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Flower Darby: Small Teaching Online reading circle

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Nicole Johnson: What Happens Next?

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Lessons Learned & Paths Forward

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Student Voices on Online Learning

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Learning Centre: We Know What You've Done There

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Recording of "Bandwidth Tax of Uncertainty" with Cia Verschelden

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Recording of "Bandwidth Tax of Uncertainty" with Cia Verschelden

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Bandwidth Tax of Uncertainty: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Capacity Post-COVID and Beyond - Cia Verschelden

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Recording of the Douglas College Climate Action Panel

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Recording of the Douglas College Climate Action Panel

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Douglas College Climate Action Panel - SMT, S&T, Facilities, and Student panelists

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Frameworks for Going Open: Human-Centred Futures for Higher Education

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A conversation with Robin DeRosa and Rajiv Jhangiani

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Frameworks for Going Open Human-Centered Futures for Higher Education Robin DeRosa @actualham Rajiv Jhangiani @thatpsychprof Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash Starting with a critical look at how Open Educational Resources (OERs) can open doors to college affordability and student success, Robin...

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Sandra-PolushinMay 5th - Virtual Gallery Walk_final

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Better Together COIL First Steps J. Sestan

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Digital faculty: Faculty social media use and communications

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Digital faculty: Faculty social media use and communications

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Evolving definitions in digital learning: A national framework for categorizing commonly used terms

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Evolving definitions in digital learning: A national framework for categorizing commonly used terms

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Digital Learning in Canadian Higher Education in 2020: National Report

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Digital Learning in Canadian Higher Education in 2020: National Report

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Flexibility of virtual learning prompts some post-secondary students to pursue more online studies

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Flexibility of virtual learning prompts some post-secondary students to pursue more online studies

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Flexibility of virtual learning prompts some post-secondary students to pursue more online studies | CBC News

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The greater flexibility and accessibility of virtual learning is prompting some post-secondary students to seek out virtual classes and forcing universities to rethink how they structure online degrees, including science courses that depend on in-person laboratories, practicums, co-ops and residence…

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FE4.1 - FOREST / GARDEN — Future Ecologies Podcast

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Are agriculture and biodiversity always at odds? In the late 1970s, a radical environmental movement rejected this dichotomy — rebuking conventional farming in favour of holistic & mutualistic principles, with the dual promise of plentiful food and a vibrant ecosystem.

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A researcher’s discovery that trees and animals depend on salmon as much as people do has far-reaching implications for British Columbia’s forestry and fisheries policies.

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Our newsletter is sent out monthly with topics of interest that include past and future events, links to stories published on our site, and media/articles that caught our team's attention during that month.

Our one page newsletter brief serves to help others know more about our scope in communications and highlighting news, events, and resources related to Indigenous engagement across UBC campus. This document includes who our audience is, what guides our decisions in what we share in the newsletter, and how to submit related items to our newsletter.

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Our newsletter is sent out monthly with topics of interest that include past and future events, links to stories published on our site, and media/articles that caught our team's attention during that month. Our one page newsletter brief serves to help others know more about our scope in communications and highlighting news, events, and resources related [...]

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Indigenous Initiatives

Welcome to Indigenous Initiatives at UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. We are grateful to the Musqueam Nation on whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory our learning, teaching, and collaborations take place. Members of the Musqueam community enrich our programming by sharing their knowledge, ideas, history, language, culture, resources, and support.

Learn more about us, and stay up-to-date on our programming, resources, and services by joining our mailing list.

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Welcome to Indigenous Initiatives at UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. We are grateful to the Musqueam Nation on whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory our learning, teaching, and collaborations take place. Members of the Musqueam community enrich our programming by sharing their knowledge, ideas, history, language, culture, resources, and support.

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About this Project

What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom is a research project that explores difficult discussions of Aboriginal issues that take place in classrooms at the University of British Columbia. Students frequently report troubling and sometimes traumatic discussions of cultural issues in class. The video records of their experiences provides a way to think about developing more functional approaches and environments for discussion . . .
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Watch our Videos

The videos, including the edited 20 min video, are key to initiating discussions about improving classroom discussions of complex and contentious social issues. Explore the edited video, or the full archive using the innovative and searchable IVT interview and transcript viewer . . .
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Reactions to the Project

In workshops and meetings where this project has been presented, we have noted frequently occurring comments to the issues it raises, which limit participants' ability to engage in discussions of these issues.
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About Us | What I Learned in Class Today

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About this Project What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom is a research project that explores difficult discussions of Aboriginal issues that take place in classrooms at the University of British Columbia. Students frequently report troubling and sometimes traumatic discussions of cultural issues in class.

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Sharing Lived Experiences & Humanizing Education Workshop Resources

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Sharing Lived Experiences & Humanizing Education Workshop Resources

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Sharing lived experience and humanizing education - ideas

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Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

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I was in the middle of conducting a research study, examining my own teaching of implementing fun and play into learning, when COVID-19 hit, and we were forced to transition from face-to-face courses to fully online classes. I had to re-think how I would offer a meaningful class in a way that allowed me to continue my research study. As a student, I didn't remember online learning being very playful, but now, as a faculty member, I was determined to find out how I could make my virtual classes more fun. I found that fun and play was actually pretty easy to incorporate in online formats. The digital world opened up alternative possibilities that were not available within in-person settings. Previously, I've shared my ideas for making asynchronous learning more fun, but below, I share ways I have attempted to make my synchronous online learning space more playful.

Play to build community and "hook" learners

I think icebreakers are underused in higher education. You don't start playing a sport without stretching, so why do we expect students to jump straight into learning and without a warm-up? I have found that icebreakers build a sense of community and also prepare students for learning. One example includes using PollEverywhere to ask a prompt where students text in their current mood by only using an emoji. Another idea is to split the class into separate Zoom breakout rooms and instruct each group to design their own secret, virtual group handshake. Or you could have them take a virtual group "selfie" screenshot. After they create a handshake or screenshot a selfie, I have them return to the main Zoom room where each group performs their handshake or shows their selfie. The group with the best example wins a prize.

I have also tried holding Flappy Bird competitions. This is a free computer-based video game that's completely absurd-you have to get a little bird to fly through openings in pipes and see who can get to the highest level. These competitions happen with all students in the main Zoom room. I give students two minutes to play individually, and at the end of the two minutes, the student who achieved the highest level wins a prize.
Hint: be sure to unmute everyone because hearing their laughter and competitive nature will just make your day.

Another game, that I now call "scrolly questions," is where you divide students into groups in breakout rooms and provide them with this webpage that contains-what seems like-a bajillion, random questions. In their groups, one person shares their screen with the scrolly question website and starts scrolling down the page of random questions. Students take turns and randomly tell the scroller to "STOP!" and whatever question the mouse arrow is pointing to must be answered by the "stopper." These activities don't need to take very long, but I've found incredible benefits from including play at the start of every class. Students enjoy the chance to decompress from the day and come together for a laugh with their peers in order to prepare their minds to learn.

Death to the synchronous lecture

I have found that heavy lecturing does not work in my virtual courses. I believe that online learning should be more of a hybrid approach, where the majority of the content learning takes place asynchronously, so synchronous class time is reserved for discussions, role-playing, and interactive games. I find that it's important to make students responsible for their learning. So, instead of me lecturing about something, I have students research the topic on their own time and come back to class prepared to discuss and share an interesting and related blog, video, or resource with their group.

When students research the topic on their own, they are forced to go down "rabbit holes" searching for answers, which often makes them learn the material on a deeper level, and in turn, makes them more invested in their learning. I've noticed that when students research a topic, they usually speak about the concept with much more passion than they would have if I simply spewed the information at them. I also include an element of play and games within my synchronous classes. Group work lends itself nicely to games and friendly competitions. I put students in separate Zoom breakout rooms for small group discussions and have them discuss the topic just like any typical discussion, but to make it a game, I have them create some type of 'product' to share when we return to the large group. The 'products' can be anything. Sometimes I have students come up with a three-sentence theory for an issue that has no one right answer, or develop an acrostic based on a list they constructed from their conversations, or come up with a piece of advice they would give a parent based on a video they watched in their groups-the 'product' options are infinite. The type of product isn't that important, but the actual discussion is important. For students, knowing they have to produce a product to show their peers, where they could possibly win a prize, increases their engagement and investment in the small group discussions.
Hint: be sure to continuously pop in and out of the small group discussions and provide them very clear instructions so they don't get disengaged.

