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Seventh Annual Rensselaer Colloquium
on Teaching & Learning
May 14 - 15, 2007
The Office of the Provost held the Seventh Annual Rensselaer Colloquium on Teaching and Learning on May 14-15, 2007. This year's colloquium brought to Rensselaer some exciting keynote speakers from Georgia Tech, Aalborg University, Olin College of Engineering, and MIT. The colloquium was open to all faculty, staff, and graduate students.Program
Day 1
May 14
Problem-Based Learning
Refreshments available
Welcome & Introduction DCC 337
Prabhat Hajela,
Vice Provost & Dean of Undergraduate Education,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Brad Lister
Director, Anderson Center
Morning Keynotes (ID# M1) DCC 337
Wendy Newstetter
Director of Learning Sciences Research,
Georgia Institute of Technology
The challenge of interdisciplinary engineering:
Designing learning environments for integrative problem solving
Wendy C. Newstetter is the Director of Learning Sciences Research in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received her B.A. from Colby College in Asian Studies and her M.S. and Ph.D in Linguistics from Lancaster University in England. She conducts research on learning and cognition in interdisciplinary research laboratories and classrooms using ethnographic and qualitative research methods. Her goal is to create greater parity between these two sites of learning.
Lise Kofoed, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Media Technology and Engineering Science
Aalborg University, Copenhagen
The Aalborg Pedagogical Model: Problems, Possibilities, and New Challenges
The presentation introduces the Aalborg Pedagogical Model, Project Organized and Problem Based Learning with special focus on the process skills. Which qualification will the students get and which qualifications are needed from the teachers. Furthermore a PBL Staff development program is presented, and finally the challenges concerning PBL in new combined engineering educations will be raised.
Lise Kofoed, PhD, is Associate Professor at Aalborg University. Her BA is in psychology and she holds an MA in social science, but has for many years worked within the faculty of engineering and science. Research interests are focused on learning and organizational development in general and especially learning within engineering and science.
LBK is head of the section for a new engineering education, Media Technology, and has previously been initiating a new engineering education in Architecture and Design, where she was Department head for five years.
Break
Jeannette Yen
Director, Center for Biologically-Inspired Design
Georgia Institute of Technology
Biologically-!nspired Design: A Tool for Engineering Innovation
talk references
course syllabus
... For Jeannette Yen, a scientist, professor in the school of biology, and director for Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech, one of the advantages of teaching biomimetics is that it allows students from different disciplines to feed off one another and to appreciate each other's fields. For example, "studying the Gecko has helped in the development of non-toxic adhesives, but it also means we'll appreciate the lizard more," says Yen. With a specialty in biological oceanography, Yen is presently studying underwater communication and the use of animals' odors in the sea as signals. "Perhaps this will inspire the design of a sensor for underwater vehicles," Yen explains. ... (citation)
Lunch - BBQ location TBA
Afternoon Plenary Session (ID# M2) DCC 337
Michael Moody
Dean of the Faculty,
Olin College of Engineering
Building, Teaching and Evolving the Olin Curriculum:
Challenges, Successes, Failures and Lessons Learned
Olin College graduated its first class on May 21, 2006, and is one of the newest educational institutions in the country. The College started with a "clean slate" and a charge to explore innovation in engineering education. This talk will describe the major challenges of creating a new institution and creating a novel academic culture, with a particular focus on developments that are distinctive and that could be of interest as models for other programs.
Dr. Moody received his B.A. degree from the University of California at San Diego in 1975, with a double major in Mathematics and Chemical Physics, and a double minor in History and Philosophy. Pursuing an interest in biological systems at the University of Chicago, he finished an applied mathematics thesis in population genetics in 1979. Following graduate school, he spent two years as a USPHS post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. In 1981 he joined the faculty at Washington State University, with a joint appointment between the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics and the Department of Genetics and Cell Biology. He had a Fulbright Fellowship for research to the Institute for Mathematics at the University of Vienna 1990-91. In 1994 Dr. Moody moved to Harvey Mudd College as the Diana and Kenneth Jonsson Professor of Mathematics and mathematics department chair.
Dr. Moody's research in biomathematics focuses on genetic models for evolving populations. His developmental work in teaching is concentrated on designing and implementing curricular models and technological tools to improve mathematics education for engineers and scientists. Dr. Moody was co-designer and developer of the award-winning multi-media ODEArchitect software program for teaching and solving ordinary differential equations. He has also published two books for integrating technology into the calculus curriculum through laboratory experiments. All of this work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. He has given numerous talks and workshops at national meetings on these topics.
Phil Long
Director of the MIT-MS iCampus Project,
MIT
Increasing Access to Laboratory Experiments in the 21st Century Curriculum: Extending Engagement in the Act of Investigation. iLabs and Other Technologies That Go Bump in the Night
Phillip Long is a Senior Strategist for the Academic Computing Enterprise at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In this role, he provides direction to the development of academic computing to support the integration of technology into the curriculum. He coordinates the CrossTalk faculty technology forum at MIT and is an associate of the MIT Teaching and Learning Lab. Current activities include the evolution of mobile computing services, the future of student computing environments, and scalable delivery for compute intensive applications for undergraduate education. As a member of the leadership team for the Open Knowledge Initiative, a Mellon-funded project to develop an open source, standards based architecture for learning tools, he coordinates OKI outreach efforts and leads a workgroup concerned with educational activities and learning practices. He also serves on the policy committee of the DSpace project. Dr. Long is a Fellow of the MIT Leader-to-Leader leadership development program.
