by Michael J. Sharp

I spot a back-row vantage point in my classroom from which I can critique today’s round of student speeches. I wade passed the already glazed-over eyes, ready my trusty stopwatch, pile my speech-critique sheets on the desk, and place my two blue Precise V7 Pilot Rolling Ball pens atop the pile. It’s the sixth week of the quarter and the last day of the second round of these speeches. I teach two sections of this course, which means a total of approximately 50 students: And folks, that’s a lot of speeches to sit through. I breathe deliberately, not so much out of anxiety or exhaustion but because I know what to expect spanning the next eighty minutes—not to mention the same thing all over again in the second section meeting later today. It’s going to be a long, long Thursday, and I know it.

Thanks to our terrific contributors and a lot of readers, ProfPost (University of Cincinnati’s ground-breaking, written-by-professors-for-professors blog) has had over 12,000 hits since its January 2009 launch. We think we’re really on to something here, and we’re starting to take some risks to make things lively.

That’s why we’re looking for a few professors with fresh takes on teaching and learning—and we’re running a couple of competitions to shake those professors from the bunch.

“Points of View” Columns (Deadline: August 15, 2009):
We’ll choose two professors to write at least three posts each over three quarters, and we pay $250 per quarter in faculty-development funds for doing it! The focus of these submissions is completely up to each writer but should relate broadly to teaching and learning in higher education. We believe the best rule of thumb is to write about whatever is lately on your mind…if it’s nagging at you, it will probably interest other professors, too.

“Points of View” submissions should be posts of 500-1000 words and should be emailed to liz.tilton@uc.edu by August 15, 2009.

“Raised Hand” Column (Deadline: August 15, 2009):
This column is sort of the hip professor’s “Dear Abby.” If you’ve got a quirky way of seeing the classroom, college students, or your fellow professors, this competition may have your name (written in chalk dust) all over it. We’d like someone to field some tough/funny/insightful questions having to do with 21^st Century teaching—if you can do it with a twist, we want you. And, to sweeten the deal, we pay $250 per quarter in professional-development funds for each of the three quarters you write a column or more for us.

We tried to formulate a catchy question to which you could showcase your wonderful responses, but we couldn’t come up with a question we all agreed was a good one. So, we’ve decided to let you pose your own question and then answer it yourself. Don’t think we can’t roll with the punches.

Please write a 500–1000-word response to your question, and then email both the question and your answer to it to liz.tilton@uc.edu by August 15, 2009.

Notes regarding both “Points of View” and the “Raised Hand” competitions:

—Submissions should be approximately 500 to 1000 words.

—Our panel of judges will determine winning submissions by August 30, 2009.

—Winners earn the right to publish their columns anonymously.

—There’s a good chance that submissions not winning the competitions will eventually be published in ProfPost

Now, pick up your pen and write something for us.

For some insight about college teaching v. indoctrination, please read Mark Bauerlin’s post, “Gerald Graff, The MLA, and Radical Teachers,” found in the June 18, 2009 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

by our new yet anonymous “Points of View” professor

In the Army, you run a lot. Or at least I did. And to the Army’s credit, they start you running early in basic training. It was the Saturday of our first full week, and we’d been slowing increasing the distance we ran to prepare us for the final physical-training exercise that would help determine if we’d graduate from basic training. Once we’d formed at 5:00 am, one of our drill sergeants told us we would run five miles that day.  While many of my fellow soldiers-to-be groaned, (and Baby Belton muttered her breath, “Someone will be carrying me the last three”), I had confidence that I would finish just fine because I was a runner.

Read “Online Professors Pose as Students to Encourage Real Learning,” Marc Parry’s May 29, 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education article regarding “ghost students.” Some professors (and ethicists) argue that professors who pose as fake students is a “gray” area of online learning—of course, others argue that it’s a smart idea, and others that it’s flat-out wrong.

by Greg Metz, PhD

My underlying motives for working in higher education have always been modest…just to change the world, save the planet, cultivate human self-actualization…that sort of thing. Yes, I am inevitably somewhat disappointed when the revolution doesn’t emerge quite as planned.  But I am a believer (and, by the way, a Monkees fan).

I am a sociologist by training and have an extremely fascinating, applied-sociology role here at UC: I coordinate the Peer Leaders for First Year Learning Communities. So…what’s on my mind? Only the future of the USA.

by Jenny Wolfarth, MA

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should start by clarifying that I’m not a technophobe. Once a rabid photocopier who generated reams of handouts for my students, I’ve been on the Blackboard bandwagon nearly since its introduction at UC. I’ve happily and, I think, successfully employed useful tools like online-discussion boards in meaningful ways outside of the classroom, and my students can find fresh, and often interactive, online content on a weekly basis. I am gradually incorporating multimedia assignments in my curricula, am venturing into the world of podcasting, and have even converted my own professional portfolio into a snazzy digital experience that I can share with my students.

But I’ve found myself occasionally rebelling against the inevitable push to fully digitize the teaching and learning experience, and I think it has more to do with the lamentable absence of thoughtful interaction and our culture’s digitally impaired communication etiquette than the fact that I may be a little resistant to change my ways.