I believe that an instructor’s role in a class is to lead his or her students’ through knowledge as a tour guide through the materials. To be an effective tour guide, one must be thoroughly prepared. Before each class that I teach, I want at least three hours of preparation for every hour that I teach. To prepare, I reexamine the material and make a determination on the best way to present the information to my students. Sometimes, this is in the form of a lecture. Most of the time, I try to use a series of interactions to allow the students to become a part of the in-class learning experience. It has been my understanding that lectures, when used repeatedly, can lose the students’ attention and can make them disinterested in the material. I try to avoid full lecture classes whenever possible.

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

I believe that an instructor’s role in a class is to lead his or her students’ through knowledge as a tour guide through the materials. To be an effective tour guide, one must be thoroughly prepared. Before each class that I teach, I want at least three hours of preparation...

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e-Portfolios

e-portfolios can help students show off their work in a format that employers would like (graphic/Giulia Forsythe) One of the key areas that I wanted to focus on this academic year was to create classes that would be beneficial to the local community. According to the Associate Dean and other...

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Mobile Media

When I applied for my current job, I had to give a short class on mobile media. I thought this was up my alley, so I decided to have some fun with it. I enjoyed some of the Prezi presentations I saw at a conference and decided to run with a thematic...

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Introduction to Visual Communication

Another class that I’ll be teaching this spring is “Introduction to Visual Communication,” which will be offered 1 to 3 PM, Monday and Wednesday at Ohio University Lancaster. The base description of the class is “A survey of visual communication theory and technology of visual communication from ancient cave drawings...

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Film and New Media Criticism

This is a survey course designed to introduce you to the broad range of theoretical, formal, and historiographic issues specific to cinema & new media. We will pay careful attention to how the film medium differs from other media as a condition of its stylistic and formal properties, its institutional...

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