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2023 Fall Week 3 thoughts

This is the week where students review both FEMA's Whole Community approach and Amanda Ripley's video on her book "The Unthinkable".  I wonder if students see the connection between those two products.  While the Whole Community approach is about preparedness and "The Unthinkable" is about response, there is still an element of community for those who must react to the immediate situation. ...

2023 Fall Week 1 reflections on the differences between Crisis and Risk Communication…

I appreciate revisiting seminal papers often when I’m thinking through key risk concepts.  This document represents the state of the art of risk communication thinking in 2012 and was available as an open educational resource - a crucial element for me in designing a course. One of the many questions that I’m intrigued by is the difference between crisis and risk communication. I...

Balance – Having it all doesn’t mean having it all at once!

Life has been a whirlwind as we've been designing what life in VT could look like.  I'm grateful for so many things - the fact that my mother can make the trip with us - that I'll be able to continue to work remotely - and most of all, that we'll be closer to family.  Preparing for this move feels as if it's taken a lifetime, and perhaps it has - as we continue to evaluate what makes the cut to...

My teaching philosophy – A blank slate no more….

My teaching philosophy has certainly been a journey, but where to begin?   When I inherited my course in Fall 2017, I’m not sure I could have articulated my teaching philosophy other than to say I wanted to teach students about risk analysis.  And because this course was an online course and because UAF had e-Campus and because I felt like such a novice (read imposter!) since I had limited...
facebook eyes

To post publicly or not…

I would echo what many of my classmates have shared in their posts.  I do think there are distinct differences depending on the cohort you are working with - either the K-12 or the secondary community - if only for the concept of “consenting” or not.    I agree with those who said that those who oversee K-12 populations need to be held to a higher standard.  As a student of online...
a visual about gamification in education

The impact of gamification on learning and instruction: A systematic review of empirical evidence

Introduction The article “The impact of gamification on learning and instruction: A systematic review of empirical evidence” by Zaubyddub et al (2020) represented my continued interest in trying to better understand the value and impact of game-based learning.   The Introduction provided a robust overview of the current literature and terminology as it attempted to provide an objective...
an image of a community of learners

Building Community in Online Discussion-Based Courses

The article “Instructor Perspectives on Building Community in Online Discussion-Based Courses: Issues of Pedagogy and Functionality” by MacKinnon et al (2020) was written in recognition of the growing numbers of online courses and a desire to identify those characteristics of courses that enhance “collective meaning-making”.  That term is not defined within the article but appears to...
figure by Susanna Hertrich, 2008

Thinking Out Loud

As I reflect on how I might use this blog going forward, especially after the educational requirements wane, is to develop my reflections on risk - whether it's around my favorite topic of risk perception, the things I learn from the courses I teach or reflections on current events and risk communication in general.  I've shared one of my favorite risk perception slides and created a new...
Disney picture of Avatar flying a Mountain Banshee

The Nature of Learning

Time to reflect on the semester and how my PLE/PLN has evolved over the past few months.   This is not the blog post I thought I’d write at this point in the journey…..Life on the home front was challenging this semester.  In many ways, the best of intentions remained just that - intentions.  And yet, despite the demands and the privilege of being fully present for loved ones, there were...
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