Faculty Development News This Week:


Conferences


--Hawaii National Great Teachers Seminar: August 8-12, 2004.


"Hawaii National Great Teachers Seminar is a high energy summer retreat that brings teachers together to learn from each other and exchange teaching innovations and solutions to teaching problems. Click on the links above and explore our website to discover how the seminar can revitalize your approach to teaching!"


Great Teacher


--"Recruiting, Retaining, and Advancing Faculty of Color: Call for Proposals"


18-21 November, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.


Here is information about the conference, using the 1998 program notes:


"The recruitment and retention of faculty of color remains one of the most difficult challenges facing American higher education. Research findings--whether qualitative or quantitative, whether numerical or narrative--demonstrate that American Indian, African American, Latino, and Asian Pacific American faculty comprise, at most, 10% of the faculty, and many describe experiences of racial and ethnic bias in the workplace. Research findings suggest that there is a need to focus on changing the higher education workplace environment to further embrace the value of a racial and ethnically diverse professoriate in order to sustain the viability, vitality, and growth of our institutions in an ever-changing social environment."


"Despite present legal challenges, which must be considered in addressing problems within the workplace environment, a proactive stance toward solutions and strategies is crucial. On October 18-20, 1998, over 300 faculty, administrators, and students from 36 states participated in a national symposium entitled "Keeping Our Faculties: Addressing the Recruitment and Retention of Faculty of Color in Higher Education." The symposium was sponsored by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities."


"The Keeping Our Faculties Symposium provided an arena for stimulating dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policy makers aimed at generating useful strategies for increasing faculty diversity on college and university campuses. This executive summary distills information from the presentations of several symposium speakers with particular focus on their recommendations. Ideas emerged from the scholarly work and practical experience of the 15 plenary speakers and from the 28 concurrent session presenters. Not only are presenter remarks on barriers and strategies highlighted in this document, but results from symposium attendees participating in small group discussion tables and in an interactive keypad technology session will be presented. More information on the symposium is available in the symposium proceedings."


Abstracts are due May 14, 2004. For more information, go to ...Advancing Faculty of Color

Government Reports


--The Effectiveness of Educational Technology


"The No Child Left Behind Act calls for the U.S. Department of Education to carry out a national study of conditions and practices necessary for technology to be used effectively to improve teaching and learning. The legislation calls for the study to use rigorous scientifically based research methods to provide evidence of effectiveness."


This is from Ed.Gov.


Evaluation and Research Reports

Faculty Development


--"Reflecting on Leadership"


Although this report is directed toward leadership in the library profession, it has campus-wide applications.


This report is a publication of Council on Library and Information Resources,
December 2003.


Reflecting On Leadership


This is a 61-page PDF file.


Recommended.


--"Creating a Culture for the Scholarship of Teaching"


This article is from Inventio, 2 (February 2000).


Creating a Culture for the Scholarship of Teaching


--"Developing Discourse Communities Around the Scholarship of Teaching"


This article is from The Carnegie Chronicle, 8 (October 1999).


"Developing Discourse Communities..."

Students


--eLearners Advisor


"The eLearners Advisor is a quick survey that asks you questions related to earning an online college education. Your answers are instantly reviewed to evaluate your readiness for online education."


It is free, too.


eLearners Advisor


--"Knowing Your Students


This is Chapter 4 from Instruction at Florida State University, 4th edition (2002).


Knowing Your Students.


This is a 6-page PDF file.

Active Learning


--"Using Active Learning in the Classroom"


This is Chapter 8 of Instruction at Florida State University.


"Using Active Learning in the Classroom"


This is a 27-page PDF file.


Recommended.


--Collaborative Learning: Collaborative Learning Environments Sourcebook


"This book is a resource for academics and students who want to develop collaborative learning environments (or communities of practice) in which people work together to create new knowledge while learning new skills. See also the background info about the book. "


Collaborative Learning Environments Source Book


Recommended.


