Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Podcast

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This episode features audio recorded during a March 2008 Center for Teaching workshop titled “Podcasting: What Is It and Why Would You Want To Do It?” We’re splitting this workshop over two podcast episodes. The previous episode featured a discussion of the roles podcasting can play in and out of the classroom in the service of student learning. This second episode features a discussion from the March workshop of some of the technical and logistical aspects of producing and using podcasts via remarks made by two of the workshop facilitators:

• Melanie Moran, Assistant Director for Web Communications, Public Affairs Office
• Brian Smokler, Manager of Instructional Systems, Technology Support Center at Peabody College, and Video Technical Manager, Public Affairs Office

Episode 10 - Podcasting 101 (Part 2)

[MP3, 22 min 24 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Slides from March 2008 Podcasting 101 Workshop [PDF]
• CFT guide to teaching with podcasts, with links to resources mentioned in this episode

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about podcasting in higher education. We’re interested in hearing what you have to say. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 615-322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss podcasting or any other aspect of their teaching.

This episode features audio recorded during a March 2008 Center for Teaching workshop titled “Podcasting: What Is It and Why Would You Want To Do It?” We’re splitting this workshop over two podcast episodes. This first episode features a discussion of the roles podcasting can play in and out of the classroom in the service of student learning. Why might you want to produce a podcast for your course? Why might you want students to produce podcasts as part of their course work? How can you make the most out of either option? These and other teaching-related questions will be explored in this first episode via remarks made by two of the workshop facilitators:

• Michael Risen, Graduate Teaching Fellow, Center for Teaching
• Jeff Johnston, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching, and Lecturer, Earth & Environmental Sciences

Episode 9 - Podcasting 101 (Part 1)

[MP3, 30 min 18 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Slides from March 2008 Podcasting 101 Workshop [PDF]
• CFT guide to teaching with podcasts, with links to resources mentioned in this episode

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about podcasting in higher education. We’re interested in hearing what you have to say. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 615-322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss podcasting or any other aspect of their teaching.

This episode continues the format change of our last one. It features audio recorded during an April 2008 lunch discussion co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and the Vanderbilt Center for Ethics. The discussion was part of our joint Technology, Values, and Teaching series and was titled “The Mediated Classroom: Ways That Computer and Other Technologies Are Transforming the Space of Communication and Relationships.” The episode includes opening remarks made by the two panelists at that discussion:

• John Sloop, Professor of Communication Studies and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Science, and
• Jonathan Gilligan, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Public Policy.

In their remarks, both panelists began exploring the ways in which technology is changing how we communicate and relate to another, particularly in physical and virtual classroom spaces.

Episode 8 - The Mediated Classroom

[MP3, 19 min 41 sec]

Relevant Links:

• John Sloop’s home page
• Jonathan Gilligan’s home page

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts on the “mediated classroom.” We’re interested in hearing what you have to say. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 615-322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss technology or any other aspect of their teaching.

In this episode, we’re changing up our format a little. Instead of featuring an interview with a single faculty member, this episode features audio recorded during a February 2008 lunch discussion co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and the Vanderbilt Center for Ethics. The discussion was part of our joint Technology, Values, and Teaching series and was titled “Teaching in a Digital Age: How Should Technologies Shape Our Learning Space and Pedagogical Practices?” This double-size episode presents the opening remarks made by the three panelists at that discussion:

• Patricia Armstrong, assistant director at the Center for Teaching and senior lecturer in the Department of French and Italian;
• Matt Hall, assistant vice chancellor for Information Technology Services; and
• Jay Clayton, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor and Chair, Department of English.

All three panelists spoke about their experiences integrating technology into their teaching, Patricia in the context of the French language and literature courses she teaches, and Matt and Jay in the context of a rather unique first-year writing seminar they co-taught in the fall of 2007. The seminar was titled “Worlds of Wordcraft,” and it examined the role of narrative in computer games and other new media.

Episode 7 - Teaching in a Digital Age

[MP3, 41 min 20 sec]

Relevant Links:

• English 115F Worlds of Wordcraft Fall 2007 blog
• English 115F Worlds of Wordcraft Fall 2007 podcast
• “Learning in a Digital Age”, by David Carew, from the November 2007 edition of Vanderbilt View

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts on teaching with technology. We’re interested in hearing what you have to say. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 615-322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss technology or any other aspect of their teaching.

