8:38 a.m., May 12, 2010----Looking for a reason to attend this year's Summer Faculty Institute? Here's a Top 10 list:

10. Listen to amazing featured speakers: Each day begins with an energizing perspective on teaching. Beginning with Reinhold Steinbeck from Stanford University on Tuesday, June 1, to Bryan Carter (via Second Life) from the University of Central Missouri on Wednesday, June 2, to UD's own Alan Fox on Thursday, June 3, you'll take away new ideas and inspiration. A limited number of faculty participants can follow up Steinbeck's keynote presentation on design thinking with an in-depth, activity-based interactive workshop.

9. Sessions are faculty-led, but student-focused: A word analysis of the 40 session titles shows "student" is the most frequently used word. The sessions may deal with using technology, but succeed only if they intensify student connection with class material, develop team-building skills and improve a student's chance for success in the course and long-term success at the University.

8. New this year -- technology fair: You can try out many ideas and technologies quickly at the technology fair. We encourage you to drop by to discover new and upcoming technologies that could complement your teaching methods. The fair will emphasize “hands on” technology stations for faculty members to become familiar with technology available for them to use in and outside the classroom.

7. Stay connected through social media: We'll guide you to new tools that help annotate conference sessions in a way that everyone leaves with a richer set of resources than any one individual could collect. At the end of the week, you will have contributed to, and benefitted from, a collection of notes, links, pictures, tags and more.

6. Stay on top of your game with a variety of session formats: With sessions that range from 5-minute "lightning talks" to 60-minute hands-on workshops, you'll be involved with a mix of ideas and applications from your fellow faculty members that cover each track topic with breadth and depth.

5. Stay comfortable, connected, and well fed: Most sessions will be held in Gore Hall case study rooms. Bring your laptop, plug in and stay connected while you collect artifacts and try out suggestions throughout the week. Enjoy the catered meals and breaks to keep you energized.

4-3-2-1. It's not the technology, it's the people -- so meet a new faculty member or IT staff member each day: This year's program is all about University of Delaware faculty sharing their ideas on how they use technology in their teaching. You'll hear about successes and lessons learned, challenges that were met and what could have been done differently. Save time for jump-starting your own ideas. Retain the contact information for following up on your projects. Faculty participants are passionate about their work and their teaching.

Schedule

Now that you've discovered your reasons to attend, check out the schedule.

Tuesday, June 1, 9-10 a.m., 114 Gore Hall
Keynote: Design thinking as a learning process

This interactive presentation will introduce design thinking, a user-centered and team-based approach for developing innovative solutions within a global context. Building on the work of globally distributed and place-based learning teams at Stanford University, examples will show how design thinking was used as a method to help students employ a common design process. Through their involvement, students come to appreciate cultural contexts, learn in interdisciplinary teams, develop deep empathy, prototype and iterate ideas rapidly and, at times, reframe a problem entirely.

All members of the University community are welcome to attend the keynote address. The event is free but registration is required. Register online at the LearnIT@UD website.

Faculty-only workshop on design thinking as a learning process

Tuesday, June 1, 10 a.m.-noon, 208 Gore Hall

This hands-on, interactive session is a follow-up to the morning's keynote presentation. The event is free but registration is required. Register online at the LearnIT@UD website.

Track topics

Track 1 -- Global connections in the classroom

Tuesday, June 1, 1-4 p.m., 114 Gore Hall

Faculty can remove one wall of their classroom and open it up for two-way instructional interaction with any location in the world. In this track, learn from the experiences of faculty members who have taken advantage of technology to do just that. The successes and challenges will be discussed, along with available resources. Learn how to build your class around videoconferences with students in another country and to bring international breadth and cultural eye-openers to subjects you already teach. Participants will leave with ideas that are applicable to their discipline and tips on how to get started in a manageable approach.

Faculty presenters include: Ralph Begleiter, Suzanne Burton, Sharon Watson and Meredith Wesolowski.

