2008 Annual Summer Teaching Conference - Presentations and Materials
Integration, Learning, Community: Pedagogy, Technology & Course Redesign Conference VIII
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 |
Opening plenary |
Thursday, June 5, 2008 |
Keynote address Kaleidoscopic learning: Looking at learning through different lenses - Alison I. Morrison-Shetlar, Ph.D., Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, and Professor of Biology at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Morrison-Shetlar co-wrote the pithy Teaching Creatively: Ideas in Action (Outernet, 2001), and has given over 100 presentations and workshops nationally and internationally, on the integration of effective teaching strategies and assessment, the development of portfolios as assessment tools, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is also executive co-chair of the Southern Regional Faculty Instruction and Development Consortium (SRFIDC) and is founder and chair of the Florida Faculty Development Consortium (FFDC). |
"Inventing the University": Disciplinary Knowledge and Performativity Panel discussion: This session is organized as a problem-posing activity with conference participants from across the disciplines. After sharing work from student writers, participants will be asked to consider their own disciplines and how student and professional research might be (electronically) integrated over a student's program of study, to turn students into performing scholars.
This workshop demonstrates ways to use the Moodle learning management system, and in particular with Web 2.0 participatory collaboration, to create a community of active learners. Such use represents a quantum leap in teaching/learning from the prior generation of Web 1.0 teaching/learning environments. Expect active participant involvement.
The effects of environmental science content and pedagogy on student attitudes toward environmental issues This talk presents how pedagogy and content of an environmental science course affected student attitudes toward environmental issues - students' attitudes were significantly shifted toward a more "environmentally conscious" modality (factor analysis of pre-post surveys, fall 2005-2007). Qualitative findings from student interviews conducted at the end of the course are also addressed.
Practitioner research improved student understanding of evolution and scientific epistemology in undergraduate introductory biology Using pre-post assessments since 2000 to measure, dislodge, and correct student misconceptions in an introductory biology course, data indicate significant improvements in the effectiveness of my teaching (curriculum and instruction) on student learning of core concepts of evolutionary ecology (evolution by natural selection) and scientific epistemology. And, it's been fun.
When faculty asked for a new course to be created, we had to not only increase our knowledge of the field (accounting ethics), but obtain classroom experience by team-teaching with an ethics colleague for a semester. Active learning methods we acquired included student-led classes, reflective writing, case analysis and interviews.
Getting students to learn from their mistakes (self-reflective grading) Students rarely use their graded exams to study. An alternative grading method, based on self-reflection, encourages them to actively learn from their mistakes. I will discuss the details of the grading method, the logistics of administering it, and the results of two years of student surveys assessing its effectiveness.
Capturing Shakespeare classes with Apple Podcast Producer For students to review for exams, or make up missed classes, archived audio helps greatly. This session shows how simply one starts the program, and stops and saves at end. The entire clip automatically goes to an iTunes University folder. Demo includes easy editing of podcasts to make "universal" versions for specific lessons. (See other iTunes U profiles in higher education.)
Dance for the teaching of language (Portuguese) At both Yale and Fairfield, I have used Brazilian Axé music to entice students to try "new moves" and see how different cultures see their bodies. In follow-the-leader fashion, students read lyrics while following steps, going from shallow, literal, grammar-based meaning to the deeper, cultural and rich significance of words.
Controversial issues at a small, private liberal arts college "The practice of academic freedom"
"Immigration, opportunity and controversy"
"When college writing gets personal"
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Friday, June 6, 2008 |
Plenary workshop Getting a better view of teaching and learning: Using reflection in community In this workshop, participants respond to writing prompts designed to promote reflection. These prompts, together with small- and large-group discussion, shed some light on reflection as a foundational principle in teaching and learning. As we teach students to be more intentional about the transfer of knowledge from one context to another, to integrate learning in meaningful ways, so too we need to work to be intentional about our own knowledge-transfer. We need to be engaged in the same kinds of work that we might ask of students - writing autobiographies, structured and unstructured writing time, shared and private freewriting-providing ourselves with alternative lenses through which to examine our own ways of understanding what we know and what we can learn. Though we will be engaged in our own private writing, we will also explore together notion of reflecting within community as a way to build community. How is the experience of private reflection enhanced by the sharing and collaboration that a workshop provides? What sorts of gains can we offer students when they participate in an intentional community of reflection?
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Reflective writing online In an Ethical Theories course, students wrote five "ethical reflection" blogs on how they resolved a small ethical problem, posting them in the Eidos Online course management & assessment system. This presentation reviews responses, evaluative feedback from students on this activity, as well as a "reflective writing" rubric.
The Eidos blog feature was also used extensively in a Theory and Introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorders class. Using an overall "course blog", all students posted entries. With over 230 entries from her 10 students, the blog positively impacted the course and students.
Blogging across the curriculum Blogging has become a common tool to encourage regular, low-stakes writing in many courses. In this presentation, we will describe our strategy, the technical and teaching components that comprise the project, and some of the ways we will be measuring the effects of the project. We will demonstrate some of the tools we are employing, and some of the ways we are integrating blogging into a variety of courses. It is hoped that this will lead to a discussion of how participants are using blogging, and how it might be employed in their own curricula. (See Alex Halavais's blog created live at the conference.)
Teaching integratively: Five dimensions of transformation This session shows five organizing patterns that connect disciplines and integrate diverse styles and frameworks for learning. As participants identify what's most important for learners to know, do, and value differently, themes emerge that integrate intellect and affect. Takeaways include a guiding matrix, sample assignment and rubric for assessing progress (see handouts).
Student-faculty partnerships in technology with a twist Reliability was a problem with the student workers in our lab at Dutchess Community College until the student-faculty partnership program was instituted... with an added twist: the application of Self-Determination Theory. The intrinsic motivator is the ePortfolio each student compiles with Epsilen. It's a win-win situation for everyone.
Sometimes with all good intentions, the quantity of work can work against quality. This session discusses an efficient and effective methodology to maximize educational benefits of peer review in an upper-level education course and invite participants to discuss how to use this practice in other disciplines (see handouts).
National and international service learning: Design and operational challenges The session presents some challenges of designing a course that includes Ignatian pedagogy and service learning - both local and international. There are some similarities between the levels of contact with community partners, but the international service in a developing country (which this session would include) presents some powerful experiences for students, but requires significant flexibility from the instructor. (See handout.)
Community service learning as an organizational laboratory This presentation discusses how teams of thirteen students work with community agencies while applying management concepts to their own teams. In addition to achieving the beneficial outcomes of community service learning (by instructing and mentoring at-risk youth), students engage in complex and intrinsically rewarding tasks and learn to apply sound organizational principles.
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