Ask CCIT is proud to announce Delaware Tech’s first Instructional Innovation Conference to be held on August 14th, 2014 from 9:00 – 3:45 at the Terry Campus. This professional development event is reserved for all full-time Delaware Tech faculty.
The Instructional Innovation Conference, hosted by the College’s Professional Development Task Force, promises pedagogy-focused activities that are designed for faculty, by faculty. The day will kick off with an energetic presentation by José Bowen, president of Goucher College and author of Teaching Naked. During the afternoon, attendees will have the opportunity to attend two different workshops from a list of almost forty different topics. Workshops will be facilitated by Collegewide faculty and staff.
Over the next week or so, we’ll be posting descriptions of a few workshops every day so that you can see what’s in store for the big day. Stay tuned, and we hope to see you at the Instructional Innovation Conference 2014. For starters, take a look at these six promising presentations:
Click on the workshop titles to visit that workshop’s static page, where you can leave comments and questions for the presenter and other participants.
Note that each workshop is classified as either a practice session or a conversation session.
Practice sessions focus on sharing, modeling, and discussing pedagogy in higher education, while allowing for interaction among session participants. These sessions go beyond simply “why to” to include “how to”. Participants should come expecting to do something, not just to receive information.
Conversation sessions provide a time and space for participants to discuss pedagogy in higher education. Each session will consist of a brief (10 minutes or less) presentation to contextualize the topic, followed by active participant discussion.
Learning to Throw Curveballs, Sliders and Knuckleballs in the Classroom
Bill Alexander
Practice Session
Students can get bored during class, largely because their world outside the classroom is so full of immediately accessible information, games, and communications. Today’s student desires less of the day-to-day traditional lecture, and more of something different. In other words—they’re usually thrown fastballs, but they need to see other types of pitches. In this brief seminar, we will bring the classroom to life by empowering the students to learn from the unpredictable. Topics will include mobile classroom management, performance quizzes, and high-octane quiz reviews, group project participation from everyone, and game-show style examination reviews. Live demonstrations will encapsulate each subject. Put on your helmet (thinking cap), grab your bat (your pen) and step into the batter’s box (the classroom)!
The Cultural Intelligence Difference
Lisa Ruschman
Conversation Session
No amount of IQ or EQ will help you understand the diverse cultures that our international student population brings to our Delaware Tech classrooms. Some show up to office hours without appointments. Some show up to class 30 minutes late. Others just can’t seem to stop cheating! David Livermore, author of The Cultural Intelligence Difference, explains a new type of intelligence and the impact it has on your ability to successfully navigate diverse situations. In this session, we’ll discuss what it means to be a culturally intelligent teacher and tackle some of the challenges typically presented in culturally diverse classrooms.
Writing for the Next Generation: the iPad as a Writer’s Toolbox
Stacey Pounsberry
Practice Session
Writing isn’t every student’s favorite, or even second favorite, educational activity; however, without the ability to interpret and create written communication, many students will not only fail to succeed at school, but also in their future careers. Mobile technology in general, and the iPad specifically, has made it easier than ever to engage students and leverage the new generation of touch-screen technology to equip them for the tasks of reading and writing across the curriculum. This presentation will discuss numerous ways to incorporate iPad technology in the classroom and allow attendees to create a practical, pragmatic plan for implementing these programs in their own classroom while troubleshooting the possible pitfalls and logistical problems they may encounter along the way.
Managing Capstone Projects in the Engineering/Science Disciplines
Henry Foley and Stephen Culling
Conversation Session
Have you ever implemented a capstone project in your program? Want to try implementing a capstone project but don’t know where to start? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions then come join us for a group conversation to share your experiences, ask some questions, or just hangout and listen. Capstone projects are a great venue for students to highlight their skills learned here at DTCC; however, sometimes they can be difficult to manage. Group dynamics and time constraints are just a few of the challenges instructors face when implementing a capstone project. Please join us and share your thoughts on the subject.
Making Google Work for Your Online Course
Michelle Keenan
Practice Session
This seminar will focus around three Google tools that can be easily utilized in an online course: Google Survey, Drive, and Hangouts. The seminar will give a brief description of these three tools, information on how to implement them in your course, and a workshop time for a chance to develop a product that can be shared with your online course.
Making More Videos While Taking Less Time
Molli Carter
Practice Session
Explain Everything is a highly useful app for teachers who want to flip their classroom by creating video lessons on their iPad for students to view outside of class. The track editing option in the latest version allows portions of created videos to be deleted without having to recreate the entire video. PowerPoints and other files can easily be imported in order to create interactive presentations overtop. Participants attending this session should have the Explain Everything app already installed on their iPad and need to have a PowerPoint presentation emailed to them for use during the presentation.
Materials Needed: iPad
Forward Thinking 
Gee, some of the adjuncts would love to attend a conference like this. Any plans??
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Thanks for the feedback, Diane. Opening the conference to adjuncts was something that the Professional Development Task Force considered during planning; unfortunately, logistical constraints prevent us from being able host such a large group at this time. It’s on our radar, though, and we are looking into more ways to provide high quality professional development for all faculty at Delaware Tech.
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