--Cubing


Cubing is "a technique for swiftly considering a subject from 6 points of view. The emphasis is on swiftly and 6."


This is from theLearning Assistance Center, Saint Mary's University, Texas.


Cubing


--The Cubing Tehnique


More about cubing from California State University, Northridge.


The Cubing Technique


Recommended.


--Cubing


Even more cubing from Tracy Duckart's Instructional Website, Humboldt State University.


Recommended.


Cubing


--Dialogue Journaling


This site from the National Center for ESL Literacy Education focuses on the social aspects of E-portfolios in education.


Dialogue Journaling


Recommended.

Web Site Design


--Metadata


Metadata provides great advice on Web site construction.


Metadata?

Online Course Design


--Quality Assurance for Online Course Development


This is from Oregon State University.


Quality Assurance


--"Technology Integration as a Transforming Teaching Strategy"


Although this article is directed to K-12 curriculae, it is applicable to postsecondary education as well.


This article comes from techLearning, 1 March 2004.


...Transforming Teaching...


I acquired this reference for this article from The Kept-Up Academic Librarian, 31 March 2004.


--"The Top Ten Blunders in Developing E-Learning"


This article is by Joeseph Ganci, Dazzletech


"The Top Ten Blunders...."



This is a 38-page PDF file.


--"First Principles of Instruction"


The author,David M. Merrill, Utah State University, suggests there are five components to good learning:


*Good learning is problem centered.
*It activates previous experience and knowledge.
*It relies more on demonstration than on telling.
*Learners should be required to use their new knowledge of skill to solve problems.
*And it should integrate new knowledge or skills into everyday life.


First Principles of Instruction


This is a 28-page PDF file.


--"Rival Approaches: Faculty- Led? Institution-Led? Keys to Success"


This article on the best approach for online course development is from the blog Xplana, a community of technologists and educators writing about technology and education.


"Rival Approaches"


Recommended.

Blogging


--Blogs Across the Curriculum


Read the introduction to the site:


"My name is Pattie Belle Hastings, and I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Interactive Digital Design Department at Quinnipiac University. I am also an artist, designer, and author. At some point in the near future, I'll provide a list of links to some of that work."


"I consider this site to be a first draft or beta version, so if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or links, please send me an email! Like all beta versions, I am sure there are bugs and typos. Look for corrections in the updates.""


Bogging Across the Curriculum


Recommended.


--"Campus Communication and the Wisdom of Blogging


This article is from Syllabus Magazine, 31 March 2004.


"...Wisdom of Blogging"

Wikis


--"Five Winning Ways People are Using Wikis Across University of Britsh Columbia


"The resulting spirit of adventure has led to a wide range of applications across campus. Here are five ways wikis are being used by staff, faculty and students at UBC."


"Five Winning Ways"

Blog Grab Bag


--"Living Math"


Here is the introduction to the article"


"In the last several years, Jean Lave and Valerie Walkerdine have developed searching analyses and critiques of mathematics education, particularly in their books Cognition in Practice (Lave, 1988) and The Mastery of Reason (Walkerdine, 1988). Despite their many differences, they share a compelling view of mathematics not as an abstract cognitive task but as something deeply bound up in socially organized activities and systems of meaning. The influence of their analyses has been growing steadily as educational researchers have looked for conceptions of cognition and learning that locate knowledge in particular forms of situated activity and not simply in mental contents (Brown, Collins and Duguid, 1989). Their work has also been part of an increasing interest in the ethnographic study of everyday mathematics (Leap, 1988; Saxe, 1991), the shared construction of mathematical knowledge in school (Newman, Griffin and Cole, 1989), and the relationship between school activities and the rest of life (Carraher, Carraher and Schliemann, 1985; Resnick, 1987; Scribner, 1986). Their understanding of mathematics as fundamentally a sociological phenomenon is a striking turn, holding out the hope for an analysis of math -- and perhaps of schooling and learning in general -- that includes homes, workplaces, and aspects of social relations that structure knowledge and learning across the whole of an individual's life. "


Living Math


--Dictionary of Occupational Titles


Do you know what a foxing cutter is?


