Tag: #lacol2018

Workshop Instas & Tweets! #LACOL2018

LACOL

Consortium-wide workshop at Carleton College, May 31-June 1, 2018. Browse the page below to see tweets (TWEETS); and see photos (INSTAS) from the #LACOL2018 workshop.

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G. Siemens Keynote
The future of learning and knowledge: Human and artificial intelligence

LACOL

Session: The future of learning and knowledge: Human and artificial intelligence
Date/Time: Thursday, May 31st, 11:00am-12:00pm
Presentation File: LACOL2018_SiemensKeynote_5-31-18.pdf 

WATCH: (60 min)

George Siemens
Dr. George Siemens

LACOL welcomes George Siemens as keynote speaker at the 2018 LACOL Workshop.

Dr. Siemens researches, technology, networks, analytics, and openness in education. Dr. Siemens is Professor and Executive Director of the Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Research Lab (LINK) at University of Texas, Arlington. He leads the development of the Center for Change and Complexity in Learning (C3L) at University of South Australia. He has delivered keynote addresses in more than 35 countries on the influence of technology and media on education, organizations, and society. His work has been profiled in provincial, national, and international newspapers (including NY Times), radio, and television. He has served as PI or Co-PI on grants funded by NSF, SSHRC (Canada), Intel, Boeing, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Soros Foundation.  He has received numerous awards, including honorary doctorates from Universidad de San Martín de Porres and Fraser Valley University for his pioneering work in learning, technology, and networks. He holds an honorary professorship with University of Edinburgh.

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Panel: Teaching Online in the Liberal Arts

LACOL

Session: Teaching Online in the Liberal Arts
Panelists:

  • Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Professor of Physics and Director, Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, Carleton College
  • Erland Stevens, Professor of Chemistry, Davidson College
  • Chad Topaz, Professor of Mathematics, Williams College

Facilitator: Janet Russell, Director of Academic Technology, Carleton College

WATCH

How is online teaching and learning relevant for small residential liberal arts colleges?

In this panel, three faculty members with hands-on experience teaching online tell their stories and engage in a dialogue with colleagues across the consortium.  How might these insights help us build a vision for online teaching and learning that aligns with the core mission of our institutions?

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LACOL 2018 Teaching with Tech ⚡Lightning⚡and (((Thunder))) Round

LACOL

Session: Teaching with Tech ⚡Lightning⚡ and (((Thunder))) Round
Date/Time: Thursday, May 31, NOON – 1:30pm (over lunch)

In the lightning round, LACOL faculty and staff will share an idea or demo – JUST FIVE MINUTES OR LESS – on a digital tool or teaching technique.  Some presentations are flipped – see videos below – so that more time can be devoted to discussion – that’s the thunder.

Lineup and Video Gallery – Watch!

Long term Collaborative Class – Carleton & Addis Ababa U.

Deborah Gross, Professor of Chemistry, Carleton College

Using video conferencing, chemistry students at Carleton College and Addis Ababa University are working together on projects, meeting together via video approximately once per week. This presentation shares the successes and challenges of teaching and learning in a globally connected classroom.

https://youtu.be/1Kekw1HGpoQ
Highlighting Digital Tools for 3 Data Science Skills

Ella Foster-Molina, Social Sciences Quantitative Laboratory Associate, Swarthmore College

The Social Sciences Quantitative Laboratory at Swarthmore College has developed a series of workshops designed to develop data analysis skills. These workshops rely heavily on a variety of digital tools to allow students to interact with, be amused by, and engage the theory behind data. This talk highlights a few digital tools used to teach: (1) theory building, (2) p-hacking, and (3) programming. All links included in the video can be found here.

https://youtu.be/Y7hq7Gg_F4I

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LACOL2018 Workshop Contest 🏆

LACOL
Grand Prize winner Prof. M. Hu from Vassar College
Grand Prize winner Monika Hu

Congratulations to our three LACOL 2018 contest winners!

🎉 Prof. Deborah Gross, Carleton College
🎉 Prof. Stephen Strand, Carleton College
🎉 Prof. Jingchen Hu, Vassar College

Amazingly, all three contestants tied for 1st place in the initial round of voting. Upon further deliberation, Profs. Gross and Strand graciously awarded the grand prize –  The Little Prompter – to Prof. Hu.

