Intentional Teaching

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Today on the podcast, I’m republishing one of my favorite interviews from Leading Lines, the podcast I hosted for the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching from 2016 to 2022. In this interview from 2022, I talk with Remi Kalir, who was (at the time) an associate professor of learning design and technology at the University of Colorado. Remi is a scholar of annotation, that simple act of adding a note to a text. Remi takes a broad view of what counts as a “note” and as a “text,” making annotation a powerful lens for examining how we humans make meaning. In the interview, Remi and I focus on the use of annotation in learning contexts, particularly social and collaborative annotation. It’s an interview I find myself referencing again and again, and I’m glad to have it in a podcast feed once again!And the timing of this episode is intentional, as Remi has a new book out the day this episode of Intentional Teaching airs. The book is called Re/Marks on Power: How Annotation Inscribes History, Literacy, and Justice. Here’s the tag line from the MIT Press website: “An interdisciplinary exploration of annotation that shows how this participatory act marks public memory, struggles for justice, and social change.” So if you like what you hear from Remi about annotation and learning, then follow the links in the show notes to learn more about his new book. Episode Resources·       Remi Kalir’s website·       Re/Marks on Power: How Annotation Inscribes History, Literacy, and Justice·       Reading Re/Marks, Remi’s newsletter·       Annotation in Teaching and Learning, a collection of resources on the topic that I curated for the University of Virginia Teaching HubPodcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Christopher McVey is a master lecturer in the writing program at Boston University. Neeza Singh is a senior at BU majoring in data science. Last year, the two were partnered through the BU writing program's AI Affiliate Fellowship program, giving Neeza a role in Christopher's class supporting both Christopher and his students in responsible and effective use of generative AI in writing.On this episode, I talk with Chris and Neeza about this innovative, AI-focused students-as-partners program. They share about Neeza's role in Chris' writing course, how her work as an AI affiliate benefitted both Chris and his students, and the potential for this kind of program to work in other disciplines. Chris and Neeza have lots to say about the role of AI in learning.Episode Resources·       Christopher McVey’s faculty page·       Neeza Singh’s LinkedIn page·       Undergraduate AI Writing Affiliate Fellowship, Boston University Writing Program·       Syllabus for The Philosophy and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence·       AI Mini-Games for Peer Review, an activity by Neeza Singh and Christopher McVey·       The Case for Slowing Down, by Christopher McVey·       AI-Enhanced Learning with Pary Fassihi, Intentional Teaching episode 35 Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Kristine Johnson and Michael Rifenburg are the authors of the new book A Long View of Undergraduate Research: Alumni Perspectives on Inquiry, Belonging, and Vocation. They tracked down alumni who had participated in undergraduate research years earlier. They wanted to know what kinds of impacts these experiences had on students over the long term. What they heard from these alumni was fascinating.Kristine Johnson is an associate professor of English at Calvin University, and Michael Rifenburg is a professor of English at the University of North Georgia. They were undergraduate researchers as students, and they now mentor students in undergrad research. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of student-mentor relationships, the impact of working on big and meaningful projects, how undergrad research can help students find a vocation, and how these experiences can both enhance and challenge a student’s sense of belonging. Episode Resources·       Kristine Johnson’s faculty page·       Michael Rifenburg’s faculty page·       A Long View of Undergraduate Researchby Kristine Johnson and Michael Rifenburg·       The Meaningful Writing Project by Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Gellar, and Neal LernerPodcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.We’re back with another Take It or Leave It panel. I invited three colleagues whose work and thinking I admire very much to come on the show and to compress their complex and nuanced thoughts on teaching and learning into artificial binaries! The panelists for this edition of Take It or Leave It are… Liz Norell, associate director of instructional support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi; Betsy Barre, assistant provost and executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching at Wake Forest University; and Bryan Dewsbury, associate professor of biology and associate director of the STEM Transformation Institute at Florida International University. We discuss three recent essays on class participation, learning management systems, and generative AI and weigh in with a "Take it!" or "Leave it!" for each one.Episode ResourcesLiz Norell’s website, https://www.liznorell.com/Betsy Barre’s website, https://www.elizabethbarre.com/Bryan Dewsbury’s website, http://www.seasprogram.net/ Essay 1: “Making Class Participation Grades Meaningful” by Benjamin RikfinEssay 2: “College as a To-Do List” by Susan D. BlumEssay 3: “Saying No to Generative AI” by Cate Denial“But How Do I Participate?” by Olivia Bailey Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman “The Workload Paradox with Betsy Barre and Karen Costa,” Leading Lines podcast OpenAI Operator, https://openai.com/index/introducing-operator/ Goblin Tools, https://goblin.tools/  Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Greg Loring-Albright is the designer of Keep the Faith, a storytelling game about a religion in transition and about how religious institutions change over time. Greg is also an assistant professor of game, media, and culture at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, where he teaches game design and game studies. Greg is also the co-designer of Bloc by Bloc: Uprising, a game about revolutionaries trying to liberate their city from an oppressive police state. He's a proponent of purposeful games, and I invited him on the podcast to talk about the connections between game design and learning design.Keep the Faith is currently seeking crowdfunding for its first edition through Central Michigan University Press, an academic press that publishes peer-reviewed