Author Archives: Mike Ekoniak

February 27, 2022
3:56 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Gootloader infection cleaned up

Dear blog owner and visitors, This blog had been infected to serve up Gootloader malware to Google search victims, via a common tactic known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) poisioning. Your blog was serving up 373 malicious pages. Your blogged … Continue reading → Continue reading →

September 3, 2013
11:04 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Interesting Roanoke Times Article

There was an interesting story in the Roanoke Times a few days ago about Virginia Tech’s only 2-year degree program.  It fits within the land grant mission on the university, and is very relevant to our discussion about the history, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Diversity

September 3, 2013
7:56 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Test Post in Diversity Category

Testing RSS feed through to motherblog
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Posted in Diversity

May 1, 2013
9:36 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

A tale of two syllabi

As I’ve been preparing my student-focused syllabus design for GEDI, I’ve also been scanning my old class notes from undergrad so I can finally throw away those reams of paper I keep moving around with me.  One thing that stuck … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy

April 17, 2013
9:07 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Diversity Scholars Project

Engineering, especially at the undergraduate level, is not always a very inclusive field.  Engineering culture has historically been grounded in a very objectivist, positivist mindset.  A few semesters ago, I was taking a class on gender and identity in engineering.  … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy

March 25, 2013
10:50 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Equity and Education

I came across this article recently on how successful Finland’s education system has become through a focus on equity in education. There are no private schools in Finland, and there is no focus on excellence per se. Rather, there is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy

March 25, 2013
10:38 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Interdisciplinary Problem Based Learning

Problem Based Learning (PBL) seems to make a lot of sense.  Students should be engaged in multifaceted problems that reflect real-world situations.  However, the disciplinary nature of most courses would seem to limit the extent of a PBL environment’s interdisciplinarity, and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy

February 27, 2013
3:43 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Diversity Video

Last year, some colleagues and I entered the Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies’ diversity video contest.  We were all enrolled in an excellent class together (ENGE 6984: Gender, Ethnicity, Identity, and Engineering, taught by Dr. Holly Matusovich) … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy

February 27, 2013
1:02 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

(In)visible Diversities

Often when we speak about diversity in education, we’re thinking about visible diversity.  Can we walk into a classroom and see a balance of men and women, various racial and ethnic groups, etc.  Of course, diversity goes much, much beyond that.  In … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy

February 26, 2013
4:35 pm
by: Mike Ekoniak

Diversity and MOOCs

There were so many interesting blog posts on MOOCs over the last few weeks, a topic that I’ve blogged about in the past.  I think it’s worth considering the ways in which a shift towards MOOCs in higher education might … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Pedagogy