Ed Hitchcock's Page

There is a battle waging, one that we cannot possibly win. The "enemy" is too resourceful, and we are battling on their home ground. I am not talking of the conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq, but in our own halls and classrooms. I am speaking of the war to block the internet...
A few years ago the decision was made to go laptop, and it was a decision I supported, because it gives every student a complete library and multimedia production studio at their fingertips. The catch-phrases being used we… Continue

I like analogies. I find they are one of the quickest ways to get students to latch onto an idea.
This morning I was going back over the "first day advice" discussion, and another analogy occured to me. You know the old practical joke where students (typically engineers) disassemble a car and reassemble it in a dorm room (or the Dean's office)? Well, as a teacher, that is in a sense what I do. I take ideas, disassemble them into their component parts, and reasemble them inside my student's heads… Continue

As part of our comittment to public outreach, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada runs a series of lectures for the general public (free, but signup required) called NOVA (New Observers to Visual Astronomy). I had never done one of these before, but I was in the right place at the right time - having coffee with the organizer when he got the call that one of the speakers had to cancel - and agreed to fill the gap.

As I was preparing my talk it occurred to me that a one-shot deal for a few… Continue

I have been an educator for almost two decades now, and have been an administrator, in one form or another, for most of the last decade. Over the past year, I have been reflecting on what I do and how I do it. I have come to the conclusion that although I am good at what I do as an administrator, I really don't enjoy it. At least, not in its current form, and not at my present school. Perhaps one day I will again find an admin position that I do enjoy, but until that time I have decided to step… Continue

From Bipedalia:

Freedom is important. The Revolutionary and Civil Wars were fought over it. The First and Second World Wars were fought to defend it. The United States was founded with the Charters of Freedom, and Freedom of Speech is entrenched in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

So freedom is always a good thing, right?

Right?

No. Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom are terms that have been misused and co-opted for the purpose of i… Continue