The DIRT for December 17-21, 2018

For Faculty, For Staff, Midd Points, Midd/MIIS Collaboration

Greetings! DLINQ staff and interns wish you a happy, reflective and restorative holiday season. This is the final 2018 installment of the weekly “DIRT” from the Office of Digital Learning & Inquiry.  In January 2019, the DIRT will transition from a weekly blog post to a monthly e-mail newsletter with DLINQ updates, inspiration, and information about events.

Looking Ahead to January 2019 Happenings

Mark your calendars! We are excited to be hosting and co-hosting a number of events as we kick off the new year.

Digital Detox 2019 - Bias and Inclusion in Digital Spaces

January 7th Digital Detox 2019 launches. DLINQ’s second detox series will focus on bias and inclusion in digital spaces. Learn more about the series and consider subscribing to join the conversation with us.

The following events are co-sponsored by DLINQ and the Center for Teaching, Learning & Research (CTLR) January Pedagogy Series. Registration for on-ground participation will be open soon.

image with details about the radical listening event

January 17th Join us in-person or via Zoom for a Digital Detox session on Mindfulness & Radical Listening in Digital Spaces.

image with details about event with Dr. Robin Derosa

January 22nd We will be hosting Dr. Robin DeRosa, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Plymouth State University for a conversation titled “Teaching and Learning in the open.” The session will invite participants to join an open “annotation storm” using the digital annotation platform Hypothes.is

image with text about the event

January 24th Join us for another Digital Detox inspired conversation on the topic of digital exclusion and inclusion titled “Who is Welcome Online?”

trees shrouded in fog with text about event

January 30th We will close out the month with a focus on web literacies to combat the effects of misinformation with a session titled “Beyond Essentials: Digital Fluency & Critical Engagement through Information Environmentalism“

Maker Space Featured by Middlebury Newsroom

Image of student repairing cell phones
Sophie Bardetti ’22 works on an iPhone during a ‘Repair Cafe’ hosted by Middlebury’s Sustainability Solutions Group at the new campus Makerspace. Image by  Todd Balfour

With the help of a number of entrepreneurial students, Bill Koulopoulos, DLINQ Director of Learning Spaces and Technology, has been a key advocate for getting Middlebury’s maker movement off the ground. The space, housed in the Freeman International Center, is referred to by students as “MEME” which stands for Middlebury Environment for Making Everything. MEME offers a friendly community space with a range of fabrication tools from 3-D printers to sewing machines. Early programming like the “Repair Cafe” has been well received and there are plans to expand offerings along with building faculty partnerships to explore meaningful curricular connections.

Read the full story

Dig Deeper:

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.
The more experiments you make the better.
What if they are a little coarse,
and you may get your coat soiled or torn?
What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled
in the dirt once or twice.
Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Featured image by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash