Category: Uncategorized

There is an age old question “If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” Sometimes, as instructional/learning designers, we may think that.

If we are out there creating this great content (or at least we think it’s great content) and no one is there to give us some feedback, consult or thoughts on what we have constructed, is it really good content? This is where the true value of collaboration, mentoring and professional networking really allows us to “hear” if we have been successful in what we have developed.

When we work collaboratively, or when we share ideas on learning design, techniques and thought processes, we begin to see that there are many more ways to attack a learning problem than we may have thought.

Sometimes we get so siloed in our thinking, relying on the techniques that we have sued over and over again, that we lose the broader perspective. Doing the same things, using the same techniques, is comfortable and safe. And sometimes, that is OK.

But, if we are going to expand our toolbox, if we are to tap the potential of our own creativity, then we need to look outside our own silo, and see what others are doing, building, using. We need the community of designers and learning professionals to help us expand our horizon.

Interaction, coaching, listening, asking questions – all these are important parts of expanding our toolsets and skill sets, as we look for better, different, more inclusive, more responsive ways of structuring, building and delivering content for the learner. By using these techniques, we provide more opportunities for every learner to learn, for every learner to experience success, and for learning to have some meaning.

When we are all rowing in the same direction, we are much more powerful and effective than when we are rowing by ourselves. We can accomplish more when we share and collaborate than when we try to go it alone. Even the most knowledgeable among us did not get there alone – we have all had help, or taken an idea from somewhere else and expanded on it, or bounced an idea off of a colleague, or sat down with a cohort to brainstorm ideas for a design.

Our long-time slogan at Penn State is “We are . . .”

What does God look like to you?

On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, the Center of Ethics and Religious Affairs, along with several student organizations including Westminster Presbyterian Fellowship, Hillel, Lutheran Campus Ministry, the Vedic Society and Unitarian Universalist Students hosted Filmmaker Nathan Lang and screened his acclaimed documentary, God in the Box.

This film, which received its world premiere at the 2011 Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana, follows filmmaker Nathan Lang and his crew across America as they explore the diverse and curious ways people ‘see’ God in their mind’s eye―through the lens of this amazing Box. Filmmakers interview scholars, theologians, mythologists and an archaeologist who have joined the search for the origins of how we see God. 

Nathan’s inspiration for the film grew out of his curiosity about what people think about when they think about God. Through a leap of faith, he and his crew scrapped together the funding necessary to construct a box, equipped with a camera and microphones, and travel cross country to places like Alabama, California, Washington, D.C., New York, among others 

The experience of those in the film who entered the box, drew pictures, told their stories, and in some cases, agonized over the idea of God was powerful. Nathan engaged the audience in a dialogue that followed the film about what Penn State students, staff, and community think about God and the diverse viewpoints in the film. Some spoke about their unshakable faith in God in their lives. Others who identified as Humanists or Buddhists talked about treating each other with respect and love. Why do we have to look to something outside of ourselves, they asked? Still others mentioned how part of the film’s focus on the history dating back to the Greeks and Romans gave them new insights into the story of creation and how it seems to have evolved over thousands of years. 

The student fellows who work with me here at the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs constructed a box of our own that is displayed in the lobby of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center. Throughout the week, students, staff, and community have entered the refrigerator-sized box to answer questions about what God means to them, what God looks like, and so forth. We have received an overwhelmingly positive response to our box. Some have indicated how safe they feel in the box reading others’ reflections. One student mentioned to me that “she enjoyed being in the box because it feels sacred, like God is here with me.”  

We intend to continue this dialogue and are entertaining the idea of inviting Nathan Lang to return to Penn State and bring his box. He’d like to incorporate the Penn State community’s thoughts and feelings and show the film again. He told me, “I have another idea and that is to explore the word ‘love’ and what that really means to people. You can love your partner, your daughter, your mother, friend or even your dinner. So, how do people view love?”

The conversation continues. I invite you to visit our box and contribute your thoughts and feelings. How do you see God? What does God mean to you? 

God in the Box is part of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs’ Breaking the Box: Exploring Religious Stigmas and Misconceptions Film Series. The series runs from February to April and includes light hearted comedies as well as eye-opening documentaries. Through this series, the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs hopes to encourage students to break out of their own faith boxes and explore their own and others’ religious and spiritual traditions from various viewpoints.

For more information, please contact 814-865-6548 or cera@sa.psu.edu.

As promised at our last PEP meeitng, here is the link to blogs about the program the College of LIberal Arts offered to faculty and staff before the beginning fo the semester:

http://blogs.la.psu.edu/laus/2012/08/teaching-into-the-crisis.html

 I was impressed with the commitment to dealing with difficult topics and tackling issues head on that the college displayed. the program was excellent, beginning with a panel whose members talked about how they had dealt with the aftermath of the Sandusky charges and the trial and sanctions this summer. The panel presentation was followed by vigorous and honest discussion from everyone present. It was a great opportunity to see the possibilities for struggling in meaningful ways in the curriculum  and co-curriculum. 

from Brett Bixler

On the afternoon of Friday, November 4^th,  31 very anxious but talkative students representing over 12 different countries, boarded a Penn State Blue Bus and headed to the Nature’s Inn at Bald Eagle State Park for the two and a half day Global Engagement Leadership Experience (GELE).  GELE is a collaborative program between the University Office of Global Programs (UOGP) and the Office of Student Activities.  GELE was created, implemented and is currently facilitated by Kristin Thomas from UOGP and Gina Hurny from Student Activities. GELE was created specifically to address the need for intentional and informative intercultural dialogue between international and domestic students in an effort to improve the global climate on campus.

