My main point is that participatory teaching methods simply will not work if they do not begin with a deep bond between teacher and student. Importantly, this bond must be built through mutual respect, care, and an ongoing effort to know and understand one another. Somebody using traditional teaching methods (lecture) can foster these bonds and be as effective as somebody using more participatory methods. The participation and “active learning” that is necessary for true understanding and application may not happen in the classroom, but the lecture is just one piece of a much larger ecosystem of the college campus. An effective lecture can inspire deep late night conversations with peers, mad runs to the library for more information, and significant intellectual throwdowns in the minds of our students.

–Michael Wesch, Professor of Anthropology, Kansas State University, in an email message to The Chronicle editor Jeff Selingo, shared in Wesch’s blog, Digital Technology With Professor Wesch. Wesch was a hit the last time SCUP visited Chicago, at SCUP–42, when he closed “Shaping the Academic Landscape: Integrated Solutions, with a rousing presentation. 

 

This is good for a basic understanding, but what we most wanted to share—in case you don’t click and go read it—is a concept that we just finally understood: Flipped Learning uses technology before and after class, to support the engagement of learners and faculty in the rare and valuable face to face moments we call “class time". There are other interesting concepts in this piece, as well:

 

You probably don't think of them as a radical new technology, but some people are convinced that when clickers are as widespread in classrooms as slide shows, a tremendous positive growth in learning will occur. How do clickers work? Read more.

"If I ask a question, and half the class gets it wrong, I can work on that right away, instead of waiting for a test," said Felicia Corsaro-Barbieri, a chemistry professor at Gwynedd-Mercy College. "The misconceptions are being cleared up immediately rather than later." It also gives the usually silent majority a voice. "It can be very intimidating in front of 400 people to raise your hand and answer the question," said Nicholas Staich, a Temple senior who is a teaching assistant for Hodge. "There is a security in anonymity. That ability to contribute without having to worry about people laughing at you is something that most students have never seen before."

We first saw clickers in action (mobile response devices) in the TEAL first-year physics classroom at MIT, and wrote this article for Campus Technology magazine.

Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time.

Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.

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SCUP–45 plenary speaker, SCUPer Mark Valenti of the Sextant Group, defines precepts and assumptions in the learning design process, in EDUCAUSE Review. This is a 2005 article:

A precept is a rule or principle prescribing a particular course of action or conduct. Design precepts describe the overall environment in which the learning space is being developed and help suggest the context in which the design team will formulate the project.

An assumption is something taken for granted or accepted as true without proof; a supposition. Planning or design assumptions provide direction to the design team and also act as a sounding board when hard decisions have to be made. Projects often encounter budget difficulties, programmatic changes midstream, and/or other events that can force the design team to reevaluate the project. Design assumptions provide the context for making those "value-engineering" decisions.

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A nice compilation of lessons learned, tips, and tricks:

Wherever there has been a black board, a white board, or a flip chart, there have been messages left in desperation warning those next in a classroom not to touch what was written or drawn or diagrammed on the particular surface provided. For those coming into the room to teach, it can be both annoying and frustrating.

How can alternative surfaces be found? Who would know if I erased it? This is impolite and not at all collegial! Whatever the actual words expressed, the feelings are legitimate particularly when faced with your own group of students with whom you have to work for the next 50 minutes or so and for whom your best diagrams or notes must be provided.