Many thanks to Dann Hurlbert, Carleton’s Media and Design Specialist and inventor of The Little Prompter for sharing his expertise and fantastic gadgetry with the workshop.

And, thanks to *everyone* who took part in the contest. Your creativity and good humor was remarkable. All entries will be be shared with LACOL’s advisory councils. Stay tuned for further results of this intriguing deliberation.

Measuring Complex Domains for the Liberal Arts

LACOL

Session: Measuring Complex Domains for the Liberal Arts (Inclusive Pedagogies) with Sensemaker
Resources:
⇒ Project site: https://emergentedu.org
⇒ About Sensemaker: http://cognitive-edge.com/sensemaker/#sensemaker-about
Leads:
⇒ Kristen Eshleman, Director of Digital Innovation, Davidson College
⇒ Brent Maher, Director of Academic Assessment, Davidson College
⇒ Annie Sadler, Instructional Design Fellow, Davidson College
⇒ Paul Youngman, Prof. of German, Chair, Digital Humanities, Washington & Lee University

WATCH!  Intro video (15 min)

https://youtu.be/sLCjhu4M-N8

Innovations in assessment can directly address a key challenge for our institutions – demonstrating our value in a time of increasing skepticism about the liberal arts.

On April 27, Davidson College and Washington & Lee University hosted a LACOL workshop to explore an assessment tool and method called  Sensemaker that has the potential to manage and account for the complex domains of learning.  Pursuing a research design as a network of allied liberal arts institutions provides evidence at scale while building capacity for experimentation and innovation at each of our institutions.  Read More

Data Science meets Environmental Studies at LACOL 2018

LACOL

Workshop Track: Data Science meets Environmental Studies – Exploration
Facilitators:

  • Cailin Huyck Orr, Assistant Director, Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College
  • Kristin O’Connell, Evaluation and Education Specialist, SERC

Program: Session Agendas
Part 1: May 31, 9:30am, Weitz 136
Part 2: June 1, 10:30am, Weitz 230
OLI Discussion: May 31, 3:30pm, Weitz 136

ds diagramThe intersection between Data Science and Environmental Studies is emerging as an area of focus for LACOL as we explore opportunities for collaboration around digitally engaged modes of teaching and learning for the liberal arts.

Several colleges are currently developing programming under the umbrella of Data Science, including critical algorithm studies, big data, data visualization, and data privacy/security. Meanwhile, most LACOL schools have a data-intensive Environmental Studies concentration or major. Interdisciplinary by nature, these areas of study challenge students to understand and work with data from many angles. Students engage in analysis, problem solving, critical thinking, and modes of argument that are deeply connected to social, cultural, political, and aesthetic ideas. Considering such programs, LACOL is thinking about ways that digital collaboration might enrich teaching and learning in this arena.

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Digital Competencies and Digital Studies – LACOL 2018

LACOL

Session: Digital Competencies and Digital Studies
Discussion Leaders:

  • Gina Siesing, Chief Information Officer and Constance A. Jones Director of Libraries, Bryn Mawr College
  • Austin Mason, Assistant Director of the Humanities Center for the Digital Humanities and Lecturer in History, Carleton College

Date/Time: Thursday, May 31, 9:30am-10:30am
Location: Weitz 236
Pre-workshop activity/instructions: Group annotation of the BMC Framework

A. Mason, Carleton College

To build upon foundations laid at the Think Tank on Digital Competencies at Davidson College last fall, an interactive session exploring digital competencies and digital studies across the curriculum will be featured at the the 2018 Summer Workshop.

This discussion will focus on how digital competencies and digital studies programs connect with faculty priorities and practices for teaching and learning in the physical and virtual classroom and how digital competencies support and relate to other learning goals.

To approach these questions, Siesing and Mason will guide:

  • An overview of Bryn Mawr College’s digital competencies framework as one model to stimulate exploration of campus-wide digital literacy programs in the liberal arts, integrating faculty, staff and student comments from the pre-workshop annotation activity.
  • A look at Carleton College’s visioning around curricular pathways for Digital Studies.
  • Discussion of related initiatives across liberal arts colleges, to be continued beyond the session.

