This
week I attended the 2016 Teaching & Learning Forum at Furman University. It was great because all of the sessions were so
informative! Each session was short and had a lot of information that was
useful and made me want to find out more about different topics.
Facilitating and Managing Online
Discussions: Building Classroom Community
Presenter:
Bobbi Siefert, Education
1.
Online
Groups and Roles:
A.
Engaged
students with scenario-based responses. Shows how they process and apply what
they have learned.
a.
Scenario
Leaders - Team members 1-3 Discuss scenarios – Monday
b.
Discussion
Enhancer – Team members 4-6 Discussion Enhancers – Wednesday
c.
Provocateur:
a person who stirs up others in order to upset the status quo and further a
political, social, or other cause (embody the roles of people that they might
encounter – parent, taxpayer, board member etc.)
d.
Summarizer
– Sum it all up
B.
Assigned
to groups in Moodle (Users – groups-create group)
a.
Group
1
b.
Group
2
C.
Summing
It Up! The so what- Friday.
a.
Reflection:
So why does this matter for this course? What connections do you make to your
educational context and professional practice?
E.
Post
group with roles and names each week
F.
Weaving
in and out of the conversations gave me the opportunity to probe and extend
discussions
G.
When
both groups got back together, pull quotes or key points to share with class
and open up discussion.
H.
Use
reading quotes to back up decisions
Group Dynamics and
grading challenges:
Catme – create teams
and team feedback
Survivor – team can
vote someone off the team and they have to work all by themself the rest of the
semester.
Group grade and
individual grade
Explain in a paper
the duties of each individual.
Rubric – group
presentation and individual evaluation too.
Stress
Less, Learn More: Mindfulness Practices for Students and Faculty
Presenter: Min-Ken Liao,
Biology; Meghan Slining, Health Sciences
Teaching Mindfulness to College
Students
1.
Challenges
a.
Needing
relief and impatient for improvement
b.
Curious,
open, flexible
c.
Respond
well to humor and stories
d.
Excited
about the science of mindfulness
4.
19-29
year olds don’t like just sit
5.
Koru
Mindfulness - 4 session mindfulness training program specifically designed to
meet the developmental needs of emerging adults
6.
Koru
is the New Zealand Maori word for the unfurling fern frond
7.
Koru
Key factors
a.
Taught
in small diverse groups (12)
b.
Require
commitment to attendance and practice including 10 minutes daily homework.
c.
Keep
it focused and brief(ish) – 75 min. session
d.
Self-calming
skills
8.
Koru
Course Requirements
a.
Mandatory
attendance to four classes
b.
Read
the book Wherever You Go, There You Are by Kabat Zinn
c.
10
min. mindfulness practice each day
d.
weekly
mindfulness activity
e.
a
log that must be completed and returned each week.
9.
Each
class includes
a.
5-10
min. short opening meditation
b.
check-in
c.
mind-body
skill
d.
mindfulness
meditation practice
10. Course
a.
Week
1 – dynamic breathing and diaphragmatic breathing; body scan
b.
Week
2 – Walking Meditation; Gatha
c.
Week
3 – Guided Imagery; Labeling Thoughts
d.
Week
4 – Eating Meditation; Labeling Thoughts
11. Study – A randomized control
trial of Koru
12. Email: bemindful@furman.edu
The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Creating a Successful Writing Assignment
Presenter: Margaret Oakes,
English
1.
Figure
out what you want them to learn.
2.
Think
about the genre of writing you will be focusing on
3.
What
skills?
4.
How
is your content going to play into that?
5.
The
scope of the assignment – how long is this going to be?
Engaging Students at the
Lightboard: Approaches Across the Curriculum
Presenters:
Melinda Menzer, English; Brian Goess, Cheistry; Amy Buttell, Business and
Accounting; Kerstin Blomquist, Psychology; Amy Boyter, CTL
Video examples:
English:
Diagraming Sentences for English class to demonstrate
understanding of information
Chemistry:
Research:
·
What
forms of creative language do students use to describe complex scientific
content on a student centered wiki?
·
How
can we preserve problem solving strategies through successive generations of students?
·
What
value does it have?
Business
& Accounting:
Marketing:
Students at the Lightboard –
·
Developing
Storytelling Skills,
·
research
a specific marketing topic,
·
teach
that topic,
·
acquire
video presentation skills,
·
build
a video presentation library to free up class time for discussion/projects and
assignments
LB
Project Outcomes
·
Student
perception: Most unpopular project at mid-term
·
Most
challenging of the projects
·
Very
direct type of storytelling
·
Video
presentation very different than in class presentation
·
Plan
to do again next year = may allow more latitude in choosing topics or link it
with another project
·
Will
use most in video content library
Example: The 3 Bs of Storytelling – Be Authentic, Be
Creative, Be Strategic
Psychology
– taking the research and how do we apply it?
