| Reflections from the Teaching
Difference, and Power Symposium:
Class Matters On April 25th, the CFT hosted a Teaching, Difference, and Power symposium focused on the ways teaching and learning can be shaped or challenged by social class. This was as an event to celebrate and extend discussions that took place over the Fall and Spring of a CFT learning community on social class.
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| About thirty participants listened to several speakers before engaging in a broad discussion. Sharon Shields, Professor of the Practice (Human and Organizational Development) and Associate Dean for Professional Education (Peabody College), kicked off the event by sharing some of the challenges that lower income students face in the classroom and in campus culture. Frank Dobson (Associate Dean of Students) then spoke to the ways class is often an invisible but powerful force in campus life that needs more careful discussion by all members of the community. Richard Blissett (co-leader of Crucial Conversations and PHD Candidate in LPO) focused on the difficulties of talking about class, the experiences of lower income graduate students, and their needs for respect and empowerment. Paul Kramer (Associate Professor of History) offered many theoretically grounded and innovative pedagogical methods for teaching the subject of class. And lastly, Catherine Fuchs (Director of the Psychological and Counseling Center) touched on the ways in which stresses related to social class amplify student mental health problems. The participants then had wide-ranging interchange about the ways in which class differences and conflicts manifest in campus life and the strategies by which Vanderbilt’s staff and faculty can create a more class conscious and inclusive culture. They discussed ways to address a variety of related student issues including stereotype threat, impostor syndrome, financial deficits/needs, stresses, elusive belonging, first generation experiences, and many others. One overarching conclusion was that Vanderbilt, and higher education in general, can benefit from a more critical and thoroughgoing class analysis of all aspects of campus life.
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| CFT Celebrates Certificate in College Teaching Graduates
Congratulations to the all the participants who completed the Certificate in College Teaching, co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and the Graduate School, and the Certificate in Humanities Teaching and Learning this past year! The purpose of the certificate programs is to assist graduate students and post doctoral fellows who wish to gain a clearer, deeper, more active approach to teaching and learning in higher education. For more details on the program, visit the CiCT webpage.
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| From the CFT Stacks This book presents cognitive theory research with practical applications. Faculty are presented with strategies for improving student learning with a series of modest but powerful changes that make a big difference—many of which can be put into practice in a single class period. These strategies are designed to bridge the chasm between primary research and the classroom environment in a way that can be implemented by any faculty in any discipline, and even integrated into pre-existing teaching techniques.
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| The CFT acknowledges these junior faculty who participated in the JFTF program this year!
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| Left to Right: Melanie Adley (Women’s and Gender Studies), Amanda Clayton (Political Science), Lisa Fazio (Psychology and Human Development), Anjali Forber-Pratt (Human and Organizational Development), Jessica Greenfield (French and Italian), Jessie Hock (English), Jessica Oster (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Guojun Wang (Asian Studies), and Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh (Religious Studies) We are now accepting applications for the 2017-18 Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows program. Tenure-track and non-tenure track, full-time faculty who will be in their second through sixth year in 2017-2018 are eligible to apply. Fellows will participate in a series of faculty development opportunities designed to enhance their teaching and build their teaching community. They will also receive $2000 in research funds each to be used to enhance their teaching. For more details on the program or to apply, visit the JFTF webpage. Application Deadline: Monday, May 15th
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| Brightspace Launched as Vanderbilt’s New Course Management System
The Center for Teaching is excited to announce that Brightspace is now available for instructors planning their summer and fall courses. Brightspace will replace Blackboard as Vanderbilt’s course management system starting this summer. The new platform has a modern, responsive design and a number of features that faculty and students will find useful, including drag-and-drop file management, a mobile friendly interface, a virtual classroom, and a student portfolio tool. Faculty can visit http://brightspace.vanderbilt.edu, login with their VUnetID and password, and explore the new system. When faculty login, they will see their Summer and Fall 2017 courses, ready for development. Students are welcome to visit Brightspace, as well, although they might not see much there until their instructors make their courses active. In the meantime, students are encouraged to read about Brightspace features for students.
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| You can also come to one of these workshops to learn more about using Brightspace.
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Introduction to Brightspace
Date: Monday, May 1st
Time: 10:30 -12:00
Location: Center for Teaching
REGISTER Date: Tuesday, May 2nd
Time: 2:30-4:00
Location: Center for Teaching
REGISTER Date: Monday, May 15th
Time: 10:30 -12:00
Location: Center for Teaching
REGISTER Date: Tuesday, May 16th
Time: 2:30-4:00
Location: Center for Teaching
REGISTER
Grading on Brightspace Date: Wednesday, May 3rd
Time: 10:30 -12:00
Location: Center for Teaching
REGISTER Date: Wednesday, May17th
Time: 10:30 -12:00
Location: Center for Teaching
REGISTER
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Latest Podcast Episodes on Ed Tech in Higher Education
In the latest episodes of the Leading Lines podcast we speak with LaTonya Trotter, assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt. Trotter is a medical sociologist, using ethnographic approaches to study how changes in the medical workplace alter how we think about illness and medical care. She was also a Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, and she thoughtfully selects technologies for use in her teaching that align with the goals she has for her students learning.
The most recent episode features Carwill Bjork-James, assistant professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt. He discusses the problem of representation on Wikipedia, ways he has worked with his students to write for Wikipedia, and how he sees his role as a Wikipedian. He serves on the board of the Wiki Education Foundation, a grant-supported non-profit institution, which supports the use of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in higher education contexts across the United States and Canada.
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