem-screeching and you’ve got mail! alert were the…

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Forgetting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

I dedicate a significant amount of time in my courses to thinking with students about our “digital selves” and our “digital lives.” Most students– most people, for that matter– tend to think of the aggregate data that constitute their digital selves (social media profiles, Google searches, Netflix or Amazon preferences, banking transactions, medical records, online…

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Vulnerability

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

Several years ago, I read a fascinating article by David Dobbs called “The Science of Success,” in which he discusses the influence of certain genetic factors on social/psychological development. Dobbs recounts the studies of Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, who set out to test a dominant hypothesis of psychiatry and behavioral science known as the “stress diathesis” or “genetic…

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Dear Student, At The End Of The Semester

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments
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