Again this year, the Center for Teaching Excellence at St. Edward’s University is hosting a “Books & Coffee” reading and discussion group for faculty.  Over the course of one semester, the group will meet multiple times to discuss the readings.  Like many book clubs, participants will take turns, month to month, leading and facilitating discussion.

THEME:
Teaching, Technology, and Liberal Education in a Digital Age

This semester, we’ll explore a variety of pedagogies and issues related to teaching and technology while keeping focused on the kind of liberal education goals that St. Edward’s values. We’ll explore major emerging issues for liberal education brought about by digital information and digital pedagogies.  We’ll look at how today’s students use technology and what they say about tech use in higher ed.  We’ll explore the ways that social media and online collective learning spaces are changing how students learn and what they can learn.  We’ll look into the explosion of digital teaching resources and approaches to teaching students the range of digital literacies they need to navigate the ubiquity of information they now encounter.  And we’ll consider how future trends may shape our own teaching strategies as instructors focused on providing a liberal education.

In keeping with this theme, we will read a series of recent electronic articles rather than a printed book.  Readings will be made available through a group web site, where we will also augment our in-person discussion by experimenting with some of the new media activities that we are reading about.  We invite both tech optimists as well as tech skeptics and critics.

Meeting and Topic Schedule
Mondays  2:00 – 3:30 pm, Fleck 306

• Mon, Feb 11 – Defining the Issues: How Do Emerging Digital Technologies Challenge Us to Rethink the Goals and Practices of Liberal Education?

• Mon, Feb 25 – Today’s Students: Who Are They, How Do They Use Technologies for Learning, and How Should We Prepare Them for the Digital Information Age?

• Mon, Mar 18 – Learning in a Connected World: How Are Social Media and Digital Collectives Moving Learning Into Social Spaces, and (How) Do These Strategies Work?

• Mon, Apr 8 – Digital Resources and Digital Information Literacy:  How Have Digital Learning Resources Changed the Possibilities for Teaching and Learning, and What Literacies Do Students Need to Know to Navigate the Explosion of Digital Information?

• Mon, Apr 29 – Peering into the Future: Trends, Disruptions, Continuities, and Values for Liberal Education in a Digital Age