Introduction

About a year ago, Dr. Gay said something that has stayed with me.  She herself was referring to a saying that held some inspiration for her: We are each others’ harvest.  I like the autumnal take on the basic idea of karma and so repeat it here as I introduce the Fall 2008 incarnation of Praktikos.  Moreover, I like the poetic take on the facts of institutional change: it is true that we make up the tone and timber of this institution and, therefore, have the option to change it for the good—to enjoy our jobs more, to enjoy our students more, to show each other the courtesy and appreciation we may indeed, and rightly so, crave for ourselves.

We’ve put together another volume of Praktikos offering it as a place for us to engage in one of the fundamentals of our profession: the scholarship of teaching and learning.  We need to question and test the assumptions we’ve relied on, both individually and institutionally.  Some of those assumptions may survive the questioning; some of them may be swept away.  Like all good researchers, we need to build upon the findings of others, adopt or adapt them in new settings, to see how the ideas shake out in the specific reality of our classrooms.

Each of the presentations here has begun in some nascent form as a simple question: Can we use technology to bring a large and otherwise unwieldy group of faculty together for a norming session?  How can we write assignments to ensure the most learning?  How can we craft effective learning outcomes that will bring greater clarity and focus to our classroom instruction?  How are our own life stories played out, time and time again, on the small stage we strut in front of the chalkboard? 

Such questions lead to more questions, which is how healthy research communities generate an endless stream of questions that itch for answers:  Could ESL’s norming project be replicated for other uses?  Could we develop a menu of tried, if not true, assignments complimented with side-orders of rubrics and authentic student samples?  Could we create a place where we could post and peer critique learning outcomes?  If we shared more and questioned more, perhaps even made the conversation more intimate, could that somehow trickle down to our students, enriching their experience here?

As of this incarnation of Praktikos, I must admit I had higher hope for the think-tank branch of this ejournal.  I had been able to post the recorded conversations we had in think-tank discussions during the Professional Development Weeks of a year ago, for much benefit, I thought, to the wider community, but that source has dried up.  I thought there might be some comments posted, but for whatever reason, no one felt so invited.  As we move to implement the new assessment plan, I can envision a need for a place where ongoing conversation can happen and would like to see the think-tanks transform, perhaps under different titles, into open forums—used perhaps by the members of the soon to be committees in charge of implementing the various parts of the new plan—where we could discuss the successes and failures that are sure to come as we move forward.  I also can imagine the think-tanks as being a place where future research projects are envisioned, outlined, and promoted.  In the meantime, I’ve left them as they are except for posting the new assessment plan in the assessment think-tank and hope you visit and perhaps post a comment and start a revolution.

In closing, I can’t help but draw an analogy between this project—that of collecting what would otherwise be rather ephemeral presentations in a forum that transcends time and place—and Evagrius Ponticus’s project recording the oral wisdom of the desert sages.  I had no idea who Evagrius Ponticus was, until I googled the term praktikos last year—mainly to make sure there wasn’t anything untoward related to the term I was thinking of using as a title—and discovered he had entitled one book of teachings thusly: The Praktikos.  Fitting, I thought to myself as I read the skimpy Wikipedia entry, that the daily habits of a heretical monk might have some thread of a connection, however whimsical, to what we are hoping to do here in the hyperspace of this website.  This analogy, therefore, means that contributors—like Ramon Diaz, Mathew Shupp, Faye Beauchump, and Stan Bumble, just to name a few—are desert sages….  I think the analogy suits just fine.