BG News Article-"New Univ. blogging systems means new route of comminication"

Today the BG News published an article about different blogs around campus. The article features information and insight about blogs run by the Center, a campus department, and some professors.


Reporter, Angie Burdge describes how blogging systems will have, "a new way for professors and students to communicate."

The link to the article is below and should be accessible to anyone.

Thank You BG News!

Article Link: http://media.www.bgnews.com/media/storage/paper883/news/2008/07/23/Campus/New-Univ.Blogging.System.Means.New.Route.Of.Communication-3393681.shtml

New TA Workshop Series

Starting this fall the Center will be hosting a new Teaching Assistants workshop series. The series will be discussions for incoming, current and former Teaching Assistants. There are all sorts of components entailed in being a Teaching Assistant and instructing a room full of college students, and the Center would like to work with TA's to discuss the many aspects. We will be talking about everything from taking attendance, to assessments, to writing syllabi. Resources and other suggestions will be offered to aid in every part of being a TA.

The Center is aiming to start this series of workshops in late August, with the next workshop to come around mid-October, and a final workshop towards the end of fall semester. The exact times and dates for the workshops will be forthcoming. Please see the Center's website for further details in the near future.

What are Your Classroom Goals? (Workshop Extension)

Developed by Thomas Angelo & K. Patricia Cross, the Teaching Goals Inventory (TGI) allows faculty to examine the needs, outcomes, and goals of their course(s) in a quantifiable fashion. The results of your highest ranking goals can then be used to determine the most appropriate formative assessment strategies for your students or as a framework for crafting a course syllabus. Classroom Assessment Techniques includes a paper version of the inventory, but the University of Iowa's Center for Teaching created an online version of the TGI for faster analysis and application.

Here is a sample readout from the TGI:
The cluster areas correspond to goals from the inventory, which can be measured throughout a course using various formative assessments from Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross (1993). With about 50 CATs to choose from, the TGI is a quick way to sort them into a manageable quantity to explore. Additionally, the TGI can be used by individual faculty, departments, or even students to uncover their vision and/or motivation for learning.

The Center's next workshop on using the TGI (Identifying Your Teaching Goals Using the TGI) is Wednesday, August 6, 10:15am-11:00am, immediately followed by the Formative Assessment Using CATs workshop from 11-12. For more information or to register for one or both, click here!

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After taking the TGI, share your results (or main cluster/goal area). Was this tool beneficial?

Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

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Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Nicholas Carr recently wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly about what he believes the Internet is doing to people's brains. Carr's, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" asks the question over whether people are relying far too much on the Internet for instant access to information, and changing the ways we think and altering "our understanding of the world."

Below are two short reactions to Carr's popular article.

Reaction #1

Nicholas Carr may ask the question, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, but his clear answer is that it certainly isn’t helping us think critically or deeply. Carr draws some comparisons to other technological advances in history, including writing and the printing press, fairly noting that although certain prominent thinkers of the time were certain we would see detrimental results in society’s collective cognition, the opposite is generally true. Carr is obviously skeptical of a positive affect of technology on the brain and learning. He raises good questions that amount to a consideration of how much “concentration and contemplation” actually occurs with an increase in technology and the future outcome of this change in learning. Whether you are concerned or celebratory of the change technology has made in learning, addressing the philosophical issues of “What is important to learn?” and “How can we best learn it?” will remain at the forefront and Carr gives us such an opportunity to reflect.

Reaction #2
"So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism," is what Carr offers as a disclaimer after he essentially writes about the negative affects the Internet has on how people think and read. He proposes anecdotal evidence to support his assertion that the Internet is somehow controlling what people read, how they read, their reading and comprehension habits and, ultimately, how people think. He makes a formidable attempt to show how the giants of the Internet, like Google, have a predetermined plan to alter the web surfers intelligence. His argument is not the greatest defense of his overarching thesis, but he does ask a worthy question. It would be interesting to see what academic studies would say about how the Internet has morphed people's minds.


Please take a look at Carr's article and feel free to post your reaction or thoughts about it. Here is a link to Carr's article: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

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What do you think about the article and suppositions?

Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

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Questions to Consider for a Multicultural Classroom

One of the most important and challenging tasks for an instructor or faculty member is to create an inclusive classroom. Shari Saunders and Diana Kardia from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching from the University of Michigan have made some excellent suggestions for creating such a classroom.

Areas to consider include:

• Course content
• Your prior assumptions
• Your planning of class sessions
• Your knowledge about the diverse backgrounds of your students, and
• You decisions, comments, and behaviors

In choosing course content, the authors (Saunders & Kardia, 2004) recommend considering “Whose voices, perspectives, and scholarship are being represented?” (¶ 5), including “as much as possible, materials written or created by people of different backgrounds and/or perspectives” (¶5) and recognizing “How are the perspectives and experiences of various groups being represented?” (¶5).

By reflecting on your assumptions, you have an opportunity to consider how these assumptions might become evident in the classroom. You can then respond accordingly. When planning your classes, you might consider accommodations, cultural reference points, instructional strategies, and controversial topics among others (Saunders & Kardia, 2004). Clearly, getting to know your students and their backgrounds allows you to make educated decisions, comments and behaviors in responding to criticism, student identities, conflict, and inequity.

You can review the entire report here: http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P3_1.html

Other resources include:

Tips for Teachers from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58474/TFTrace.html

Diversity Web at AACU

http://www.diversityweb.org/

Kaplan, M. & Miller, A. T. (Eds.) (2007). Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning.. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, no. 111. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Don't forget to check out our library at the Center for other resources

http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page15501.html

New Name for Center

The Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology now has a new name, the Center for Teaching and Learning. We are still in the same office, and still offer much of the same services to faculty, staff and graduate students. More details about changes at the Center will be forthcoming. Any questions and/or comments are welcome.

Our office still is University Hall 201. Our phone number is: 372-6898. Our e-mail address is: ctlt@bgsu.edu. Drop-in, give us a call or send us a message.

Please take a look at our new logo:

Classroom Assessment Project Cycle

How do you decide how you will assess your students and their learning? Angelo and Cross (1993), suggest a Classroom Assessment Project Cycle. In Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, they outline a three-phase, three-step process by which you can design such a cycle.

Phase I Planning a Classroom Assessment Project

1. Choosing the class in which to carry out the Classroom Assessment Project
2. Focusing on an “assessable question” about student learning
3. Designing a Classroom Assessment Project to answer that “assessable question”

Phase II Implementing the Classroom Assessment Project

1. Teaching the “target” lesson related to the question being assessed
2. Assessing learning by collecting feedback on that assessable question
3. Analyzing the feedback and turning data into usable information

Phase III Responding to the results of the Classroom Assessment

1. Interpreting the results and formulating an appropriate response to improve learning
2. Communicating the results to students and trying out the response
3. Evaluating the Classroom Assessment Project’s effect(s) on teaching and learning (p. 34)

Such a cycle is a good starting point, but if you are looking for more specific and innovative ways to assess student learning, Angelo and Cross (1993) provide fifty specific ways of assessing everything from prior knowledge and skills, to critical thinking, to learner reactions to teachers and teaching. Their book is philosophically sound, practically applicable, and available at a library near you. If you’ve never read it or haven’t read it in a while, it’s worth skimming.

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

You can check this book out from the CTL Library:
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page15501.html

**The Center for Teaching and Learning will conduct two related workshops this Summer**
Identifying Your Teaching Goals Using the TGI
July 15, 1:00pm-1:45pm
August 6, 10:15am-11:00am

Formative Assessment Using CATs
July 16, 1:00pm-2:00pm
August 6, 11:00am-12:00pm

You can visit the website for more information:
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page11755.html

Call to reserve your location at 372-6898

Resources on the Web:
Angelo and Cross, from their book:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-1.htm

Classroom Assessment Techniques:
http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm

PowerPoint on Classroom Assessment using Angelo and Cross:
www.uwlax.edu/catl/2006%20CoTL%20Materials/COTL%20-%20CATS%20with%20BOON%208-29-06.ppt

Tips for TA's

All you have to do is ask a second-year Teaching Assistant or Graduate Assistant who has taught, and they could provide plenty to say about how daunting teaching can be. There are issues of how to teach, what to teach, what to assign, how to write a good syllabus, etc. The list could go on. 

