2008 Innovation in Instruction Conference

Register now! | Submissions due: April 30, 5 pm | Acceptance notification: May 16 | Conference date: August 21

Noted Media Ecologist and Cultural Anthropologist to Keynote 2008 Conference

Founder of Kansas State University's 'Digital Media Working Group' finds large audience on YouTube

Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist and media ecologist who explores the impacts of new media on human interaction, will be the keynote speaker for the 2008 Innovation in Instruction Conference at Elon. Wesch will address the crisis of significance in higher education today.

Wesch and his undergraduate students at Kansas State University, in the Digital Ethnography Working Group, document and analyze human uses of digital technology, focusing particularly on how interactive media are changing the nature of learning and teaching.

The Digital Ethnography Working Group’s first project, Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us, has been viewed over 5.1 million times on YouTube since its creation in early 2007.

Last fall, he and his 200 students in an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course developed A Vision of Students Today. This project, viewed nearly 2 million times in six months, raises important questions about the undergraduate experience in college today.

Wesch also has developed a highly-acclaimed World Simulation for large introductory classes in cultural anthropology, and he has won multiple awards for his teaching.

Elon University invites educators to the

5th Annual Innovation in Instruction Conference. This year we’re considering the role of higher education in informing the newest citizens of our increasingly global society.

Our students come to us from vastly different peoples, cultures, and perspectives. They leave us to face ever changing challenges and the opportunities of a new global age.

As twenty-first century educators, we must not only help our students to read, write and calculate, but set their skills into larger frameworks of teaching and learning.

Discussion and poster sessions are organized around 4 major themes. See below for more information.

Please join us Thursday, August 21 for this one day interactive conference by leading a workshop, presenting a poster, or joining the discussion.

There is no charge for admission.

Submit your proposals by April 30th.

Lunch will be provided.

Important Dates: Submissions due: April 30, 5 pm | Acceptance notification: May 16 | Conference date: August 21

We're looking for sessions and posters that fall into one of these four tracks:

Bridging the Gap with Application
of Skills and Content

How should we be preparing our students for their personal and professional lives as adults? This track supports proposals that address how higher education can prepare students to make an impact beyond the classroom.

Potential topics: educating for democratic participation; balancing traditional liberal arts goals with professional needs; experiential education; and innovations and applications of technology.

Applying Research to Teaching

How can we translate research and theory into effective teaching practices? This track supports proposals that address the application of theory and research to teaching and learning.

Potential topics: how basic learning principles can inform teaching; the neuroscience of learning; social and developmental social contributions to creativity, learning, motivation, and memory.

Assessing our Work

What are our goals? How do we know we are reaching our goals? Increasingly, higher education is being held accountable for meeting the educational needs of the population. This track supports proposals that address the role of assessment in higher education.

Potential topics: current trends in assessment; limitations of assessment; assessing experiential and other non-traditional teaching methods.

Keeping Ourselves and Our Students Inspired

How do we keep our students and ourselves inspired? Sometimes students and teachers become discouraged, lose sight of the big picture, or even become bored with a class. It’s easy to become distracted or over committed to things outside the classroom. What can we do?
This track supports proposals that address the themes of inspiration for faculty and students.

Potential topics: developing a teaching philosophy; maintaining enthusiasm across the semester (or years); stagnant periods in the semester; inspiring student enthusiasm for learning.

A committee of Elon faculty will select proposals for the conference program, with preference given for proposals that connect to the conference theme and specified tracks and that reflect or model innovative practice.

For further information, e-mail catl@elon.edu, or phone (336) 278-5106.

Sponsored by Elon University's Center for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning (CATL) and Instructional Design & Development (IDD).