As input into this discussion, all workshop attendees are invited and encouraged to share reflections in advance by joining in the Group annotation of the BMC Framework.

Depolluting the Web: Information Environmentalism in Education

LACOL

Hands-On Mini-Workshop @ LACOL 2018

Name: Depolluting the Web: Information Environmentalism in Education
Date: Thursday, May 31st
Time: 2:10pm-3:50pm
Location: Weitz 235
Facilitators:

  • Amy Collier, Associate Provost for Digital Learning, Middlebury College
  • Sundi Richard, Lead Instructional Designer, Davidson College

Session Description:

A. Collier
A. Collier

The web is polluted. The digital platforms where we learn and connect are replete with misinformation and threats to our wellbeing and privacy. We know that toxic digital information environments impact our daily lives, and the lives of our students, in everything from politics, to policy, to interactions in public and private spheres.

What can we do? What does informed participation or activism look like in these polluted web platforms?

S. Richard, mini-workshop co-lead
S. Richard

In this hands-on session, we’ll “get our hands dirty” to better understand the drivers of mis/disinformation on the web (i.e., how our digital information environments become polluted) and begin to take actions to clean up those environments. Dubbed “Information Environmentalism” by Mike Caulfield, this work aims to depollute the web platforms where we find (mis)information and where we connect for social and educational purposes.

Information environmentalism embraces agency–rather than hopelessness and withdrawal–and because of this, we think it is a necessary part of digital literacy education in a liberal arts curriculum. Read More

How to Blend a Course – Hands On (Effective Teaching & Learning)

LACOL
J. Spohrer, Bryn Mawr College
J. Spohrer, Bryn Mawr College

Session: How to blend a course – hands on
Lead presenter: Jennifer Spohrer, Director of Educational Technology Services, Bryn Mawr College
Date/Time: Friday, June 1, 10:30am-11:30am
Location: Weitz 131

This hands-on mini workshop will explore how and why faculty are motivated to blend their courses, even for their residential students on our campuses.

Related sessions at LACOL 2018:

Course Sharing Brainstorm at LACOL 2018

LACOL

Session: Course Sharing Brainstorm
Date/Time: Friday, June 1, 1:30-2:50pm
Location: Weitz 235
Background Reading: Straw Models
Facilitators:

  • Liz Evans, LACOL Director
  • Lioba Gerhardi, Adj. Asst. Professor of German and SILP Director, Vassar College
  • Jingchen (Monika) Hu, Asst. Professor Statistics, Vassar College
  • Steven J. Miller, Professor of Mathematics, Williams College

Sharing courses as a consortium can enhance curricular opportunities, lead to efficiency gains by combining expertise and curricular resources, and provide opportunities for our faculty and students to explore digitally-enhanced, collaborative modes for teaching and learning in the liberal arts.

Building on pilots and proofs of concept conducted in 2017,  faculty and staff across the consortium worked together in the spring of 2018 to explore opportunities and a framework (processes and infrastructure) that could support strategic course sharing.

https://lacol.net/category/collaborations/course-sharing

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QLAB Update and Discussion at LACOL 2018

LACOL

Sessions: QLAB discussions at LACOL 2018
Discussion Leads – QLAB Core Team:

  • Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Professor of Physics, Carleton College
  • Jonathan Leamon, Director of Instructional Technology, Williams College
  • Laura Muller, Director of Quantitative Skills Programs and Peer Support, Williams College
  • Janet Russell, Director of Academic Technology, Carleton College

Presentation file: QLAB overview summer 2018

The QLAB core team led a workshop session to update QLAB participants on the latest developments with the project. The team presented a redesign for the next phases of the project, reflecting a perspective shift from crowdsourcing new or curated materials to adapting existing, validated materials with the multi-campus faculty team. Several lessons learned from the fall 2018 QLAB pilot were discussed. Participants engaged in brainstorming around the applicability of the problems in the validated online skill building modules “The Math You Need When You Need It” for Geosciences and Economics and “Math Bench” for Biology.  Discussion focused on the possible scope of each Qbit, and ways to engage faculty in appropriately framing the Q skill for use in their course(s). Read More

CHIANTI – Shared Grammar Resource

LACOL

The Language Instruction Working Group is currently (Spring/Summer 2018) exploring an idea for a online resource built collaborative by/for LACOL faculty and instructors that will guide language learners on foundational grammar concepts.

