Assembling Materials for Reappointment, Tenure, Promotion,
and Post-Tenure Review
Monday April 28, 3:30 to 5:00 pm
As the semester
comes to an end, we know many of you are looking ahead to
compiling your materials over the summer as part of the
reappointment, tenure, promotion, and post-tenure review
process. To aid you in this endeavor, the Faculty Center
is sponsoring its annual discussion about preparing materials
for portfolios. Come ask questions and hear suggestions
from faculty members who have participated in the evaluation
process. At least one representative from the MSCA Executive
Council will also be on hand to answer questions. We are
envisioning this as a fairly informal discussion, with plenty
of time for participants to share resources and strategies
and to ask questions. Light refreshments will be served.
Integrating Global Perspectives in Our Courses
Thursday April 24, noon to 1:30 pm
Following on
last semester's brown bag lunch entitled "internationalizing
our campus" and this semester's many exciting initiatives
to develop international education at the college, this
Faculty Center brown bag lunch discussion will focus on
how we can make our existing courses at WSC more engaged
with global issues. Come learn from colleagues and share
your own ideas about internationalizing our courses--anything
from pairing up students with "pen pals" from
another country to redesigning whole courses to incorporate
more international content and pedagogies. Some of the faculty
and staff who went on the Dubai/Qatar trip will be at the
lunch to offer their thoughts on this subject, and at least
one of the consultants from Global Education Solutions will
also be there to participate in the conversation. The discussion
should give us all lots of ideas to explore over the summer
as we prepare for the coming academic year. Please bring
your lunch and join the discussion!
Campus Community and Safety: An Update and Open Discussion
Monday, April 14, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Facilitated by Tammy Bringaze (Counseling Center), Sue LaMontagne
(Student Affairs), Michael Nockunas (Public Safety), and Elizabeth
Stassinos (Criminal Justice)
Last year in
the wake of Virginia Tech, College community members came
together for an initial brown bag lunch to discuss safety
concerns and collaborative ways to identify and connect
with at-risk students. One year later, we revisit the discussion.
Join members of Student Affairs, Counseling Center, and
Public Safety staffs as they update faculty and staff on
the steps the college has taken towards enhancing emergency
response and campus safety. After these updates, we will
open up the discussion to further brainstorming ideas around
this critical campus and national issue. Please bring your
lunch and join the discussion.
Dealing with Plagiarism
Wednesday, April 9, 2:00 to 3:00 pm
Facilitated by Rob Bristow (Academic Affairs), Corinne Ebbs
(Library), and Ricki Kantrowitz (Psychology)
What do you do
when you suspect plagiarism? What are some of the dilemmas
you face? Come to this session to learn college procedures
for handling charges of academic dishonesty and to share
ideas about resources for detecting plagiarism. We also
urge faculty members to come to this session with their
own examples of the gray areas they encounter when dealing
with plagiarism cases. How much “borrowing” is too much?
What is our role as teachers in helping students avoid plagiarism
in the first place? To what extent has our students’ use
of material from the Internet fundamentally changed their
attitudes toward intellectual property? Come with your questions
and with your ideas and strategies for dealing with plagiarism—and
come hear perspectives from colleagues in Academic Affairs,
the Library, and various academic departments.
Teaching During Wartime: Addressing the War in Iraq in Our
Classrooms
Dr. Mara Dodge (History)
Wednesday, April 2, 1 to 2 pm
The Iraq War
has just marked its 5th year, longer than any war in modern
US history aside from Vietnam. Its impact has been devastating.
Although a majority of Americans now oppose the war, public
debate and visible opposition have been muted (unlike Vietnam).
How can we address issues posed by the war in our classrooms
and in diverse disciplines? What specific strategies, teaching/
learning activities,
and/or readings have proven most effective? Come to an informal
sharing of ideas.
Specifically, Dr. Dodge will talk about her experience this
semester teaching the standard (WSC core) US history survey
course “backwards” – beginning with the Iraq War and concluding
with the Civil War (1865-2008). Assigned books included
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq and What Was Asked
of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who
Fought It. Student reactions to both books were extremely
positive and debates lively. One of the dilemmas of a broad
survey course (155+ years) is how to provide students with
a strong enough foundation in contemporary history to make
sense of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while
doing justice to earlier eras and domestic politics. Although
Dr. Dodge will be sharing her
experiences teaching the US history survey, this brown bag
aims to bring together faculty/staff interested in exchanging
ideas and teaching about the war from a wide variety of
disciplinary perspectives.
