December 2022 – Eclectic Doctor

North American Evangelicalism (OSTS)

On December 23, 2022

First slide from this series with the title of the course: Intro to N. Am. Evangelicalism

I was quite happy with how this course turned out, lots of really great student engagement as we looked at the history and current state of evangelicalism in North America. Wanting to reach a broader audience, OSTS has invited me to run this lecture series online in the second half of their winter semester (Feb. 3 to Mar. 20). You can read my blog post describing this series here. This course is great for evangelicals, post-evangelicals, and those just interested in influential forms of Christianity. My students last semester told me that they gained a new awareness of the breadth and depth of this diverse movement, and many were surprised at which traditions have evangelical roots. In North America it is easy to see that most, if not all, Christian traditions (and even some world religions) are either reactionary to evangelicalism or currently engaging with evangelicalism in constructive ways. Evangelicals are everywhere. Come join with us as we explore where they come from, how they have evolved, and where they might be heading.

Programming Series Idea

By admin

On December 16, 2022

In Programming, Teaching

Procrastination is the mother of invention. When I am swamped with work, like in these scant post-exam days as I prepare for the inevitable E&P meetings to discuss how my students did. Sure enough, I have this brainstorm of an idea for a series that I think would be really helpful for my students. In many of my programming classes I find that there are always students who are lacking small fundamental ideas that would save them so much time and pain. And this problem is across the board – low level to high level. It basically comes down to knowing how to deconstruct a problem into small enough chunks that can be translated into a programming language in such a way that it is easy to follow as well as easy to debug. This in a sense is the fundamental art of programming.