(Photo: Geography 491–Senior Seminar in Geography, Syracuse University, Class of 2015, Fall 2014. Photograph by Joe Stoll.) Geographers frequently face the challenge of explaining to people outside the discipline what it is that they actually do. In the way? The Principal Products of Peru and the States and Capitals. You know. The belief that Geography is the rote memorization of facts associated with places. Or, that it's about having…
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The world is becoming increasingly "collaboratory." The old academic model–where researchers labored alone or solely with others from their own discipline–has been augmented by one in which researchers work with other researchers from other fields . . . collaboratory interdisciplinarity. We can also see this outside of academia, with public-private partnerships, joint business ventures, and grassroots NGO and not-for-profit consortia. Thus one of the most important skills that students can learn in…
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Every participant participating in the Summer Institute for Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning is asked to make a 10-minute presentation on the final day–outlining some innovation that they are going to make to one of their courses. Friday is that final day . . . and I am in something of a muted panic. We've been introduced to so many different tools and techniques, and have heard so many interesting ideas for how to incorporate these things. I'm…
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One of the great things about emerging digital technologies is the conversations they spark regarding old practices. How can those practices be enriched by the new? That's really the fundamental question that drove much of our morning session on "flipped courses" for the Syracuse University Summer Institute for Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning (#SITETL2014). The flipped course (or classroom) is not new. Rather, it is a pedagogical approach the…
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It is June and the weather is glorious here in Syracuse. We've waited so long for this. It was a "long, cold lonely winter." But the need to keep retooling for what happens on campus between September and May doesn't necessarily stop for truly fine weather. This week, 18 SU faculty–from recently arrived assistant professors to long-Orange full professors–are participating in the Summer Institute for Technology Enhanced Teaching and Learning…
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