tabletop games with educational utility. If you're listening to this before March 6, 2025, please consider backing the game by following the link below.Episode Resources·       Keep the Faith (crowdfunding), https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/central-michigan-university-press/keep-the-faith·       Greg Loring-Albright’s website, https://www.gloringalbright.com/ ·       Bloc by Bloc: Uprising, https://outlandishgames.com/blocbybloc/ ·       Central Michigan University Press, https://cmichpress.com/ ·       “Daybreak: Learning at Play with Kerry Whittaker and Matteo Menapace,” Intentional Teaching episode 43, https://intentionalteaching.buzzsprout.com/2069949/episodes/15393666-daybreak-learning-at-play-with-kerry-whittaker-and-matteo-menapace·       First Player Token, my short podcast about board games, https://www.buzzsprout.com/2292265   Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Back in August, I had the opportunity to hear a short presentation from Heidi Nobles, assistant professor in writing and rhetoric and director of Writing Across the Curriculum at the University of Virginia. The presentation was part of a two-day institute on teaching and generative AI, and Heidi leveraged her background as an editor to provide a different way of thinking about working with generative AI.Heidi pointed out that when we ask ChatGPT or some other AI chatbot to polish a draft essay, we’re asking for copyediting. That’s useful, yes, but there are other, earlier stages to an editing process. Might AI be useful during those other stages? Heidi argued for yes. A chatbot won’t be as good as a human editor, but most writers don’t have access to a human editor, so it’s worth exploring what AI can do.On today's podcast, Heidi Nobles talks about writing and teaching writing from an editor's perspective.Episode Resources·       Heidi Nobles faculty page, https://wac.virginia.edu/people/heidi-nobles ·       Edits on the Record, https://editsontherecord.com/ ·       Choose Your Own Adventure maps, https://www.cyoa.com/pages/choose-your-own-adventure-these-maps-reveal-the-hidden-structures-behind-the-books ·       One Book, Many Readings by Christian Swinehart, https://samizdat.co/cyoa/Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Ryan Wetzel, Manager of Creative Learning Initiatives at Penn State, dives into how generative AI can supercharge education. He discusses its role in honing students' critical thinking and creativity through projects like board game design and personal branding. Wetzel emphasizes redefining AI from a mere search tool to a collaborative partner in learning. He also highlights the potential of AI in enhancing visual communication and breaking down accessibility barriers, paving the way for innovative and inclusive educational practices.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Doctoral education in the United States works really well... when it works. Many doctoral students experience a significant mismatch between their career goals and the goals of their graduate programs, which is one reason completion rates for doctoral programs are so low. Why is doctoral education this broken? And what can higher education do about it? Today on the podcast, we hear some answers to those questions from Leonard Cassuto, professor of English at Fordham University and author of the book The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education with Robert Weisbuch.I'm joined by special guest interviewer Emily Donahoe, associate director at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi. Emily heads up the center's programs and services for graduate students, and she spends a lot of time in the world of doctoral education.Episode ResourcesLeonard Cassuto’s website, https://www.lcassuto.com/Len on the Future U podcast, https://www.futureupodcast.com/episodes/the-future-of-the-phd/Len on the Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast, https://blubrry.com/dead_ideas/131080109/why-is-there-no-training-on-how-to-teach-graduate-students-with-leonard-cassuto/ Emily Donahoe’s Unmaking the Grade blog, https://emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com/Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Questions or comments about this episode? Send us a text massage.Today on the podcast, I’m excited to share an interview with Jane Southworth, professor and chair of geography at the University of Florida and co-chair of the committee that designed UF's "AI Across the Curriculum" program. That program was designed in 2021, two full years before the launch of ChatGPT!Jane shares about the role of artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning, in her landscape change research, and how that work get her involved in AI curriculum initiatives at UF. Jane also provides a lot of details on the new UF program, including the university-wide undergraduate AI certificate, AI-focused undergraduate research opportunities, and what turned into a herculean effort to get AI literacy embedded across the UF curriculum. I also asked Jane how the launch of ChatGPT affected this big project as it was being launched. Episode Resources·       Jane Southworth’s faculty page, https://geog.ufl.edu/faculty/southworth/ ·       AI at the University of Florida, https://ai.ufl.edu/·       “Developing a model for AI Across the Curriculum: Transforming the higher education landscape via innovation in AI literacy,” Southworth et al., https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666920X23000061?via%3Dihub ·       “Building an AI University: An Administrator’s Guide,” Joe Glover, https://www.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/11/Building-an-AI-university-An-administrators-guide.pdf  Podcast Links: Intentional Teaching is sponsored by UPCEA, the online and professional education association.Subscribe to the Intentional Teaching newsletter: https://derekbruff.ck.page/subscribe Support Intentional Teaching on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intentionalteachingFind me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.See my website for my "Agile Learning" blog and information about having me speak at your campus or conference.

Jingjing Li, Andersen Alumni Associate Professor of Commerce at the University of Virginia, dives into using generative AI in technical courses. She discusses innovative assignments that enhance student engagement with AI tools, uncovering the diverse metaphors her students use to express their experiences. Topics also include the impact of AI on learning outcomes and the importance of integrating AI literacy into curricula, addressing the different capabilities among students and how this shapes their interactions with AI.