Dynamic and unpredictable

In order to keep students' attention, you have to design classes so they never know what is going to happen next. The ever-changing nature keeps them more engaged because they don't want to miss what is going to happen. They never know when there's going to be a game or a shift in visual scenery. Some of my students said if they weren't paying attention, they worried they would let down their peers if they were later expected to engage in a group competition. It might not seem as though you're able to "move around" a lot while sitting in front of computer screens, but think about it as moving visually instead of physically. If you're using a software such as Zoom for your synchronous classes, think of the main room as one setting, breakout rooms as another setting, and different components of digital technology as other settings (videos, games, websites, etc.). You can then instruct students to go back to the main Zoom room for a larger discussion to share their 'products' or consolidate smaller group discussions. You can also take a break and assign students to breakout rooms again, but this time with a different set of peers. See, ever-changing. Just don't stay in one virtual space/environment for too long or you will lose them.

I like to think that I am student-centered and attempt to find inclusive teaching practices that increase my ability to reach all students through various forms of learning styles. I would be willing to bet that most faculty would claim a similar value. I think the recently changing landscape of academia due to the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our ability to deliver a comparable education as we were giving before-at least those of us who have become accustomed to teaching in-person. I've found that playing with the possibilities of online learning has resonated with my students and has allowed me to maintain my teaching values and efficacy.
I recently started a faculty listserv called "Professors at Play." If you are interested in sharing your ideas about fun and play and/or getting inspiration from others on the listserve, please join our group! You can request to join the group here: Lisa Forbes, PhD, is an assistant clinical professor in the counseling program at the University of Colorado Denver. Lisa is a licensed professional counselor and is currently training to become a registered play therapist. Her research focuses on motherhood and mental health (#themotheringproject), and also incorporating fun, play, and games in teaching and learning for higher education. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/professors-at-play
You can also check out our website: Professors at Play

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A Game a Day: Fun and Dynamic Synchronous Online Learning | Faculty Focus

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I was in the middle of conducting a research study, examining my own teaching of implementing fun and play into learning, when COVID-19 hit, and we were forced to transition from face-to-face courses to fully online classes. I had to re-think how I would offer a meaningful class in a way that allowed me to continue my research study.

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Innovative and Authentic Assessment (Jill Fellows) Video

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Innovative and Authentic Assessment (Jill Fellows) Video

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Jill Fellows - Better Together_EDIT (1) (1).mp4

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Previewing Jill Fellows - Better Together_EDIT (1) (1).mp4

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NEAL CONAN, host:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. Im Neal Conan in Washington.

Our social identities come from a lot of places: our race, our sex, our age, our political affiliations, our medical diagnoses, our high schools, colleges, our favorite baseball teams. And each of those identities comes along with a set of expectations or stereotypes.

We all know that women can't compete with men at higher math. We all know that white men can't jump. And then there's a curious fact: When confronted with those negative stereotypes, female math majors do perform worse on tests, and white jumpers fail to clear the usual bar. Take away the threat to their identity, and they'll do fine.

It's a phenomenon social psychologist Claude Steele calls the stereotype threat, and his new book looks at the many and surprising ways that these expectations affect our lives. He also lays out a plan to minimize the impact.

So call and tell us what situations you've had to deal with in which your social identity and the expectations that come along with it presented a challenge. How did you overcome it, if you did? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our Web site. Thats at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Later in the hour, actor, producer and now Broadway director Stanley Tucci joins us to talk about his new revival of the 1989 farce "Lend me a Tenor." But first, Claude Steele. His book is called "Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affects Us." He joins us from our bureau in New York City. Nice to have you on TALK OF THE NATION today.

Dr. CLAUDE STEELE (Author, "Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us"): Great to be here.

CONAN: And let me ask you to start with your realization of your own social identity, when you were a kid going to the swimming pool.

Dr. STEELE: Well, as I begin the book with the story of trying to remember when I first became aware I was African-American. And to the best of my ability, we psychologists know that memory is a construction. So you're always cautious, but to the best of my ability, it was one day, the last day of school, second or third grade, coming home with kids in the neighborhood. And the conversation came up that gee, we couldn't go to the swimming pool that was three or so blocks away, in a white neighborhood, and that we'd have to except on Wednesday afternoon. So if we were going to swim that summer in that pool, we would have to go only on Wednesday afternoons. And the reason for that became because we were black, because we were African-American.

And that was, in some ways, the first realization I had of being black and that the other kids I lived around were also black and that we had this contingency of identity, as I've been calling it, to deal with.

CONAN: The identity, being black, the contingency being you can't swim at that pool except on Wednesdays.

Dr. STEELE: Exactly.

CONAN: And you write later in the book that, in fact, had someone sat you down at that age and said son, let me tell you about discrimination, that you would have listened politely for a little while. But if they told you can only swim at the pool on Wednesdays, suddenly you were pretty interested in race.

Dr. STEELE: That's correct. I mean, it really the swimming pool restriction really affected how my life was going to be. The instruction from adults that this is important and you should think about it and understand it, those things are kind of abstract and may be interesting, but they wouldn't be nearly as compelling psychologically, and they sort of take over your thinking and functioning as much as a real restriction tied to an identity.

CONAN: And a lot of your book is, in fact, a result of your investigation as to why specifically African-American, but later minority students, seemed to do so poorly academically at big institutions like the University of Michigan, where you worked, or at Stanford University, where you also work. And indeed, what you found out was it was this social identity and the negative consequences of it.

Dr. STEELE: Yes, the prospect if you can imagine, you talked to - you had a woman at the beginning of the hour talking about her experience in math. You can imagine being a woman taking a difficult math course, let's say in her second or third year of college, and experiencing frustration at that.

That frustration in math occasions the relevance of the stereotype about women's math ability. And if she's invested in doing well at math, she could worry that oh my goodness, you know, I've invested so much in it, but here it is. Maybe what they say is true. And that could be upsetting and distracting and interfere with her functioning right there in the middle of that course or in the middle of taking that standardized test. And that has been what our research is focused on, is trying to test that idea, put it to test. I and my colleagues have done that over the last 20 years.

CONAN: And one of the fascinating findings is that, in fact: A, you do have to care about the outcome of this performance, and the more accomplished you are, the more this effect shows up.

Dr. STEELE: Yeah, yeah, you have more invested in it. So the if you really, if you don't care about if you're a woman, and you don't care about doing well with math, your life is on another path, then the prospect of confirming such a stereotype about your group's ability or - it isn't as upsetting to you because you're not invested in that area, but when you've really invested yourself, then the prospect of that stereotype being true or its being seen to be true and you being treated accordingly, that has considerable impact. It scares you, and that fear can directly interfere with your functioning.

CONAN: And you go on to prove this, as you mentioned, with white, female math majors, well, female math majors in general. There's a fascinating part of the test where, in fact, you somebody tests Asian female math majors to see whether both stereotypes will work: A, they're failing at math because they're female, or their expectation that they will succeed because they're Asian.

Dr. STEELE: Yes, yes. I didn't do that, but some other very clever researchers did, and they found that the performance follows whichever stereotype you make most salient in the situation, most obvious. If you remind them of their gender, then they underperform, being affected by that negative stereotype. If you remind them of their ethnicity, then they don't underperform in relation to men. So whichever stereotype is in the air seems to drive the direction of performance.

CONAN: And this goes to white sprinters, you also found out when they're posed against black sprinters - and let me read you a quote from later in the book: There exists no group on earth that is not negatively stereotyped in some way: the old, the young, Northerners, Southerners, WASPs, computer whiz kids, Californians and so forth. In other words, all of us, no matter who we are, somewhere there's a negative stereotype that we all bear.

