New Workshops Headed To The CTLT Near You

CTLT Workshops - Communication for Learners

As teachers, we all have our areas of expertise, and in order for us to engage our students in learning about those areas, we must communicate effectively for our learners. For the Spring Semester 2006, the Center wants you to rethink, retool, and recharge your communication skills. We are offering workshops that will give you opportunities to discuss dynamic instructional communication, communication for assessment and feedback, and teaching techniques and communication tools.

Are you interested in how other faculty members deliver effective presentations? Do you design and use rubrics for student assessment? Will you use podcasting in the future to extend your classroom communication?

Read on for more specific information about this semester's workshop offerings. The Center welcomes your participation-we are dedicated to providing faculty with resources and an environment that facilitates excellence in teaching.


Dynamic Instructional Communication-skills for classroom communication choices, presentations, and discussions


"Delivering Effective Presentations"The best presenters always seek counsel and resources. As presenters we need to first find and focus our messages, but then we need to shape a forceful communication for our learners. Our presentations may take place in a variety of settings on campus, and they can employ a variety of techniques and tools. Colleen Boff, Michael Ellison, Brett Holder, and Gene Poor share their expertise about delivering effective presentations in large lecture halls, mid-sized classrooms, and computer labs.
Monday, February 27, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in 113 Olscamp
Thursday, March 23, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. in 113 Olscamp


"Matching the Media to the Audience and the Message"In all communication we consider the sender, the medium, and the receiver, and in today's classroom the media choices can make our communication faster and richer. With those choices come the responsibilities of analyzing the purpose of our messages and the learners who receive them. Meet with other faculty members in this workshop to discuss the structure, clarity, consistency, medium, and relevancy of your messages to learners.
Wednesday, February 15, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the CTLT (pizza provided)
Monday, March 20, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. in CTLT


"Facilitating Learner Discussions"Planning and executing productive learner discussions can be challenging, but they are definitely worthwhile since they offer learners unmatched experiences in articulating, responding to, and evaluating ideas. Leading discussion, encouraging learner participation, choosing and asking effective questions-all are important components of good discussions. Join this discussion workshop for information about effective facilitating strategies for both classroom and online discussions.
Tuesday, February 21, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. in the CTLT
Wednesday, March 22, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the CTLT (pizza provided)


Communication for Assessment and Feedback - communication that seeks feedback for learners and teachers


"Metacognitive Assessment Strategies"Finding out what students know (or don't know) is an essential part of the educational process, for both the educator and the learner. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) provide many opportunities for two-way communication between teacher and student as well as function as an introspective metacognitive tool for each student in your course to examine where they've been and where they're going during their guided "educational journey".
Thursday, February 9, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the CTLT (pizza provided)
Friday, March 24, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. in the CTLT


"Organizing and Communicating Knowledge Visually"For many years, organizations of all types have used organized visual models to convey a complex message in a concise manner. Graphic organizers, mind maps, organizational charts, flow chart and concept maps are only a sampling of terminology used to describe these valuable tools. Join our discussion of the current research regarding concept mapping as a cognitive tool and investigate how to use concept-mapping software such as Cmap or Inspiration to create maps or graphic organizers that focus on your student learning outcomes.
Friday, February 17, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. in the CTLT
Tuesday, March 14, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the CTLT (pizza provided)


"Guiding Authentic Learning Experiences"
Have you ever struggled with evaluating a paper, presentation, portfolio or final project and exclaimed that there has to be a better way? Rubrics can serve as a means of communicating expectations of authentic tasks while doubling as a clear guide for the both student and teacher during the actual creation and assessment of the final product. Ease your apprehension toward incorporating authentic projects by joining us in discussing the purpose and basics of rubric design as well as how they can be employed to assess student growth.
Tuesday, February 21, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. in the CTLT
Tuesday, April 18, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the CTLT (pizza provided)


Teaching Techniques and Communication Tools-pedagogical strategies and technical tools to facilitate communication


"Collaborative Visual Narratives"Images can quickly convey a message with more emotion and context than a few lines of text. Challenge your students with the integration of images to foster collaborative learning, promote visual literacy, and encourage discussion and debate through the application of a universal medium. Join us as we explore available techniques and tools to find, organize, enhance and display images in order to design a meaningful collaborative student learning experience.
Tuesday, March 28, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. in the CTLT
Monday, April 24, 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. in the CTLT


"Building Shared Reflections"
If you're looking for a new way to get your students thinking, talking, writing, creating and analyzing knowledge, then come explore weblogs (blogs) and wikis! These versatile online tools allow students to reflect on their experiences, thoughts, ideas and conceptualizations with words or images. Both blogs and wikis are fairly new, especially to the education world, but they offer a new dimension to the learning environment and community by extending the classroom experience, social engagements, and critical voice.
Friday, February 24, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. in the CTLT
Tuesday, April 4, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. in the CTLT


"Extending the Classroom Experience"
If you could transform the classroom setting so that time and location were not constricting, how would your pedagogical expectations and expressions change? With the advent of networks, both technological and communal, educators now more than ever are able to extend student learning like never before. Be a part of a thought-provoking discourse on the utilization of one of the latest "extension tools", podcasting, to facilitate, enhance and extend student-learning opportunities.
Thursday, March 2, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. in the CTLT (pizza provided)
Tuesday, April 11, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. in the CTLT