reflections

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  • What have you learned so far that may prove valuable to your project?  (You might cite something learned in a workshop but you also might cite an informal conversation with another fellow or staff member or something you figured out on your own.)

It was helpful to see how others conduct their classes and deal with issues in their classrooms
It was good to be exposed to various ways technology is used in the classroom and to reflect on it

  • What progress have you made on your project?
    Arranged meeting with the library and scheduled test time for visiting artist lecture
  • What do you need to accomplish in the next week?
    Test run the lecture, figure out how to use library equipment
    Decide on the way to archive the lectures
    Decide on the assignments related to lectures
    Start putting together a list of artists interested in the experiment
  • Worries and joys?  What’s worrying you about your progress or your next steps?  Has anything got you excited or feeling energized about your upcoming work?
    I am very excited about my project! I think it would be very valuable to students and to the University
    Still worried a bit about technical implementation. Will probably feel better after the test run at the library and figuring out the details.

Blog Post 3: Mid-Institute Check-In

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Due Friday, May 22.  In this reflection activity, fellows will consolidate the learning and progress gained so far and will outline their near-term goals.  Write a few paragraphs in response to the following questions.

  • What have you learned so far that may prove valuable to your project?  (You might cite something learned in a workshop but you also might cite an informal conversation with another fellow or staff member or something you figured out on your own.)
  • What progress have you made on your project?
  • What do you need to accomplish in the next week?
  • Worries and joys?  What’s worrying you about your progress or your next steps?  Has anything got you excited or feeling energized about your upcoming work?

 

Blog Assignment 1: Project Management & Planning

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To document and share your project planning work, write a blog post that addresses the following 4 topics:

  • Identify major components of project work.
  • Identify resources (including consultations with colleagues and staff) needed to complete the project.
  • Articulate questions that remain that you don’t yet know how to answer or solve.
  • Reflect: What about your project plan seems most ambitious or challenging? Where do you anticipate problems or difficulties?  What do you see as the components for which you are most prepared already?
  • Timeline: Map project work against calendar.

Prep for Innovators’ Toolkit 2

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In preparation for Innovators’ Toolkit 2, Risk Taking and Managing Student Expectations, please do the following:

  1. Complete the “Teaching Risk” blog assignment.
  2. Read: Ebbeler, Jennifer. “‘Introduction to Ancient Rome,’ the Flipped Version.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 22, 2013. http://chronicle.com/article/Introduction-to-Ancient/140475/

Teaching Risk Blog Assignment 2, due 5/20/2015 at 10 am

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In preparation for Innovators’ Toolkit 2, Risk Taking and Managing Student Expectations, Wednesday, May 20, 10:00 – 11:30 am, please complete this blog assignment on your personal blog before the session.

Tell about a time you took a teaching risk, e.g., tried something new with your class.

  • What was the nature of the risk?
  • Why did you take this risk?
  • How did your students react? Why?
  • How did you talk to your students about this risk?

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

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The 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. Continue reading →

Announcing Innovation Fellows for 2015-2016

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The Offices of Academic Affairs and Instructional Techonology, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Munday Library are pleased to announce the Innovation Fellowship and Global Innovation Fellowship recipients for 2015-2015. Please join us in congratulating the 2015-2016 fellows, Richard Bautch, Mary Kopecki-Fjetland, Katherine Lopez, Jimmy Luu, Christopher Micklethwait, Rachael Neal, Kristin Cheyenne Riggs, Alexandra Robinson, Jason Rosenblum, and Gary Slater. See the 2015-2016 Fellows page on this blog for more information about these fellows with abstracts of their proposed course redesigns.

This fellowship supports faculty with the resources and expertise needed to experiment with the pedagogy in a course. We consider this fellowship a marker of significant potential and achievement; these fellows are not only pursuing valuable pedagogical innovation but also are contributing in significant ways to the university’s mission and goals.

The Innovations in Teaching Committee (composed of a faculty representative from each school), as well as the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Director of Munday Library, and the Director of Instructional and Emerging Technology reviewed all proposals, ranked them by selection criteria–significance of innovation; connection to the Holy Cross mission and strategic goals of the university; feasibility of the proposed experiment; potential impact on student learning; and planned public dissemination and potential for scholarship and publication based on this experiment–and made recommendations as to which proposals should be accepted.

All Fellows will participate in the Innovation Institute, May 18-29, 2015, offered by the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Munday Library, and the Office of Instructional Technology.

Project Presentation: Collaborative Investigation Through Emerging Technologies

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Sara Parent-Ramos, Visiting Assistant Professor of Art

Brief description of course:

I am interested in developing a lesson unit that focuses on emergent technologies and sculptural approaches. Unit content will include 3D printing and modeling, digital appropriation/ceramic decals and the impact of the “maker” and “DIY” movement on contemporary artistic practice. This unit will be a part of the Introduction to Sculpture course at Saint Edward’s University.

Brief description of the pedagogical experiment:

Approach:

The created unit will be based on a combination of Mastery Learning, Apprenticeship and Studio learning educational models (Bloom 1971, Guskey 2010, Schon, 1983). The unit will emphasize the importance of varying forms of collaborative artistic practice in contemporary art through hands-on experiential learning.

What will you do:

The developed unit will be based on a Studio Learning Model, with additional lectures, demonstrations and site visits (fab labs , etc.).

Projects:

Project #1: Students will modify an appropriated open source 3d printed object in a manner that conceptually comments on the original design.

Project #2: Students will create a ceramic object with appropriated visual decal imagery.

Project #3: For this collaborative group project students will draft a proposal for a large installation/sculpture that uses the technical approaches introduced in class (3d printing/decals).

How will this improve student learning:

This unit will address the following sculpture SLO’s;

  1. Demonstrate competence and skill in the use of basic tools, techniques, technologies, and processes within the sculpture discipline.
  2. Capacity to develop and iterate ideas from initial ideas, to research and through to final project and presentation.
  3. Evidence of personal reflection on artistic decision making process in verbal and written form.
  4. Capable of discussing artistic work and process in the context of class readings/podcasts and larger artistic trends.

In particular, this unit will encourage students to;

  1. Reach beyond the classroom environment to connect with resources
  2. Engage in collaborative practice
  3. Give student confidence in working with emerging technologies

How will you test it?

I will judge this units success based upon students written self-reflections, and the quality of the completed projects.

What will be biggest challenge of this experiment?

  1. The students will need familiarity with collaborative learning and artistic research/planing.
  2. I will need to get my hands on the technology (software/hardware) needed
  3. I need to refresh myself on the technology needed for this project

What is your status? What have you accomplished? What work remains before you teach this course?

  1. I am revamping the Clay I syllabi to include an emphasis on collaborative learnings and artistic research. It is my hope that by emphasizing collaborative learning and artistic research I will empower students to be proactive lifelong learners.
  2. The director of the library and I have organized a group of eleven faculty members who are interested in 3d printing. We are working on drafting a proposal to ask for additional funds from internal and external sources for the development of 3d printing facilities at Saint Edwards.
  3. I will be applying for a grant to take a course at the Digital Fabrication Residency in Laurel Maryland in December (2014).