Track 2 -- Real educational experiences in virtual worlds

Tuesday, June 1, through Thursday, June 4, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., 104 Gore Hall

This all-week track includes the plenary speakers from each track: Reinhold Steinbeck, Bryan Carter (via Second Life) and Alan Fox.

In this track, you will learn the basic skills needed to navigate a multi-user, virtual environment, change your appearance, communicate with others, travel to other locations and engage with educators from around the world. Fully immerse yourself as we tour interactive educational simulations covering a wide range of disciplines including art, business, literature, museums, science, medicine and more. At each destination, we will be met by the creators of the simulation and learn first hand about their successes and challenges achieving their educational goals in a virtual environment.

For more in-depth information about this track, contact Debbie Jeffers [jeffers@udel.edu].

For more information about UD in Second Life, visit UD's Second Life website.

Tentative list of guest presenters and tour destinations: Latanya Autry, Don Lehman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, World War I poetry, Middle Passage, Delaware-based Sandcastle Studio Productions, Science Islands, Exploratorium and more.

Track 3 -- Effective instruction online

Wednesday, June 2, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., 114 Gore Hall

This track includes a virtual presentation (via Second Life) by Bryan Carter, University of Central Missouri.

Online instruction offers many methods to complement the use of in-class time. This one-day track will explore a variety of techniques that faculty can adopt to their specific classroom teaching model. Specific topics include integrating a textbook with interactive Web exercises, supplementing Sakai@UD to increase student engagement, applications for laboratory-based courses and managing writing exercises with the help of online environments.

Faculty presenters include: James Dean, Richard Gordon, Rebekah Helton, Dallas Hoover, Jonathan Jeffery, Don Lehman, Ashley Pigford, Dorry Ross and Fraser Russel.

Track 4 -- Engaging assignments and presentations

Thursday, June 3, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., 114 Gore Hall

This track includes a plenary presentation “Engaging the Best Students” by Alan Fox.

The basis of this one-day track is the idea of active learning in all its forms. Fox believes that the term "passive learning” is an oxymoron -- all learning is active. Learning is something students do, and teaching involves helping them do it in the most productive way. Acquire techniques ranging from storytelling as an element of learning to making your presentations come alive. Participants will hear from faculty who have engaged students through innovative assignments and have developed creative classroom presentations.

Faculty presenters include: Latanya Autry, Sue Barton, Ralph Begleiter, Derek Churchill, Tanya Gressley, Jonathan Jeffrey, Mike Oates, Lynette Overby and Chris Penna.

Track 5 -- University Museums African American Art Collection Visual Database Workshop

Thursday, June 3, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m., 114 Gore Hall

This track includes the plenary presentation by Alan Fox from Track 3.

An introduction to the University Museums online database for objects in the UD collection with an emphasis on the African American art objects. Participants will learn how to access, use and store visual collections for use in classroom teaching and research. Curatorial staff will provide introduction to the strengths of the collections and past classroom uses.

Presented by Julie McGee, Jan Broske and Evelyn Stevens.

Technology Fair

Friday, June 4, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Technology Fair will be held in Daugherty Hall at the Trabant University Center. Institute participants are encouraged to drop by to discover new and upcoming technologies that could complement your teaching methods. The fair will emphasize “hands on” technology stations for faculty members to become familiar with technology available for them to use in and outside the classroom.

For a summary of all faculty presentations, visit the IT-ATS website.

Registration

Week-long registration represents the best value. For a graphical overview of the week-long program, view this image. Events are free but registration is required. Registration is online. Those who select the week-long registration will be signed up to participate in the following:

• Keynote (Tuesday morning): Design thinking as a learning process
• Track 1 (Tuesday afternoon): Global connections in the classroom
• Track 3 (Wednesday): Effective instruction online
• Track 4 (Thursday): Engaging assignments and presentations
• Technology Fair (Friday)

Alternatively, faculty members can select among the individual tracks that are of interest to them. For a graphical overview of the week-long program, view this image.

• Register for Track 1
• Register for Track 2
• Register for Track 3
• Register for Track 4
• Register for the Technology Fair

The Summer Faculty Institute is sponsored by IT Academic Technology Services in partnership with other campus units and departments.