[MP3, 41 min 01 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Strength in numbers: Peabody researchers investigate preservice training and induction of math teachers
• Kathy Friedman’s Home Page

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.

Episode 17 - Guil Gualda on Student Projects in Google Earth

[MP3, 38 min 23 sec]

Relevant Links:

• “Geology of National Parks” Course Site
• Guil Gualda’s Homepage
• Google Lit Trips
• Prezi, the zooming presentation editor

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.

This episode continues our podcast series focusing on time-efficient teaching. Faculty at a research university like Vanderbilt must balance a number of competing demands on their time, including teaching, research, and service. For this series, we’re interviewing senior faculty members at Vanderbilt and asking them to share ways they teach effectively while making good use of their time.

In this episode, we feature an interview with Lynn Ramey, associate professor of French and chair of the Department of French and Italian. In the interview, Lynn describes time-efficient ways to approach lesson planning, course design, and grading. Patricia Armstrong, assistant director here at the Center for Teaching, conducted the interview.

Episode 16 - Lynn Ramey on Time-Efficient Teaching

[MP3, 11 min 6 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Lynn Ramey’s Home Page
• CFT guide to course design
• CFT guide to grading

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about time-efficient teaching. 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 any aspect of their teaching.

In this episode, we feature an interview with Ellen Fanning, professor of biological sciences. In the interview, Ellen describes her methods of helping undergraduate biology students learn to read scientific literature, develop scientific reasoning skills, and gain an interest in science that lasts beyond their coursework. Ellen uses a journal club format that she has adapted from the one typically used with graduate students and post-docs to help them explore current literature in the biological sciences.

Episode 15 - Ellen Fanning on Undergraduate Journal Clubs

[MP3, 22 min 11 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Ellen Fanning’s lab home page
• Community of Scholarshome page
• CFT online resources on motivating students

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about Undergraduate Journal Clubs. 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 features audio recorded during a February 2009 lunch discussion co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching and the Global Feminisms Collaborative. The discussion was part of the Collaborative’s ongoing brown-bag series. You’ll hear the opening remarks made by the four panelists at that discussion: Tiffany Patterson, Associate Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and American Studies; Terry Spetalnick, Lecturer in Sociology; Greg Barz, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology; and Centurio Balikoowa, a Ugandan musician and Chief Recordist at the Global Music Archive. The panelists were introduced by Brooke Ackerly, Associate Professor of Political Science, and Lyndi Hewitt, a graduate student in sociology.

Episode 14 - Globalizing Your Curriculum

[MP3, 50 min 32 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Global Music Archive
• Global Feminisms Collaborative

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about globalizing your curriculum. 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 any aspect of their teaching.

This episode continues our podcast series focusing on time-efficient teaching. Faculty at a research university like Vanderbilt must balance a number of competing demands on their time, including teaching, research, and service. For this series, we’re interviewing senior faculty members at Vanderbilt and asking them to share ways they teach effectively while making good use of their time.

In this episode, we feature an interview with Tim McNamara, associate provost for faculty and professor of psychology. In the interview, Tim describes time-efficient ways to approach lesson planning, grading papers, teaching with clickers, working with TAs, and selecting courses to teach. Allison Pingree, the director of the Center for Teaching, conducted the interview.

Episode 13 - Tim McNamara on Time-Efficient Teaching

[MP3, 14 min 35 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Tim McNamara’s Home Page
• CFT guide to lecture design
• CFT guide to supervising TAs

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about time-efficient teaching. 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 any aspect of their teaching.

This episode continues our podcast series focusing on time-efficient teaching. Faculty at a research university like Vanderbilt must balance a number of competing demands on their time, including teaching, research, and service. For this series, we’re interviewing senior faculty members at Vanderbilt and asking them to share ways they teach effectively while making good use of their time.

In this episode, we feature an interview with Brooke Ackerly, associate professor of political science. In the interview, Brooke describes time-efficient ways to approach course planning, lesson planning, office hours, and grading. Kat Baker, an assistant director at the Center for Teaching, conducted the interview.

Episode 12 - Brooke Ackerly on Time-Efficient Teaching

[MP3, 13 min 38 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Brooke Ackerly’s Home Page
• CFT guide to course design
• CFT guide to grading

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about time-efficient teaching. 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 any aspect of their teaching.

This episode begins a new series here on the podcast, a series focusing on time-efficient teaching. Faculty at a research university like Vanderbilt must balance a number of competing demands on their time, including teaching, research, and service. For this series, we’re interviewing senior faculty members at Vanderbilt and asking them to share ways they teach effectively while making good use of their time.

In this episode, we feature an interview with Todd Giorgio, professor and chair of biomedical engineering. In the interview, Todd describes time-efficient ways to approach office hours, in- and out-of-class assignments, and class preparation.

Episode 11 - Todd Giorgio on Time-Efficient Teaching

[MP3, 16 min 50 sec]

Relevant Links:

• VaNTH Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Educational Technologies
• CFT guide to teaching with clickers
• CFT guide to classroom assessment techniques

Please take a minute or two to leave a comment here and share your thoughts about time-efficient teaching. 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 any 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. 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.

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]

• 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.

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.

In this episode, we feature excerpts from an interview with Michael Bess, Chancellor’s Professor of History here at Vanderbilt. In this interview, Michael describes his use of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that “anyone can edit,” to help undergraduate history majors learn how to think and reason like historians.

Episode 1 - An Interview with Michael Bess

[MP3, 19 min 58 sec]

Relevant Links:

• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia entry on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Michael Bess’ home page

If you’ve used Wikipedia 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 Wikipedia effectively in their teaching.