Chris Friend

Listening & Learning
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Teacher, speaker, and podcaster specializing in simplifying and humanizing technology.

From curriculum planning through digital delivery, I’ll connect your brand, content, and people through coordinated design of training programs, tailored to your audiences.

Curriculum Development

From program-level planning through course alignment and integration, I create cohesive educational experiences that are practical, targeted, and consistent. For example, I designed and branded a three-course writing sequence integrating two disparate sets of national standards (NCTE & CWPA), two sets of institutional standards, and fluid departmental expectations.

Professional Training

In business environments, I bring focus and consistency to the design and implementation of training programs, emphasizing practicality and understanding. For instance, I designed a three-course business-writing sequence tailored to government employees by adapting to organizational precedent, incorporating disciplinary best practices, and enhancing document cohesion.

Hybrid Learning Design

I apply best practices in digital education while maintaining a focus on human connection. My decades of physical and virtual classroom experience, plus my work facilitating conversation on Hybrid Pedagogy, make me a deliberative, conscientious educator concerned more with people than with content. I discuss this further in my book, Hybrid Teaching, available through booksellers or on Hybrid Pedagogy.

Digital Publishing

Beyond designing classroom training materials using productivity software, I used XeTeX to typeset Hybrid Teaching for print and ebook delivery, manage a WordPress multisite for class blogs and MOOCs, maintain the digital scholarly journal Hybrid Pedagogy on Ghost, and host Teacher of the Ear podcast on Anchor.fm.

My Occasional Blog Updates

What else might we do here besides open that door?

#CritPrax Letter of Hopes & Intentions

Our #CritPrax DHSI course begins tomorrow! What are your expectations for the week? Here are my intentions for the time we share together.
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An adorable, wrinkly dog rests atop an adorable, pink plush unicorn, being adorable. But can we tell (and respond with empathy to) what the dog feels?

Empathy in Post-Pandemic Education

Educators can use empathy to be more in-tune with others and create helpful learning environments. Here’s how empathy can save education.
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This broken egg reminds us that failure is often necessary, even in writing. How can we teach students to embrace failure and revision when they've been taught that one draft is sufficient?

Revision: Writing Through Failure

Writing affords us the ability to revise our ideas before delivering them. Here’s why writing classes should teach through failure.
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