First EASL workshop of 2014

In spite of a delayed opening of the university due to a certain athletic competition beyond my control, the initial EASL workhop had 20 attendees -- about 10 more than I expected, so that was quite exciting.

After introductions and a brief collaborative exercise to bring home the point that we can do more in a group rather than as individuals, we moved into a lightening round:  Five faculty who taught in the EASL space during the fall took three minutes to talk about various aspects of teaching in this space:  What kind of time/energy commitment does it take for the faculty member; using the technologies inside and outside the classroom; teaching the same content in the same term in the EASL space and a traditional classroom, using Team-Based Learning; and strategies for students to share their content in the classroom.

After the lightning round, the presenters were available at the tables, and workshop attendees chose which topic they wanted to learn about, meeting at the tables in small groups, and rotating to another group after a fifteen-minute discussion.

Later on, with a mini-lecture under their belts that touched on such points as Bloom's Taxonomy, group formation strategies, student expectations and how to address them, meaningful connection between the flipped material and the classroom activities, and assessment, faculty started working on an assignment of their own with the question on how to restructure it so that it could be turned into a group activity.

We will have three more workshops during the Spring 2014 term that will focus on collaborative work, student expectations, and assessment, so that participants have plenty of time before they start teaching in the Fall.