Education – What’s on the Horizon?

Looking at the near, mid, and far horizons for technology and trends, and what it means for teaching. The Horizon Report seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, and creative expression. Join two of the collaborators on the 2009 Horizon Report for a discussion and demonstration of a number of websites that exhibit how these trends are being applied within education.

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iTunesU @ UB (Part 2) - Creating Podcasts

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iTunesU @ UB (Part 1) - Introduction to Podcasting

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Kevin Lim & Jen Austin // UBlearns: Campus Pack Blogs & Wikis

With the rollout of Campus Pack Journal LX (blogs) and Teams LX (wikis) into UBlearns instructors now have tools to harness the power of Web 2.0 technologies from within their course environment. The differences between blogs, wikis and journals will be discussed during this workshop. Case studies about the use of blogs and wikis in higher education will also be shared. Instructors will learn how to transform assignments and boost the learning potential for students by employing Web 2.0 technologies.

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Roberta (Robin) Sullivan // Principles for constructing good clicker questions

In this session we will discuss how to go beyond rote learning and stimulate active engagement with course content using Clickers. Tips and techniques will also be shared to assist instructors to develop effective questions that can be used with Clickers. The development of effective questions determines the outcome of whether or not the use of Clickers is a useful teaching tool. At first impression, one might think that having students respond to multiple-choice questions inspires a rote-learning environment. If instructors take the time to fully consider the best ways to implement Clicker driven questions that target higher levels of learning, then Clickers can become a very effective learning tool.

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Using groups and academic games for learning and assessment//Barbara Millis - Genteels’ Excellence in Teaching - Spring 2008

A series of workshops about the theory and philosophy behind cooperative and active learning in higher education.

Games can be an effective way to motivate students to learn course material; to encourage them to come to class prepared; and to assess student learning.

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Using cooperative activities to foster deep learning//Barbara Millis - Genteels’ Excellence in Teaching - Spring 2008

A series of workshops about the theory and philosophy behind cooperative and active learning in higher education.

Deep learning emerges from the careful sequencing of assignments and activities orchestrated by a teacher committed to student learning.

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Linking cooperative learning to the research on how people learn//Barbara J. Millis - Genteels’ Excellence in Teaching - Spring 2008

A series of workshops about the theory and philosophy behind cooperative and active learning in higher education.

Participants will come to know the theory and philosophy behind cooperative learning, including its belief in the value and educability of all students and the need to provide cooperative environments that balance challenge and support.

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Scott Paauw, Theresa Winkelman, and Linda McCausland, Janice Jones, Debie Street//Tips for teaching large classes: teaching strategies

This session explores various teaching strategies for effective teaching of large classes. Faculty who have been identified as successful teachers of large classes will discuss and demonstrate strategies they have implemented in their courses.

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Denise Krause, Susan Green, and Maria Picone //Creating a positive, solution focused approach in the classroom

This skills workshop demonstrates how university educators can utilize solution focused techniques in the classroom to engage students in the learning process by being student centered while maintaining their commitment to course objectives. Solution focused instruction techniques emphasize students' strengths and helps to amply their successes. The instructor utilizes the approach to gauge a class's experience, skill and readiness in relation to course content. A solution orientation also assists students to maximize their learning potential by establishing goals and academic priorities based on self assessments. Solution focused pedagogy anchors the delivery of this skills building workshop. The session begins with a brief conceptual explanation of the approach. The traditional teaching paradigm is compared with the solution focused paradigm to introduce the concepts.. Once these conceptual elements are addressed, the workshop makes explicit a number of solution focused classroom skills.

Conventional solution focused skills including exception, scaling, and the miracle questions (deShazer, 1985; deShazer et al 1986; Berg, 1994; & DeJong & Berg, 2006) are applied in the classroom setting. Several examples both from the instructor's and participants' own experience are shared. Building on these, unique techniques for educational venues are explained with examples. An emphasis here is placed on the instructor's self assessment using the same techniques. Participants are encouraged to actively engage with the skills through exercises, examples, and questions. The presenter discusses how additional components of a course including readings and assignments are considered within a solution focused orientation to social work education.

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Jim Jensen//Beyond homework: student assessment through group work and oral examinations

Assessing student achievement of learning outcomes is a vital step in the teaching and learning process. In this seminar, two non-traditional assessment methods will be explored. First, assessment of student learning through group work will be quantified through experiences in engineering design and laboratory courses. Second, the advantages and disadvantages of oral examinations in technical courses will be discussed. Lessons learned will be extrapolated to other disciplines.

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Blyth //UBlearns gradebook

Use the UBlearns gradebook as an effective option for managing student grades.