Dr. Long's professional activities include serving on the 2002 Syllabus Conference Board as a past Chairperson; contributing a regular column on Technology Trends to Syllabus Magazine; and Chair of the Advisory Committee on Teaching and Learning of the NLII. Dr. Long is also a Senior Associate with the TLT Group, the AAHE technology affiliate. He serves on numerous advisory boards and professional committees including the U.S. Army Distance Learning Subcommittee, Stevens Institute of Technology WebCampus Advisory Board, and Advisory Council of the Global ICT Education Program. He has shared his knowledge and expertise at numerous conferences, invited presentations, and published works.
Dr. Long enjoys running, birding and maintains his fragile state of mental health through an avid dedication to sailing.
Day 2
May 15
Innovations in Teaching & Assessment at RPI
Morning Speakers: DCC 337
Refreshments, Welcome & Introduction
Clickers in the Classroom (ID# T1)
Michael Hanna, Bruce Laplante, Brad Lister, and Harry Roy
Michael Hanna, Bruce Laplante, Harry Roy, and Brad Lister will discuss the use of several vendors' products in Rensselaer courses.
iClicker radio frequency systems will be used and demonstrated.
If you have used clickers before or would like to use clickers soon, this talk is for you.Assessing Learning Gains in Calculus I & II (ID# T2)
Joe Ecker, Maya Kiehl, Brad Lister, Bill Siegmann
Break
From Critical Thinking to Critical Wisdom:
Building Instructional Community for Student Engagement at a Technological University (ID#T3)
Atsushi Akera, Department of Science and Technology Studies
Jim Fahey, Department of Cognitive Science
John Gowdy, Department of Economics
Julie Gutmann, Department of Language, Literature, and Communications
From economic globalization to the "quiet crisis," various forces have compelled technological institutions to broaden their undergraduate curricula, this in response to the new skills and perspectives that technical professionals need to possess to succeed in the 21st century. Rensselaer's First Year Studies Program has striven to provide our students with the requisite abilities and outlook, and we have done so by building up an instructional community centered on the notion of critical thinking, and critical wisdom. During this session, we hope to introduce our work to the rest of the Rensselaer community by demonstrating both the content and process by which we have developed instructional techniques that foster critical inquiry and critical engagement. Following a brief introduction and historical contextualization by the program director, key instructors from the program will describe the specific instructional techniques and exercises that they have developed for their respective courses (Life Writing; Growing Up in America; and Minds & Machines). We will also describe a specific assessment instrument that we have developed to measure critical wisdom, and will discuss how we hope to use this instrument to reflect and improve upon our instructional strategies.
Lunch - location TBA
Afternoon Workshop
Facilitating Effective Groupwork / Project Oriented Learning—IT Workshop (ID# T4) Lally 102
Atsushi Akera, IT Faculty
David Spooner, Associate Dean, IT Program
Greg Hughes, Chair, IT Program Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
The IT Program will be sponsoring a workshop on effective groupwork / project oriented learning strategies as may be practiced at Rensselaer.
Specific topics for hands-on work and discussion include:
- Goal-directed design of teamwork / group work
- The team assignment process
- Effective facilitation of groupwork by instructors and TAs
- Assessment strategies
We will also hold a general discussion about other approaches, including educational simulation, integration and retention, and lab-based exercises, which aim to add pedagogic depth to and increase student engagement with team-oriented exercises. While the exercises may center on the courses affiliated with the IT program, all instructors with an interest in the effective design and execution of teamwork / group work projects are invited to attend.
Hybrid / Blended Instruction and Emerging Technologies:
Choosing the Right Tools (ID# T5) CII 3206
Marie-Pierre Huguet
Course Developer
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Cagri OzkoseBiyik
Course Development Intern
SUNY Albany
This workshop focuses on the elements of instructional design that drive the development of effective hybrid/blended instruction and on the variety of tools and strategies that can be used to design, develop, and evaluate them. The participants will be led through a series of mini presentations, discussions, and hands-on activities that will enable them to select the tools and technologies that work best for them so that they ultimately can develop their own, successful hybrid/blended course(s). The technologies discussed during this workshop include:
- Teaching and learning tools (RPILMS, synchronous and asynchronous tools, pod casting, blogs and wikis, ...)
- Design tools (ID models, design brief, storyboarding, ...)
- Development tools (media creation, HTML editors, accessibility tools, ...)
- Evaluation tools (process, matrix, formative and summative, ...)
Getting Started with PodCasting: A Hands-on Workshop (ID# T6) CII 3112
Bill St. John
Clinical Associate Professor, Lally School of Management and Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Learn how and why iPods and podcasting are being used in top business schools across the country to enhance curriculum, capture student's attention, support their learning, and provide unprecedented opportunities to deliver and access educational content. The instructor for the workshop will be supported by experienced Apple facilitators.
With the assistance of Apple Computer the participants will have the opportunity for hands-on learning and attention from session facilitators.
What you will learn
You will learn how to prepare audio content tailored to your classroom needs in iTunes; how to create your own podcast with professional results; and learn simple workflows, the equipment you will need, and how to get started; Strategies for supporting students and teachers who want to publish their own easily accessible podcast content.
Featured Solutions
GarageBand and iTunes, Windows software will be discussed
Who Should Attend
Faculty, Department Chairs, and other accounting program leaders
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The Lois J. & Harlan E. Anderson Center
for Innovation in Undergraduate Education
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
CIUE 3119 CII
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180-3590
518.276.4831
518.276.4852 (fax)
http://ciue.rpi.edu