Dr. STEELE: Indeed it's true.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. STEELE: I could never haven't yet found a group that doesn't have at least some negative stereotype about them.

CONAN: And does this help explain to you why we seem to live in a nation where there is no group that does not feel like an aggrieved minority?

Dr. STEELE: Well, it's probably part of it, that there is no group that doesn't have a negative stereotype, and when that if that stereotype is relevant to them in an important set of situations, like the classroom or the workplace or the basketball court or something that they care about, then they're going to feel this pressure.

I mean, the beauty, of course, is that from this analysis grows some convincing strategies for reducing this threat. And some people, of course, know these, learn these strategies on their own, but I think we've got a long way in kind of isolating some.

CONAN: Indeed, that experiment with the women Asian women math majors points to one. If you tell them a positive part of the stereotype, that'll help.

Dr. STEELE: That's right. That's right. Being reminded of positive role models can greatly reduce the otherwise damaging effects of the negative stereotype.

CONAN: Let's get some...

Dr. STEELE: That's one strategy.

CONAN: Let's get some callers in on the conversation. We'll get to some of the others a little bit later in the program.

Dr. STEELE: Great.

CONAN: Our guest is Claude Steele, author of "Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us." 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. When has stereotypes about your social identity affected your life? John(ph) is on the line from Manchester, New Hampshire.

JOHN (Caller): Hey, yeah. This is John. How are you guys doing?

CONAN: Good.

Dr. STEELE: Fine.

JOHN: Yeah, hey. I want to say something about the (unintelligible) goes beyond, like, gender or race or class like that, but I found that since I've graduated high school, and I've yet to go to college, but I'm in the U.S. Forest Service. And so I'll show up on the worksite, and right away, they'll have this instant stigma that since I've not attended college, that they have stereotyped that I am not as qualified or capable, but it turns out I'm able to par, if not excel past their expectations. So that's one stereotype, one that maybe you guys could address for me.

CONAN: Okay. As a fellow non-collegian, John, I hear you. But go ahead, Claude Steele.

JOHN: Yeah, thats, like, that's what I'm talking about. It goes beyond, like I've seen - so I've worked with females, blacks, whites, every race you can think of, every demographic, every background. And the thing is, is like it comes down to the end of the day, you're sitting around the fire after you've just worked really hard all day in the Park Service that it'll come down to the fact that, like, they'll look at you less respectively in the one fact that you don't have that piece of paper saying you know what you know, but all the while, I've had three or four years experience now past anything that these college graduates really have.

Like, they're all greenhorns compared to me, but since I don't have the piece of paper, there's instantly a stereotype that I don't know exactly the same, like, how to make a grade in the trail, or I don't know the same, like, the same...

CONAN: We hear you, John. And let me ask Claude Steele about this. In fact, this sort of comes up with an email you got from somebody who attended one of your lectures and said: Gee, you've listed all these things that have negative stereotypes. You didn't mention mental illness.

Dr. STEELE: Yeah, that's a good example, and it connects to the caller's concern that this was, I was going on and on about these other stereotypes and performance in math and athletics and the like, and the email reminded me that in her case, she was manic-depressive or bipolar and that in the audience, she felt reluctant to raise her hand and ask about that because she thought everybody would begin to see her that way and to see her as having a mental illness and that that might affect her employment options and how people related to her.

And she provided a perfect example of the vast array of forms of negative of stereotype threat that people can experience, just as the caller's experience does. That's one that I hadn't really thought of, but as he describes it, it's a very compelling experience. And it's precisely an example of stereotypes around in that there's something about him that, you know, authorizes this kind of stereotype, and he becomes aware of it, and that's the experience of the threat. And it affects his relationships with other people, his functioning at various times and so on.

CONAN: And let me ask you about the title of your book, "Whistling Vivaldi."

Dr. STEELE: Yes, that comes from a friend, Brent Staples who writes for the New York Times, and his autobiography called "Parallel Time," a great book I can plug. He describes being a graduate student, an African-American graduate student at the University of Chicago, walking down the street dressed as a student and realizing that his mere presence was making whites uncomfortable.

And they would avoid him or sort of cross the street to get away from him and so on. He realized from this kind of behavior that they were seeing him through the lens of a negative stereotype about African-Americans in that neighborhood, that perhaps as a young male, black male, he might be violent. And it was making his whole experience of the situation tense and awkward. He learned how to whistle Vivaldi to deflect that stereotype.

CONAN: When they heard the classical music being whistled, they said oh, this is a man of refinement.

Dr. STEELE: Exactly. And he relaxed, they relaxed, and the situation went on.

CONAN: Another cue, perhaps we'll get to it a bit later. We're talking with Claude Steele about his book "Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us." Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

(Soundbite of music)

CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. Im Neal Conan in Washington.

No one is immune from stereotype. Every one of us is part of some group affected by negative perceptions, and we know we may be judged by it. Claude Steele calls it stereotype threat, a topic he studied for many years. He writes about it in his latest book, "Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us."

So call and tell us what situations you've had to deal with in which your social identity and the expectations that come along with it presented a challenge. How did you overcome it if you did? 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our Web site. Thats at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.

And let's go next to Tonya(ph), Tonya with us from Madison.

TONYA (Caller): Hi, Neal.

CONAN: Good to talk with you.

TONYA: You, too. So I'm an engineer. When I was in K through 12, I had showed that I had a lot of apparently from that age - some good mathematical skills, and by my senior year, I was taking, like, honors calculus.

And then I went to a community college, a small college in Southern Michigan and was valedictorian with my associate's in engineering and had won the engineering department award. And I transferred to the University of Michigan, and suddenly I was in a very different place.

I was in a place that had people from all over the world, you know, predominately men. And I think that in retrospect now, listening to this, that it seems to make sense because when I would take an exam, I would get everything right that I would finish, but I almost feel like I was trying to be so meticulous because I was fearful that I wasn't going to perform how I was used to performing that I actually didn't perform as well as I was used to performing.

CONAN: And that seems like an accurate description of this effect, Claude Steele.

Mr. STEELE: Yes, that really is a perfect description of it. And it is at the University of Michigan, although all schools have this, many schools, especially stronger schools, have this kind of experience is rife - can be rife there.

That's a perfect description because somebody - it's not an effect that's tied to their real abilities. It's, in effect, it's almost like an intimidation factor, and the other critical thing in the caller's description is place.

In some places, it can be very powerful, where there are a lot of cues that make one aware of one's identity and the contingencies that can be tied to it. That can make the experience of stereotype threat much worse, whereas in other situations, where maybe there are more women, you know, you're in a high school, and the girls are just as good at math at the boys, and there isn't as much visibility of this stereotype to give it credibility, it isn't a powerful thing.

But as you move up the ladder, and there are fewer women in the classes and the like, the stereotype and the pressures of it become more intense.

CONAN: The examples you use in your book is Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman justice of the United States Supreme Court, felt intense pressure until she was joined on the court by another woman.

Mr. STEELE: That's right, Ginsburg.

CONAN: Indeed.

Mr. STEELE: Which she describes as the happiest day one of the happiest days in her life was when Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed up on the Supreme Court. That made it so that she wasn't the only woman, and everything she did wasn't interpreted in terms of her being a woman.

That put a lot of pressure and made all the stereotypes constantly irrelevant to her functioning and I'm sure must have made her miserable, as she describes. But then when another woman comes, her decision is not just a woman's decision. There are several women's decisions here, and it dissipates.

CONAN: And it raises again and Tonya, thank you very much for the call -raises another one of the solutions you suggest in your book. It's an idea called critical mass. If you have enough of a member of whichever minority it is, and again you use the example of women in a philharmonic orchestra.

Mr. STEELE: Yes, that sends a strong signal that that identity is not itself a source of disdain, or in the situation, that that identity can be valued there, and it's possible to be there and to function effectively. That kind of a message that critical mass sends, relaxes the sense in a person that they're under this kind of threat.

CONAN: And that number is a little hard to judge in each situation, two enough apparently for the Supreme Court, but 40 percent as it turns out for a philharmonic orchestra.

Mr. STEELE: Yeah.

