The Symposium for Teaching with Technology 2022: Event Schedule

Wednesday Keynote Session

Level Up Your Teaching: On Games + Learning

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“Gamification” – introducing game elements into non-game settings, such as education – has begun to influence our lives in many ways. But what if educators were to introduce elements of game design beyond leaderboards, point systems, and badges into their pedagogy? This presentation will explore how game design thinking can transform the educational experience, incorporating case studies from the Game Changer Chicago Design Lab and the Weston Game Lab at the University of Chicago.

Speakers

• Lynn Barnett, Interim Executive Director, Academic Technology Solutions, University of Chicago
• Ashlyn Sparrow, Assistant Director, Weston Game Lab, University of Chicago

Wednesday Concurrent Sessions

Fireside Chat with Ashlyn Sparrow (Not Recorded)

This session will be an opportunity for attendees to chat informally with our keynote speaker, Ashlyn Sparrow. Come with any questions you may have about digital pedagogy.

Speakers

• Ashlyn Sparrow, Assistant Director, Weston Game Lab, University of Chicago

OI Adult Education Program: Changing Technologies and New Challenges

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The Oriental Institute (OI) adopted different pedagogical strategies over the course of the pandemic, initially adopting a flipped-classroom approach, then switching to live lectures on Zoom. In this session, Rebecca Wang, a Ph.D. candidate and instructor in the OI’s adult education program, and Tasha Vorderstrasse, head of the OI’s adult education program, will discuss their experiences with these two strategies, including the strengths and weaknesses of each. Their pedagogical outcomes are instructive for instructors interested in reaching students of all ages.

Speakers

• Tasha Vorderstrasse, University and Continuing Education Program Coordinator, Oriental Institute
• Rebecca Wang, Digital Pedagogy Fellow, ATS; Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Online Collaboration for Effective Writing Feedback

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Online tools allow the SOSC Writing Program to tailor writing instruction to an individual student at any stage of the writing process, regardless of that student’s writing background. Head Writing Advisors Annemarie Catania and Maxine Frendel will discuss how, using online technologies, students can read, understand, and incorporate feedback in real time, working alongside a writing advisor to make revisions or apply the feedback to future assignments.  Feedback from workshops, office hour meetings, and writing portfolios becomes part of an ongoing conversation for improvement over the course of the year.

Speakers

• Annemarie Catania, Head Writing Advisor, Administration & Instructor Outreach, SOSC Writing Program
• Maxine Frendel, Head Writing Advisor, Writing Pedagogy & Curricular Development,SOSC Writing Program

Streamline Your Grading with Gradescope

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Gradescope is a powerful software tool for grading handwritten work and creating online assignments. In this session, Alison Hunter, Senior Lecturer in BSCD, will explain how Gradescope can help you to make your grading more efficient, “flip” your classroom, and more.

Speakers

• Alison Hunter, Senior Lecturer, Biological Sciences Collegiate Division

Playing Together: Online Platforms, Collaborative Learning, and Videogame Studies

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As an object of study, videogames carry with them unique pedagogical challenges, which were exacerbated by the switch to distance learning during the pandemic. In this session, Chris Carloy will discuss how he used a combination of technologies — streaming, real-time chats on Twitch and Discord, game-capture software, and Canvas — to teach videogame studies to his students. He will explore the influence these various technologies had on how his students engaged with the course materials and with one another.

Speakers

• Chris Carloy, Assistant Instructional Professor, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities and Cinema and Media Studies

Wednesday Lightning Talks

Comics in the Language Classroom

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Comics foster positive motivation, lower students’ affective filters, and allow for creativity with language and art. They help promote best practices of communicative language classroom pedagogy by promoting the target language through student-centered work, and varied group work and discussions. This workshop sets out step-by-step instructions on how to integrate comics into beginner and intermediate-level language courses.

Speakers

• Shiva Rahmani, Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Germanic Studies and the Humanities Collegiate Division

Increased Engagement with Slack, Instagram, and TikTok

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College students today are faced with a number of challenges for interacting meaningfully in the global and digital world. Building tools for students to engage in digital citizenship — in other words, engaging responsibly and effectively in society and politics using technology — can complement a number of pedagogical goals in UChicago classrooms. In this lightning talk, Dr. Janson will explore three tools for instructors to engage with digital literacy as a natural partner to pedagogical approaches: Slack, Instagram, and TikTok.

Speakers

• Dr. Lara Janson, Teaching Fellow in the Social Sciences

GIS in the Classroom

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Sarah and Diane co-chair the CCTL Exploratory Teaching Group (ETG) that is exploring GIS in the Classroom. This group is developing approaches, materials, and tutorials for incorporating Geographic Information Science (GIS) methods into courses that are useful for instructors who wish to incorporate spatial thinking and concepts in their teaching and students’ learning, especially for those that focus on Latin America.

