The Academic Minute for 2017.9.11-9.15 – BACK TO SCHOOL WEEK

Academic Minute from 9.11 – 9.15

Monday, September 11th
Stephanie Blackmon – College of William & Mary
MOOCs
Stephanie J. Blackmon, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education at William & Mary. Her research area is teaching and learning, with a current emphasis on technology integration in various higher education, professional development, and adult learning contexts. She has conducted studies on instructors’ and students’ experiences with three dimensional virtual worlds, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and various learning management systems (traditional and non-traditional). She is also the co-editor of the New Directions special issue MOOCs and Higher Education: Implications for Institutional Research, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ir.2016.2015.issue-167/issuetoc. Twitter: @StephJBlackmon.

Tuesday, September 12th
J. Michael Rifenburg – University of North Georgia
Educating Student Athletes
Dr. J. Michael Rifenburg is an associate professor of English and director of first-year composition at the University of North Georgia. In addition to serving as Faculty Fellow for Scholarly Writing with UNG’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, he works closely with the athletics department to support student-athlete writers. His book, The Embodied Playbook: Writing Practices of Student-Athletes is due out in April with University Press of Colorado. He tweets @jmrifenburg and blogs at mrifenburg.wordpress.com.

Wednesday, September 13th
Tricia Seifert – Montana State University
College Student Success
Tricia Seifert is an associate professor in the Adult & Higher Education program at Montana State University and maintains a status only appointment in the Higher Education program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She uses sociological theories and principles to examine issues related to post-secondary student learning and success. Her interest in understanding how colleges and universities organize to support student success stems largely from her administrative background working in orientation and transition programs, residence life, student leadership programs, and fraternity/sorority life. Having worked at both large and small post-secondary institutions, Tricia witnessed the interplay between organizational structures and culture with respect to how campuses support student success.

Thursday, September 14th
Ned Laff – Governors State University
Design Thinking
Dr. Ned Scott Laff (pronounced “laugh”) is currently the Director for the Center for the Junior Year at Governors State University. He was the Director for General Education, Director for Contractual Studies, Director for Service-Learning and Director for the Center for Engaged Learning at Columbia College in Columbia, SC.  He teaches interdisciplinary honors courses focusing on diversity, gender, social justice, and leadership for social change.  He currently is focusing on the nature of liberal arts education and the role of integrative mentoring in helping underserved students succeed.  His work challenges the myths surrounding liberal arts majors and how these majors can re-position themselves to meet the demand of a 21^st century global economy without changing what we do in the liberal arts. His work also looks at how liberal learning helps students integrate their vocational purpose with their career goals, and how it influences students’ dispositions toward civic engagement. He is the editor of Identity, Learning, and the Liberal Arts in the New Direction for Teaching and Learning Series (No. 103, Fall 2005). He founded and edits The International Undergraduate Journal for Service-learning, Leadership, and Social Change (http://opus.govst.edu/iujsl/ ).  His work in service learning was recognized by the Washington Center in 2012 with the Civic Engagement Award.

Friday, September 15th
Zachary McDowell – University of Illinois at Chicago
Wikipedia in the Classroom
Zachary J. McDowell is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Communication. His work focuses on access and advocacy in digitally mediated spaces, particularly in areas of cultural and information production. Zach has been teaching with Wikipedia in his classroom for seven years, currently working with his students to improve Wikipedia pages on nonprofit organizations in the Chicago area.