PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows.
— David Byrne

HACKING HARMONY, BUILDING LITERACY, AND ENGAGING COMMUNITIES

music library association regional conference, college park, md

Co-presented with: Andrea Copland (Outreach and Instruction Librarian) and Susan Forscher Weiss (Associate Professor of Musicology)

Hackathons are team events organized around solving problems with technology in a short amount of time. These are inherently innovative events, inviting and inspiring participants to bring their best ideas to new projects. This event asked “how can technology help bring music learning in the digital age alive?” For the first time, students from all schools and departments at Johns Hopkins University with a passion for music and technology joined creative forces for a 24-hour sprint to create new instruments and teaching tools for novices and expert musicians alike. Traditionally, hackathons focus on teams of technologists working together to leverage their technical expertise. Peabody music students were invited to partner with students in computer science and engineering from the Homewood Campus in the Arthur Friedheim Library, making space for technology collaboration in the conservatory. The Hackathon included two concert events and five workshops to introduce students to designing electronic instruments, introductions to Max/MSP programming, neural network programming, synthesis, and artificial intelligence in music. In addition to 25 competitors, the workshops and concerts reached nearly 200 people from all JHU schools in Baltimore City. This presentation will share how the project team planned a successful event, considerations for replicating this event on your campus, and ideas for overcoming barriers with musicians who may be interested by unsure of their abilities with technology. Attendees will be invited to share how they can take these ideas back to their own campuses, and will have an opportunity to engage with some of the technology students at Peabody accessed to build musical stairs, music-playing prostheses, and tools to improve performance.


PANEL MODERATOR: FUTURE OF LEARNING PANEL - NEXT GENERATION MULTI-LITERACY CENTERS COMPLETE THE PICTURE OF THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNING COMMONS

NEXT GENERATION LEARNING SPACES, SAN DIEGO, CA

Co-presented with: Karen Pinto (Learner Experience Designer) and Danielle Cordaro (Associate Professor of English)

As new media emerges as a key literacy demand of contemporary workplaces, colleges and universities struggle to provide students with appropriate technologies, learning environments and support for multimodal communication projects. The learning commons is identified on most college campuses as a “one-stop-shop” for students, and typically includes library services, IT help, library and tutoring services. A multiliteracy center completes the picture by bringing together resources that assist students with traditional writing assignments, public speaking, as well as digital visual and audio projects.

Key Takeaways:
(1) Design physical spaces that support today’s collaborative learner, even in dated libraries or other older buildings. (2) Select and train student staff to cover multiple areas of literacy. (3) Choose technologies and pedagogies that “push” institutional culture and curriculum to become less technology-averse, more collaborative, and more creative.


Challenging Assignments - Tapping into Your Next Level of Leadership

SJU Leadership Conference, Philadelphia, pa

Co-presented with: Jill Cleary (Director of Project Management)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Leadership development comes from not only understanding your skills, interests and abilities but through taking on new and interesting challenges that develop areas of leadership growth. In this session, participants learned how to leverage challenging assignments to take leadership to the next level. A new model was presented for charting and assessing challenges, as well as methods for handling challenging assignments and maximizing their positive impacts.


Panel Presentation: The Teacher's Guide to the Flipped Classroom: Don't Panic

Teaching and Learning Forum, Philadelphia, pa

Co-presented with: Phyllis Blumberg (University of the Sciences), Sarah K. Johnson (Moravian College), George Spillich (Washington College), Elizabeth Becker (SJU)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Session covered research in the classroom, technology tips and tricks, and Instructional Technology theory and collaboration between Instructional Technologists and Faculty.


Collaboration and the 3 Bears Approach to Iterative Development to Improve Learning Outcomes

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference, Bryn Mawr, pa

Co-presented with: Elizabeth Becker, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Psychology)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

At many colleges and universities, traditional lectures are being augmented and/or replaced with a variety of learning technologies. When implemented effectively through collaboration between instructional technologists and faculty, technology has the potential to increase student engagement and transform the learning experience.  In this presentation, we shared our experience transforming a Behavioral Neuroscience class and lab experience to incorporate eLearning and social media by including digital storytelling, iPads, and a partnership with local high school students. We shared not only the results of their collaboration, but also how the collaboration began, was developed, and how it serves as the foundation for an iterative, continuous improvement of learning outcomes.


Realizing the Potential of Collaborative Partnerships: Exploring and Implementing Learning-Centered Pedagogy and Technology

Drexel Business Professor Teaching Summit, Philadelphia, pa

Co-presented with: Ken Weidner, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Management) and Stephanie Mosher (Instructional Technologist)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Too often, college faculty and academic technology specialists specialize in their respective domains, each with their work highly compartmentalized – and interactions that can become transactional. In this session, we reported on our intentionally collaborative partnership, in which we co-developed, implemented, and supported an innovative use of technology in a Breaking News in Business Ethics course.


Constructing 'Authentic' Science: Results from a University-High School Collaboration Integrating Digital Storytelling and Social Networking

National Association of Research in Science Teaching, Chicago, il

Co-presented with: Stacy Olitsky, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Teacher Education) and Elizabeth Becker, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Psychology)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

This paper presentation focused on an innovation in an upper level college neuroscience classroom in which the professor integrated the following components:  student-directed research, student documentation of their work through digital stories using iPads, and communication with high school students through an education social networking site and on-site visits.


Enhancing Learning Through Collaboration Between Instructional Technologists and Faculty

Drexel eLearning Conference, Philadelphia, pa

Co-presented with: Elizabeth Becker, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Psychology)

Facilitated session that shared how leveraging collaboration can lead to improved learning outcomes. Through a collaboration between Instructional Technologists and faculty, we transformed our undergraduate Behavioral Neuroscience class and lab experience to incorporate eLearning and social media by including digital storytelling, iPads, and meaningful interaction with high school science students.

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)

Click Here to view full presentation (PDF)