CONAN: But anyway, let's go next to Chris(ph), and Chris with us from Rehoboth in Delaware.

CHRIS (Caller): Hi. I am a 53-year-old woman. So I grew up in the '50s and '60s, and I have to say that my personal response to anyone telling me you can't do that because you're a girl has consistently been in my life to say, well, yes I can. And I'm going to prove it to you, and I'll do it better than you do.

Mr. STEELE: Yes, it's important to realize that the causes of underperformance in our research are not from women giving up. They don't give up under that kind of pressure. They do try extra hard, but sometimes, that can not foster. That can interfere with, performance in its own right.

What's happening when you're doing that is that you're it affects the allocation of your cognitive resources. They're you're paying more attention to trying hard. You're paying more attention to thoughts that are kind of resisting thoughts that are disturbing and so on. And with that kind of activity going on in the background, there's less attention to be allocated to the task at hand, and that's how this kind of threat can interfere with performance.

CONAN: As you Claude Steele puts it in his book, you're not only doing the test or whatever it is, you're slaying a ghost.

Mr. STEELE: Yes, you're multitasking.

CHRIS: But that hasn't I haven't had the experience of ever underperforming in my field. I mean, I don't I understand what you're saying, and I think I probably agree with you.

CONAN: He's talking about generalized situations, not obviously, there are individuals individuals vary.

CHRIS: Right.

Mr. STEELE: Individuals vary, and situations vary. There are some situations where the stereotype about gender is more or less relevant. The relevance of the stereotype varies. It's very pointed in the area of math and quantitatively based fields.

CHRIS: Well, I'm a clergy person. So it's very pointed in my field, as well.

Mr. STEELE: Did you say clergy?

CONAN: Yes.

CHRIS: Yeah, clergy.

Mr. STEELE: Oh, well, I guess that's true.

(Soundbite of laughter)

CHRIS: Yeah, yeah. No, I just wonder if I mean, to me, it's not a threat, it's a challenge. It's an opportunity. It's an invitation. Is that just the personal part or is that...

Mr. STEELE: Well, I do think that's the most constructive way...

CHRIS: Huh?

Mr. STEELE: I do think that's the most constructive way to regard it. I really do. It's just that in certain situations where performance on a difficult task is the issue and is persistently the issue, one is at the frontier of their skills, moving through a math curriculum or a physics curriculum, or that's where this sort of daily pressure can begin to have more of a wearing effect.

CONAN: And indeed thank you very much, Chris indeed not just a wearing effect. You come across a phenomenon called John Henryism, which may help explain the shorter life spans, due to hypertension, of some African-Americans.

Mr. STEELE: Yes. This is again not my own research, but it's very relevant in the sense that it describes some of the costs of trying hard over a lifetime to resist a stereotype, that it can cause be a source of hypertension and other related diseases, the effort to if you're in a situation where you're consistently pushing against that and pushing against that, a tax is paid eventually, and some of that tax has to do with one's health.

CONAN: There are other implications to this, and you don't go into this in great depth, but you present some research, again not your own, about how easily we humans discriminate against each other, even when the categories we're divided in are seemingly meaningless: over-estimaters and under-estimaters, whatever that may mean.

And yet when placed in those categories, we will work on behalf of our own group, to individuals in our group to the detriment of people in other groups, and this helps explain, to some degree, this phenomenon seemingly we're hardwired with it why - this is interestingly presented in the context of a young man from Lebanon, who is well, he's got all kinds of stereotypes, but he writes about violence in the Middle East.

Mr. STEELE: Yeah, the first it turns out this is again a whole lot of social-psychological research, not mine but just the minimal divisions among us, if they're made salient, we can begin to identify with whichever side we're on. It's like identifying with something like our school.

It's not really rationally, from a distance, that great an identity, but we identify very quickly with it and feel those feelings very deeply. It's something fundamental about being a human being. It becomes part of our identity.

And so it the point there is that it just takes as kind of a minimal division of people for this whole apparatus of stereotype threat to get underway. We start to stereotype the other group. They stereotype us. We react to the stereotypes, and you have a situation of the sort we're describing.

CONAN: And then they are the other, and you can do terrible things.

Mr. STEELE: Yes, in the name of having one's group identity threatened, to protect a group: your country, your school. The argument is that people can do things, be more violent, than they would be sometimes even in defense of themselves.

CONAN: Let's get another caller in on the conversation. This is J.R., J.R. with us from Circleville in Ohio.

J.R. (Caller): Yes, I was born in southeast Ohio, and I think I first realized that I was being stereotyped as, you know, an Appalachian when I made it to grad school, and I was helping teach a class for high school teachers. I was one of the grad students who was TAing, and I had a teacher from northeast Ohio say well, you know, you're awful smart, or you know this very well or whatever she said, and where are you from?

And I said, well, I was from Southeast Ohio. And she said, well, you did very well for yourself.

CONAN: Hmm.

Dr. STEELE: Hmm.

J.R.: Get out from where you were. And now I'm a school teacher. I'm working back in Southeast Ohio. And now I think I've come to realize the stereotype (unintelligible). I didn't realize it as a student so much. But now I'm trying to teach students and I'm trying to help them overcome these stereotypes that they've become So...

CONAN: And what techniques do you use to do that?

J.R.: Well, I wish I could tell you I was very effective at it. I don't know how effective I am. I'm only three years into teaching now, so I'm developing these things. The real ideal is to hold them to the highest standards that I can and I make them realize, hopefully, eventually, sometimes I fail at this, but I try to hold them to the highest standards and let them know that they can succeed even when it's hard. And that it being hard doesn't mean that it's -you don't - you're not smart. It just means it's hard. It's hard for everybody. It's hard if you're from Southeast Ohio or if you're Brooklyn, New York, if you're from Boston, Massachusetts, this is hard for everybody to understand.

CONAN: Well, that's one technique, Claude Steele.

Dr. STEELE: Yes. I - you've - most of the solutions we've come up with people have found in their own lives, and this is a perfect example of that. One of the - to put - bring it to a sharp point, one of the things we found is that if you give - if you're very demanding in a classroom situation of that sort and, at the same time, you affirm the students' abilities to realize those high standards that you're setting, you - the combination of things is very effective at the reducing the effects - the negative effects of stereotype threat. It signals to the student that they're not being seen as having limited ability. They're not being seen through the lens of that stereotype. And then they can rise to the call of doing better and, you know, working hard in the -with the material.

CONAN: This was described in your book as something you stumble across by accident when, again, testing some of those female math majors and the expectation that they might do worse, you inadvertently reminded them that, well, you're from Stanford.

Dr. STEELE: Yes.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. STEELE: And with that frame in mind, they relaxed, they did a lot better. It made the stereotype about women's math abilities just less relevant to them. That's one of the sort of tricks of reducing this threat is to do something that makes the stereotype that would normally be relevant to them, not relevant in that situation. And that's one strategy we used, was to remind them of being that they were from Stanford.

But the gentlemen's strategy is another one. If - it tells his students he's not seeing them through the negative stereotype about their background. He's demanding a lot from them and he's affirming their ability to achieve it.

CONAN: J.R., good luck to you.

J.R.: Thank you very much, Neal.

CONAN: Appreciate the phone call.

Dr. STEELE: Yeah.

CONAN: We're talking with Claude Steele about his book, "Whistling Vivaldi," and other clues to how stereotypes affect us.

You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

And we have this email from Glen(ph) in Kansas City. My name is Glen. As a female filmmaker, it's been intimidating to get my projects noticed. One of the things that's helped me most is submitting to festivals so many times it's assumed Glen is a male, and ironically, this has helped me. Once when I checked in at a festival, they asked me if I was his assistant, withholding the badge until I explained I was Glen.

And it's interesting, that email came in and reminded of the story you tell about Anatole Broyard.

Dr. STEELE: Yes. Yes. This is a strategy used to avoid stereotype threat. And I think, in some ways, it's some of the more compelling evidence of the existence of stereotype threat in real life that a couple of strategies, both passing, where people change their names, or if they have the appearance to do it, shift from being black to being white; representing themselves as white to avoid the experience of being negatively stereotyped. Or another strategy is to expatriate...

