Partner with Instructional Technology to Research New Technologies

Venn diagram of participatory action researchInstructional technology is researching how best to integrate several technologies for teaching and learning at St. Edward’s. We are seeking faculty to partner with us in this research. Would you like to try any of the following activities in your courses this year?

  • Virtual meetings for group projects, office hours, etc.
  • Connecting students through live video (in or out of the classroom) to remote colleagues, students, or experts
  • Recording and/or sharing presentations outside of class
  • Flexible furniture to enable group work (seats 24)
  • Working with the library to take advantage of digital course materials.

If so, you can express your interest (without making a commitment) by using this form at http://bit.ly/SEUpilots2015

New Technologies in Pilot Status

Instructional Technology and our colleagues in the Office of Information Technology are bringing several new instructional technologies to the SEU community, as well as conducting research on some technologies that became available in the last two years to better understand their pedagogical uses.

  • The technologies to support virtual meetings and live video are desktop video conferencing with Webex or high definition video conferencing in the global digital classrooms in the library. For Webex, every faculty member can have their own 100 person meeting room, and each student gets an 8-person meeting room.
  • Panopto is a new tool that allows users to easily record presentations from their desktop with video and slides synched together. It is only available through Canvas.
  • Moody 212 is our experimental flexible furniture classroom. It holds 24 students, and has wheeled node desks that can be easily rearranged, as well as huddle boards—which are portable whiteboards for group work.
  • Finally, staff in the Munday library are interested in demonstrating the many ways they can help you and your students integrate digital materials, including online e-reserves, linking to ebooks from your course in Canvas or Blackboard, and openly available digital resources.

What else would you like to try?  Let us know by responding on the survey form or just get contact us via email at instcom@stedwards.edu!

Using the Experimental Classroom for Collaborative Group Work

Do you do group work in class?  Are you frustrated by the time spent moving tables and chairs to facilitate your groups?  The experimental classroom in Moody Hall 212 is designed to make it easy for students to work in groups.  The room features 25 moveable chairs with an integrated desk that can easily be moved around allowing students to quickly form groups. In addition, the room is equipped with “huddleboards” or small whiteboards for group use as well as the standard teacher’s computer station and display.

Rachael Neal, Michael Kart, Chris Mosier and Billy Earnest participating in a discussion

Rachael Neal, Michael Kart, Chris Mosier and Billy Earnest participating in a discussion

Chair with integrated desk on wheels

Chair with integrated desk on wheels

This flexible set up encourages a variety of active learning experiences for students.

  • language students can easily move between groups to practice their conversational skills with different partners
  • students can collaborate to produce solutions in problem-based learning exercises
  • instructors can lead students through a cooperative learning activity like the jigsaw technique in which students form teams to cover different areas of an assignment then recombine in mixed groups to assemble their knowledge

Several faculty taught in the room in the spring. Rachael Neal reports that her students were “super excited to have class discussions” in the room. Kim Garza thought being in the room brought her students together.

MH 212 is available for scheduling for individual classes or for the entire semester. To schedule MH 212 for an individual class, look in 25 Live for availability and schedule with Genevieve Bittson in Academic Affairs (gbittson@stedwards.edu).  To request the room for the full semester, please complete this form (directions for submission are on the form.

If you are interested in partnering with instructional technology to research how to best use the flexible classroom or some other new technology, please express your interest in this brief form: http://bit.ly/SEUpilots2015

Select Innovation Institute sessions open to all faculty: May 20, 22, 26, and 27

InnovationThe Center for Teaching Excellence, Department of Instructional Technology, and Munday Library invite all faculty to join us for select sessions from this year’s Innovation Institute.

Although most of the Institute’s sessions are only open to the 2015-16 Innovation Fellows, this year we are opening up five workshops to any interested St. Edward’s faculty member (full-time, part-time or adjunct, and staff who teach). The open workshops are listed below.  If you wish to attend any (or all!) of them, please sign up so that we can anticipate attendance.  To learn more about the workshops and register please see the full workshop listing on the Innovation Fellowship Blog.

