Faculty Development News This Week:

Conferences

--"The New Basics: What Students Need to Know" (second notice)

November 14-15, 2003 , Radisson South Hotel and Plaza Towers,Bloomington, Minnesota

The conference will feature pre-conference workshops and other sessions on:

.humor in the classroom,
.electronic portfolios for assessment,
·service-learning,
·cooperative learning,
·grant writing
·using teams to assist learning in the classroom,
·improving student writing,
·visual thinking,
·technology, and more.


The complete conference brochure and registration forms are online at The New Basics.


--"Creating Campus Climates for Learning" (second notice)

November 8, 10 am- 4 pm, College Center, Mesabi Range Community & Technical College, Virginia, MN

Note: Registration deadline: November 4.


This event is free for all state college and university faculty,staff, and students. Register online atCTL/MNSCU.

Learning Communities

Learn about an alternative pedagogy using the arts. This article is from the League for Innovation.


Ritual Poetic Drama.


--College Writing

In April, the National Commission on Writing issued a report calling for increased emphasis on writing in schools and colleges. The Neglected R: The Need for a Writing Revolution put forth a four-part strategy to improve writing in America, including submission each July of a report to Congress. Read the report:The Neglected R. This is a 44- page PDF file.

-Books/ Articles of Interest

Books

--Practical Magic: On the Front Lines of Teaching Excellence, written by John E. Roueche, Mark D. Milliron, and Suanne D. Roueche (American Association of Community Colleges, 2003)ISBN: 0-87117-335-2

Here is the press release for the book:

What constitutes excellent teaching? To answer this question, these noted experts went straight to the thousands of teachers who have been recognized for excellence-recipients of teaching excellence awards-and asked them. Their answers, which the authors have put into context with history and research, make for a book that is as inspiring as it is informative, shedding new light on both the definable and the simply magical components of good teaching.


-- Book Search at Amazon.com

Online book seller Amazon is now offering the
ability to search the entire contents of 120,000 books -- or 33 million pages.


How do you do this?


Log on to Amazon. Do a search. REMEMBER: you are searching 33 MILLION PAGES, so the more refined your key search term, the better. To access pages, you will need to establish an Amazon account, which is free.


Searches are far from perfect; however, this is a neat Web amenity!


Article

---

--College Classes for Critical Thinking

Is there intellectual reflection in your college classes? Read the article: Rethinking Thinking

Diversity

"Diversity and Higher Education: Theory and Impact on Educational
Outcomes", authors Gurin, P., Dey, E., Hurtado, S., and Gurin, G.


This article is from the Harvard Educational Review and is available in text-only or a PDF file (32 pages). Read the article:
Diversity and Higher Education


--"Enacting Diverse Learning Environments"

What is the key to maximizing diverse learning environments? Read the article:
Enacting Diverse Learning Environments


--Diversity Web

Diversity Web is an "interactive resource hub for higher education." Along with a number of resources, this site also publishes Diversity Digest, a periodical published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities to provide campus practitioners with information about successful diversity initiatives around the country.


Visit the Web site:
Diversity Web.

Technology in the Classroom

--Hand-held and Mobile Technologies in Higher Education

Did you know PDA's,small, computer-like notepads that store data such as phone numbers, addresses, lists and calendars, are becoming as popular as cell phones among students? What place do PDA's have in education? Find out by reading the article Handhelds and Mobile Technologies


--The Wireless Campus

Are you ready?


Read the article: The Wireless Campus.


--Pedagogical Advantages of the Wireless Classroom

Essentially, handheld, mobile devices transform any space into a computer lab. Read all about it:


Pedagogical Advantages.


--Online Learning in the United States

A recent study conducted by the Sloan Consortium found that educators nationwide are confident about the future of online education.


Read the report: A Survey of Online Learning.

New Campus Organizations

--Inver Hills Book Club (IHBC)


The IHBC will meet in B 202 on November 10th at 2:10 pm to discuss this month's book, Archangel Protocol by Lyda Morehouse. Lyda will also be present to sign books, answer questions, and discuss her book with the club. See book cover below.


If you have questions about the IHBC, contact Cindy Leslie, the faculty sponsor for this group.


Thanks, Cindy, for enriching our campus!


**




--Gay-Straight Alliance



The first meeting of the Inver Hills Gay-Straight Alliance is this Thursday, November 6, 12-15-1:15 pm, Conference Room A, Student Center. Students, faculty, and staff are welcome. Inquiries should be addressed to Colette Wanless-Sobel or Joyce Kammeraad, the faculty sponsors for this campus group.

The Blog Grab Bag

--Electronic Journal Miner


Want to locate an online journal? Well, this site is for you. Online Journal Miner has the ability to search through hundreds of electronic journal titles by keyword to find journals devoted to your topic. Note: Online Journal Miner does not search the contents of the journals.


Electronic Journal Miner.


--Geography and Environment Gateway



This interesting site includes a core database of high-quality Internet resources for geography and environmental studies. Browsable and searchable, it also links to databases (both free and subscription), reference sources, timelines, career information, and training materials.


Visit the site: GEsource.
Note: Scroll down the page to access the site.


--Open Video Project


Searchable, and browsable by genre, duration, color or B&W, sound or silent, this site includes historical clips, lectures, documentaries (lots of NASA material, hurricane footage, wetlands regained, earthquake footage, etc.), and more. The Open Video Project is managed at the Interaction Design Laboratory at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Neat stuff here.


Open Video Project.


--Words Without Borders

This site aims to "promote international communication through translation of the world's best writing -- selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals -- and publishing and promoting these works (or excerpts) on the web." Currently featuring literature from Iraq.


Visit the site: Words Without Borders.


--Career Voyages

Offered by the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, this site's purpose is to link the educational community with the world of work. This is a great resource for our students.


Career Voyages


--Font Identification

Do you need to identify a font? This site, Identifont can help you out by
allowing you to look up a font by keyword, or identify a font by
answering a series of questions.


Identifont.


--Dia de los Muertos

Nobel laureate Octavio Paz said, "The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it; it is one of his toys and his most steadfast love."


Celebrate life:Day of the Dead.





--Introduction to Probabliity

This site provides an entire, 500+ page textbook on probability. Designed by Dartmouth College for use in a one-semester college course, this is an" introductory" text to probability, although it is definitely not Probability for Dummies!


Introduction to Probability.


--Critical Thinking on the Web

This site hails from the University of Melbourne, Australia and is full of applicable classroom material.


Critical Thinking on the Web.


--Club for Cynics

Not exactly thinking in the Pollyanna mode these days? Well, American Cynic might just be the site for you.


Here is what the site HOMEPAGE has to say about American Cynic:


The Cynic is a weekly, e-mailed distribution list sending interesting information and thought-provoking stories to intelligent, discerning readers at large. We feel that being a little bit cynical is an essential characteristic for a healthy perspective on modern life. We focus on the historical, social, political, and scientific arenas. We'll discuss the media, technology, and current events. The Cynic has been called a "thinking person's Paul Harvey", and "a riot for the sane mind". The weekly newsletter is readable in about 3 to 4 minutes. It's not an intellectual boulder that you have to lug around all day! Our readers really like the Cynic, too. In fact, a subscriber survey found that 93% of readers are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the Cynic; and 82% read it faithfully each and every week.


Tempted?


American Cynic.


--Today in Literature

This site is a calendar of engaging stories about great books, writers, and events in literary history. Free newsletter available.


Today in Literature.

Until next week!


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**Image Credits: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=00404493728889853138&ISBN=0451458273&bfdate=11-01-2003+16:52:54&popup=0&bfinfo=Archangel_Protocol