" Indy Academia "

Christian Education Expo 2007... April 21

2007-02-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

Mark your calendars and stay tuned...

[large .pdf brochure]

[Details in .pdf brochure]

Sponsored by The Indianapolis Chronicle

Indiana Home Educators... Convention Mar. 23-24

2007-02-25T10:30:00.001-08:00

Indiana Home Educators...

"The Indiana Association of Home Educators is a non-profit organization founded in 1983 for the purpose of serving the Lord Jesus Christ through supporting and encouraging families interested in home education. We define home education as parent-directed, home-based, privately-funded discipleship. Maintaining visibility as home educators with civil government leaders, influencing the legislative process, and sponsoring seminars for parent education are our primary functions."

[continued at InHomeEducators.org]

Evangelical Theological Society... an overview

2007-01-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed sitting in on an interesting presentation by Dr. Odell today, regarding the annual conference of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS).... an academic forum for discussion among statement-of-faith evangelical professors.

Dr. Jim Odell, Crossroads Bible College

[notes continued 'inside' CrossroadsConnection.com.]

And here's a considerable (and very interesting) blog about ETS, from right here in the Central Indiana area...

Andy Rowell, Taylor University

[continued at Andy Rowell's blog]

He also has a great list of 'Seminaries For Evangelicals'... listed according to their theological positions.

******************

Thanks, Dr. Odell, for sparking the conversation today... leading to finding other education change-agents.

Indiana Foundation for Home Schooling

2006-12-12T05:22:00.000-08:00

[Great site, resources and info for homeschooling here in the state!]

"The mission of the Indiana Foundation for Home Schooling is to enable students to achieve their potential by providing recognition, opportunities, and resources that inspire learning and make home schooling an option for any Indiana family."

[continued at IndianaHomeSchooling.org]

Video: "John Piper Is Bad"

2006-12-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

[Innovative, humorous way to spark interest... and then teach a principle.]

Blogging Professors

2006-09-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

[Here's a post (and a growing list!) I greatly enjoyed coming across, from our sister city... Louisville.]

Tim Brister
Southern Seminary, Louisville

"One of the encouraging things I have noticed over the past year of blogging is the number of professors who have joined the blogosphere. This is encouraging because I know that in the minds of some professors the blogosphere is an unacceptable medium for communication as it does not carry the legitimacy of a theological journal or academic paper. However, those who have realized what blogging can offer are reaping the benefits of it with more students and readers than they could ever imagine from a classroom setting. While I disagree with some of these professors on many points, I applaud their efforts to bring academia where it should be--among the masses.Although I have searched the blogosphere carefully to find evangelical professors, I know that I have left out some. If you know of one I missed, please include the name and blog in the comment section. Here are the blogging professors I have rounded up thus far..." [continued]

********************************

[Also see the aggregated page of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary profs' & students' blogs, including Dr. Mohler's!]

Find your student's school... and stats

2006-09-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

School Locator Site -- with stats from YOUR student's school.

MIT's OCW... OpenCourseWare

2006-04-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

[View the video story about MIT's innovative open-course project.]

Technology in the classroom

2006-04-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

''This is just the beginning -- we're going to cross new boundaries in education..."

''We have to contend with where the culture is headed in terms of technology,''

"Anytime we can utilize the kinds of tools students are used to is going to accrue to their benefit.''

''We're living in a connected world and there are a lot of devices that are always on and always connected. . . . "

"...educators bent on tradition will have to adapt to an ever-changing world or be left behind.
``This is the 21st century -- we can't go back to the chalk-and-blackboard model.''

[Read full article]

Darwin smacked in new U.S. poll...

2006-03-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

[Ed.Note: Will classrooms start walking upright?]

Whopping 69 percent of Americans want alternate theories in classroom.

[continued at WorldNetDaily.com]

Homeschool Bloggers...

2006-03-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

Looking for some more great folks to connect with, across the state? Check out HomeschoolBlogger.com's Hoosier connection.

[Thanks Sharra, for the links to IndyChristian & TransformIndiana! We'd welcome all Christian families to add a link to TransformIndiana.com... and their particular city or county site. Help connect the dots throughout the state.]

iPod popularity stirs tech debate in the classroom

2005-12-05T05:46:00.000-08:00

Many metro-area schools bar the device, but others tolerate or even tout its use.

[continued]

POGIL

2005-06-04T03:55:00.000-07:00

It looks like Robert's headed out to Stony Brook with his laptop so he can blog directly from this minicourse on Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning.

"POGIL is a student-centered method of instruction that is based on recent developments in cognitive learning theory and results from classroom research that suggest [sic] most students experience improved learning when they are actively engaged, working together, and given the opportunity to construct their own understanding. POGIL emphasizes that learning is an interactive process of thinking carefully, discussing ideas, refining understanding, practicing skills, reflecting on progress, and assessing performance. In a POGIL classroom or laboratory, students work on specially designed guided-inquiry materials in small self-managed groups. The instructor serves as facilitator of learning rather than as a source of information. The objective is to develop skills as well as mastery of discipline-specific content simultaneously."

[continue at BrightMystery.net]

A Higher Education

2005-05-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

"This past February, when Robert B. Sloan announced he would resign the presidency of Baylor University, the news sent tremors throughout Christian higher education. Sloan has been the lead architect and builder in an ambitious 10-year plan to transform Baylor into a top-tier research university with an "intense faithfulness to the Christian tradition." This would require more than simply remaining Southern Baptist. It would mean "deepening its distinctive Christian mission."

Evangelicals, with their network of small, cash-strapped colleges, have long dreamed of ..."

[continued at Christianity Today]

Live-blogging exam grading...

2005-05-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

[Robert... I couldn't help but exerpt the following from your math-test-scoring blog today. Excellent example of what we could very like be exchanging ideas about... out here at IndyAcademia.]

"One thing that's becoming clearer and clearer to me as I continue to teach is that the lecture format is losing its effectiveness over time."

"But wouldn't that mean that ALL forms of teaching are losing their effectiveness? What is teaching but a highly elaborate exchange of information? If the current generation is losing the ability (or desire...?) to process information in any form, then where is this entire enterprise of education headed? Maybe that's too depressing to think about. Some might say that what I am supposed to do in the classroom is... [continued at BrightMystery.net]

Welcome to "Indy Academia"

2005-05-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

IndyAcademia.com... seeks to become a virtual academic centerpoint for discussion among the Bible-believing Christ-followers in Greater Indianapolis.

This forum grows out of a recognized need for the Christian community to have a centralized place to come specifically to find academic discussions on current topics... and of course, great academic resources. Sponsored by IndyChristian.com, we'll have visibility among the Greater Indianapolis Christian community, and can provide valuable inputs to the overall centralized portal for the community.

Our scope is as broad as every type of education for Christians -- public, private, parochial, tutors, homeschooling and special ed. The scope is as tall as colleges, seminaries & universities... all the way down to pre-school levels. We want to build-out the tapestry of the Christian education community, to sharpen our community's understanding of Truth.

Our immediate objective is to build a blog-team here, coming from the academic community of the Greater Indianapolis area. If you can easily affirm the Statement of Faith and would like to participate on such a blog-team, contact us.

"Study to show thyself approved unto God."

"Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up."