Workshop 1: Gathering Digital Resources & Using Digital Tools for Research, Collaboration, and Projects, Wednesday, May 20, 12:15 – 2 pm, Fleck 305

Workshop 2: Designing Collaborative Learning Activities and Projects, Friday, May 22, 12:15 – 2 pm, Moody 212

Workshop 3: Approaches to Discovery, Inquiry-guided, and Problem-based Learning, Tuesday, May 26, 12:15 – 2 pm, Fleck 305

Workshop 4: Course Design Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement in Activities Outside of Class, Wednesday, May 27, 9:30 – 11:30 am, Fleck 305

Workshop 5: Scaffolding Student Learning In (and Across) Projects, Wednesday, May 27, 12:30 – 2:30 pm, Fleck 305

New Technology for Innovative Learning & Teaching Pilot Project Grants for 2015-2016

Swivl-iPad-Mini-2-thumb-316x333-51901The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable (TLTR) congratulates the winners of Technology for Innovative Learning & Teaching Pilot Project Grants for 2015-2016. These grants fund faculty who wish to pursue innovative and technologically-sophisticated teaching. All proposals are evaluated by the TLTR Grants Selection sub-committee, comprised of at least 3 faculty members, 2 instructional technology staff members, and the CTE director. Abstracts for the projects are available on the TLTR Pilot Projects webpage. This year’s projects will engage students in research by using mobile devices to gather data and by using qualitative data analysis, join the Maker movement through 3-D printing, use remote control robots in conjunction with iPads to document teaching practice, and help students gather and reflect on their own personal data.

This year’s winners are:

Raelynn Deaton Haynes, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences (NSCI) for the project, “Grabbing Panama by the Isthmus: Using Technology to Enhance the Study Abroad Experience for Evolution Students”

Rachael Neal, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Social Work, and Criminology (BSS) for the project, “Inside and Outside: Exploring the Boundaries of Community”

makerbot-printer_smSara Parent-Ramos, Visiting Professor of Art, Visual Studies (HUM) and Michael Massey, Assistant Professor of Humanities, for the project, “3D Printing Pilot Project: Interdisciplinary Applications and Pedagogical Explorations”

Kris Sloan, Associate Professor of Education and Chair, Teacher Education (EDUC) for the project, “Capturing Complexities in Classroom Teaching”

fitbits_smMichael Wasserman, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science & Policy (BSS) for the project, “Incorporating Personal Health Devices Into Environmental Science and Global Studies Courses in Angers, France: Understanding the Influence of Culture and Environment on Human Health”

Using Box for Collaborative Cloud Storage in Your Courses

Box is a cloud storage and collaboration solution available to St. Edward’s University students, faculty, and staff. With Box, you can create, store, collaborate, and access files and information securely from anywhere, on a multitude of devices. Faculty, you have 50 GB of storage space on Box. Use it today to save files for your courses and share folders and files with your students or colleagues to collaborate.

Box Logo How do I Access Box?

To access your new Box account, visit https://stedwards.app.box.com and click continue. You will be routed to the myHilltop login screen, and after successfully entering your St. Edward’s username and password, you will be routed to your Box dashboard.

Once logged in, you can check out the “Welcome to Box” resources folder provided for you. Please review the Box SEU FAQ document. There is also helpful documentation and videos, to help you get the most out of the great Box benefits now available to you, including:

How are Faculty using Box Today?Box Interface

Faculty, staff, and students are currently using Box for their work and courses. Here are a few faculty stories of how Box is used for their courses:

Kim Garza, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, uses Box in her course and shared her story:

“I wanted to share what happened in my class yesterday with Box. At the beginning of the semester, I created a class folder by posting the collaboration link in Bb/Canvas (super easy). We’ve been adding files to it along the way. But yesterday, I asked them to edit a Box note in class. They were so jazzed by the colored boxes with their initials moving all over the place. It was a bit performative in nature. I enjoyed watching them delight in collaborating in the cloud synchronously. Now, I will say that their task wasn’t really profound — an over-glorified sign-up sheet — but the engagement and geek-out factor was off the charts.”

Other faculty, including the Capstone Faculty, such as Todd Onderdonk, Associate Professor Of University Studies, are encouraging their students to use Box as a great option for the students to store the electronic parts of their research files in Box folders, and to help them with their research processes.

Jump In or Get Help

Box is fully available to all faculty, staff, and students of St. Edward’s University.  Feel free to start using it whenever you are ready. If you would like support, however, in using box, the Office of Information Technology can help.

Watch Videos about Experiments in Teaching at St. Edward’s University

Curious about what your colleagues are up to in the classroom? Looking for some new ideas for next semester?  Check out this playlist of two-minute videos from the “Experiments in Teaching” faculty innovation showcase held Friday, October 24th.

