In this issue
UPCOMING EVENTS
Teaching, Difference & Power Symposium
Tuesday, April 21
2:00
Conversations on Digital Pedagogy: Technologies & "Flipped" Classrooms
Tuesday, April 7
12:15
CFT BLOG
Check out these recent posts to our blog.
Thinking STEM, Teaching STEM: A Blog Series
CFT Assistant Directors Publish Study on Graduate Student SoTL Programs
Creating Active Learning Environments at the Next Gen #LearningSpaces Conference
CFT Says Farewell to Nancy Chick
Follow Us!
 
Follow the CFT on Facebook
and Twitter!
Get the latest information about events, resources, and news from the CFT on Facebook and Twitter. You can “like" our Facebook page, which means that the latest CFT news will appear in your Facebook news feed. You can also “follow” the CFT on Twitter to read the latest news. (If you’re not using Twitter, here’s a three-minute video that explains why you might want to.)
Subscribe
Not a member of the CFT News and Events LISTSERV? Subscribe now to receive future newsletters.
Archives
|
April 2015
Symposium on Teaching, Difference, and Power
April 21st, 2pm
 Among the greatest challenges facing higher education in the US is the difficulty of creating diverse and democratic campus cultures and confronting, rather than replicating, an array of social inequalities.
The Center for Teaching selected “Teaching, Difference, and Power” as its annual theme to understand the challenges educators face in negotiating difference and power in their classrooms. Many of this year’s CFT offerings have focused on this theme, including teaching visits, workshops, blog posts, and online teaching guides, as well as faculty and graduate student reading groups focused on the topic of race and teaching.
On April 21st, join the CFT and the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Office for an end-of-year symposium in which we’ll share the year’s work done at the CFT and elsewhere on campus to address this significant and complex theme. We will also invite all members of the Vanderbilt community to discuss steps we can take together to develop a more inclusive, equitable, and critical environment for teaching and learning. Find out more about the invited speakers and view the full agenda.
Back to top
Author Jeffrey Selingo on the Future of Higher Education
April 7th, 4pm
 Author and columnist Jeffrey Selingo will present the inaugural Schmidt Family Educational Technology Lecture on Tuesday, April 7th. Selingo’s lecture, “College (Un)Bound: The Future of Higher Education,” will be in Jacobs Believed In Me Auditorium, 134 Featheringill Hall, at 4 p.m., with reception to follow. Selingo will talk about the role technology will play in the college of the future, and how traditional and residential campuses can prove their value in a marketplace where students will have many more options. Those interested in Vanderbilt’s educational mission are encouraged to attend.
Jeffrey Selingo is the former editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and his writing appears in the Chronicle, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Slate. Selingo’s work has been honored with awards from the Education Writers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, and the Associated Press. He has been the keynote speaker before dozens of associations and universities and appears regularly on regional and national radio and television programs, including NPR, ABC, and CBS.
More information on the new Schmidt Family Educational Technology Lectures can be found in the Vanderbilt School of Engineering press release.
Back to top
BOLD Fellows Program is Accepting Applications
 We are recruiting graduate students to participate in the BOLD Fellows program beginning in August 2015.
The BOLD Fellows program is designed to help graduate student/faculty teams build expertise in developing online instructional modules grounded in good course design principles and our understanding of how people learn. STEM faculty members partner with graduate students or postdocs to design and develop online modules for integration into a course, either as a tool to promote flipping the classroom, a module for a blended course, or a unit within a MOOC. The teams implement these modules in an existing class and investigate their impact on student learning. The program is a collaboration between Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching, the CIRTL Network (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning), and Vanderbilt’s Institute for Digital Learning.
 This two-semester program is divided into a “design and development” semester, in which Fellows receive intensive training and support as they develop their module, and an “implementation and assessment” semester. We are currently recruiting Fellows to begin the program in August for implementation and assessment in the following semester. The Fellowship carries a modest stipend as well as funds for presenting the results of the work at a conference. For more information about the program, including a video from the inaugural group of BOLD Fellows and application information, see the CFT’s BOLD program page.
Applications are due May 1st; decisions will be made by June 1st.
Back to top
Apply to be a Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow!
We are now accepting applications for 2015-16. The CFT's Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows program is designed to help you:
• Learn from the teaching experiences of colleagues at Vanderbilt.
• Develop skills that will enable you to analyze and improve your teaching over time.
• Enjoy the community of teachers at Vanderbilt.
• Learn to balance and integrate your teaching and research.
• Develop and improve materials for review and tenure processes.
Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows also will receive $2000 in research funds each to be used to enhance their teaching.
Tenure-track and non-tenure track, full-time faculty between their second and sixth years are eligible to apply.
Application Deadline: Friday, May 1st
For more details on the program or to apply, visit the JFTF webpage.
Back to top
Upcoming Conversation on Digital Pedagogy
April 7th, 12:15pm
On March 19th, the CFT and the Vanderbilt Institute for Digital Learning (VIDL) hosted the first in a series of Conversations on Digital Pedagogy. These conversations are meant to provide members of the Vanderbilt teaching community opportunities to learn from each other as they explore creative and effective uses of educational technology.
Our second Conversation on Digital Pedagogy will be next Tuesday, April 7th and will focus on the use of technologies to support “flipped” classrooms. The conversation will be held from 12:15 to 1:30 in Kissam 216 and features panelists Katherine Friedman, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences; Jesse Blocher, Assistant Professor of Finance; and Emilianne McCranie, PhD student in chemistry. Kathy and Emilianne are both participants in the BOLD Fellows program here at the CFT, and Jesse is one of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows this year.
Conversations on Digital Pedagogy: Technologies to Support “Flipped” Classrooms.
Tuesday, April 7th
12:15pm - 1:30pm
Kissam 216
Katherine Friedman, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Jesse Blocher, Assistant Professor of Finance
Emilianne McCranie, PhD student in Chemistry
|
Future conversations will explore the use of course blogs, digital storytelling, collaboration tools, and more. For more details about these events, please contact Ole Molvig, VIDL Assistant Director for Education and Research, ole.molvig@vanderbilt.edu.
Back to top
CIRTL Network Development Opportunities
 The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is an NSF Center for Learning and Teaching in higher education. CIRTL has opened registration for upcoming course opportunities. These are free, online events for grad students and post-docs in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) interested in faculty careers. April sessions include the following:
FREE CIRTLCast Series: Personal Financial Management
Investment Basics: Saving for Your Life Goals
April 7, 2015
1:00 - 2:00
Financially Inclusive Teaching and Advising
April 21, 2015
1:00 - 2:00
Student Loans: What You Need to Know
April 28, 2015
1:00 - 2:00
For further information and to log in to the sessions, please visit http://www.cirtl.net/events
Back to top
From the Stacks...
How College Works
by Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs
Limited resources of colleges and students need not diminish the undergraduate experience. The authors follow a cluster of nearly one hundred students over the span of eight years, and discover the surprisingly decisive role that personal relationships play in determining a student’s collegiate success. This book provides faculty a set of small, inexpensive interventions that yield substantial improvements in educational outcomes.
Available in the Center for Teaching library.
Back to top |
