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A Legacy of
Inspiration
Creed's Website Samples
Comments about Creed
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Tom Creed (1946-1999)
- Compassionate Pioneer
Professor of Psychology
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University in
Minnesota
Above photo from
Creed's Website
Compassionate Pioneers are those who not only
reach beyond their own limits and lead the way in
developing or trying new options, but who also
encourage and help their colleagues to take the same
path.
Tom Creed
was a Compassionate Pioneer who explored the
wise use of technology in teaching and learning and
who helped and inspired colleagues by openly sharing
his experience and expertise. He died too
young and too quickly in 1999. To honor his
work, the
first Tom Creed Memorial Compassionate Pioneer
Award, sponsored by Blackboard, was given to
Patrick Wiseman of the Georgia State University
College of Law in 2000. An Honorary Award was also
given to Thomas Marino of the Temple University
School of Medicine who chaired the selection
committee.
Creed's Website is being maintained by The
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's
University Department of Psychology as a service to
those who would like continued access to his
considerable pedagogical expertise, and as a
memorial to Tom Creed.
Tom Creed
left a legacy of personal and professional
contributions that many of us continue to cherish
and admire. Much of his work offered insights
that continue to apply to new ways of using
information technology to improve teaching and
learning in higher education. Here are a few
samples from his valuable writings and Web pages and
comments from some of the colleagues and friends who
worked most closely with him.
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Samples
-
"PowerPoint—No!
Cyberspace—Yes!"
in
NTLF (National Teaching and Learning Forum)
-
"Technology
applied to classroom assessment" in NTLF
[TechnoCATs]
-
"Confessions
of an Early Adopter" in NTLF, March 1999,
Vol. 8, No. 3
-
"The
Early Adopter Personality Type Indicator Test,"
NTLF
Still painfully funny almost 10 years later
because so little of it needs to be changed to
reflect what has happened with information
technology in the last ten years! - Steve
Gilbert 8/7/2008
-
"Extending the Classroom Walls Electronically,"
chapter
in New
Paradigms for College Teaching, W. E.
Campbell & K.A. Smith, eds. (Interaction Book
Company, 1997)
-
"Virtual
Companion" designed to accompany the
article, Seven Principles for Good Course Web
Site Design, National Teaching and Learning
Forum, Vol. 7 No. 3,
and "Seven Principles for Good Course Web Site
Design," Tom Creed (St. John's University) &
Kathryn Plank (Penn. State Univ.)
Excerpts:
-
Good
course Web sites load quickly.
-
Good
course Web sites are easily navigated.
-
Good
course Web sites contain timely information.
-
Good
course Web sites are easily identified. [e.g.,
title]
-
Good
course Web sites encourage sustained use.
[include both rich content and attractive
appearance]
-
Good
course Web sites put students in control of
their own learning. ["…take advantage of the
capabilities of the Web without overdoing it…"]
-
Good
course Web sites make good printed text.
[PARTIALLY"…think of it as just-in-time
publishing...."]
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Comments - Quotations
FROM JAMES RHEM:
I finally realized Tom's
essential character. "Enthusiasm" only seemed to
describe him; "joy" got to the heart of it.
Enthusiasm comes and goes; joy of the kind Tom had
"never faileth." His boundless energy, his eagerness
to explore how we might teach better as we come to
understand the new technologies at our disposal,
began and ended in his joy of learning. He saw
teaching as the most exalted fun one could have,
because it helped learning along its ever-unwinding
path.”
-James Rhem, Editor, National Teaching and
Learning Forum
FROM SUSAN KAHN:
"Tom used then-existing software to create
course management systems before the concept of
a
'course
management system'
was well-known and certainly before it was
commercialized. When I think of the profits
some of these vendors have made since Tom began
writing about this idea, it’s hard for me to
believe now that Tom just put it out there for
others to build on.
"His article
'PowerPoint—No!
Cyberspace—Yes!'
in NTLF
(National Teaching and Learning Forum see
http://www.ntlf.com)
and his chapter on
'Extending
the Classroom Walls Electronically'
in New
Paradigms for College Teaching, W. E.
Campbell & K.A. Smith, eds. (Interaction Book
Company, 1997) are two pieces that articulate
this concept and provide ideas for making good
pedagogical use of virtual learning spaces.
"One of Tom’s ideas
was uncannily similar to something that’s now
called
'Just-in-Time
Teaching,'
which has garnered several major NSF grants here
at IUPUI. It was a TechnoCAT whereby students
e-mailed Tom an answer to a question about
course reading or material shortly before the
class met, enabling him to get a read on what
students understood well about the day’s
material and what they were struggling with. He
then adjusted his plans for the class session
accordingly. [NOTE: A "TechnoCAT" is a use of
technology to enhance and extend
the Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
developed by Patricia Cross and Tom Angelo. The
term "TechnoCAT" was originated by Devorah
Lieberman and Tom Creed. For more, see
"Technology applied to classroom assessment"
http://www.ntlf.com/html/sf/vc75.htm. ]
"One of Tom’s last published articles
[1999]
was a hilarious (at least to me) discussion of
the frustrations of being an early adopter."
-
Susan Kahn,
Director, Institutional
Effectiveness at IUPUI [Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis],
skahn@iupui.edu
in an email message August 1, 2008
FROM
BARBARA MILLIS:
"Tom
and I jointly facilitated several workshops
on teaching for the Council of Independent
Colleges. He radically altered the way I
thought about teaching by emphasizing the
way one sequences events as in the
Just-in-Time-Teaching model. Thus, I was
primed for the article on deep learning,
summarizing in four pages the international
research on this topic, that James Rhem
published in 1995 in the
NTLF (National Teaching and Learning Forum).
It showed me why
cooperative learning works and it reinforced
Tom's emphasis on careful sequencing and
integration.
"The
deep learning model that James' article
outlines has four key components: 1.
motivation; 2. deep foundation learning
based on concepts--those concepts focused my
homework assignments; 3. active learning
and 4. student-student interactions. Those
concepts, totally compatible with
cooperative learning, became what was DONE
with the homework during class rather than
stuffing it in a briefcase to take home and
grade. Thus, Tom has greatly impacted
people not just with his pioneering ideas
about technology, but overall with his basic
grasp of solid pedagogy."
-
Barbara Millis, in an email message to Steve
Gilbert, August 1, 2008:
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What's Next?
CLICK HERE TO leave a nomination, comment,
suggestion, request, suggestion
Honor Tom Creed's accomplishments, and memory through some kinds of
practice or achievements, or motivations…?
Encouraging, enabling, supporting, honoring other
Compassionate Pioneers and acts of Compassionate
Pioneering?
Interviewing
those who cherish his memory and who can offer
valuable perspective on his work? See
sample interview
questions instructions for making audio
recordings about Compassionate Pioneers and
Compassionate Pioneering.
What else?
Who else? See
list generated from online participants during FRLV
20080808
Other names
suggested as Compassionate Pioneers and/or those who
worked closely with Tom Creed:
Norm Coombs,
Milt Cox, Barbara Millis, Susan Kahn, Devorah
Lieberman,
Dick Banks, Leora Baron
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