BlackBoard Jungle 2: Integration, Equality and Social Justice in the Classroom

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Justin Henry

The Office of the Assoicate Provost for Multicultural Affairs and Academic Initiatives presents Blackboard Jungle 2 Symposium March 27 and 28. For more information and to register visit the website
The Center for Teaching and Learning is pleased to present two events associated with professional development opportunities offered this week:

  • Multicultural Education at UVM: Dialogue on Dimensions,Monday, March, 30, 12:00 – 1:30 pm
    UVM’s Diversity Requirement seeks to advance multicultural education at the curricular level. During this colloquium, faculty who are teaching approved Diversity 1 and 2 courses will examine their courses through the lens of Dr. James Banks’ “dimensions of multicultural education,” discussing content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction and equity pedagogy.
  • Universal Design For Learning in the 21st Century,
    Wednesday, April, 1, 9:00 – 10:30 am
    Workshop: In any semester, approximately 75% of UVM faculty will teach a student with a documented disability. Universal Design For Learning (UDL) outlines course development and teaching strategies that will not only meet the needs of those students, but will also enhance learning for all students. Join us for a discussion on applying UDL principles and strategies to meet our diverse student needs related to physical and cognitive ability, social class, primary language, ethnicity and culture.

For more information and to register, please go to the “Events” link on the left menu.

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Why Add Multimedia Projects to Your Course?

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Justin Henry

Is there an added added academic value in incorporating multimedia scholarship into student projects? This is the question addressed by Mark E. Cann of USC in a recent article titled Multimedia in the Classroom at USC: A Ten Year Perspective. This past fall he recast a previous essay assignment into a group multimedia project in order to compare previous students’ written work to current students multimedia work. He graded them according to the same basic criteria (clarity, coherence and cogency) and wondered if they would ” produce more insightful analyses than conventional written essays.”

He found four ways in which the students’ multimedia projects differed positively from the written version. According to Cann, multimedia scholarship invited or encouraged students to:

  1. “prioritize and dramatize their main points by highlighting text, incorporating eye-catching images, or employing engaging video clips. This contrasted to conventional papers where students often buried their main point in the middle of a paragraph or expected it to emerge miraculously from the
    text.”
  2. “assume multiple perspectives by using hyperlinks…While students might have done the same class analysis in a traditional essay, the fact is that they had not done so until their use of new media prompted them to experiment with multiple perspectives.”
  3. ” layer their analyses. Students were able to explore an issue in depth by employing hypertext links to break it down into major components, then analyze major components by using links to break them down into subcomponents, and so forth.”
  4. experiment with interactive analysis. Students were able to use new media to demonstrate how making one choice likely results in one set of outcomes and subsequent options whereas making a different choice likely results in a different set of outcomes and subsequent
    options.

He goes on to describe how a grant had allowed a group of faculty from the university to develop and discuss similar projects between 1998 and 2003. Some of the challenges the group found were “that teaching and doing multimedia scholarship was extremely time-consuming for faculty, TAs, and students” and that there was a “tension between devoting class time to course content and devoting class time to training students in basic computer skills.” They concluded that “the time and tensions were tolerable because multimedia scholarship did in fact add academic value to our classrooms. However, we learned from our discussions that multimedia scholarship added academic value to our classrooms in very different ways. We also learned that we all had trouble explaining to each other exactly how multimedia scholarship added academic value to our classrooms.”

That experience led to the development of a university-wide Honors Program in Multimedia Scholarship. Developing that program, and undergoing the review process, forced the participants to articulate how multimedia can add academic value to student scholarship.

Implementing the program has confirmed the belief that multimedia “requires students to become adept in the use of new media tools” but that it can “develop students’ capacity for active learning and creative scholarship.” Faculty also “emphasized the importance of multimedia scholarship for enhancing
students’ analytical skills. Several faculty members emphasized the utility of new media for investigating multiple perspectives on issues, facilitating interactive understanding, and addressing issues involving contingency and ephemera.” Some felt that “employing new media promises to develop students’ capacity for active learning and creative scholarship. Multimedia authorship demands that students not simply receive meanings but also participate in the construction of meanings.” Others agreed that “multimedia scholarship promises to strengthen students’ ability to communicate their research and findings to other people.”

