Meeting of the Minds

Meeting of the Minds

Buffalo, New York - May 09, 2018 - D’Youville will be host to two conferences in May focusing on faculty development. A Teaching Innovation conference will be held Tuesday, May 22 and THATCamp Buffalo will be held Wednesday, May 23

Hosted by the Institute for Teaching Innovation, the D’Youville Conference on Teaching Innovation will be held from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM. The conference will be broken up into three sessions and will focus on six major concerns: exemplary pedagogy, technology-infused instruction, outcome-based assessment, inclusive strategies, research and scholarship, and faculty wellness.

The wide variety of topics being discussed represent the many hats faculty members wear and their wide variety of expertise.

“We have representation from across the college, including fine arts, liberal arts, healthcare, experiential learning, hard sciences, online learning, education, and inter-professional education,” says Leah MacVie, PhD, director of the Institute for Teaching Innovation (ITI). “We’re most excited for attendees to learn about our fantastic faculty and the great work they are doing in their classrooms, with our students, and out in the community. The wide variety of topics being discussed represent the many hats faculty members wear and their wide variety of expertise.”

The first session features the “Classroom Moments” series, short story-style talks about the speakers experiencing “Aha!” classroom moments that made them pause. These will be held in D’Youville’s historic Kavinoky Theatre. Lunch will be provided, after which attendees will get a chance to select from a list of active workshops broken up into two sessions. The final part of the day will allow attendees to ‘Sip and Socialize’ to network and chat with presenters.

The second conference will be THATCamp Buffalo, with the theme “Synthesizing Critical Pedagogy and Creativity.” The conference will be held Wednesday, May 23 from 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM. Co-hosted by D’Youville’s ITI and the Liberal Arts department, the camp gets its name from ‘The Humanities and Technology,’ D’Youville’s THATCamp will also include other disciplines as well, including faculty and high school teachers in the sciences and healthcare professions.

We want to put pressure on our received ideas about what and how we teach.

Attendees will walk away with tips on how technology can help students express themselves creatively and how to think critically about the use of technology in their teachings among many other topics.

MacVie’s fellow co-chair for THATCamp Buffalo, Lizzie Finnegan, PhD, assistant professor of English, looks to accomplish much more. “The event presents an exciting opportunity for participants to combine the philosophies and goals of critical pedagogy - for example, inclusiveness, social transformation, student empowerment - with creative strategies for using technology in teaching.”

Finnegan goes on to say that critical pedagogy is ultimately grounded in a deep respect and responsibility for students.

“We want to put pressure on our received ideas about what and how we teach,” says Finnegan. “Pressure on the place of creativity in the classroom; about what education is ultimately for; and about the limits that any particular discipline might put on our ability to build inclusive, creative classrooms that encourage and support students to see themselves as empowered citizens who have the power to transform their world.”

MacVie says THATCamp is a great option for educators who are looking for something a little different than the traditional conference. “It’s informal and collaborative. Attendees will have a chance to both share with and learn from the collective, with the purpose of learning technologies that can enhance teaching, student projects and assessment, and scholarship.”

Contact

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Email: marcom@dyc.edu