In this episode, we feature excerpts from an interview with Greg Walker, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt. In this interview, Greg describes his use of a tablet PC as a presentation device in his mechanical engineering courses. Tablet PCs feature screens that can be written on with special styluses. Greg uses one during his lectures to combine some of the best features of a PowerPoint presentation with the interactivity of a chalk board or dry erase board.

Episode 6 - Greg Walker on Teaching with a Tablet PC

[MP3, 16 min 30 sec]

Relevant Links:

• “Teaching Courses with a Tablet PC” by Saroj Biswas, Temple University
• Maria Andersen’s blog entries on teaching with tablet PCs, Muskegon Community College
• Kenrick Mock’s blog entries on teaching with tablet PCs, University of Alaska at Anchorage

If you have any thoughts about teaching with tablet PCs, we encourage you to leave a comment here. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 615-322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss teaching with tablet PCs or any other aspect of their teaching.

In this episode, we feature an interview with James Lang, Associate Professor of English at Assumption College in Massachusetts. Dr. Lang is the author of Life on the Tenure Track: Lessons from the First Year, a memoir chronicling his first year as a faculty member, and On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching. He also writes “On Course,” a column on teaching that appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In the interview, Dr. Lang discusses the idea that undergraduate students can experience some kind of personal transformation during their first year of college. Is transformation a reasonable goal for first-year students? If not, what is a reasonable goal? What are some conditions that facilitate these types of goals? What are conditions that inhibit them?

Episode 5 - James Lang on Teaching First-Year Students

[MP3, 24 min 15 sec]

Relevant Links:

• “The Myth of First-Year Enlightenment” by James Lang
• The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens After High School by Tim Clydesdale
• “William Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development” by William Rapaport
• The Commons, Vanderbilt’s First-Year Experience

If you have any comments on Dr. Lang’s thoughts about first-year experiences, we encourage you to leave a comment here. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss teaching first-year students.

In this episode, we feature excerpts from an interview with Duco Jansen, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering here at Vanderbilt. All undergraduate students in the Vanderbilt School of Engineering are required to have laptops that meet certain specifications. In this interview, Duco describes some of the ways he takes advantage of this policy by having his students use their laptops during class.

Episode 4 - An Interview with Duco Jansen

[MP3, 16 min 35 sec]

Relevant Links:

• “Enhancing Learning with Laptops,” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Volume 101
• The Legacy Cycle [PDF]

If you’ve used laptops in your classrooms or have ideas for doing so, we encourage you to leave a comment here. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss ways to use laptops effectively in their teaching.

In this episode, we feature excerpts from an interview with Michelle Sulikowski, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Director of Education at the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology. In this interview, Michelle describes her use of SafeAssign, a software tool that can detect unoriginal content in student papers. Michelle used SafeAssign in a first-year writing course on chemical biology in which students wrote papers about chemical and biological topics of their choosing. She used SafeAssign to teach her students about plagiarism and the writing process in the natural sciences.

Episode 3 - An Interview with Michelle Sulikowski

[MP3, 17 min 35 sec]

Relevant Links:

• SafeAssign home page
• Using SafeAssign on OAK/Blackboard

If you’ve used a plagiarism detection and prevention tool such as SafeAssign in your teaching or have ideas for doing so, we encourage you to leave a comment here. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss ways to use SafeAssign effectively in their teaching.

In this episode, we feature excerpts from an interview with Stephen Buckles, Senior Lecturer in Economics here at Vanderbilt. In this interview, Steve describes his use of a classroom response system in his large undergraduate economics courses. This system allows Steve to pose multiple-choice questions to his students during class and his students to submit their answers to these questions using small handheld devices called clickers. The system them displays on an overhead screen a bar chart showing the distribution of student responses. Steve uses this system to engage his students actively during class.

Episode 2 - An Interview with Steve Buckles

[MP3, 16 min 50 sec]

Relevant Links:

• CFT guide to teaching with clickers
• Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur’s home page

If you’ve used clickers in your teaching or have ideas for doing so, we encourage you to leave a comment here. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant to discuss ways to use clickers effectively in their teaching.