Click on each session title to view a description and registration link for that session.
The CTLR’s 2020 January Pedagogy Series
Do I Have to Use Technology in My Classroom? Mythbusting and Strategies for Navigating the Digital Elephant in the Room – Thursday, January 9th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
Connect Your Research & Pedagogy to the Vermont State House – Monday, January 13th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
Salt of the Earth: The Rhetoric of White Supremacy – Tuesday January 21st, 12:15 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
Using Digital Tools to Support Executive Function – Thursday January 23rd, 12:00 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
Ungrading the Academy: Principles and Practice – Monday January 27th, 12:00 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
Project Based Learning Series
The Basics of Project Based Learning (PBL) – Tuesday January 14th, 2020, 8:30 am – 12:00 pm, CTLR
Impacts of a Project-Based Curriculum: Lunchtime Keynote Address – Tuesday January 14th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
Facilitating Effective Teamwork – Tuesday January 14th, 1:30 – 2:30 pm, CTLR
PBL Project Design Workshop – Wednesday January 15th, 9 am – 12:00 pm, CTLR
What Works Well for PBL In Your Discipline – Wednesday January 15th, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm, CTLR
PBL as a Strategy for Global Learning – Wednesday January 15th, 2:00 – 3:00 pm, CTLR
The Bigger Picture: PBL as a Tool for Curricular Cohesion at Middlebury – Wednesday January 15th, 3:00 – 4:00 pm, CTLR
Session Descriptions
Do I Have to Use Technology in My Classroom? Mythbusting and Strategies for Navigating the Digital Elephant in the Room – Thursday, January 9th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm, CTLR
In this session, we’ll tackle the digital elephant in the room by taking a look at our assumptions and experiences around technology in the classroom. By using the challenge of the tech-distracted student as an opportunity to look at our own teaching, we’ll identify strategies for creating inclusive learning environments that support focused, authentic, present-in-the-moment learning — even in the presence of digital devices. Lunch will be provided. Register here.
Connect Your Research & Pedagogy to the Vermont State House – Monday, January 13th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Senator Ruth Hardy will lead a workshop on how faculty across all disciplines can apply their academic expertise to help solve pressing policy issues before state and local governments in Vermont. Through providing expert testimony, engaging students in practical policy work, or serving on a state or local committee or working group, faculty can use their research or courses to affect policy or broaden students’ academic experience. Senator Hardy will provide an overview of how the legislative process really works, and provide recent case studies to demonstrate how faculty and their students can most productively engage in the process. The session will end with a brainstorming session and Q&A on how you can put your research and knowledge to good policy use.
Lunch provided, please register by Jan 9.
Salt of the Earth: The Rhetoric of White Supremacy – Tuesday January 21st, 2020, 12:15 – 1:30 pm
In this talk, James Chase Sanchez argues that contemporary rhetoric of white supremacy is built around structures of preservation. Using ethnographic and autoethnographic research (along with film footage) from his hometown of Grand Saline, Sanchez pinpoints the ways communities preserve their white supremacy via tactics of identity-formation, storytelling, and silencing. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by January 16.
Using Digital Tools to Support Executive Function – Thursday January 23rd, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Technology has greatly expanded the range of tools and pathways of communication in the classroom, and has great potential to increase accessibility to the curriculum. But without intentional selection, a proliferation of platforms and tools can actually increase burden on executive function and make learning spaces less accessible. Come and learn about the framework of executive function support, why it promotes accessibility, and get practical support in evaluating digital tools to support executive function for your classroom. Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by January 17th.
Ungrading the Academy: Principles and Practice – Monday January 27th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm
In her essay “Ungrading,” (Inside Higher Ed, November 14, 2017,) Susan Blum writes “For the last decade and a half, I’ve engaged in anthropological research on higher education, identifying several challenges and mismatches between what we know about learning ‘in real life’ and learning in college. In my most recent book, I Love Learning; I Hate School: An Anthropology of College, I identified a number of ways that formal education has led to a lack of learning. Colleges promote credentials, obedience and the sorting of haves and have-nots, but not necessarily learning. People kept asking me what I would do to improve things. And I said that if I could make one change, I would get rid of grades.”
