Digital Learning and Inquiry - MIIS

During this interactive workshop session we will explore storytelling as a technology for developing empathy and insight. Through a variety of storytelling exercises that can be used or adapted in a variety of contexts, participants will consider a number of underlying concepts, questions, and critical dispositions that have surfaced through the project while looking back at stories generated by the first cohorts of IDSP fellows. We invite Institute community members to participate in one or more of the #nestedstories community events – participation in all of them is not required.

So much of what we do at Middlebury Institute involves mutually beneficial partnerships with local and global communities. In this opening community-initiated conversation session we will explore the concept of “nested interculturality” and discover how individual and communal storytelling can play a key role in the ongoing creation of these partnerships.

Head shots Location: space between Laura Soto Adobe and Security Office

Head shots Location: space between Laura Soto Adobe and Security Office

The Digital Learning Commons is the best place on campus to get your creative juices flowing. We are here to help you with all of your class projects, personal and professional skills development, and collaboration with others across the Middlebury ecosystem, to name a few things we do. Explore how the DLC can help you this semester at our “Exploration Party.” We will give you short demonstrations, explanations, presentations, and have conversations on the variety of services and tools we offer. This event is open to students, faculty, and staff.

Come to the DLC Design Space to learn about a few educational games that have been newly acquired by the Library! One such game is “The Empathy Toy.” Though initially designed to help bridge conversational gaps between the visually impaired and the sighted, The Empathy Toy has morphed into a toy/tool that is being used in innovation and design labs in universities and corporations across the country. Games created for The Empathy Toy reveal the relationship between empathy, creativity, play, and learning in the 21st century.

Generations of poor families have an engrained mentality of solving problems in a resourceful, innovative way. In a world faced with climate change and decreasing resources we should learn more about the resilience of impoverished communities. A discussion facilitated by the Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development (AASD) will explore this topic and engage the collective intelligence of the MIIS community. We want to think critically about how the AASD and MIIS students can avoid paternalistic development practices and learn from the sustainability of the Andean communities. RSVP required.