How Much Fun Does Active Learning Generate?

Tons! The organizers of and the 160 participants in the ALL Conference on campus yesterday staged yet another public demonstration of all sorts of active learning and student engagement ideas and practices. It is fun to break away from the norm - the traditional teacher-centered lecturing mode included - in order to connect with our students and ensure real learning takes place. Even though the task is enormous - which is why the keynoters' metaphorical call to melt the ice glacier is so proper, I just love the energy, the hopefulness, and the laughter of the like-minded fellow educators. Once again, our dept. had a strong presence at the event with more than a dozen faculty and tutors in attendance. Suzanne Woodward, Katrina Tamura, Angela Webster, and Sheri Cully even led three breakout sessions. There is no doubt that our classrooms tomorrow will be filled with the same enthusiasm and fun generated by our newly-learned, well-designed learner-centered activities. Hopefully, our students will want to keep returning to the class.

Here is a link to the keynote slides: Create a Dynamic Landscape for Learning.

Our team won a marshmallow challenge at a breakout session.