Tag Archives: Office of Digital Learning

Blog Posts from the Office of Digital Learning: Reimagining the Syllabus, Discussing Discussions, Subjectivity, Rubrics, and Critical Pedagogy, Digital Pedagogy Lab 2017, Plurilingualism and the Digital, and More!

Check out the latest blog posts from the Office of Digital Learning:

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Digital Annotation for Learning and Scholarship

From January 23 – February 3, the Office of Digital Learning will offer a special digital learning opportunity: a facilitated online experience called Digital Annotation for Learning and Scholarship. This experience is designed to give teachers, instructional designers and technologists, students, and others an introduction to digital annotation as both a means to greater engagement with digital texts, and an pathway to collaborative scholarly communication.

As a community, we will explore, among other things:

  • Digital reading vs. analog reading
  • Annotation as solution for deeper reading
  • History of annotation both analog and digital
  • Social annotation as a teaching modality, and as scholarly practice

Some of the questions we’ll be asking include:

  • Why collaborative annotation? Why social annotation?
  • What are the theories of annotation and learning? Is there a connection?
  • How are digital collaboration and community building related?

The digital learning opportunity is free and open to anyone interested in online and hybrid learning and teaching, digital collaboration, social networking, and digital scholarship. Pre-registration is required. To learn more, visit the Office of Digital Learning blog, or register to participate here.

Distance Collaboration Conversation a Success!

On Friday, November 11, the Office of Digital Learning, in partnership with the Digital Learning Commons and the ACTT, facilitated a community-initiated conversation about distance collaboration and remote work. A summary of the meeting has been posted to the Office of Digital Learning blog. The conversation was attended by more than 30 people—at both campuses and online—and covered topics including:

  • How to run virtual meetings;
  • How to provide leadership for virtual and hybrid teams;
  • How to build strong relationships with colleagues at a distance;
  • The benefits and obstacles of distance collaboration;
  • How to take advantage of the diversity of expertise available throughout the Middlebury community.

The conversation was a first step in moving toward a better understanding of the affordances of the widespread Middlebury ecosystem. Look for other opportunities to contribute to the ongoing conversation coming soon.

Canvas Is Coming

Starting in Fall 2016, Middlebury will adopt Canvas for use across the institution—the undergraduate College, the Institute in Monterey, the summer Language Schools, the Bread Loaf School of English, and the Schools Abroad. And while the institution’s Moodle instance will remain intact until January, for most people accustomed to using Moodle, the change may come with a few hard turns. And even for those new to using any learning management system, the affordances of Canvas may go undetected. Additionally, the speed at which teachers and students must become familiar with a new platform can mean we don’t take full advantage of what a new digital tool offers.

Fortunately, the Office of Digital Learning is here to offer some pedagogical support for new and continuing Canvas users. Take a look at their blog post about some of the ways Canvas can be a great online and classroom tool.