Cann concludes the article with a discussion of the recommendations the USC program has made for the program. These can be useful “best practices” for anyone contemplating the addition of multimedia projects into their course. Full article at:
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/multimedia-classroom

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WIKI assignments: make it better

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Justin Henry

Blackboard’s wiki option has made it easier for us to experiment with this collaborative writing application, but designing good wiki assignments remains challenging. There are a number of web sites that assert that wikis can be powerful learning tools, a number of sites that discuss how to create wikis, and the usual line up of sites that promise that wikis will cure all ills. The following article goes beyond the hype and basic how-to by describing three challenges to creating wiki assignemnts, and suggesting how they might be used to better support learning.

Reynard, Ruth. “3 Challenges (with Benefits) to Wiki Use in Instruction,” in Campus Technology. Feb. 11, 2009.

According to Reynard, current writing about wikis promise that they will “highlight higher-level thinking skills that teachers would love to see developed in their students. The reality is, however, that just as with any actual use of technology in instruction, there are always challenges, not only in practical terms with familiarity with the technology itself but, more importantly, in a pedagogical sense as the benefits to teaching and learning are examined more thoroughly. How can the instructional uses of a wiki be maximized to ensure this higher level of engagement with students?”

She continues that “There is a temptation with using a tool like the wiki for teachers to simply introduce the tool and ask the students to use it, and then watch to see what happens…While knowledge around this is still growing, we do know from teaching in general that students respond poorly to badly designed assignments with no real purpose articulated as to their connection with the learning outcomes or direct benefit to the student’s overall learning experience.”

The challenges she addresses are:

  1. Creating Meaningful Assignments: Motivation
  2. Grade Value for Constructed Input: Affirmation
  3. Collective Knowledge Use: Learning

The suggestions she provides are simple, concrete, and probably quite effective. Good reading for anyone who is considering using wiki assignments in their course.

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Happy Birthday Center for Cultural Pluralism!

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Justin Henry

The Center for Cultural Pluralism will celebrate its 10 year anniversary on January 29, 2009. The Center has announced their spring programming, which includes guest speakers Dr. Lee Kneflekamp speaking on “MicroAgressions in the Classroom” (Jan. 30) and Dr. Scott Page, “The Science of Complex Systems and Systems Scholarship” (Feb 2009). For a full list of films, workshops and events visit their web site.

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UVM Events for MLK Week

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Justin Henry

The Office of the President and the Office of the Associate Provost for Multicultural Affairs and Academic Initiatives are hosting a multi-day celebration honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most notably, human rights advocate and community activist Martin Luther King III will speak on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m. in Patrick Gymnasium. For details about all events, please visit the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Academic Initiatives web site.

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Office Of Community-University Partnerships and Service Learning Announce Fellowship Program

Posted on October 21, 2008 by Justin Henry

This fellowship program is designed as a seminar to help faculty develop a strong background in service-learning pedagogy. By developing a service-learning course, participants will strengthen service-learning knowledge and skills. Fellows will meet every other week during the Spring 2009 semester for 2 hours and commit to offering a service-learning course within a year of completing the program.

To learn more about the program, visit the CUPS web site

Applications for the Fellowship program are due November 7,2008.

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Colleague Tea Event: Virtual Worlds in Higher Education

Posted on October 7, 2008 by Hope Greenberg

We are holding a Colleague Tea on Wednesday October 8th (3pm-4pm) to discuss the use of Virtual Worlds in Higher Education as part of a course or assignment. Come to 303 Bailey/Howe for some Coffee/Tea, goodies and some very good conversation. UVM English Professor, Richard Parent and Holly Parker from the UVM Center for Teaching and Learning will co-facilitate the discussion. Please bring your experiences, ideas, and questions. Register online at http://uvm.edu/ctl/register/. You may also be interested in the article from THE VIEW on the use of Second Life in the School of Business on campus.
Please take a look at all of our events at the Center for Teaching and Learning this semester on our events calendar.
Hope to see you this semester.

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A Moment on MERLOT 2008

Posted on September 28, 2008 by Ines

My conference event this year found me in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the “City of Lakes”, for the MERLOT International Conference (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching). Serving as a multimedia developer for the Center for Teaching & Learning I felt right at home amongst my peers. On the menu this year at MERLOT was WEB 2.0 technologies, collaborative online tools (blogs, wikis), digital archives and the hot-topic of the year, online 3D communities as educational spaces.
The conference, which began August 7th and ran through August 10th was attended by faculty and instructional design staff from across the US and North America, as well as many international attendees. Having only attended a few conferences in my life and MERLOT being the biggest and the first professional conference I left the Green Mountain State to attend, I was almost shocked by how friendly the other attendees were, I was delighted to discover that my greatest learning tools were not as much the materials being taught at the conference, but the attendees and presenters I interacted with. The conversations that occurred after and between sessions were often just as informative as the actual instructional sessions.
However there were several sessions that I attended that I found of particular interest, one such session, Understanding Web 2.0 Technologies: Using Wikis, Blogs & Podcasting which was presented by Cris Guenter (California State University, Chico) stuck with me through the entire conference. The workshop focused on introducing various types of WEB 2.0 collaborative tools to the audience and giving everyone an opportunity to try for them. In my personal situation most of the tools Dr. Guenter introduced to were ones we are currently running workshops on at UVM, the value of the session for me came from learning how Dr. Guenter chose to instruct her audience. Her particular emphasis on “mash-ups” was exceptional, essentially tools on the web that incorporate data from more than one location into a single integrated tool; an example would be del.icio.us, a social bookmaking tool, combining social networking with bookmaking links.
In addition to hosting the conference, the MERLOT organization itself is an excellent repository for educational resources. I would suggest checking out their site to see what materials are available for use!
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
Many of the lectures from MERLOT 2007 have also been posted to the website so that those that didn’t have an opportunity to attend a lecture can still benefit from them. I would be more than happy to discuss MERLOT and their academic offerings, feel free to email me cwwebb@uvm.edu or visit me during my Doctor is In Shift in BHL 303, every Tuesday from 12:30 – 3:00.
Regards,
Will Webb
Center for Teaching and Learning

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Thoughts about Web 2.0 from the Campus Technology 2008 conference

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Hope Greenberg

IMG_0275
I attended the Campus Technology conference this year. The topic was WEB 2.0 technologies in Higher Education. I was excited to attend and learn more. Surprisingly I learned the most participating in the “back channel” of the conference on Twitter. I had never tried this before at a conference and I was pleasantly surprised by the comradarie and knowledge that developed between strangers. Before the conference, I signed up to network with people at the conference. One person on the list developed a twitter feed and google site for the group.
I found this so helpful. People would post notes and links from the various sessions they were attending to the feed. This way you really could be in more then one place at a time.
One session I found to be well delivered and informative was about Second Life use in Higher Education Sarah Robbins from Ball State University was the presenter. She posted a link to her PowerPoint file from the presentation on her blog.
She started the presentation by talking about the 7 principles by A. Chickering and S. Erhmann, as well as the belief that she has the I happen to agree with which is “Learning first and technology second!
Creepy Treehouse is a term that Sarah referred to in her presentation. Second Life is an application that students already like and use for fun, so why not try seeing how they can learn from it as well? Sarah has experienced a ton of success using this tool to teach a variety of concepts, including discrimination. I look forward to exploring Second Life more and talking with faculty on the UVM campus who have used it. We will be holding a Colleague Tea on the use of Second Life in a Higher Education course, this semester.
Cheers,
Holly Parker
Center for Teaching and Learning

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Working Together to Promote a Safe & Healthy Campus Community

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Justin Henry

April 15, 12:15 – 1:45 pm, Livak Room, Davis Center

The tragic events at Virginia Tech, and more recently at Northern Illinois, have had a profound impact on the way colleges and universities are viewing and responding to campus health and safety issues.

This panel presentation, including student, staff and faculty representatives from departments including Police Services, the Center for Health and Wellbeing, the office of the Dean of Students and the General Counsel’s office, will examine the ways in which the University of Vermont is responding to these issues here on our campus, and will also consider broader national trends and challenges. The presentation will provide an opportunity to reflect upon the changing roles and responsibilities of faculty and staff, best practices around campus health and safety issues, legal and privacy concerns, and evolving standards and practice around managing high risk campus behavior.

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