Faculty Development News This Week:

The Evolution of the Community College


--"Bridging Generations: A Community College Imperative"

This article discusses how it is imperative for community colleges, as community-based organizations, to connect with mature adult communities.

Bridging Generations


--"Learning Ecology, Communities and Networks: Extending the Classroom"

Summary of article: " Learner-centered, lifelong learning has been the cry of knowledge society visionaries for the last decade. Yet learning continues to be delivered with teacher-centric tools in a twelve week format. Society is changing. Learners needs are changing. The course, as a model for learning, is being challenged by communities and networks, which are better able to attend to the varied characteristics of the learning process by using multiple approaches, orchestrated within a learning ecology." --George Siemens


Read the article: Learning Ecology


--Knowledge Ecology

"When working with knowledge it is more useful to picture an ecology, than to envision a library -- think links, relationships & flow rather than collections, classification & objects."--Denham Grey


Intrigued? Read the article:
The Meaning of Knowledge Ecology


--"Ideas as Corridors"

Article summary: "Our reality is shaped by the ideas we hold. A model of ideas as corridors (larger structure of ideas which determines the nature of subsets of ideas) is presented. The article explores how ideas are developed, how they are challenged, and the implications in an educational and knowledge sharing context. "--George Siemens


Read the article: Ideas as Corridors

CTL Conferences / Seminars

--"The New Basics: What Students Need to Know Now"
The conference will take place at the Radisson Hotel South in Bloomington, MN, November 14-15, 2003. The registration form / conference schedule is available online at Collaboration.


--The Teaching Professor Conference, Call for Proposals

The Teaching Professor Conference is currently accepting proposals for the May 21-23, 2004 conference in Philadelphia. There are four tracks for conference proposals: (I)Flexibility, Adaptability, Vitality and Advocacy: Peers, Mentors, and 'Staying Alive' in Higher Education Today"; (II) Learning: What Does Learning Mean and How Does That Change My Teaching"; (III) The Sensible Use of Technology: It's Here to Stay--What Do I Do With IT"; and (IV) Teaching as Scholarly Work: Rewarded and Recognized."

To submit a proposal for the conference, click on the conference Website: Teaching Professor Conference. I also have some promotional literature, if anyone would like to see it.

CTL Discipline and Program Workshops

--ECONOMICS: A Conversation about Undergraduate Economics Education in Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. October 23, Metropolitan State University. Contact: Shannon Marting, Inver Hills Community College.


--COMPUTER SCIENCE: 1st Computer Technology Educators Conference (CTEC). October 24-25 at Hennepin Technical College, Brooklyn Park. Contact: Larry Gottschalk, Metro State University.


--SERVICE LEARNING: Engineering and Computer Science, sponsored by Minnesota Campus Contact. October 30-31 at 3M Facility, Tartan Park Clubhouse, Lake Elmo. Contact: Lori Frasee.


--SERVICE LEARNING: HISTORY, sponsored by Minnesota Campus Contact. November 14-15, Minnesota History Center, Saint Paul. Contact: Lori Frasee.

Interpersonal Dynamics

--Article on how to resolve conflict: "When Mediation Goes Awry: Reflections on the Internal Complexities of Being Human."
Read the article at When Mediation Goes Awry

Teaching

--Backlash Against Technology

This is a book review of The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom by Todd Oppenheimer (Random House, 2003). It appeared in the October 14, 2003 edition of The Christian Science Monitor.


Why Computers Have not Saved the Classroom


--"Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom"

Are hot moments in the classroom baseline for you, or do you do everything possible to prevent such occurrences? This article discusses how to manage anger, argumentation, and verbal outbursts: Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom


--"Women and Men in the Classroom"

This study examines how gender affects the quality of teaching and learning in college. Specific questions addressed: What are the differences, if any, between male and female students' participation in classroom discussion? How does the gender of the teacher affect student participation?


Read the article Women and Men in the Classroom


--IDEAS on TEACHING

This teaching Web site by Daphne Pan, University of Singapore, is a treasure trove
for ideas on how to choreograph active and reflective learning in the classroom.

Ideas on Teaching


--Active Learning: Cognitive Flexibility

Just what is cognitive flexibility? Educational psycho-babble? For background reading on the theoretical underpinnings of cognitive flexibility, click on Cognitive Flexibility and on Pioneering a New Way of Learning in a Complex and Complicated World.


--"Teaching for Engagement"

This article is from the July/ August 2001 issue of Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors.
Teaching for Engagement.


--Primary Sources Online

This is an online tutorial that defines primary sources, shows how to find them on the web and evaluate them, and then cite them appropriately.


Primary Sources


--"The Educators Manifesto"

This article by Robbie McClintock,Institute for Learning Technologies
Teachers College, Columbia University, argues for digital technology as an agent of social change and transformation.


Read the article:The Educators Manifesto (This is a PDF file, 78 pages.)

Blog Grab Bag

--Researchers and Blogs

This site provides an annotated list of research blogs used by scholars and educators. There is useful information here, but you need to dig for it.


Annotated List of Research Blogs


--Non-Computerized Games for the Economics Classroom

This site has a variety of games for the economics classroom. Games Economists Play


--A Brief Guide to Questionnaire Development

A how-to guide for this method of primary research. Questionnaire Development


--Political Science Game

The Aid Game is about "giving charitable aid to developing countries. These countries may suffer the dual challenges of high mortality from hunger and disease, and even higher birthrates, leading to ever greater demands on their natural resources, and more hunger, in a vicious cycle. In the Aid Game, you explore alternative aid packages, to see which kinds of aid work best, and why."


Aid Game


--Political Science/ History/ Critical Thinking/ Creative Problem Solving: International Conflict Simulation

Reenact the Cuban missile crisis: International Crisis


--The Politics of Time

This article looks at how we struggle with "the politics of time." Time to Act.


--Mathematics and Art: Archimedes

Visual creativity and geometry merge on Archimedes.


Archimedes


--RedLightGreen

This site revolutionizes the Union Catalog. "The immediate goal for RLG's RedLightGreen project (formerly known as the Union Catalog on the Web) is to offer rich, reliable library information that is unique in the Web environment and to deliver that information in ways that meet the expectations of Web-savvy users. "


RedLightGreen


--Economics: Online Resources for Economics

This site contains over 1,000 items for those interested in economics.
Resources for Economists on the Internet


--Mountaineering on the Web: Imaging Mount Everest

Have you ever wanted to scale Mt. Everest but little things held you back--like traveling to Nepal, fear of heights, not wanting to die.... Well, this site is for you!


Read the promo:


"To mark the anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in conjunction with the British Council in Nepal has created an exhibition called Imaging Everest from its collection of approximately 20,000 photographs taken on the nine Mount Everest Expeditions between 1921 and 1953. These expeditions were jointly organized by the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club."

Imaging Everest

Until next week!


Blog editor