CTLR and Middcore Collaborative Workshops–3/14 and 4/20

The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research invites you to participate in two workshops this spring, one “Design Thinking and the Liberal Arts,” on Monday, March 14, and the other, “Collaboration in the Classroom: Improving the ‘Group Project’ Experience,” on Wednesday, April 20.

These workshops will be taught by Jessica Holmes, Mary Hurlie, and Jon Isham, and they will draw on their experiences in working with students in the programs offered by MiddCORE and the Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

The workshops will begin at 12:20 p.m. and will run until 1:20 p.m. Lunch will be provided.

An overview of each workshop follows:

Design thinking and the liberal arts (Jessica Holmes and Jon Isham), Monday, March 14, MiddCORE (DKE) House

Design thinking is a methodology of identifying, (re)framing, and solving problems. It encompasses an iterative process of empathetic observation, ideation, and prototyping, and relies heavily on collaboration across disciplines. During this workshop, we will explore how design thinking might be used as a pedagogical tool in the classroom.

Collaboration in the classroom: improving the “group project” experience (Jessica Holmes and Mary Hurlie), Wednesday, April 20, CTLR Suite

Group projects, when designed well, can build problem solving, teamwork and communication skills, yet many students (and some faculty) groan at their mere mention. During this workshop, we will explore strategies to maximize the benefits of collaborative learning activities.

Registration Open for 2015 Teaching and Writing Retreat

We invite you to the 28th annual overnight retreat, sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning & Research and the Writing Program, to be held at the Mountain Top Inn and Resort in Chittenden, about 45 minutes south of Middlebury (http://mountaintopinn.com). We will begin with lunch on Wednesday, August 26 and end in the afternoon on Thursday, August 27.

Learn more about the retreat here. Registration is available online here.

 

Science of Learning in Action: A Two-day Learning Institute May 27-28, 2015

To view a full description of the two-day learning institute and to register, please turn to the institute’s webpage https://sites.middlebury.edu/ctlrmay2015/

This two-day learning institute builds upon the growing body of research on how people learn and highlights how this understanding informs pedagogy, student engagement, and innovative classroom practice. Victor Benassi and Catherine Overson of the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning will share their expertise and experiences with us as will members of the Middlebury faculty.

It is our hope that those who will register for the conference will participate in the full program so that a strong sense of shared involvement will inform the institute.

The first twenty persons who register will receive copies of either Susan A. Ambrose et al.’s How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching or Peter Brown et al.’s Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.

 

Ward Prize nomination deadline: June 15th

Faculty may nominate First-Year Students for The Paul Ward ’25 Prize in Writing for First-Year Students. Please help identify and encourage academic excellence in the Class of 2018 by uploading  a copy of your first-year students’ best papers to this online form:  go/wardsubmit. JoAnn Brewer brewer@middlebury.edu  is happy to help you if you have any difficulties with the form.  E-mail Mary Ellen Bertolini (mbertoli@middlebury.edu) if you have any questions about eligible work.

 

Ninth Student Symposium Showcases Creativity, Inquiry

Release by Middlebury Communications

April 10, 2015

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – More than 300 Middlebury students showcased their creative and intellectual pursuits over two days at the ninth annual Student Symposium. McCardell Bicentennial Hall was filled with energy and a festive atmosphere on Friday as students presented posters of their independent research and conducted oral presentations in rooms throughout the building.

Poster presentations in the MBH Great Hall.

Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Andi Lloyd welcomed the crowd on Friday morning. “When I looked through the catalog of talks last night, I couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer breadth of your collective endeavors,” Lloyd told the student presenters. She noted that there were scientific, literary, musical, and theatrical talks – often intermingled in the same session. read more

The Middlebury Spring Symposium is sponsored by the Center for Teaching Learning and Research

Embracing Not-yetness in Emerging Technologies and Digital Learning

Lecture by:
Amy Collier, Ph.D.
Senior Director for Inspiration and Outreach
Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning
Stanford University

Tuesday, March 31
12:30
Light lunch will be served

Event link

Much of the discourse on emerging technologies centers on tidy, efficient, and measurable uses of those technologies for student learning or it dwells on their invasive, disruptive, or deterministic potential. This talk will take a different approach to emerging technologies for learning—viewing them as providing opportunities for beautiful complexity, curiosity and play, and inclusion. We will explore the notion of not-yetness as a fruitful conceptual space for emerging technologies and discuss how we might embrace not-yetness in our work. Moving away from utopian and dystopian narratives that accompany technology, we will instead examine not-yetness as a space for exploring what is possible and what is exciting about emerging technologies for learning.

Dr. Collier oversees outreach to faculty, departments, schools, and external collaborators to help collect and share good ideas for digital learning. She helps to launch and manage new learning-focused projects to ensure that those projects have productive teams and resources to succeed. Prior to this role at Stanford, Amy Collier was the director of digital learning initiatives in the Office of the Vice Provost for Online Learning (VPOL), where she led the online and blended course design and teaching initiatives and conducted research to inform effective practices across the University.

Laptops in the classroom?

MIDDLEBURY Communications Article

Should students be permitted to use their laptop computers in the classroom?

An academic roundtable of Middlebury students, faculty, and staff opposed any all-campus prohibition on laptops in the classroom, and raised key issues about the needs of students with disabilities and those for whom English is not their first language.

The gathering on March 10 sponsored by the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR) also discussed the so-called “nearby-peers effect,” how knowledge can best be gained and retained, and whether the use of personal devices in the classroom affects the quality of higher education.- See more at: http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/node/492486#sthash.cmztsnuw.dpuf