How marketing can be misleading
Example: Debunking P90X (vimeo)
Preview outline before the video so wrong info is not given
Work in teams for checks and balances
Suggestions
from Amy Boyter, CTL
1.
Make
sure you explain clearly why the Lightboard will enhance their learning.
2.
Stress
to go to orientation session.
3.
Stress
how important it is to practice the presentation
4.
Practice
in front of a white board or set up a camera
Options
for storage for videos:
(chemistry) Link to Box for the class but not good for
embedding.
Department Vimeo or YouTube account
Furman isn’t good for streaming.
The Storytellers: Improving Peer
Feedback
Presenter:
Jenny Colvin, Library
Storytelling
is a performance.
Storytelling
May X 2014: Group Feedback Self-Reflection
1.
Basic
premise of story
2.
What
do you wish you’d said (hindsight)?
3.
What
could you have said with more time (expansion)?
4.
What
feedback did you get from others (at least two)? – Get in groups
Don’t
just say – Give each other feedback.
What is the one thing the person did well?
What is one thing that they person can work on?
Many
didn’t want to say something negative in person even though they knew it would
be useful.
Move
feedback out of class and structured.
Video
Capture
1.
Lesson
1: Talk to Joe Hiltabidel
2.
Looking
for easiest, least complicated solution
3.
Happy
with “good enough”
Solution: Zoom (We have this at Furman; audio is good
quality) and Vialogues (request space for educational purposes)
In an
assigned group of four, each person must provide feedback to 3 other people and
him or herself. Using Vialogues, locate the video for the day. Your comment
must be specific and cover two categories
·
One
thing that was successful.
·
Ones
specific element that needs improvement.
Uncomfortable Students and
Sensitive Topics: Dream or Nightmare?
Presenter:
Savita Nair, History & Asian Studies
Connecting
Content to Life
Split
into gender groups and explain why the other group chose that group
1.
Global
Feminism
2.
Intersectionality
– thinking all things connect (Women in Science and Women in Politics change
that) State of Women state by state.
3.
Intersex
- Anne Fausto-Sterling
article “The Five Sexes” compare this to your
grandmother.
Exposes the invisible, privilege, sense of entitlement
How did you do gender today?
(painting coolers?)
What’s New in
the Upcoming Moodle Release
Presenter: Corey Gheesling, Information Technology
Moodle 3.1- A Guide to the Update for the Furman Community
6/4/16 updating the University’s Learning Management System.
Security
2-year upgrade plan
What’s new?
Utilized as a hub for education, not simply as a repository
of information. At Furman, we have a
multitude of learning technologies that are at our disposal, but often are not
utilized. Moodle has made this integration a central part of Moodle moving
forward. This development serves to
promotes more active and engaging learning experiences
Better
User experience. Cleaner and more useful.
Students
upload assignments. No need to go to assessment inbox or download files.
Better.
You can
lock it down when students see it.
Online
annotator.
Moodle
is open source
Gradebook
is streamlined. Gradebook setup is the only option. You can do single view for
grades.
Grade
History
Big
Upgrade – includes Competency Based Education and Conditional Activity
·
When
mastery or a skillset is a required portion of classes.
·
You
can now set up activities with multiple parts to promote competency based education
·
Now
you can edit assignments and activities that an be opened or restricted based
on completion or a grade in a prior assignment or activity.
·
Looking
to use more analytics to help better understand a larger picture of learning.
Which activities are being used? How long did students spend on various
aspects? Is course participation trailing off at the end of a term? Do you
value parts of the course that students are not?
Cothran Faculty Seminar Panel:
Community Engagement or Political Activism
Panel:
Matt Cohen, Earth & Environmental Sciences; Brandon Inabinet, Communication
Studies; Liz Smith, Political Science; Aaron Simmons, Philosophy
Discussion:
Think
about our calling. How do our talents meet the world’s needs?
What is
scholarship? Service? Expanding our teaching?
How do
we avoid advocacy or should we?
What
are the constrainsts of liberal arts professors?
At what
point do we understand the scope and boundaries of political engagement?
Book: On Bullshit by Harry G.
Frankfurt
There
is a need for more training on Public Engagement.
Disciplinary
Expert or Private Citizen?
What
about people who want to be a pure researcher?
My Thoughts:
This
was a great day and I really enjoyed all the sessions. I learned a lot of
things that would be useful in my classes. There were also some things that I
want to know more about and books that I want to read. I found it very
inspiring to listen to the discussion that occurred at the end of each session.
Attending this was definitely well worth the time and I’m truly thankful for
all of the people involved who made it happen.
