Introducing Interlocutoring - Everyday Innovation in Higher Education
Welcome to Interlocutoring, a space for exploring fresh ideas and practical strategies for everyday changes that can make a big difference. Innovation doesn't have to be about groundbreaking discoveries to be transformative.
Why Everyday Innovation in Higher Education?
[Everyday innovations] are small creative acts that unlock massive rewards over time. They are the sparks that fuse into a raging fire. Sometimes microscopic and invisible to the naked eye, they are the molecules that bind together to solve our trickiest problems and unlock our biggest opportunities [...] the unsung heroes that, in the aggregate, drive far more progress than their elusive change-the-world counterparts.
—Josh Linkner, author of Big Little Breakthroughs
For me, this blog is a long time coming. I’m a writer. I’m a teacher of writing, a director of a writing program, and a co-developer of a writing placement application. I even published scholarship on blogging and genre in the early days of weblogs. I've also spent over a decade teaching about and researching the everyday - topics from social media to television and popular culture to online dating and marriage. Not surprisingly, the everyday is important to me.
I also care about change. I'm an award-winning innovator and scholar in writing curriculum and placement and a humanities faculty member who has brought a SaaS application to market. Much of my scholarship on writing program administration is about leveraging statewide policy reform to make local changes for improving access and equity for students. I live my life at the intersection of Everyday Boulevard and Innovation Street.
At the same, my employer has been talking a lot about innovation over the past few years. Boise State calls it blue-turf thinking, and the university was just once again recognized as one of the most innovative among US universities.
Innovation is in the air. It’s something I think about every day. And that’s how I got here.
Why interlocutoring?
I am an expert at asking about - not so much for - things. I’m known for asking questions of others to help them advance their ideas. It is one of my best - and likely most perturbing - qualities. So, for me, “interlocutoring” is using curiosity to engage in dialogue for the purpose of transforming thinking and taking action. You’ll see it throughout this blog, as I explore key questions in higher education, discuss my and my colleagues’ experiences with these questions, and offer practical advice for addressing them.
What to expect
My initial goal is a balance of inspiration and practicality. I'll review current topics and trends in higher education and provide examples, case studies, and advice on how to make small changes related to them.
This blog will feature a variety of topics, including:
Teaching & learning: Innovative pedagogical approaches, use of technology, and assessment methods.
Campus culture: Student engagement and equity and access.
Administration: Efficient processes, program administration, and professional development.
Partnerships & career development: Community partnerships, career advising and support, and career readiness and competency development.
Be on the lookout for new posts on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month.
Join the Conversation
I hope to build a community of everyday innovators. Reach out with your own stories of everyday innovation in higher education or learn more about my experience. Let's inspire and empower one another to make a difference, one everyday innovation at a time.