There is an emerging plan for collaboration toward Shared Grammar Resources for Beginning Language Students. This concept has been discussed with enthusiasm in some earlier LACOL meetings, and Carleton Professor of Classics Chico Zimmerman has drafted a proposal to articulate more of the vision – see link above and below.

Four small teams are actively collaborating across several schools on the following module topics:

  • General Advice to Learners
    • General advice to incoming students about language-learning at college.
    • This includes some student voices on their learning experiences, but also could include some more general data/research findings on the benefits of L2 acquisition and the potential interferences of L1.
  • Map of Language Learning
    • An “overview” or map of the different domains that language takes in, including “grammar” broadly construed and its relevance
  • Glossary of Grammar Terms
    • A glossary of grammar terms with English examples; perhaps including sentence diagramming
  • Phonetics and Phonology
    • Phonetics/phonology module (perhaps with differing emphases depending on the target languages)

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Active Learning – Strategies & Spaces

LACOL

Workshop Session: Active Learning – Strategies & Spaces

Session Leaders:

  • Michael Jones, Director of Language and Media Centers, Swarthmore College
  • Ashley Turner, Academic Technologist, Swarthmore College

Description: The purpose of this session is to start a discussion about Active Learning Spaces at Liberal Arts Colleges, and explore if there is an opportunity and mechanism through LACOL to share approaches and lessons about the design, technology and support of these classrooms.  

Come to share insights on experimental, flexible learning spaces on your campus.  What is the intent of those space?  How are they used?  How are they assessed?

 

 

LACOL First Timers

LACOL

Workshop Session: LACOL First-timers
Facilitator: Janet Scannell, Chief Technology Officer, Carleton College
Date/Time: Thursday, May 31, 3:30-5pm
Location: Weitz 231 @ Carleton College

J. Scannell, CTO, Carleton College

New to LACOL? Come to this session to learn and brainstorm about the consortium’s purpose, goals, history, current initiatives, and future horizons.

The fourth* consortium-wide LACOL workshop brings together a mix of faculty and staff from across our partner schools for two days of thinking and working. Some participants have been at every workshop and/or are involved already with current projects and initiatives. Others will be brand new to the consortium. For “first timers”, this session is a chance to learn about LACOL, share your ideas, and ask questions!

* Pomona 2014, Haverford 2016, Vassar 2017, Carleton 2018

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Digital Competencies – annotate the Bryn Mawr Framework

LACOL

The activity described below is linked to the Digital Competencies session at the 2018 LACOL Workshop

The concept of digital competencies (also known as digital fluencies, literacies or dexterities) reflects the need for students to develop digital skills and critical perspectives as lifelong learners prepared for scholarship, work and life in the 21st century.  Recently, Bryn Mawr College has developed a digital competencies framework focused on these five areas:

  • Digital Survival Skills
  • Digital Communication
  • Data Management and Preservation
  • Data Analysis and Presentation
  • Critical Design, Making, and Development

Bryn Mawr’s framework served as the basis for the excellent Think Tank on Digital Competencies last fall at Davidson College which attracted a vibrant group of faculty, librarians and technologists from across the liberal arts.

Digital Competencies Session at the LACOL Summer Workshop

For faculty and staff across LACOL to build upon foundations laid at the Think Tank, an interactive session exploring digital competencies across the curriculum will be held at the 2018 Summer Workshop.  This discussion will focus on how digital competencies connect with faculty priorities and practices for teaching and learning in the physical and virtual classroom, and how digital competencies support and relate to higher order learning goals.  

Pre-Workshop Activity – Group Annotation of the BMC Framework

As input to the workshop discussion, we are inviting groups of faculty, staff and students to annotate a copy of the Bryn Mawr Digital Competencies Framework using a collaborative annotation tool called Hypothesis.  This tool is easy to use and allows everyone in a group to add and comment on annotations overlayed on top of any web document through a shared view. Shared annotation for the BMC Framework can help to reveal key trends and themes that will serve as a starting point for face to face discussion at the workshop.

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