Students'
Use of Technology: What It Means for Our Teaching
Dr. Charles Dziuban
Director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness
at the University of Central Florida
Thursday, March 27th
Scanlon A
Workshop 1: 10:00
a.m.-11:30 a.m.-Teaching Students in the Digital Age Workshop
Workshop 2: 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m- Technology Enhanced
Education Opportunities and Challenges
Follow-up Information:
The Generations, Reactive Behavior
and Information Fluency in the Digital Age (Requires PowerPoint
Viewer)
Charles D. Dziuban and Patsy D. Moskal
http://www.wsc.ma.edu/facultycenter/generations.ppt
Technology Enhanced Education – Opportunities and Challenges
Powerpoint (Requires PowerPoint Viewer)
Charles D. Dziuban and Patsy D. Moskal
http://www.wsc.ma.edu/facultycenter/techenhanced.ppt
Video of Dr. Dziuban's presentations:
Workshop 1 The Generations, Reactive Behavior and Information
Fluency in the Digital Age http://www.wsc.ma.edu/facultycenter/Dziuban1.wmv
Workshop 2 Technology Enhanced Education - Opportunities
and Challenges
http://www.wsc.ma.edu/facultycenter/Dziuban2.wmv
Charles Dziuban
is Director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness
at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where has been
a faculty member since 1970 teaching research design and
statistics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of
Wisconsin. Since 1996, he has directed the impact evaluation
of UCF's distributed learning initiative examining student
and faculty outcomes as well as gauging the impact of online
courses on the university. Chuck has published in numerous
journals including the Internet in Higher Education, the
Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, and the Sloan-C
View. In 2000, Chuck was named UCF's first ever Pegasus
Professor for extraordinary research, teaching, and service
and in 2005 received the honor of Professor Emeritus. He
has co-authored and edited numerous books and chapters on
blended and online learning including Handbook of Blended
Learning Environments, Educating the Net Generation, and
Blended Learning: Research Perspectives, of which he is
the co-editor. In 2005, Chuck received the Sloan Consortium
award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning
by an Individual. In 2007, he was appointed to the National
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy
Policy Council.
Faculty Center Focus Event: Research in Whiteness Studies
A presentation by Robin DiAngelo (Education
Department)
Thursday, March 6 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 pm
Racism is among
the most charged issues facing us today and all members
of society are shaped by it. However, most research that
addresses race has traditionally focused on the racially
“different,” leaving White perspectives, experiences and
identity normalized and unexplored. Scholars of Color have
long challenged White scholars to turn the “gaze” back on
ourselves, and Whiteness Studies have arisen from this challenge.
The research Dr. DiAngelo will present at this Faculty Center
event is grounded in Whiteness Studies and concerned with
the racial disconnect between the teaching force (over 93%
White) and the students they teach. Dr. DiAngelo uses Critical
Discourse Analysis to explore how a group of White pre-service
teachers engaged in an inter-racial dialogue about racism
with students of Color.
Follow-up Information:
Research in Whiteness Studies Powerpoint (Requires PowerPoint
Viewer) http://www.wsc.ma.edu/facultycenter/whiteness-diangelo.ppt
Robin DiAngelo,
PhD., is Assistant Professor of Multicultural Education
at Westfield State College. She comes to WSC from the University
of Washington. She was appointed by the Mayor of Seattle
as the co-lead of the City of Seattle's Race & Social Justice
Initiative. Her research is in White racial identity development,
and she has published recently in the periodicals Teachers
College Record, Radical Pedagogy, and InterActions: UCLA
Journal of Education and Information Studies. Her essay
"I'm leaving!": White
fragility in racial dialogue" appeared in the collection
Inclusion in Urban Educational Environments: Addressing
Issues of Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice (edited
by B. McMahon & D. Armstrong).
Navigating an Undergraduate Education through Advising
Wednesday, February 27 Noon to 1:30 pm
With the advising
season upon us (it begins March 3!), the Faculty Center
will be hosting a discussion on the challenges and opportunities
of advising. Come share ideas with Carlton Pickron (Academic
Achievement) and faculty and staff from departments across
campus. Specifically, we’ll discuss making advising sessions
meaningful, even given the time constraints we all face
during the advising period. This is a great opportunity
to hear from a variety of colleagues about different approaches
to the advising process. Bring your ideas, questions, concerns--and
lunch!
“But where are the data?”: Qualitative Research Methods and
the Production of Knowledge
Tuesday,
February 12, from 11:30am to 12:30pm
Discussion
Facilitators: Susan Leggett (Communication) and Jane Mildred
(Social Work)
Qualitative researchers
frequently encounter challenges to the legitimacy of their
work. If you teach research methods, conduct or might conduct
qualitative research, or are just interested in the topic,
please join Susan Leggett (Communication) and Jane Mildred
(Social Work) in a conversation about issues and trends
in qualitative methods. Susan and Jane will share examples
from their own work and offer ideas about how to teach action
research, participant-observation, and other ethnographic
methods. Please bring your lunch and join the discussion.
Facebook,
YouTube, Wikis, Blogs: Using the Internet in Our Teaching
Monday, February 4
Noon to 1 p.m.
Discussion Facilitators: Buzz Hoagland (Biology), Leah Nielsen
(English), and Kathleen Baldwin (English)
Our students
spend many hours each day connected to the Internet, and
we often complain about the misinformation they find there.
But how might we re-imagine our use of new media in our
teaching? This brown bag lunch discussion is intended to
bring faculty members together to share creative ways for
using the Internet in our classes and for helping students
learn through contributing to the Internet knowledge space.
We'll talk about how to make use of the sites students frequent
(Facebook and YouTube, for instance), but also how to empower
students to create blogs and contribute to wikis. Come share
your experiments with the Internet in your teaching! Bring
your lunch and join the discussion.