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What defines a great professor? "Playing in the Sandbox: Conversations in Pedagogy" is a podcast series that answers this question with one word: play. Most will agree that the best professors and instructors of higher education are those who promote (and exemplify) passion, curiosity, exploration, experimentation, and the willingness to fail and try again. In other words, as this podcast argues, the best professors are those who meaningfully and thoughtfully play.
Episodes
Saturday Aug 07, 2021
Summer 2021 Readalong, Part 3
Saturday Aug 07, 2021
Saturday Aug 07, 2021
In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the final third (pp. 132-end of book) of Julie Schumacher's 2014 novel Dear Committee Members.
What did you think of the novel's conclusion? What are your feelings about how things wrap up with Jay? Now that you've read the entire novel, what are your thoughts?
Friday Jul 09, 2021
Summer 2021 Readalong, Part 2
Friday Jul 09, 2021
Friday Jul 09, 2021
In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the first third (pp. 66-131) of Julie Schumacher's 2014 novel Dear Committee Members.
What did you think of the middle part of this novel? What surprised you? What are you looking forward to seeing (or not seeing) in the final portion of the book?
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Summer 2021 Readalong, Part 1
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Friday Jun 11, 2021
In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the first third (pp. 1-65) of Julie Schumacher's 2014 novel Dear Committee Members.
What did you think of the first third of the novel? What surprised you?
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Incorporating Mental Health Into Your Classes
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
Tuesday Apr 06, 2021
In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) explore how mental health practices can be themselves intellectually invigorating and how incorporating these practices into your courses can drastically impact your and your students' learning.
Starting with discussing our own needs as teachers, we explore explicit ways that you can draw attention to and support mental health through your syllabi, in-class interactions, and out-of-class activities.
Friday Feb 05, 2021
Bringing Podcasting into Your Course
Friday Feb 05, 2021
Friday Feb 05, 2021
In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) go a bit meta...as we talk about why podcasting is a perfect medium for helping students both engage with course content and create meaningful, dynamic coursework.
Sharing ten ideas for bringing podcasts into your course, we discuss everything from how you can bring in smaller activities like flash podcasting during class time to how you can incorporate podcasting in big projects like the traditional term paper. We also talk through some of the concerns and questions people often have regarding assigning podcasting in their classes.
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Lecture Awesomeness
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
Tuesday Jan 12, 2021
In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) explore how our lectures can become something that students don't just tolerate but are actually excited to experience in our courses.
Suggesting that the key is to build in student buy-in, we talk about switching around the order of our class periods (think of lectures as dessert!), harnessing the power of storytelling, and incorporating active learning into our lectures.
Friday Dec 11, 2020
Next-Level Ideas for Online and TigerFlex Teaching
Friday Dec 11, 2020
Friday Dec 11, 2020
In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss some next-level ideas for online and TigerFlex teaching. Looking for ways to boost student participation, reduce Zoom/screen time, and bring some variety into your classes? Then this the episode for you!
Exploring the benefits for both you and your students as well as the tools needed to implement, we talk about five next-level ideas: podcasting lectures, using the Discord app, building in interactives, exploring academic making and project-based learning, and engaging in experiential and process-based learning.
Wednesday Nov 11, 2020
Thinking about the Post-Thanksgiving Pivot (Fall 2020)
Wednesday Nov 11, 2020
Wednesday Nov 11, 2020
In this episode, Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director of The Collaborative) and new host Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss the unique challenges and opportunities facing us as we move fully remote post-Thanksgiving. Although we've pivoted before, this will be a new experience for our first-years (many of whom are moving out of the dorms and back home); it is also the holiday season, ensuring there will be many new experiences looming on the horizon. In this special episode, we answer questions we've been hearing from faculty about how we can not just survive, but thrive, as we transition through the fall pivot and wrap up this semester.
Monday Oct 12, 2020
Soliciting Midsemester Feedback
Monday Oct 12, 2020
Monday Oct 12, 2020
It's easy to dread the end-of-semester course evaluation because, by that point, we are essentially conducting a postmortem. But what if we sought out the pulse of our class while it was still alive? In this episode we look at the benefits of soliciting midsemester feedback from our students as part of the process of play--the act of adopting, adapting, and revising through a meaningful conversation. From transparent conversations to the starfish model of asking for feedback (more of, less of, keep doing, start doing, stop doing), in this episode we discuss how midsemester feedback can help make just-in-time adjustments and opportunities for explanations that will help ensure the best learning and teaching possible.
Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode:
Brookfield, Stephen D. and Stephen Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy and Sophia Abbot, eds. The Power of Partnership: Students, Staff, and Faculty Revolutionizing Higher Education. Elon University Center for Engaged Learning, 2020.
Thursday Jan 16, 2020
Starting Right, Right from the Start
Thursday Jan 16, 2020
Thursday Jan 16, 2020
Imagine being invited over to play and then just going over instructions. Disappointing, right? But isn’t that what happens all the time on the first day of a new class? The start of the semester should not force students to wait for the “good stuff.” Instead, they should feel invited to immediately begin thinking about the content and practicing the skills they will master over the next several weeks. This episode shares several activities that could be used in those early class sessions as well as pitfalls to avoid as we encourage our students to play…right from the start.
Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode:
Gannon, Kevin. “The Absolute Worst Way to Start the Semester.” ChronicleVitae. August 3, 2016.
Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?” Cult of Pedagogy. October 30, 2016.
Lang, James M. “How to Teach a Good First Day of Class.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Make the Most of the First Day of Class.” Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University.
Mayhall, Marguerite. “The Vital Importance of First-Day Activities.” Inside Higher Ed. August, 14, 2018.
Nunn, Lisa M. 33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students. Rutgers UP, 2019.
Stevens, John and Matt Vaudrey. The Classroom Chef: Sharpen Your Lessons, Season Your Classes, Make Math Meaningful. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., 2016.