“Digital Detox”: Using Norton Critical Editions To Promote Critical Thinking

The Norton Learning Blog has recently featured several posts that offer suggestions for generating greater classroom success by integrating ChatGPT and similar machine-learning-applications. (I find the latter a more accurate—and less anthropomorphizing—term than AI.) However, this particular post goes out to all who—for pedagogical, or numerous other reasons—search for the grail of LLM-free spaces. 

“Write What’s Not Fair”: On Obsession, Paradox, and Permission in the Classroom

Passionate student writers rarely lack ideas, but instructors can help them narrow those ideas down by choosing to write what makes them feel the most. Authors Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante instruct students to write what’s “not fair.” Unresolved emotions, from hatred to love, offer great fuel to new writers seeking direction.

Using Courseware to Gain Meaningful Insight and Inform Teaching and Learning

I have long observed in my teaching practice that the most memorable learning tends to occur after students are able to pinpoint gaps in their own knowledge or understanding of course material. Put another way: failure is an effective teacher. However, many college-level courses are delivered in a mode of instruction traditional to higher education: lectures followed by summative assessments, such as term papers or exams. The feedback students receive is delivered and received not as an opportunity for reflection or further inquiry but as a final, definitive grade.  

The Ultimate Remix: A Student’s Journey from Final Project to Published Author

Katelyn is a senior at Miami University studying Emerging Technology in Business & Design, as well as Digital Marketing. When I clicked the submission button on the final project of my senior year of high school, I wiped my hands clean and promptly pushed that assignment to the back of my mind like any other …

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Getting to the Heart of Positioning Language: Who Is “They”?

Deanna Brossman started teaching English in Geneseo, Illinois, in 2001. She earned her MA in English literature in 2007 and National Board Certification in 2012. She teaches dual credit composition, AP English Language and Composition, and a transitional English course for seniors wanting to strengthen their fundamental reading and writing skills before college. She and …

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