The Spring 2023 Teaching Symposium: Strategies, Practices and Technologies to Promote Social Learning and Belonging
When: Tuesday, January 10th — 9am – 3:30pm
Where: Live via Zoom
Keynote Presenter: Dr. Remi Kalir
Topic: Fieldnotes From an Educator’s Unlearning: Provocation and Possibility
Description: Challenges within and beyond the university have catalyzed opportunities to unlearn and reimagine how we teach. In this keynote, Dr. Remi Kalir will share fieldnotes from his unlearning as a pandemic pedagogue—with attention to course design, digital pedagogy, and student engagement. Blending provocation with practical recommendation, Dr. Kalir’s talk will call upon educators to reexamine instructional routines, question learning design, and spark new educational possibilities.
Bio: Dr. Remi Kalir is an Associate Professor of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development. He studies annotation as a literacy practice that facilitates social, collaborative, and digital learning. Dr. Kalir’s 2021 book, Annotation (MIT Press), introduces annotation as a genre that is significant to scholarship and everyday life. His scholarship has appeared in Journal of Literacy Research, Information and Learning Sciences, Research in the Teaching of English, and Distance Education, among other journals. Dr. Kalir’s teaching career began at Middle School 22 in New York City. He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Spring 2023 Teaching Symposium will kick off with keynote speaker Dr. Remi Kalir, an Associate Professor of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development. This virtual faculty development day will also include presentations from Montclair State faculty, workshops on instructional technology, and sessions to enhance teaching and learning. We hope you will join us!
Spring 2023 Teaching Symposium Agenda
For details on each session, please see the Session Descriptions below.
Tuesday, January 10th
| Time | Sessions |
|---|---|
| 9:00 – 10:15 | Fieldnotes From an Educator’s Unlearning: Provocation and Possibility Keynote Presentation by Dr. Remi Kalir |
| 10:30 – 11:20 | Concurrent Sessions focused on Technologies and Practices to Promote Social Learning:
Leveraging Social Annotation with Hypothes.is; |
| 11:30 – 12:20 | Concurrent sessions focused on Building Belonging in Your Course:
Syllabus Tweaks to Signal Belonging; |
| 12:30 – 1:30 | Lunch and Learn — Drop-In Sessions |
| 1:30 – 2:20 | Replace or Invigorate the Lecture? Faculty and Student Views |
| 2:30 – 3:30 | Concurrent sessions focused on Course Design:
Back to Basics with Canvas: Getting your Course Set up and Ready for the Spring in Canvas; |
Session Descriptions
9:00am
Keynote Presentation: Fieldnotes From an Educator’s Unlearning: Provocation and Possibility
Presenter: Dr. Remi Kalir
Challenges within and beyond the university have catalyzed opportunities to unlearn and reimagine how we teach. In this keynote, Dr. Remi Kalir will share fieldnotes from his unlearning as a pandemic pedagogue—with attention to course design, digital pedagogy, and student engagement. Blending provocation with practical recommendation, Dr. Kalir’s talk will call upon educators to reexamine instructional routines, question learning design, and spark new educational possibilities.
10:30am
During this time slot, we will be offering three concurrent sessions focused on Technologies and Practices to Promote Social Learning. Read through the session descriptions below to determine which session might interest you most!
I. Leveraging Social Annotation with Hypothes.is
Presenters: Joe Yankus, Daniela Peterka-Benton, Vikash Singh, Christie DeCarolis
Traditionally an individual task, the reading and annotation of literature can now be collaborative and social with the help of Hypothesis, a new instructional tool integrated into Canvas. This panel discussion with Daniela Peterka-Benton, Associate Professor of Justice Studies, and Vikash Singh, Associate Professor of Sociology, explores how faculty are leveraging this new tool for social annotation in their courses. Christie DeCarolis, the University’s Customer Success Manager at Hypothesis, also joins the conversation to answer questions about the tool.