CONAN: Mm-hmm.

Dr. STEELE: ...to move to another society where the stereotypes are different and one doesn't have to, therefore, experience the same kind of stereotyping.

CONAN: Oh.

Dr. STEELE: I think both of those strategies, passing and expatriation, are similar to the Glen strategy that she's using there where she's deflecting being seen and treated in terms of the stereotype by representing herself differently.

CONAN: Let's see if we can go next to John(ph). John with us from Flint, Michigan.

JOHN (Caller): Yes. I have a situation where my daughter is, not just (unintelligible), also my daughter is in grade school. We lived in an affluent neighborhood and went to a nice - very nice school. And she did great in math and all her subjects. We had to move to another neighborhood, but went to an intercity school. And immediately, all her grades dipped because they were treating her as with the other African-American students, as if their level of comprehension is at one level.

It's kind of funny, because at home, we would do her homework and she'd get everything right. But when she went to school, her teachers said she had a notable difficulty in solving problems. And then we - to solve to remedy the situation, we took her out of that school and put her into a private school. And lo and behold, she's almost like a math whiz of her grade.

So we're trying to figure out, you know, what was the situation with the one school. We have a before and after picture, but now we can see that, you know, maybe she was being stereotyped as far as, you know, what - relationship with everyone else.

Dr. STEELE: Yeah. It sounds like in the school where she did poorly, did worse than expected, she was under some low expectations on the part of her teachers and that maybe the whole climate there had that. I'm not sure that's all together stereotype threat, but it's nonetheless a powerful social psychological pressure to be seen in terms of - and treated in terms of low expectations that can undermine motivation and undermine interest, and all kinds of things that you're describing were evidenced by your daughter.

CONAN: And we wish her continued good luck, John, in pursuit of math.

And - but let me - we just have a minute left, but I wanted to ask you about the alternate theory, which is if you're looking at the situation, yes, there could be this psychological pressure that people are responding to. It can also be something inherent, that maybe women aren't as good as men at math, biologically, and something in their brains or that white men can't jump.

Dr. STEELE: Aha. You'll have to read the book for how we sort out these explanations.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. STEELE: But we do, I think, definitively, over 20 years of research. And you do it by putting people in performance situations and showing that their performances can be equal when you get rid of this stereotype threat. Whereas the other theory - the different God made women and men different theory...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. STEELE: ...to put it nicely, that theory would predict that nothing you did in the situation would change. If you give them difficult math, women are always going to under-perform. If you give difficult problems, African-American students are always going to under-perform. Well, they don't. When you do things in those situations to reduce stereotype threat and that is probably the principal evidence that - in behalf of this argument.

CONAN: Claude Steele, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it.

Dr. STEELE: Thank you. It's my pleasure.

CONAN: Claude Steele's book, "Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us." And he joined us from our bureau in New York.

Coming up, Oscar-nominated actor Stanley Tucci on his career, his Broadway directorial debut and the value of farce in tough times. If you'd like to join us to talk with Stanley Tucci, 800-989-8255. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

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'Whistling Vivaldi' And Beating Stereotypes

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Women taking a math test will perform worse when reminded that women aren't expected to do well in math. Social psychologist Claude Steele calls this an example of the "stereotype threat." In his book, Whistling Vivaldi, he lays out a plan to reshape those expectations.

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Chris Gardner - Climate Action Panel Presentation May 2022

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handout - connecting the known to the unknown

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Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization Bandwidth Recovery for Schools: Helping Pre-K-12 Students Regain Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Trauma, Racism and Social Marginalization

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On the Tree of Contemplative Practices, the roots symbolize the two intentions that are the foundation of all contemplative practices: cultivating awareness and developing a stronger connection to God, the Divine, or inner wisdom. The roots of the tree encompass and transcend differences in the religious traditions from which many of the practices originated, and allow room for the inclusion of new practices that are being created in secular contexts.

The branches represent the different groupings of practices. For example, Stillness Practices focus on quieting the mind and body in order to develop calmness and focus. Generative Practices come in many different forms (i.e. prayers, visualizations, chanting) but share the common intent of generating thoughts and feelings of devotion and compassion, rather than calming and quieting the mind. Please note that these classifications are not definitive. For example, mantra repetition could be considered a Stillness Practice rather than a Generative one.
What About My Practice?
We understand that your personal practices may appear on this illustration. The particular practices on this Tree were mentioned by members of our network as being particularly useful to them in organizational and classroom settings. This does not mean that practices which don't appear on the illustration aren't "contemplative." A more comprehensive representation might have thousands of branches!

Any activities not included on this Tree (including those which may seem more mundane, such as gardening, eating, or taking a bath) may be considered a contemplative practice when done with the intent of cultivating awareness or developing a stronger connection with Divinity or one's inner wisdom.

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Please contact Carrie Bergman at carrie@contemplativemind.org if you have questions regarding the use of the tree, or if you would like to share with us how you have used it in your work.

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The Tree of Contemplative Practices - The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

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On the Tree of Contemplative Practices, the roots symbolize the two intentions that are the foundation of all contemplative practices: cultivating awareness and developing a stronger connection to God, the Divine, or inner wisdom.

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Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. His books are available in 26 languages and include Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture.

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Sharon Salzberg leads a guided meditation. Chelsea Handler talks about her special, 'Evolution.' Plus, comedians Dewayne Perkins, Aasia LaShay Bullock, Mike Albo and Amanda Duarte play games.

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Sharon Salzberg leads a guided meditation. Chelsea Handler talks about her special, 'Evolution.' Plus, comedians Dewayne Perkins, Aasia LaShay Bullock, Mike Albo and Amanda Duarte play games.

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Want to learn more - check out Ross Laird’s website! 

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Want to learn more - check out Ross Laird’s website! 

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"Ross is simultaneously brilliant and humble; forceful and gentle; present and silent. He has that rare talent for igniting the minds and hearts of every learner and colleague he encounters."

"I have never had an educator influence me more. I have learned more in my time with Ross than in the rest of my education combined. I am a better student, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend because of my opportunity to learn from Ross."

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"Ross is simultaneously brilliant and humble; forceful and gentle; present and silent. He has that rare talent for igniting the minds and hearts of every learner and colleague he encounters." "I have never had an educator influence me more. I have learned more in my time with Ross than in the rest of my education combined.

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Check out this Padlet for information about presenters & to share/discuss in response! 

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Check out this Padlet for information about presenters & to share/discuss in response! 

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https://padlet.com/ffo5/a9199l8corfo3fmq

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Recording of "Gratitude as a practice to manage uncertainty and foster well-being with Dylan Le Roy"

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Recording of "Gratitude as a practice to manage uncertainty and foster well-being with Dylan Le Roy"

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The campus community and the world are experiencing a large amount of uncertainty and change. Join Dylan Le Roy, one of the Clinical Counsellors at Douglas College, for a discussion on how this increase in uncertainty may have impacted our sense of wellbeing. Through an experiential practice we will explore how grounding in gratitude can help foster a greater sense of resiliency, creativity, and connection.

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Dylan Le Roy, Gratitude as a practice to manage uncertainty and foster well-being

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The campus community and the world are experiencing a large amount of uncertainty and change. Join Dylan Le Roy, one of the Clinical Counsellors at Douglas College, for a discussion on how this increase in uncertainty may have impacted our sense of wellbeing.

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Recording of "Tumbled Smooth by the Rapids" with Ross Laird

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Recording of "Tumbled Smooth by the Rapids" with Ross Laird

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Did you attend the workshop? Share your feedback here

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Did you attend the workshop? Share your feedback here

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Starting with a critical look at how Open Educational Resources (OERs) can open doors to college affordability and student success, Robin and Rajiv will expand the conversation to move beyond cost-savings into a broader focus on access and equity. They will give examples of teaching practices that center learner agency and voice, catalyze the open sharing of knowledge, and demonstrate the value of higher education to students, faculty, and the wider community. Robin and Rajiv will explore how Open Education can shape a hopeful and humane vision for the future of higher education.