Speakers

• Sarah Newman, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
• Diana Schwartz Francisco, Assistant Instructional Professor and LACS Program Advisor, Center for Latin American Studies

Automated Grading Paired with Instructor Autonomy in Chemistry Courses

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I will display an inexpensive online website I use in chemistry courses that enables automated grading on assignments written from scratch by me using standard word processing software (i.e., Microsoft Word, PDF files).  This website (Formative) is flexible enough to also enable freeform, hand-drawn responses from students (i.e., chemical structures, pictures, diagrams, tables) as well as both personalized and class-wide feedback from the instructor.

Speakers

• Elizabeth Kelley, Graduate Student, Dept. of Chemistry (Snyder Lab)

Thursday Keynote

“Low-Lift, High-Impact” Kickstarting the Journey Towards Digital Fluency

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How and where do we start in our efforts to keep digital pedagogies rigorous but adaptable, mindful of student needs and learning outcomes, and without anxiety or extreme labor demands? This presentation offers educators (at any stage of their career) practical strategies and discipline-agnostic principles to begin the exciting, recursive, and collaborative process toward digital fluency. More specifically, the speaker will offer a framework for how the use of “low-lift” technologies can yield “high impacts” in student learning and engagement.

Speakers

• Lynn Barnett, Interim Executive Director, Academic Technology Solutions, University of Chicago
• Shauna Chung, Recent Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design, Clemson University

Thursday Concurrent Sessions

Fireside Chat with Shauna Chung (Not Recorded)

This session will be an opportunity for attendees to chat informally with our keynote speaker, Shauna Chung. Come with any questions you may have about digital pedagogy.

Speakers

• Shauna Chung, Recent Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Communication, and Information Design, Clemson University

Reframing Discourse with Technological Tools

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When well-used, instructional technologies offer opportunities to recenter discourse on understanding, multiple perspectives, and collaborating on complex problems. In this session, Leila Brammer, Director of the Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse, will explain how she utilizes principles of discourse theory to frame exercises, assignments, and technologies, in order to build students’ capacity to seek multiple perspectives and engage difference and disagreement.

Speakers

• Leila Brammer, Director, Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse

The Pedagogy of Posting: Course Blogs as a Teaching Tool

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Course blogs have many pedagogical uses, from discussion boards to digital exhibition spaces. In this session, Ana Lima (Romance Languages and Literatures) and Leslie Rogers (Astronomy and Astrophysics) will discuss how course blogs have enhanced their teaching practice in their respective disciplines.

Speakers

• Ana Maria Lima, Director of the Portuguese Language Program; Chair of RLL Language Directors’ Committee; Senior Instructional Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures
• Leslie Rogers, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Virtual Reality Technology in the Language Classroom

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Virtual reality (VR) technology provides an opportunity for faculty and instructors to expand the bounds of the traditional classroom. In this talk, Claudia Quevedo-Webb and Juliano Saccomani (Romance Languages and Literatures) will explore pedagogical methods for using VR to immerse language students in new linguistic and cultural contexts. Please note: this virtual session will focus on the process and pedagogy of using VR in the classroom; the presenters will share ways for attendees to experience the VR technology after Symposium.

Speakers

• Claudia Quevedo-Webb, Assistant Instructional Professor in Spanish
• Juliano Saccomani, Assistant Instructional Professor in Portuguese and Spanish

Teaching the Arts in a Remote/Blended Modality

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How can instructors of the arts support studio-based practice in virtual space? How can digital creative writing workshops offer a community of trust, challenge, and mutual support? What new and improvisatory forms of performance, presentation, and curation can we find in digital and hybrid venues? This panel discussion brings together faculty instructor-practitioners from across the arts (Theater and Performance; Creative Writing; Visual Arts) to reflect on the challenges and unexpected affordances of teaching the arts in remote and blended instructional modalities.

Speakers

• Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, Assistant Professor of Practice in Theater and Performance Studies
• Meghan Lamb, Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Gabrielle Sanson, Visual Arts Teaching Fellow, Department of Visual Arts

Thursday Lightning Talks

Using Miro Boards for Synchronous Collaborative Annotation

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Tools that enable students to work collaboratively online have proved essential for synchronous remote learning. After our return to the classroom, these resources remain valuable for in-person activities such as small-group work. In this presentation, I share my experiences using this digital whiteboard – which allows team members to create designs and annotate documents as well as images – and show its pedagogical possibilities for music analysis and beyond.

Speakers

• Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska, Assistant Instructional Professor in Music

Your Partners in Pedagogy and Technology: Academic Technology Solutions at UChicago

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From the projector in your classroom, to the closed captioning on your videos, to the Canvas LMS you use every day, Academic Technology Solutions’ services are a part of the teaching and learning process at UChicago. Come to learn how the people of ATS are helping faculty and instructors, and what our expertise can do for you.

Speakers

• Allison Kallo, Manager – Learning Design, ATS, IT Services

Small Steps, Big Results: Five Practices That Will Strengthen Your Course Accessibility

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Overwhelmed by the complexities of incorporating accessibility practices into your teaching? Start small! We’ll share some basic steps you can take to make your courses more accessible and inclusive for all attendees.

Speakers

• Mohammad Ahmed, Instructional Designer, ATS, IT Services
• Emily Baker, Accessible Technology Specialist, Center for Digital Accessibility, IT Services