Kevin Lim //Facebook strategies for the classroom

Facebook is one of the most popular online social network. This workshop explores the potential uses of Facebook for teaching and motivating collaboration between students. Issues of privacy and intellectual property will also be covered, as well as advantages and pitfalls of social networks.

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Elizabeth Colucci//Successful models of minority graduate student recruitment

Departments seek to diversify their graduate student body, but are unsure how to increase the number of qualified candidates. This faculty focused discussion forum will describe three models that have been effective at the University at Buffalo.


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Hendrix //Maximizing Google's research potential

Google is well-established as the most influential search engine of the 21st century, but many of its most powerful features are hidden from the average user. This workshop will help unlock the mysteries of Google and Google Scholar, focusing on advanced search techniques and special features, including how to download references to EndNote.

Mark Bartholomew, Mike Behun, Terry McCormack, and Lewis Rosenthal //Copyright and higher education: beginning the dialog

What do those in higher education need to know about copyright? How does this affect faculty and students within the classroom environment?


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Andrea Greenwood and Euna Oh //Supporting international students: tips from Counseling Services

International students face unique challenges, including language barriers, culture shock, classroom culture differences, academic pressures, regulatory restrictions and increased surveillance in the post-9/11 environment.

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Kelly Ahuna and Christine Gray Tinnesz // Critical Thinking

Students often make judgments mindlessly. They assume the same position as a person whom they respect; they repeat what they hear on television; they choose the easiest solution to a problem. This kind of decision-making is the opposite of critical thinking. Critical thinking requires the mindful employment of criteria to assess how well a judgment is reached. The “Elements of Thought” offers one framework students can use in both reaching judgment and evaluating the judgments of others.

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UBlearns Express

This introduction will show you how to post syllabi, course schedules, assignments, student grades and other course materials to Blackboard on UBlearns.

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Kevin Lim // Online video sharing: present and future

This session is for anyone who wants to get started with sharing videos online. Explore the world of free video sharing services, learn tips to producing great video for web, and look into the future of online videos.

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UBclicks: introduction

Get up and running with Clickers (Classroom Response Systems). This session is an introduction to the TurningPoint XR Clickers, the recommended standard adopted by UB. You will gain a basic understanding of the TurningPoint software and its hardware components. By the end of this session, you will be ready to use Clickers confidently in your classes.

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UBclicks: advanced

Expand your TurningPoint XR Clicker knowledge beyond a basic user. Learn how to enhance your presentation and take full advantage of TurningPoint’s numerous capabilities. Instructors will explore the many advanced features, including proper implementation to maximize effectiveness.

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Carol Tutzauer //The little shop of course design horrors

Avoiding major pitfalls in course design can often be as simple as re-focusing on what students should achieve rather than the material to be covered over the course of the semester. Discover how to make expectations clear, maintain high standards, engage students in their own learning process, and ensure that students accomplish what is critical.

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Denise Krause, Susan Green, Maria Picone //Pulling it together: developing lesson plans for university students

Thoughtful and systematic lesson planning offers opportunities for improving teaching effectiveness based on the unique characteristics of the learning environment and the needs of learners.

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Kelly Ahuna and Christine Gray Tinnesz //Developing autonomous learners: helping students succeed in college

The transition from high school to college can be overwhelming for many students as they navigate a culture in which their success is wholly reliant upon their own motivation and effort. By addressing determined strategies and techniques students need to master for college success, this presentation will provide insights faculty can use to facilitate the learning process for students. Once we know what students need to do to be autonomous, how can instructors assist in that process? Through presentation and interaction, this program will generate ideas to help faculty ensure that their students are indeed learning course content.

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Dr. Lawrence Shulman //The skills and dynamics of teaching: addressing the hidden group in the classroom

The underlying assumption that the class group can serve to either enhance learning or create obstacles to learning. Through presentation, discussion and analysis of examples presented by participants the workshop will explore the following issues:

* Students who directly or indirectly challenge the instructor’s competency or complain about assignments and grading
* How to create a class culture in which “hot button” issues, such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, abortion, religion, etc. can be discussed in a mutually respectful manner, freeing students to say what they think and feel rather than what they think they are expected to say
* How to deal with inter-ethnic issues (i.e., white teacher with students of color) and intra-ethnic issues (i.e., Gay teacher and a Gay student)

Ruth Berry, Randy Borst, and Beth Tauke // Multidimensional instruction strategies to improve your teaching

Nonstandard learners (some of whom have disabilities) can unintentionally be limited through standard teaching practices and course procedures. This presentation will explore and give examples of several advanced teaching practices through the concept of multidimensionality, the seven principles of universal design, and accessibility of online learning.