We are trying to relieve some of the anxiety that many TA's may have with our resources for tips. They can all be useful for incoming and returning TA's.

Below are some online resources, which could be extremely helpful for any new TA.

The Center for Instructional Innovation and Teaching Learning Academy at Western Washington University  have posted web pages which help writing a syllabus:

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/cii/workshop_handouts/syllabus_3-2-06/

The Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis provides tips for faculty teaching for the first time:

http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/tips-faculty-teaching-first-time

The Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have a list of practical tips that any TA could use:

http://www.cte.uiuc.edu/did/resources/TA/preparesemester.htm

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What are some of your suggestions? Have any of these resources worked for you?... Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

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Rubrics=Student Accountability AND Efficiency

During this era in education, when standards are being stringently enforced and instructors are being held accountable for what they get done in their courses, the use of rubrics is becoming more common. They are a designed evaluation guide for instructors and students to use as a point of reference, with specific assessment criteria for any assignment, project, requirement, and/or course. Rubrics allow students to have an idea of what is expected of their work, thus putting responsibility into the hands of students. Students can see what the instructor is looking for when their work is assessed. The amount that a teacher has to repeat their expectations, and students feeling misguided, can be significantly reduced.


The traditional rubric with percentages and listed criteria for earning an "A" or "B" in a course have drastically changed. Today rubrics have become creative and versatile. A rubric can be created for essentially any aspect of any course. The website addresses below provide examples of different rubric designs and creations, and their rationale.

Indiana University at Kokomo's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

http://www.iuk.edu/~koctla/assessment/rubrics.shtml

Kappa Omicron Nu Honors Society website

http://www.rubrics.kon.org

Chicago Public Schools online resource to rubrics

http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/assessments/ideas_and_rubrics/intro_scoring/intro_scoring.html

OLN - Resource of the Day

Many people are learning new words everyday by subscribing or going to the Merriam-Webster website or from Dictionary.com to expand their vocabulary or the size of their "word bank."  A brilliant resource for any educator can be found any day on the Ohio Learning Network's "Resource of the Day."  Daily random tips from how to deal with aspects of everyday classroom teaching, up to tips concerning Distance Learning-it can all be found at:

http://www.oln.org/rss/rotd.php

The Ohio Learning Network even has a Search option where you can determine your search by topic, date, field of dates, and/or keywords.  Please take a look at:

http://www.oln.org/rss/rotd_search.php

BGSU Celebrates its Virtual Campus/Earth Day

The Bowling Green State University virtual campus in Second Life is celebrating its first birthday in conjunction with an Earth Day celebration in the virtual world on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 - 8:30pm EST.

The festivities will include poetry readings, art exhibition openings, live music by BGSU student DJs, with the evening culminating with a "Save the Virtual Island" scavenger hunt. The event will take place on the Bowling Green State virtual campus in Second Life and simultaneously presented in the lobby of the Bowen Thompson Student Union.

The Birth/Earth day celebration will begin with an Open Mic poetry reading at the BGSU Writing Center in Second Life. Students, faculty and staff are invited to "step up to the mic" at the Bowen-Thompson Student Union, where their words will be broadcast into Second Life. The BGSU Virtual Campus is also proud to host an amazing art installation by Jeff Lovett from Ohio University.

A special Earth Day scavenger hunt on the BGSU Virtual Campus will also accompany the festivities, beginning promptly at 7:30pm EST. Avatars will compete in a quest to find information on how to help combat global climate change. The first three avatars to find all the clues will be awarded prizes in Linden dollars. Participants will face simulated elements of climate change and environmental disaster that will be both challenging and thought provoking.

To visit BGSU Virtual Campus, click here.

To find out more about how to get a free Second Life avatar, visit Second Life