Category: Working Groups

Working Group on Language Instruction

LACOL

LACOL’s Language Instruction Working Group focuses on both theory and effective practices for teaching languages and literatures, using the latest networked technologies to enhance the learning experience.

Activities and Interests of this working group include:

Language Instruction Intranet Home: https://lacol.net/collab/

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Working Group on Active & Engaged Reading

LACOL

LACOL’s working group on Active and Engaged Reading focuses on the role of reading in liberal arts teaching and learning. At liberal arts institutions, we want to meet students where they are and support their ability to read in the variety of ways they will encounter in college. AER is also interested in how different technologies may enable new reading pedagogies through means such as text mining, group annotation or collaborative reading techniques.

Activities and Interests of this group include:

  • Is reading changing for our students in a digital age? If so, how?
  • Regular dialogue on emerging pedagogies for Engaged and Active Reading
  • Technologies for Engaged and Active Reading
Active and Engaged Reading Intranet Home Page: https://lacol.net/collab/

Exploratory group projects:

  • MULTI-CAMPUS “BIG READ”: collaboration to engage students and alumni in online discussion around a common text
  • COLLABORATIVE COURSE OFFERINGS: designing an online/blended learning experience related to modes and skills of reading for the liberal arts
  • DIGITAL TOOLS FOR READING: curating or building digital tools for scholarly reading

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Getting started with math videos by Professor Mark Huber at Claremont McKenna College

LACOL

When I began creating videos, I had a very limited application in mind. It wasn’t the case that I planned to flip the classroom. Instead, my motivation was that I found myself repeating certain basic concepts over and over again in office hours, and wanted to give students short videos (under ten minutes) explaining particularly hard-to-get concepts.

After creating a few of these videos, I decided to have my students create videos explaining some basic problems. Seeing the myriad of different types of videos that my students produced really opened my eyes to the different possibilities. Here’s my breakdown of the most common ways to get started with videos, and the pros and cons of each.

1) The sage on the stage—now in video form!

The simplest way to get started is to use that skill that all math lecturers have: stand in front of the board and record the lecture. This is probably the easiest way to get started, but isn’t an especially good way to create a short video. Drawbacks include that the speaker is often blocking the board, much of the time the material on the board cannot be read due to distance. It is also tempting in this format to include too much material, and not concentrate on the key ideas.

Definitely this video is going to need some closeups to be able to read what’s going on!

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