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Kevin Eye // Maintaining website content using Contribute

Non-technical users will learn to update and publish content to an existing website using Adobe Contribute. Website content can be maintained in a fashion similar to using Microsoft Word, without learning HTML code.

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Undergraduate Research at UB

This presentation will introduce faculty to the offices and agencies on campus that work towards faculty/student interaction and achievement in the realm of research. This is not only for the hard sciences as research and creative activity is ongoing in every discipline across campus. Please join us for a brief overview of services, funding criteria and for a lively round table discussion on where undergraduate research is, and needs to go on our campus.

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Jim Gordon // Turnitin: plagiarism prevention

Faculty, adjunct faculty, and teaching staff can use Turnitin as a tool to help prevent plagiarism and improve student authenticity. This workshop is about how to get started setting up your courses with Turnitin. In this hands-on workshop attendees will give each other mock assignments and essays to create Turnitin reports. A Turnitin account will be created for each attendee.

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Maxwell Ruckdeschel // Regional Knowledge Network

The Regional Knowledge Network is a powerful online resource for researchers, government officials, regional leaders, students, community activists and citizens. The network covers 10 topics for the Buffalo Niagara region and is a central resource for information on regionally critical issues.

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Kevin Lim // Intro to Podcasts

Have your lessons or research "heard" by starting your own academic podcast. Podcasting is a method of publishing audio files to the Internet and making them available to subscribers to download. Learn how podcasting might be used in your scholarly activities. This workshop was a collaboration with Jim Milles.

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Kevin Eye // Understanding and Using RSS

RSS is an open standard for sharing channels of Web content, including news headlines, blog posts, and multimedia clips (podcasts). Learn how to dynamically update your website with content from UB and external websites, and how to publish your site information to others.

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Kevin Lim // Intro to Wikis

Bring together the collective knowledge of your class by starting a Wiki. A Wiki is an online platform for collaborative document editing. Its popularity stems from its ease of use, particularly for building a knowledgebase.

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Kevin Lim // Intro to Blogs

Learn how to start your own blog! This workshop will explain the blog phenomenon, how it benefits teachers, researchers, students and librarians.

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Kathy Boje // Enhance group learning using UBlearns

Professor Kathy Boje will demonstrate a variety of teaching strategies she uses within UBlearns to engage students and to achieve learning objectives. Students participate in cooperative learning, question and discussion, debates, and peer teaching activities.

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Robin Sullivan // CV/research website creation

In this workshop you will create a website to display your CV and/or research interests. You will learn to use Dreamweaver to create a simple website using a pre-defined template that is inline with UB visual identity guidelines. You will leave the session with knowledge about how to continue the development of your website.

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Kevin Lim // Intro to Web 2.0

Blogs, wikis, and podcasting are becoming widely used in higher education to extend interactions among teachers and learners. Follow-up sessions help you develop these environments for use in your teaching and research.

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Kevin Eye // Macromedia Contribute for Web administrators

Come to this session for a discussion of Contribute, a valuable Web editing tool for non-technical users. Geared toward Web administrators, this session will include a demonstration of the admin tools in Contribute such as adding users, restricting access, and limiting the ability to edit portions of webpages for those designated to update website content.

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Kurt Squire // Education Arcade: Games-to-Teach

Kurt Squire presented "Education Arcade: Games-to-Teach" at the Educational Gaming conference, held on February 3rd, 2006 at the University at Buffalo. This conference included discussions on the intersect of cognitive theory and online game environments.

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Alex Chisholm // Education Arcade: Games-to-Teach

Alex Chisholm presented "Education Arcade: Games-to-Teach" at the Educational Gaming conference, held on February 3rd, 2006 at the University at Buffalo. This conference included discussions on the intersect of cognitive theory and online game environments.

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Constance Steinkuehler // Cognition/Culture in Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Constance Steinkuehler presented "Cognition/Culture in MMOG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Games)" at the Educational Gaming conference, held on February 3rd, 2006 at the University at Buffalo. This conference included discussions on the intersect of cognitive theory and online game environments.

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Robin Sullivan // Developing Student Eportfolios

Eportfolios are a compilation of student work used to document achievement and learning. Examples of student and class-based portfolios will be demonstrated. The development of student and class-based portfolios are a useful resource for instructors and students. Students often make use of portfolios as a resource while searching for career opportunities and/or applying for graduate schools. The process of portfolio development can contain a repository that enables students to look back at their progress and also encourage self-reflection. This seminar will include a discussion of the traits that make electronic portfolios unique, and an easily achievable option for students from a wide variety of disciplines.

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Alex Halavais // Educational Blogs and Wikis

Emerging web-based communication environments offer new approaches for engaging students and instructors in learning dialogs. Presenter Alex Halavais introduces and discusses the benefits and problems of launching educational wikis and blogs.

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