Category: Uncategorized
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Public Talk Invitation: Student Disability Activism in Higher Ed, Past and Present
Student Disability Activism in Higher Ed, Past and Present Date: Thursday November 30, 2023 | Time: 12pm-1:30pm Eastern US/ 11am-12:30pm Central/ 10am-11:30am Mountain/ 9am-10:30am Pacific Registration Link Description: Student activists have played a major role in the fight for disability inclusion and representation on college campuses. In this session, we will explore past and present disability…
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A Controlling Profession? Thoughts on Teachers’ Relationship to the Medical Model of Disability
Ever since I read it for the first time, I have been endlessly fascinated by David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder’s statement (2006) that educators are among the “controlling professions”: those that define, oversee, and often surveil disability. Educators join doctors, psychiatrists, and agents of mental health services in this group. The idea is not that…
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A “recovering” faculty developer: Reflections on my break from the field
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash Preface: None of the perspectives I offer here are directed towards particular institutions or individuals. I know so many people doing amazing work in faculty development and I hope they continue. These are just some of my personal musings on stepping away from that work. Recently I have described…
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Talk and Discussion Invitation: Disability Rights vs. Disability Justice for Educators
Date: Friday September 22 | Time: 12pm-1:15pm Eastern US/ 11am Central/ 10am Mountain/ 9am Pacific Have you seen the phrases “Disability Rights” and “Disability Justice” and wondered what they mean? Even though these phrases are often used interchangeably, the framework of Disability Justice actually emerged as a critique of Disability Rights. While the Disability Rights…
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Workshop invitation: An Introduction to Neurodiversity for Educators
Cover image description: An illustration of a human brain with a purple background. Note: This workshop occurred in the past. To see generic information about this workshop visit the workshops page. If you are interested in this workshop running again, please contact me. Date: Friday January 19th | Time: 12pm-1:30pm Eastern US/ 11am Central/ 10am…
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The feminist case against remote proctoring?
In January 2023, the founder of the assessment platform QuestionMark hosted the CEO of the remote proctoring company Proctorio on a podcast dedicated to interviewing “assessment luminaries.” As part of a longer discussion about who he believes remote proctoring helps, the Proctorio CEO said: “Think about your working mothers. Think about people with disabilities, whether…
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“May inadvertently penalize students for positive behaviors”: The trouble with Perusall’s algorithmic grading
Note: This post is based on a Twitter thread that I posted back in August 2021. Since there has recently been a lot of further discussion about the drawbacks of how edtech products track and surveil students, including to give them computer generated grades, I though I would turn the thread into a blog post…
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On the term “inclusive teaching”: Where did it come from and how has it changed?
Note: This work is in progress and I am open to feedback/suggestions on it. Peruse the “upcoming events” or even just the website of any contemporary teaching and learning center at a North American college or university and you are sure to find something related to “inclusive teaching.” I started learning about inclusive teaching as…
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A feminist perspective on the “where” of online learning
I recently asked my students to reflect on their experiences in an online asynchronous course. The prompts (I’ll admit) were nothing very original: What did you get out of the course? Favorite and least favorite modules? What would you change for the next time the course is taught? One student began her reflection with a…
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Why are academic accommodations positioned as “situationally sanctioned cheating?”
If you review a typical college-level syllabus, you will often find one or more standardized statements that describe institutional policies on certain issues. More recently, these “syllabus statements” have evolved to include helpful or supportive information for students such as “basic needs” statements or campus mental health resources. However, in my experience the two most…
Sarah E. Silverman 