Seeking Proposals for the Faculty Initiatives in Technology (FIT) Program

The purpose of FIT is to provide a supportive program that enables faculty to experiment with tools that may enhance teaching or learning.  Apply for a FIT pilot and receive that extra level of IT support and consulting that can help make experimenting with technology less daunting!

Please submit your application for a FIT pilot by October 15^th  for the spring semester. All applications are reviewed by the Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) and recipients will be notified of the award by November 31^st.

For details about the FIT program please visit the IT web site.  For additional information, please contact Jan Harrison, Manager of Instructional Technology, jaharrison@stonehill.edu  (x1096).

Technology Trainings this week!

Don’t forget to join Information Technology this week for a series of technology trainings designed to assist faculty in using Windows 7, eLearn and some of the newer tools, such as TurnItIn and RefWorks.

You are welcome to come for a single session or for all of them. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to IT@stonehill.edu and indicate which day(s) you’ll be attending. Questions can be directed to Jan Harrison.

Find the full schedule in your “personal announcements” list on myHill.

 

Spring Faculty Showcase

         Friday, May 6th, 9:00 – 12:30

There are so many new and interesting technologies that Stonehill currently has available on campus, or will be introducing in the fall. Faculty are invited to attend any one or all of the showcase sessions (featured speaker list below). If you can’t make it, perhaps you could spread the word about this event to others in your department. There will be plenty of good food, a chance to share ideas, and a gift for having attended!

• Rob Carver- JMP  9:30
• Todd Gernes- TurnItIn   10:00
• Scott Cohen- iPad for teaching and learning    10:30
• Stacy Grooters- Discussion boards in eLearn  11:00
• Jane Swiszcz- RefWorks    11:30
• Brian Glibkowski- FIT         12:00
• Jan Harrison- Windows 7   12:20

Digital Scholarship Seminar: April 29

Digital Scholarship Seminar:
Implications of Data for the 21st-century Humanist

April 29th @ 4:00pm

As increasing amounts of humanities data comes online, scholars face new challenges in adapting traditional research, dissemination, and teaching practices. Without pretending to have all the answers, this presentation will address a constellation of related questions:

• What do humanists gain from using new techniques for quick charting or mapping of their data?
• How can we lower the technological barrier?
• Does this compromise the deep analysis so valued in the humanities?

Notes from “Information Literacy” roundtable

Last week’s roundtable, led by librarians Patricia McPherson and Heather Perry, discussed their research on the impact of library instruction on students’ information literacy skills.

Working specifically with students in history, McPherson and Perry found that after a more traditional library instruction session — what they term a “one-shot session” — students still struggled with some of the basics of research literacy (for example, crafting a focused research question).

In order to address this lack, the two have been experimenting in their library instruction sessions with active learning pedagogies focused on course-specific topics and texts.  Preliminary results have shown particular success with problem-based learning strategies using course-specific cases.

To see an example of one of these problem-based approaches, you can download their full powerpoint presentation.

Intro to Digital Humanities (free online event)

NITLE (the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education) is hosting a free, web-hosted event for scholars interested in joining the national (and international) conversation on the digital humanities.

Being held via the Elluminate online portal on Friday, March 25th from 4:00 – 5:00 pm (EST).

The organizers hope to provide a forum specifically targeted to those who might not have digital humanities resources on their own campuses or in their own regions, and those who might not have a sense of where to get started learning about the people and practices associated with the digital humanities.

Recognizing that the digital humanities has a long history of practice, the panelists will introduce participants to a variety of online communities in which the digital humanities are discussed, conferences where one might be exposed to relevant conversations, and centers that focus on developing familiarity and fluency with digital humanities tools.

To register, email Rebecca Davis at rdavis@nitle.org.  For more information see the NITLE website.

 

Notes from “Learning Theories and Technology” Roundtable

Last week’s roundtable on “Learning Theories and Technology,” led by Prof. Brian Glibkowski (Business Administration) raised interesting questions about the relationship between pedagogy, content, and technology.

Working from interviews with Stonehill faculty, Prof. Glibkowski presented a model for thinking about the different ways technology can intersect with learning in the classroom.

He argued for an integrated approach that recognizes the potential of technology to improve efficiency and pedagogy in the classroom — and is flexible enough to allow for customization across multiple disciplines.

Go here to download the slides from the full presentation, including examples of specific classroom technologies and the kinds of pedagogical problems they can address.

Find the full Spring 2011 Teaching Roundtable schedule here.

Technology Faculty Showcase (Dec 15)

Join Jan Harrison, Manager of Instructional Technology, for our third “Faculty Showcase” on Wednesday, December 15 from 9:00 – 11:30 am in Duffy 214.  Continental breakfast will be served.

The morning will feature presentations by Stonehill faculty on the creative and innovative ways they are using technology to further their teaching and learning goals:

• Brian Glibkowski- Learning Theories and Technology
• Lincoln Craton- Online Assessment Success
• Jack Jackson- Student Videos in eLearn
• Chris Poirier- Student Response Systems
• Dick Gariepy- Sharing Course Information

Contact Jan for more information.

“Crowdsourcing” exam questions

The Profhacker blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education writes today about “crowdsourcing” exams by having students play a role in devising exam questions.

Jason B. Jones, an Associate Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University, invites his students to look back through their notes and texts in order to suggest “passages for identification, short answer questions, and essay exams.”  If enough “smart” questions are suggested, he agrees to draw the final entirely from the student-generated questions:

What’s nice, and sometimes terrifying, about this approach is that the resulting questions usually do genuinely reflect the class’s work. That is, it quickly becomes clear what your students will be taking away from your class. Further, when the students collaborate in this way, they both have to do the reflective, synthesizing work of question-writing (which is better than cramming) and to come to an implicit agreement about what our course was about.

Read the full post here.

Tips for grading student blogs

The “ProfHacker” column in the Chronicle of Higher Education has some tips about how to evaluate student blog assignments.

Here’s an excerpt:

For Jeff, since in some cases he asks students to post twice a week, in at least one class he has done two grades for blogging: one for an overall grade for all blogging, and a second grade, in which students picked their two best posts, revised them, and then submitted them for a separate grade. On the other hand, Jeff says he has a colleague who only spot checks to make sure that students have completed the blogs, but then has them create a portfolio of the best 2-4 posts at the end of the semester for him to provide a grade. Because Julie has been fortunate to have small(ish) classes (typically less than 30 students in each), she reads and assigns a grade to each post, and for the first several weeks offers a comment on each until the communities run themselves.

Read the full article on the CHE website.