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Looking for some music to get you in the 'Better together' mood? Check out this playlist on Spotify (curated by FFO members)

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Looking for some music to get you in the 'Better together' mood? Check out this playlist on Spotify (curated by FFO members)

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Link to access a copy through DC library

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Link to access a copy through DC library

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https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,sso&db=nlebk&AN=2145811&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s5672421&groupid=main&profile=eds

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Flower Darby celebrates and promotes effective teaching in all class formats to include, welcome, and support all students as they learn and succeed. As faculty and an instructional designer, she’s taught community college and university classes for over 24 years in a range of subjects including English,Technology, Leadership, Dance, and Pilates. A seasoned face-to-face and online educator, Darby loves to apply learning science across the disciplines,and to help others do the same.

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Find out how to apply learning science in online classes.

The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom.

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Dr. Nicole Johnson is the Executive Director of the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association where she leads annual, longitudinal research studies exploring pan-Canadian trends related to digital learning at post-secondary institutions. Dr. Johnson also works on research teams at Royal Roads University (Victoria, BC) and Bay View Analytics (Oakland, CA) where she has been involved with projects that investigate faculty experiences with technology and the future of higher education.

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Join Elders Sandra Greene & June Bernard for:

Storytelling

Knowledge sharing

Drumming and singing

Q & A

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Facilitators:

Amy Perreault, Sr. Strategist, Indigenous Initiatives, Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Hannah Coderre, Educational Consultant, Indigenous Initiatives, Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Sam Nock, Educational Resources Developer, Indigenous Initiatives, Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology

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The video for What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom is available here for you to view any time. 

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The video for What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom is available here for you to view any time. 

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Through the What I Learned In Class Today project, participants will learn how to intentionally approach Indigenous content and topics in the classroom and will learn how this can make a supportive and positive learning experience for all students. This workshop requires participants to engage with asynchronous materials prior to the workshop. This session will help participants to begin critically engaging and reflecting on the following:

• How classroom climate impacts student experiences and community

• Appropriate engagement with Indigenous students within and beyond the classroom

• Ways to navigate Indigenous topics with care in the classroom

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The video for What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom is available here for you to view any time. The version that you can access here is presented in a format best suited for online viewing. Note that on many computers, you may be able to watch this video full-screen (check to see if you see the two-arrow symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the player).

If you would like a higher quality video to watch at home, in your organization, office, or educational institution, a copy of the video and a disc-based version of the IVT (requires a DVD drive on your computer) with the accompanying Users Guide is available for purchase. Please contact us for more information about ordering a copy.

The edited video is based on the full interview records, accessible on this site through the Interactive Video/Transcript Viewer, the IVT. We encourage you to use the IVT, which sychronizes individual interviews with their transcripts, so as the video plays, the transcript updates automatically. The IVT also allows you to search transcripts for key words or phrases, and play the interview from that point. The IVT allows you to explore interview participants' comments from the edited video in greater depth as well as watching the full interviews, if you wish. The IVT also includes a feature that allows you to create a playlist of clips from interviews for use in workshops, classes, and meetings. For more information, and for instructions on using the IVT, please visit the interviews with students, which are available in their full-length using the Archive pages.

Discussion topics based on situations and issues identified by interview participants have been created to accompany the edited video and IVT. These modules were created as a result of feedback from audiences who wanted to use the video with the sensitivity required of the subject matter. The discussion topics provide some discussion and analysis of these situations and issues, as well as materials intended for use in workshops and meetings for instructor training purposes.

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The video for What I Learned in Class Today: Aboriginal Issues in the Classroom is available here for you to view any time. The version that you can access here is presented in a format best suited for online viewing. Note that on many computers, you may be able to watch this video full-screen (check to see [...]

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Muskwa Iskwew (June Bernard) in her own words: "I am a proud member of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. My Cree name is Muskwa Iskwew and I am rooted in red.
I have been blessed to have travelled to 26 countries and got to experience the rich culture of the many nations. I attended UBC which taught me to read and write but also to think for myself. I have worked for several organizations at various levels of responsibility and have found my true passion which is working with people. For the last 20 years I have worked as a real estate agent in South East Asia and loved the challenge. I have been blessed to have travelled the world I wanted to see but I still long for home. I am home now."

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Sandra comes to us from the Haida First Nation and is proud to say that she has been on her personal healing journey since 1988. Sandra has over 25 years' experience in the administration/management arena and has successfully organized and facilitated events from community to national forums. She also has a diverse experience in fields of Health issues, Women's issues and Indigenous concerns as a proactive participant. Sandra has been responsible for policy-making, project managements, organizing, public relations and workshop facilitation in various capacities.

Sandra is proud to serve on several boards, as she strongly believes in community.

In addition to facilitating and organizing events, Sandra enjoys spending her free time weaving baskets and making jewelry, painting, and reading. She is also part of an urban Haida dance group called K’uuts’llxuu T’aaxwii, meaning Far South Song Birds.

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You are invited to participate in a virtual gallery walk based upon the preliminary findings of a photovoice research project with students with learning differences who seek to enhance online learning designs. Participate in a questionnaire at the end and be part of the change that embraces diversity.  For more information, contact Sandra Polushin spolushi@sfu.ca

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The crux of supporting student writing as a peer tutor is understanding the assignment instructions; writing tutors see hundreds of different assignment guidelines. A panel of writing tutors will discuss how they navigate instructor's assignments to support students in their tutoring sessions, touching on what makes more understandable assignment guidelines and where they encounter trouble.

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As the Douglas College classes and services return to campus, some things will not be “returning to normal.” In this panel discussion, you will hear from administrators representing various areas of the College community on their thoughts about what we can learn from the past two years and how this will direct the institution in future planning. Our panel consists of:

Sarah Dench – VP, Student Affairs

Michael Lam – AVP, Technology and CIO

Tim Paul – Manager, Academic Technology Services

Keith Ellis – AVP, Institutional Effectiveness

Danna Domasig, DSU Director of Membership Development

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Disrupting Cognitive Overload (Sandra Polushin and Justine Charrier)

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Disrupting Cognitive Overload (Sandra Polushin and Justine Charrier)

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Innovative and Authentic Assessments (Jill Fellows)

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Innovative and Authentic Assessments (Jill Fellows)

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Having partnership agreements in about 20 countries and regions, Douglas College is proud to offer students opportunities to grow and enrich their learning in new environments, through various programs such as student and faculty mobility, joint research and conferences, Collaborative Online Interna…

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If you’ve been hearing about COIL and thought it might be interesting to do, but are unsure what it entails, Janice Sestan will share the process she and her partner from Kyoto University of Foreign Studies went through. She will discuss the steps they took to set up the project, how they dealt with both expected and unexpected problems along the way, the positive and challenging aspects of running a COIL project with their students as well as the intercultural takeaways gleaned from the project. This information will be useful to instructors who would like to attempt a similar undertaking with their own courses.

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Did you see a cool tech tool being used in a presentation? Share a link to it here

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Did you see a cool tech tool being used in a presentation? Share a link to it here

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(e.g. polling tools; information sharing etc)

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This lively and collaborative world cafe-style event will be in a large room with designated stations on the following topics:

Preview of Blackboard Ultra

Changes can energize your class and teaching

Online versus In-class Exams

Zoom Guest Lecture Training

Flipping Your Classroom

Integrating the Library into BB, Open Ed

Utilizing Tech Tools in Online Teaching

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Faculty Panel: Janice Sestan, Hazel Fairbairn, Aurora Faundo

Online issues for newcomers with English language and tech barriers

Visit up to four stations during this 1.5-hour session.

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Do you have feedback related to the conference? Please complete this form

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Do you have feedback related to the conference? Please complete this form

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We have 8 fantastic sessions happening - find out more about each using this Padlet

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We have 8 fantastic sessions happening - find out more about each using this Padlet

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"Lunchable Learning" is a weekly web radio show live-streamed Mondays at noon on ds106 Radio. We aired 10 shows Fall 2021 and are back for more programming for spring 2022!