Well, a foxing cutter makes shoes by "{cutting} uncured rubber strips to specified lengths for use as foxing with electrically heated knife (hot knife): Places tray-filled parallel strips on worktable. Cuts rows of strips into equal lengths with diagonal ends for firmer bonding, using sample or judging length from experience. Swabs strips with benzine to restore adhesiveness for assembling to footwear. Sets tray of cut foxing on assembly line or stacks them on table. "


Find out about other occupations.


Dictionary of Occupational Titles



--Managing Information in Digital Age


The National Science Foundation's (NSF) workshop on the future of digital library research has published its final report, which is available online:


Knowledge Lost in Information


--How to Build a Personal Library with Free Web Resources


Do you need to replace some classics in your home library? Well, you can do so for free online!


Find out more:


How to Build a Personal Library


--Full Free Text.com


"FreeFullText.com provides direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by ANYONE with Internet access for free (though some may require free registration). The issue(s) which are available for free are indicated for each title on the alphabetical periodical lists. The design of this site is optimized for users seeking specific articles for which they already have the citation. If some of the articles you need are not available for free online, you may obtain them for a fee through a document delivery service, such as Pinpoint Documents. If you wish to "search" for articles on a particular topic, please use a bibliographic database such as PubMed. This site does not attempt to list ALL periodicals on the Internet, only those which offer free full-text content. Titles will be removed from this list if they cease to offer any free full-text content."


Full Free Text.com


--Library of Congress Research Tools


This is a treasure trove of research applications.


Library of Congress Research Tools


--The Uses of Failure


This article is from TechCentral Station.


"The Uses of Failure"


--Annals of the History of Computing


This journal is subscription-based, although some articles are available online for free.


Annals of the History of Computing


--Webreference.com


"One of the oldest and most respected Web development sites (since 1995) WebReference.com, one of the Web sites created by Athenia Associates and now owned by Jupitermedia Corp., is about the Web and Webmastery. From browsing to authoring, HTML to advanced site design, we'll keep you in touch and informed."


WebReference.com


--Science Port.Org


Try out this Beta version.


"The SciencePORT.org Databse contains actually 640 worldwide Sites/NewsFeeds."


Science Port


--Free Stuff from Learning Circuits


"This is the place to sample training software, calculators, cool Web services, and other helpful workplace tools. All demos, trials, and tools are FREE, so check them out and come back often to see what's new. Some of the tools require registration."


Free Stuff


--Tiny Apps.Org: Small is Beautiful


TinyApps.Org provides "a guide to very small software for your PC. Virtually all of the programs listed here are free of charge and for use under Windows."


Tiny Apps


--WorkRave


"Workrave is a program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. Please refer to the feature comparison for a complete list of features, and how the program performs with respect to other programs on the market. The program runs on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows. "


Free download.


WorkRave


--Cartagio


Cartagio Enterprise" provides the tools you need to focus on the task at hand and efficiently capture and manage your online research. Add documents, client correspondence, images, data files etc. to your web projects, record job billing statistics, encrypt sensitive material and effortlessly collaborate...."


Download is free for three weeks.


Cartagio


--Earth as Art


"A series of Landsat satellites have imaged the Earth's surface for nearly thirty years, providing data for applications in business, science, education, government, and national security. The Landsat satellite currently in orbit is Landsat 7. The U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center in South Dakota is the primary receiving station for Landsat 7 data, and it distributes these data to researchers around the world."


This site is from the Library of Congress.


Recomended.


Earth as Art


--"Parrot's Oratory Stuns Scientists"





This African Grey parrot, N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words.


This article is from BBC News, United Kingdom edition.


"Parrot's Oratory Stuns
Scientists"

Until next week!


Blog editor

Image credits: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3430481.stm