Recommended Site: ProfHacker – Tips and Advice for College Faculty
Jan. 27, 2010—Faculty members and those intending to be faculty members should check out ProfHacker, a group blog that provides tips, strategies, and advice for being productive and effective college and university instructors. The site features three new posts each weekday on such topics as using Zotero to manage one’s bibliography, how to make the most of...
Book Review: “The First Year Out” by Tim Clydesdale
Jan. 26, 2010—In researching his book The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens After High School (University of Chicago Press, 2007), Tim Clydesdale, a sociologist at the College of New Jersey, conducted in-depth interviews with 75 teenagers, many of whom he interviewed before and after their first year out of high school. The interviewees were diverse in...
Wireless in the Classroom? Advice on Policies and Strategies
Jan. 26, 2010—CFT educational technologist Rhett McDaniel has written a “teaching guide” on wireless Internet access in the classroom. Most students at Vanderbilt have a laptop, netbook, or smart phone that lets them access the Internet provided they have a Wifi signal. Should instructors encourage this during class? Should they discourage it? How can a wireless classroom...
Recent Conference Talks by Derek Bruff on Teaching with Clickers
Jan. 22, 2010—CFT assistant director Derek Bruff recently gave a few conference presentations on teaching with classroom response systems (“clickers”). At the 2010 Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco, January 13-15, Derek co-facilitated a minicourse on teaching math with clickers with Adam Lucas of St. Mary’s College of California. He also organized a contributed paper session on...
Highlights from Richard Cyr’s Talks on Faculty Careers, Large Classes
Jan. 20, 2010—Richard Cyr (Biology, Penn State University) came to campus yesterday as a guest of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL). He gave two talks, an informal lunch discussion of faculty careers in the sciences and an afternoon presentation about teaching large science courses. The Center for Teaching attended both talks...
Rhett McDaniel Quoted in USA Today Story on Backchannel
Jan. 19, 2010—Educational technologist Rhett McDaniel was quoted in a USA Today story on Purdue University’s new Hotseat tool, a Web application that allows students to contribute to “backchannel” conversations during class via text-messaging, Facebook, and Twitter.
Derek Bruff Quoted in Article on Teaching What You Don’t Know
Jan. 19, 2010—Assistant director Derek Bruff’s experiences teaching a cryptography course for the first time was described by Therese Huston in her article “Teach as You Learn” in the NEA Advocate‘s Thriving in Academe series. Huston’s article was based on her new book, Teaching What You Don’t Know, which also features an interview with Derek.
Episode 19 – Teaching Challenging Topics
Jan. 12, 2010—In this episode, we feature a panel discussion with Melissa Snarr, Assistant Professor of Ethics and Society; Brian Griffith, Assistant Clinical Professor for Human and Organizational Development; Vanessa Beasley, Associate Professor with Communication Studies; and Tiffiny Tung, Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department. In this discussion, the four talk about strategies they use when covering...
Episode 18 – Dealing with Student Misconceptions
Nov. 3, 2009—In this episode, we feature a panel discussion with Kathy Friedman, assistant professor in the Biological Sciences Department and Ann Kindfield, senior lecturer in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College. During this panel discussion, Kathy Friedman talks about student misconceptions she has encountered when teaching biological sciences and what she does to...
Episode 17 – Guil Gualda on Student Projects in Google Earth
May. 12, 2009—In this episode, we feature an interview with Guil Gualda, assistant professor of earth & environmental sciences. In the interview, Guil describes a course on the geology of national parks that he co-taught with his colleague Brendan Bream last fall. The course featured a field trip over fall break to the Grand Canyon, as well...