The goal of "Lunchable Learning" is to provide post-secondary educators with professional learning in a new and fun format that explores and models digital literacy and a curious, experimental mindset. The radio show will aim to:

Raise awareness of current hot topics in B.C. post-secondary education

Feature guest interviews with individuals from the post-secondary sector

Highlight tools and tips for teaching and group facilitation

Encourage experiments with teaching and learning strategies through challenge activities

Provide resources on show topics for listeners to read and explore further

"Lunchable Learning": Trending topics, tools, and tips for those who teach and love to learn, brought to you by BCcampus. For more information and to tune in, go to https://listen.ds106rad.io/ or to the radio player on our home page http://lunchablelearning.opened.ca

Join the conversation on Twitter: #ds106radio #LunchableLearning
Team Leva Lee, host
Leva is manager of Learning + Teaching at BCcampus. She has many years of experience leading online learning projects and professional development opportunities for the secondary and post-secondary education sectors in B.C., with a background in open and distance learning and educational technology. Her special interests are micro-learning design, fostering communities of practice, and creative facilitation practices for learning engagement. She is a Liberating Structures practitioner and an enthusiastic promoter of the B.C. post-secondary community and those committed to improving the student experience. When not online, you can find Leva inspecting her fledgling flower and vegetable garden, reading one of too many recipe books, or trying to eke out time in the day to sketch or do art.

Twitter: @levalee

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/levalee
Helena Prins, host
Helena is an advisor of Learning + Teaching at BCcampus and coordinates the Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) portfolio. She began her career as a high-school teacher in South Africa. Over the past 20 years, Helena has taught students of all ages and stages on four continents. A golden thread throughout her teaching experiences has been breaking down barriers to learning. Prior to joining BCcampus in 2020, Helena worked as a career learning and development advisor at Royal Roads University. As an immigrant, she values the opportunity to support all students, especially international students, in finding and building their career path in Canada. She is a certified career strategist with Career Professionals Canada. Helena is currently also associate faculty at Royal Roads University.

Twitter: @helenaprins

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/helenaprins
Harper Friedman, technical producer
Harper is the open textbook production assistant at BCcampus. He initially joined the team as a co-op student and during that time helped create and facilitate several webinars in partnership with Helena and the Learning + Teaching team. A recent graduate of the University of Victoria, Harper is using his skills to help create openly licensed educational resources and produce this radio show. In his spare time, you can find him falling off 15-foot walls while bouldering, walking around town with his field recorder, and learning about web app development.

For more information about Lunchable Learning contact support@bccampus.ca.

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"Lunchable Learning" is a weekly web radio show live-streamed Mondays at noon on ds106 Radio. We aired 10 shows Fall 2021 and are back for more programming for spring 2022! The goal of "Lunchable Learning" is to provide post-secondary educators with professional learning in a new and fun format that explores and models digital literacy and a curious, experimental mindset.

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Interested in attending more events? Check out the full list of Better together events & access registration links here:

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Interested in attending more events? Check out the full list of Better together events & access registration links here:

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We look forward to seeing you!

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Spring greetings!
You may have noticed some posters, DC Connect posts, or other buzz about the May 2-6 Better Together Conference. This College-wide event is being made possible by efforts from instructors in each Faculty, Student Affairs & Services, Accessibility Services, the Library, the Learning Centre, Indigenous Student Services, The Training Group, ATS, and the Learning Designers, and support from many other areas in the College.

Here is a list of scheduled sessions:

9:00am-12:00pm: Bandwidth Tax of Uncertainty: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Capacity Post-COVID and Beyond - Cia Verschelden https://bandwidthrecovery.org/ @ S1812/1814 or livestreaming

2:30-4:00pm: Teaching with Technology Café - World cafe style event with Faculty, Library, and CEIT presenters @ NW Cafeteria REGISTER here

10:00-10:45am: PechaKucha Morning - Jill Fellows, Lawrence Becker, and Sandra Polushin/Justine Charrier present their topics in PechaKucha style @ COQ C1009

11:00-11:45am: Panel: Student Research in Health Sciences with panelists: Mike Miller, Patricia Visosky, Ivanna Smetanska, and Tracey McVey @ COQ C1008 REGISTER here

12:30-2:00pm: Frameworks for Going Open: Human-Centred Futures for Higher Education - Robin DeRosa and Rajiv Jhangini - https://robinderosa.net/about/ https://thatpsychprof.com/ on Zoom (online)

2:00-3:00pm: Concurrent sessions - via Zoom (online)

We Know What You've Done There: Writing Tutors respond to instructors' assignment guidelines - Holly Salmon & Peer Tutors REGISTER here

Student Voices on Online Learning - Sandra Polushin & Students

Friday, May 6

Plus.....refreshments, book draws, Better Together radio programs, and more!

Full information including speaker bios, updates, and locations can be found on DC Connect via this link:
https://collegedouglas.sharepoint.com/sites/dcconnect/department_faculties/academicsupport/ats/Pages/Better-Together-Partners-in-Learning.aspx

This College-wide event is being made possible by efforts from instructors in each faculty, Student Affairs & Services, Accessibility Services, the Library, the Learning Centre, Indigenous Student Services, The Training Group, ATS, and the Learning Designers, and support from many other areas in the College. We recognize and appreciate the following groups/people for their funding and support of the Better Together conference:

College-wide Faculty Development Fund

Student Affairs & Services

Learning Resources' Professional Development Fund

Vice President, Academic & Provost

Foundation and Alumni Relations

Human Resources

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Spring greetings!You may have noticed some posters, DC Connect posts, or other buzz about the May 2-6 Better Together Conference. This College-wide event is being made possible by efforts from instructors in each Faculty, Student Affairs & Services, Accessibility Services, the Library, the Learning Centre, Indigenous Student Services, The Training Group, ATS, and the Learning Designers, and support from many other areas in the College.

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https://www.liberatingstructures.com/

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Introduction

When you feel included and engaged, do you do a better job? Do you think teams in which people work well together produce much better results? Have you noticed the best ideas often come from unexpected sources? Do you want to work at the top of your intelligence and give the same opportunity to others?

If YES, we have found this is the kind of organization and community that people want to be part of. AND, Liberating Structures help make it happen.

So why is it that so many organizations of all stripes are filled with disengaged workers, dysfunctional groups and wasted ideas?

While there will always be some justification for blaming leaders (or professors and administrators in education), the more compelling and useful explanation is not that people involved are bad, stupid or incompetent, but rather that the practices they have all learned are neither adapted to today's realities nor designed to achieve the ideals listed above.

Unwittingly, the conventional structures used to organize how people routinely work together stifle inclusion and engagement.

Conventional structures are either too inhibiting (presentations, status reports and managed discussions) or too loose and disorganized (open discussions and brainstorms) to creatively engage people in shaping their own future. They frequently generate feelings of frustration and/or exclusion and fail to provide space for good ideas to emerge and germinate. This means that huge amounts of time and money are spent working the wrong way. More time and money are then spent trying to fix the unintended consequences.

Liberating Structures start with something so simple and essential as not to seem worth doing and end with something so powerful and profound that it hardly seems possible.

This website offers an alternative way to approach and design how people work together. It provides a menu of thirty-three Liberating Structures to replace or complement conventional practices.

Liberating Structures used routinely make it possible to build the kind of organization that everybody wants. They are designed to include everyone in shaping next steps.

Liberating Structures introduce tiny shifts in the way we meet, plan, decide and relate to one another. They put the innovative power once reserved for experts only in hands of everyone.

This alternative approach is both practical and feasible because Liberating Structures are quite simple and easy to learn. They can be used by everyone at every level, from the executive suite to the grassroots. No lengthy training courses or special talents are required. Mastery is simply a matter of practice. LS routinely unleash a vast reserve of contributions and latent innovations waiting to be discovered.

Every person interested in leading change-in schools, hospitals, foundations, agencies, and businesses-can use Liberating Structures to generate innovation and great results.

Liberating Structures are easy-to-learn microstructures that enhance relational coordination and trust. They quickly foster lively participation in groups of any size, making it possible to truly include and unleash everyone. Liberating Structures are a disruptive innovation that can replace more controlling or constraining approaches.