Want to try your own experiment? Consider applying for an Innovation Fellowship or Technology for Innovative Learning & Teaching Pilot Project Grant.

Enable Student Creative Work with Digital Scholarship Projects

Class blog for Contemporary World Issues, taught by Chris Micklethwait

Class blog for Contemporary World Issues, taught by Chris Micklethwait

We invite all faculty to join your colleagues for a tech snack on how to engage students with digital scholarship projects on Wednesday, November 5 from 3:30 – 4:30 in Library 141.  This tech snack will feature three innovation fellows discussing a variety of digital projects: Continue reading

Did you miss the Experiments in Teaching Showcase on Oct. 24th?

If you missed the Faculty Innovation Showcase “Experiments in Teaching” on Friday, October 24th. Here is a full recap on what the attendees learned from the faculty 2 minute “lightning” presentations:

Presenters Announced for Experiments in Teaching

Green lightningJoin the Center for Teaching Excellence, Instructional Technology, and the Munday library for lightning talks and a discussion on pedagogical experiments, Friday, October 24, 3-5 pm in the North Reading Room (Library 137), Munday Library.

We invite all teaching faculty (full-time, adjuncts, and staff who teach), staff, and administrators to join us for talks and a reception celebrating pedagogical experiments on campus. Featuring a wide variety of St. Edward’s faculty members making brief presentations about their innovative teaching projects, “Experiments in Teaching” will explore the range of teaching initiatives at St. Edward’s University and the models they afford our teaching community. We aim to create a venue for colleagues to share the challenges and successes of teaching innovation. The event will be an open reception with food, drink, and “lightning” talks, followed by informal conversation among all participants.

Presenters will use the brief lightning talk format to share a “teaser” for their project then be available for more conversation. Lightning talks will begin at 3:30 pm and include the following faculty and topics:

John Abbott | Using the Citizen Science Website iNaturalist In and Out of the Classroom

Alex Barron | Service Learning in Bangladesh

Peter Beck | Teaching a field research course at Wild Basin

Mary Brantl & Charles Porter | Endurance & Excitement: 2012’s Enduring Women

Monica Cicciarelli | Teaching with a Tablet and Screen Video Capture

Billy Earnest | The iPad-enabled Classroom: Results & Recommendations

Jennifer K. Greene | A Citizenship-Centered Capstone Model

Raelynn Deaton Haynes | Food for Thought: Teaching Marine Conservation through the Eyes of Biodiversity and the Mouths of Students

Kendall Kelly | Bringing the World to Austin: Using the GDC to Create a Global Classroom

Judy Leavell and David Hollier | Anticipating Teachers’ Futures with iPad Technology

I. Moriah McCracken | Teaching Writing with Online, Self-Directed Resources

Jeff Potratz | Hodge Podge: Google Forms, Annotated Answer Keys,’Screen Capture’ Videos, and Pre-Lab Videos

Mark Poulos & Angel Tazzer | The value of classroom teamwork assignments: Is it to reduce the amount of time we spend in grading or is it to prepare students to work well with other colleagues in their future endeavors?

Jason Rosenblum | Gameful learning in Global Social Problems : Fostering impact through experiential engagement

Georgia Seminet | Real Time Quizzing, Polling and Assessment in Class Using Socrative

Tricia Shepherd | POGIL – focusing on both what (content) and how (process) using guided inquiry team based learning

Michael Wasserman | A Travis County Almanac: Using Nature Blogs to Connect Students to Their Local Environment

Pre-register for the event: http://ow.ly/BN5hy

We hope to see you there!

Trends in Academic Publishing Round Table, Thurs., Oct. 16, 3:30 to 5 PM, Fleck Hall 314

Open Access LogoThe Internet, digital tools, and digital methodologies have drastically transformed scholarly communication.  This Thursday the Munday library is sponsoring a round table discussion that considers these transformations specifically in the area of academic publishing.  Here is the official announcement:

You are invited to a Round Table discussion on the state of academic publishing. If you ever wondered how books are sold, library collections are built, and how new modes of information dissemination affect your scholarship, please join us in this discussion. The panelists will be Sara Hills, Collection Development Librarian, John McLeod, Assistant Director UT Press, and Gary Morris, Dean of the School of Natural Sciences. Pongracz Sennyey, Library Director, will moderate the panel on Thursday October 16, 3:30 to 5 PM in Fleck Hall 314.