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 as a student project in which the students recreated their trip in Google Earth. Guil describes the ways in which this class project motivated his students,
and instructors interested in incorporating student projects in their courses will find likely Guil’s experiences useful.
Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about student projects or the use of Google Earth in education. Vanderbilt instructors are also welcome to call the Center for Teaching at 615-322-7290 to arrange a meeting with a CFT teaching consultant. We’re glad to help you reflect on and explore the various choices you make as a teacher and to connect you with resources you’ll find useful as you design, implement, and assess learning experiences for your students.
This episode we debut new theme music for the podcast. The track is called “Monster Techno Blues” and it’s by Joe Sibol.
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.
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.
May 12th, 2009 by 
derek.bruff 
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