Click on any Liberating Structure below.

Leaders know that they would greatly increase productivity and innovation if only they could get everyone fully engaged. The challenge is how. Liberating Structures are novel, practical and no-nonsense methods to help you accomplish this goal with groups of any size.

Liberating Structures spark inventiveness by minimally structuring the way we interact while liberating content or subject matter. Very simple constraints unleash creative adaptability, generating better than expected results. Individual brilliance and collective wisdom are unbridled. Such a dramatic shift cannot be THAT simple, engaging, and powerful but it is. Read Getting Started if you are ready to liberate yourself.

By design, Liberating Structures distribute control so that participants can shape direction themselves as the action unfolds.

Learning Events

Immersion workshops are a great way to get started. Like a foreign language immersion course that temporarily relocates you away from a familiar culture, a LS immersion experience is a very effective way to learn. There are no presentations, facilitated discussions, status reports, brainstorming sessions, or open discussions. Only Liberating Strucutres arepracticed. Organizing a workshop for people in your working group can accelerate "fluency."

Check out News and Events for more immersion workshops and LS User Group meetings. Subscribe to LS News & get access to archives here.

Liberating Structures are immeasurably practical. Our world is increasingly complex, interdependent, and culturally diverse. Many of our most pressing challenges cut across geographic, cultural, and technical boundaries. Simple methods that help us work together productively are central to making progress.

Helpful Analogies
Like Wikipedia, LS create simple rules to guide and liberate everyone's contributions. Wikipedia's must-dos and must-not dos specify how anyone can write articles, edit content, reach consensus about the facts, and share with attribution. This structure makes it possible for a diverse community to generate and sustain accurate content that compares favorably with professionally edited encyclopedias. Like Wikipedia, LS is a disruptive innovation in regard to how we engage people in organizations.

Like improv jazz, LS sparks freedom that arises from shared understanding of simple rules. Great jazz comes from playing creatively within the context of melodic and harmonic structure. Like water in a river, LS takes the shape of the banks that it touches: adapting a similar pattern at every scale and in each local setting.

Below: watch this inspired video by Professor Arvind Singhal talking about liberating education and the role of changemakers. UnScripTED: Liberating Structures

Read this practical article "Tiny Tweaks That Help You Use LS" by Barry Overeem.

Simple Ways to Engage Everyone on Zoom: Learn Several Liberating Structures in 30 minutes from Media Changemakers on Vimeo.
Unscripted #2 Liberating Structures with Dr. Arvind Singhal from Media Changemakers on Vimeo.
Lisa Gill is a fabulous writer and top drawer interviewer. Her Leadersmorphosis series dives deeply into self organizing @ work. Put your ear to this interivew she conducts with Henri and Keith.

Below, enjoy scenes from the LCJP Restorative Justice Summit. Liberating Structures were used to organize a three day event full of learning, designed to advance the Restorative Justice movement. Restorative Justice (RJ) aims to create communities in which people feel safe by carefully structuring opportunities for offenders to make amends and victims to regain their personal power. Restorative Justice practitioners found Liberating Structures to be highly structured, liberating better than expected results.

2012 CO RJ Summit Video from LCJP on Vimeo.

LS were used to design the Transformation of Nursing summit. Coalitions from all 50 states and DC came together to advance the cause.

For the United Nations ITC-ILO, Henri and Keith offered a Liberating Structures immersion workshop and follow-up consulting sessions. (The Centre is in Turin Italy.) The focus was how to organize for promoting decent work and sustainable development by not over-helping but rather facilitating networked self-organization.

Ten Principles

While the individual LS microstructures are powerful separately, they function as an interrelated set which can transform an entire organization. The LS repertoire is inspired by ten liberating principles.

When we decide we belong together, LS principles help to guide behavior and leadership actions. Detailed descriptions here.

The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures book! Preview and buy on Amazon. The color paperback ($49.95 USD), black&white ($19.95 USD) and e-book are now available on the Amazon website. Amazon offers deep discounts and free shipping to some customers.

The development team at Holisticon is happy to announce that the Liberating Structures App is now available in the Google Play and Apple App Stores. A deep bow to their creative genius. Happy downloading!

Audio: A very playful Brave New Work podcast with Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans. On Liberating Structures with Lorenz Sell of Sutra and Keith. Lorenz asks the deepest questions about collective intelligence, generativity, and complexity science. (50 minutes) Coaching Zone Podcast with Keith and Dr. Krister Lowe. The focus is on how leaders and teams can develop more productive habits with LS. [45 minutes] Radio Interview with Meisha Rouser, organizational psychologist. The focus is on groups working at the top of their intelligence and imagination. And a third podcast interview with Amiel Handelsman that dips into specific LS microstructures and their use by groups to generate innovative cultures. [60 minutes].

Check out Falling Off the Horse while faciliating & leading with Liberating Structures. This article by Keith McCandless describes a personal path forward. It includes what is possible to stop doing when LS is integrated into your practice.

LS are inspired by complexity science. Listen to this entertaining RadioLab program on Emergence to learn about some of the underlying concept of complexity science.

LS User Groups (inventing and enlivening a new way to organize) Open Letter from a Grateful Student to All Educators
Rhapsody for Strings!

Below: early LS users and co-developers in Latin America, Europe, Canada and the USA.

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liberating structures, social invention.net, microstructures, disruptive innovation, behavior change, collaboration, social invention, diffusion of innovation, strategy, transformation, heuristics, complexity science, emergence

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As a learning designer I get the chance every year to work with great organizations to build courses on interesting topics. Every topic is worthwhile of course, but sometimes one comes along that also has direct relevance to my own life. This happened last year when I...

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Beth Cougler Blom: Learning Design & Facilitation

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As a learning designer I get the chance every year to work with great organizations to build courses on interesting topics. Every topic is worthwhile of course, but sometimes one comes along that also has direct relevance to my own life. This happened last year when I...

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Design to Engage: How to Create and Facilitate a Great Learning Experience For Any Group

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Design to Engage: How to Create and Facilitate a Great Learning Experience For Any Group

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Find out more about her book!

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Design to Engage: How to Create and Facilitate a Great Learning Experience for Any Group - Beth Cougler Blom

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By Beth Cougler Blom Paperback book | 252 pages | full colour | 8″ x 10″ | Signed by the author Shipping to Canadian destinations only (see below for intl sales) Description Facilitators exist wherever learning happens. Anyone who works in a community organization, a corporation, a government,…

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Join the dialogue on various ways the Douglas College community is addressing the call for climate action.

Dave Taylor, Vice President, Public Affairs – Panel Moderator

Brian Chapell, Dean of Science & Technology – Environmental and Social needs responsive curriculum

Chris Gardner, Director of Facilities – New Energy Step Code campus, STARS (Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System)

Nathalie Vigouroux-Caillibot, Environmental Science instructor, "Talking with, guiding, and empowering students to develop environmental awareness"

Jed Palad, DSU CEAC representative

Moana Mudekereza, Indoor Environmental Quality specialist and student in the PEAK program

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We will learn about several interventions designed to help students recover bandwidth, beginning with a strengths perspective about what skills and abilities they are bringing to the table – “funds of knowledge.” The interventions include values affirmation, connecting the known to the unknown, growth mindset, and high-hope syllabi.

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The campus community and the world are experiencing a large amount of uncertainty and change. Join Dylan Le Roy, one of the Clinical Counsellors at Douglas College, for a discussion on how this increase in uncertainty may have impacted our sense of wellbeing. Through an experiential practice we will explore how grounding in gratitude can help foster a greater sense of resiliency, creativity, and connection.

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Examine strategies for cultivating our own health and wellness, building capacity with our colleagues and students, and directing our purposeful work toward healthy outcomes for everyone.

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Beth Cougler Blom is a facilitator and learning designer who works with clients across all sectors to help them design and facilitate great learning experiences, both in person and online. She has been very involved in the Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) courses through BCcampus and Royal Roads University (RRU) for many years and teaches courses in RRU’s Advanced Facilitation Certificate.