Center for Teaching, Learning and Research

A section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display from April 11 through April 29. The Quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is today the largest community art project in the world. Today it consists of more than 48,000 panels with the names of more than 94,000 individuals who died of AIDS. The display will be open during the Davis Family Library regular open hours. Sponsored by: Center for Teaching, Learning and Research; American Studies Program; Davis Family Library; Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life; Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

A section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display from April 11 through April 29. The Quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is today the largest community art project in the world. Today it consists of more than 48,000 panels with the names of more than 94,000 individuals who died of AIDS. The display will be open during the Davis Family Library regular open hours. Sponsored by: Center for Teaching, Learning and Research; American Studies Program; Davis Family Library; Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life; Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

Naomi Baron, a linguist from American University and an expert on language and technology, will talk with us about how technology is reshaping our understanding of what it means to read. While reading onscreen has many virtues, including convenience, potential cost-savings, and the opportunity to bring free access to books to people around the world, she argues that the virtues of eReading are matched with drawbacks. Users are easily distracted by other temptations on their devices, multitasking is rampant, and screens coax us to skim rather than read in-depth.

How do recent debates and discussions on campus and in the national press around the topics of microaggressions and trigger warnings impact what happens in our classroom? How do we identify microaggressions that may have made their way into our speech patterns? How do we decide whether or not to issue ‘trigger warnings’ in advance of dealing with potentially difficult topics in our classrooms? Join us for discussion of these important topics.

A curriculum vitae is one of many options for sharing your scholarly and teaching work. In the age of digital connections, it is now possible to have a professional website or digital portfolio that allows you to share work with new audiences. How do our colleagues share themselves and their work online? What kinds of digital environments blur the lines between our work, the work students do in our classes and public spheres? Join us for a roundtable discussion highlighting how some faculty have chosen to share their work digitally. Lunch will be provided.

Undergraduate research is an important academic experience for many students. But imagine if we could provide that experience to all students. Would we want to do that? Why? What would it look like? Join us for a discussion about (re) envisioning undergraduate research. Why is it an important component of a liberal arts education? How do students and faculty benefit? Can we imagine new models of authentic research experiences and attendant creative and/or scholarly processes that make them more available to more students, using fewer resources? Are there new challenges we face?

Despite claims in the popular press that Google has made libraries obsolete, we have found to the contrary that the library continues to serve the campus as a vital intellectual space that brings us together, and connects us to the information and services we need for our academic pursuits. Yet, how will our libraries need to change in the coming decade as the College charts a new direction, and as the information landscape continues to evolve? Who we are and where do we want to go? What are the challenges and opportunities we face?

Working with students in research contexts presents great opportunities for learning as well as new challenges in teaching. How do we prepare students for the unknown? How can they contribute effectively to faculty projects? How do we prepare them to be effective researchers themselves? Join Will Amidon (Geology), Svea Closser (Anthropology), and Amy Morsman (History) in a discussion of the challenges they experience bringing students into their research, helping students develop their own research projects, and integrating research into a course.

Dear Colleagues, Please join us on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, in Center for Teaching, Learning & Research at 12:15 p.m. for an Academic Roundtable on Academic Advising. A few years ago, Richard Light, a leading scholar on American higher education, stated that “good advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience.” And yet, there is evidence that academic advising at Middlebury and many other liberal arts colleges is not as robust as it could be.

Yes, it’s a college-wide learning goal, an FYS learning goal, and we know it’s a critically important skill, but honestly who can afford the precious class-time it takes to teach oral expression? Colleagues Shawna Shapiro (Writing and Linguistics Programs) and Sarah Stroup (Political Science) will join Oratory Now Director Dana Yeaton (Theater) in a demonstration and discussion of the many ways, large and small, we can use speaking to deepen, broaden, and in some cases even expedite, what we already do.

Background Materials available at go/roundtable