Ithaca College

Monday, November 11, 2013
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. (bring your lunch), Center for Faculty Excellence, 316 Gannett Center
Steven S. Volk, Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (CTIE) at Oberlin College.

The rapid spread of technology and its delivery through mobile devices has produced a lively debate as to whether this is beneficial or not to our ability to think deeply. There are those, like Nicholas Carr, who worry that Google is “making us stupid,” while others, Clay Shirky of NYU comes to mind, who note that technology always changes us, its users, but quite often for the better. Perhaps the one thing that most agree on is that technology use is getting in the way of our students’ ability to think, reflect, and focus deeply. As Carr put it, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” This workshop will focus on pedagogies that we can use to slow our students down, enabling them to look closely, listen attentively, and think deeply. Its purpose is not to critique or attack their hyper-connected skills – for they will prove useful to them in the future – but to insure that these are paired with an ability to reflect and consider deeply. It is designed for faculty in all areas of the curriculum and will include some background information, hands-on activities, and discussion.

Steven S. Volk is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (CTIE) at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio), where he has taught since 1986. He holds a PhD from Columbia University (History) and specializes in Latin American history, U.S.-Latin American relations, and museum studies. In 2011 he was named U.S. Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. A Teagle Pedagogy Fellow in the Great Lakes College Association and founding director of Oberlin’s Center for Teaching and Learning, he has organized and led dozens of workshops on various aspects of teaching and learning in liberal arts colleges.
(Register Here)

 

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Laurie Wasik at wasik@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-3734. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.