II. Mind Mapping as a Social Activity
Presenters: Gina Policastro & Keith Adams
Mind mapping is an effective strategy to enhance collaboration and engagement in your courses. It can also be used to promote social learning by encouraging collective understanding of course material and discourse. This strategy is fantastic for content analysis and is proven to increase higher-order thinking, engagement, and recall amongst students. Join us as we discuss mind mapping structure, learner benefits, and explore three free digital mind-mapping tools: Padlet, Miro, and Lucidchart.
III. Let’s Get Social! Using Polling Tools to Enhance Your Course
Presenters: Joaly Garcia & Abigail Hunte
Getting social with your students can be a challenge! Polling is a great way to establish connections with our students, uncover their needs, and create an engaging classroom environment. This workshop will discuss choosing your polling tools, creating good polling questions, and demonstrate strategies for implementing polling in your classroom utilizing Poll Everywhere.
11:30am
During this time slot, we will be offering three concurrent sessions focused on Building Belonging in Your Course. Read through the session descriptions below to determine which session might interest you most!
I. Syllabus Tweaks to Signal Belonging
Presenters: Dr. Courtney Glore Crimmins and Kate Kelly
An important course document, the syllabus conveys a message about your course and you. This workshop will offer strategies for using positive, transparent, and friendly language to make students feel welcome and set the stage for better classroom relationships and engagement. Feel free to bring your syllabus and work along with us.
II. Starting off Right: Cultivating Belonging from Day One
Presenters: Dr. Catherine Keohane
The first day of class sets the tone for the rest of the semester. This workshop will offer simple, easy-to-implement strategies that will help you develop students’ sense of belonging.
III. Belonging Interventions
Presenters: Dr. Emily Isaacs
Belonging is an important predictor of student success. This workshop introduces some social belonging intervention exercises to use in your courses to help students develop their sense of belonging
12:30pm
Lunch and Learn
This one hour break will give you the opportunity to grab some lunch as we prepare for the second half of the day. During this time, we will be hosting a few drop-in sessions to discuss some of the following topics:
- Canvas Updates & Tips (focused on Social/Collaborative Learning)
- Syllabus Updates
- Library & OER Updates
- Teaching concerns/questions
- Assignment consultations
1:30pm
Replace or Invigorate the Lecture? Faculty and Student Views
Faculty Presenters: Dr. Lauren Dinour (Nutrition and Food Studies) and Dr. Bogdan Nita (Mathematics)
Student Presenters: Nedeen Khashashina and Carlos Salvador
Student engagement can flag during long lectures. Our faculty and student panelists discuss strategies for engaging students’ attention and encouraging their success.
2:30pm
During this time slot, we will be offering three concurrent sessions focused on Course Design. Read through the session descriptions below to determine which session might interest you most!
I. Back to Basics with Canvas: Getting your Course Set up and Ready for the Spring in Canvas
Presenters: Pam Fallivene & Terry Steckowich
From creating an announcement to designing a course landing page, this session will give you all the tools you need to build a solid, accessible Canvas course. We will also share Canvas tips & tricks to ensure you have everything you need to effectively and efficiently prepare your Spring courses.
II. Mapping Out Student Engagement
Presenters: Qian Yao & Chris Petrillo
Navigating a complex topic like student engagement can sometimes be a challenging endeavor. We all want our students to be active learners, but how do we get there? Join us in this hands-on workshop where we’ll share some of the strategies, technologies, examples, and guidelines/tips that can help us to more effectively engage our students with our content and one another.
III. Level Up Your Canvas Course Design with DesignPLUS
Presenters: Patrick Scioscia & Jean Moreno-Lassalle
Research has shown that a well-designed course promotes a positive learner experience. Typically, designing professional-looking courses requires time and technical skills, but DesignPLUS for Canvas can help you create high quality, engaging, and accessible Canvas courses without requiring advanced technical skills! Join us as we explore how DesignPLUS can make every step of your journey toward optimal course design much easier!
Previous Years:
- Spring 2022 Event [January 12th, 2022]
- Spring 2021: Inclusive Teaching Practices and Engaging Instructional Technologies [January 13th & 14th, 2021]
- Spring 2020 Event [January 15th, 2020]
- Spring 2019 Event [January 16th, 2019]
- Spring 2018 Event [January 10th, 2018]