As part of the January, 2016 Contemporary Teaching in the Liberal Arts series, CTLR facilitated a conversation among faculty and staff entitled, Are Grades Necessary? The ideas that were explored during that discussion led to the creation of the Rethinking Grading Community of Practice, whose purpose was to foster regular conversation about the role of grades and grading in higher education and provide a venue for faculty to share their efforts to de-emphasize grades in their classes. In this year’s session, we hope to reanimate the discussion among veteran Rethinking Grading members, as well as bring in new participants and others who are curious about the ungrading movement— in particular, practices that can be applied at colleges and universities where grades are (still) required. Lunch provided, please register by Jan. 23
Project Based Learning Series Descriptions
The Basics of Project Based Learning (PBL) – Tuesday, January 14th, 2020, 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
50 years ago, the faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute made a significant change to their curriculum: they voted to embed Project-Based Learning in every level of their students’ academic experience. Now celebrated for their role as global leaders in this valuable pedagogical approach, WPI faculty are eager to share their recipe for teaching success and to help other institutions determine how PBL might fit into their educational design. We are thrilled to host faculty experts Kristin Boudreau and Rick Vaz from WPI for two full days of Project-Based Learning presentations, discussions, and workshops as part of the January Pedagogy Series. Their sessions will address a range of elements related to PBL and will also speak to the challenge of making PBL work in a variety of disciplines.
This hands-on workshop will be suitable both for those new to PBL, and those looking to advance PBL work they’re already doing. Participants will explore new roles for students and faculty through a simulation of a community-based research project. We’ll then discuss key elements of designing a PBL experience. Finally, we’ll explore PBL examples from a range of disciplines illustrating how faculty can design, support, motivate, and evaluate student project work. Registration page.
Impacts of a Project-Based Curriculum: Lunchtime Keynote Address – Tuesday, January 14th, 2020, 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Kris Boudreau, Professor of English, WPI
Rick Vaz, Co-Director, WPI Center for Project-Based Learning
We will describe the underpinnings and key elements of WPI’s project-based curriculum, involving project work across all four years, both in and out of the major. We’ll then explore findings from an alumni study looking at the long-term impacts of PBL on the careers and lives of alumni, leaving ample time for questions and discussion.
Lunch will be provided, please register by Jan 9.
Facilitating Effective Teamwork – Tuesday January 14th, 2020, 1:30 – 2:30 pm
There are many reasons to promote student teamwork and many challenges that teamwork can create both for faculty and students. In this session, we will share some practical strategies and tools faculty can use to promote more equitable and inclusive experiences for students in teams. Registration page.
PBL as a Strategy for Global Learning – Tuesday January 14th, 2020, 2:45 – 4:00 pm
Over 90% of WPI students complete at least one degree-required project in a fulltime immersion at an off-campus location, solving problems for local organizations. PBL is also a strategy for global learning on the WPI campus. We’ll describe WPI’s approach, leaving most of the time available for discussion of how PBL might enhance global learning at Middlebury. Registration page.
PBL Project Design Workshop – Wednesday January 15th, 2020, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Participants are encouraged to come to this workshop with a particular course in mind. We’ll think about how the characteristics of the course might influence how PBL work can enhance student learning. We’ll think about how students might produce evidence of their learning, and how assignments can be shaped. We’ll then brainstorm challenges that faculty might encounter, and think about resources and strategies for addressing them at Middlebury. Registration page.
What Works Well for PBL In Your Discipline – Wednesday January 15th, 2020, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
This session will split into two groups. Please indicate in the registration comments which discussion you would like to join.
Group 1: What works well for PBL in the Humanities and Arts?: Discussion and Brainstorming with Kris Boudreau, WPI Professor of English
Group 2: What works well for PBL in STEM?: Discussion and Brainstorming with Rick Vaz, WPI Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering
The Bigger Picture: PBL as a Tool for Curricular Cohesion at Middlebury – Wednesday January 15th, 2020, 2:45 – 4:00 pm
This concluding session is an opportunity for faculty, staff, and administrators to explore what PBL could bring to Middlebury beyond the boundaries of any particular course. How might we at Middlebury use Project-Based Learning to advance our institutional strategic directions and achieve curricular goals? How can we align seemingly isolated initiatives to accomplish our shared purpose? How should we plan to grow new disciplines and courses using PBL pedagogy?
Come participate in a strategic discussion with other PBL stakeholders across the College, including Academic Deans, members of the Faculty Strategy Committee and its Ad-Hoc Committees on Experiential Learning and Empirical Data, the STEM Pedagogy group, Energy 2028, Experiential Learning Centers, CTLR, and more. Our WPI visitors will lead a discussion about the possibilities of PBL as a binding agent across the curriculum and across learning communities. What might happen when students approach their entire educational plan with project-based opportunities in mind? What collaborative opportunities could develop between educators who embrace PBL? How could our curricular structures better support PBL? We welcome your perspective and voice to this important conversation. Registration page.