UOGP is working tirelessly to internationalize students’ curricular and co-curricular experiences on and off campus, supporting them in the transformational journey to become globally responsible citizens. The Office of Student Activities has long desired to add an international component to their leadership development programming efforts in an effort to more thoroughly develop and prepare students to be effective leaders in a global society.

GELE began with a brief welcome by Kristin and then we transitioned into the first segment, “Building Community.” Students spent time in the large group introducing themselves by sharing their major, class standing and country of origin followed by the history of their name, teaching the rest of the group how to say hello in their native language, and finally they were asked to select a card with a picture on it that best represented what they were feeling at that moment about their participation in GELE.

 After a wonderful dinner the group was divided into the two fictional cultures that make up the BaFa BaFa cultural simulation. One group immediately became Alphans as members of the Alpha culture and the other group Betans as members of the Beta culture. Members of each culture are escorted in smaller groups to visit the opposite culture. When visiting the new culture it is quite apparent that the visitors do not speak the native language nor do they understand and/or respect the traditions and customs of the new culture. BaFa BaFa is designed to give participants a complex understanding of what it is like to try and become a member of a culture completely different from your own.

BaFa BaFa ended with a large group conversation where participants were asked a series of prompts in an effort to get each participant to reflect on their experience while engaged in this activity but also how it relates to their real life experiences. Questions ranged from “describe the other culture” to “how receptive was the other culture of your visit?” to “what emotions are you currently experiencing?” The most humorous, but effective,  response of the night came when one participant was asked to explain her view of both cultures and she said” the Alpha and Beta cultures were like a mullet – the Alphas were a party in front while the Beta’s were  all business in the back.” Finally the large group was divided into four smaller groups to further discuss the events of the evening. These small group discussions were peer-facilitated by four past GELE participants and allowed the students to reflect on the global climate at Penn State.

Saturday morning we awoke to find another beautiful sunny day, although a bit chilly until the frost melted! After a hearty breakfast the group headed outside to participate in a community service project.  The community service segment is important because it allows for direct implementation of the concept of “thinking globally and acting locally.” The large group was divided again this time into three smaller “work” groups.  A “leader” of each group was randomly chosen, their responsibility was to effectively guide their team in the successful completion of the project at hand.

We met with Ranger John while he explained the service project as well as the need for staining the three foot bridges located in the front and back of the Inn.  He also made sure to explain to the participants how they needed to be extremely careful not to contaminate the soil by accidently spilling stain because this in turn would contaminate the water table. To prevent any sort of contamination, the students covered the immediate area of each bridge with large sheets of plastic. Once each bridge had its plastic in place students were given the necessary materials needed to both sand and stain their bridge. Despite the bright sun, it was still a bit chilly outside and as result each team leader decided to work their teams in 10-15 minutes shifts so that when students were off shift they could go inside and grab a hot beverage. This was a very effective motivator and the bridges were completely stained in no time and Ranger John was extremely pleased with the students’ productivity.

Throughout the two hour project each group was observed engaging in meaningful conversations, laughing, and even dancing as one creative group even managed to obtain a laptop in order to play music.  All in all it was a fun, energizing, and productive morning.  Upon the completion of the project students were greeted by Charli Lehman-Program Director for Service.  Charli engaged the entire group in a meaningful reflection about their service experiences. By using the “ripple effect” Charli was able to help the students make the connection between the service they just completed and the impact that it will have on people that they will never meet.  The students ended the morning by articulating how participating in the service project directly impacted them. Comments ranged from; “we had fun” to “improving society and the environment” to “it allowed us to give back” to “it helped me to recognize the privileges that I have”.

Charli joined the students for lunch and the meaningful conversations continued.  After lunch there was a segment entitled, “Attitudes & Attires” This was a panel discussion facilitated by international scholars (currently studying at Penn State) from 5 different countries dressed in traditional “business” attire from their native country. The countries represented were; India, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Sierra Leone.  Each panelist spent time sharing the tradition of their native dress as well as what the dress would be like for the opposite gender, as well as some of the cultural traditions from their countries.  They discussed topics such as the dress code for school-aged children, the birth of a child, the naming of a child, wedding ceremonies, the business climate, polygamy, and the level of personal modesty associated each culture. The panel was a series of questions and answers between the panelists and the students. The panel was fun, engaging and educational and there was no doubt that the students enjoyed interacting with theses invited guests.

The next two segments were run concurrently. In order to allow for a deeper conversation the participants were again split into two smaller groups and then they rotated between the two segments, “Leadership Around the World” facilitated by Gina Hurny, Nimisha Thakur, and Katia Esarey and “Global Ethics” facilitated by David Miller-Martini.  The “Leadership Around the World” segment began by asking students to shout out adjectives and characteristics that answered the question, “what is leadership?” Through short bios and video clips, students were then introduced to five past/present  prominent world leaders including; Queen Rania of Jordan, Mahatma Gandhi, Liu Xiaobo, Bill Clinton, and Margaret Thatcher. Students were then asked to discuss the common characteristics demonstrated by each of the leaders and what role those characteristics play as they strive to become global citizens. The take-a-way from this segment is best represented by Ciulla (2003) “the meaning of the word leadership is not defined by scholars-it is determined by the way people in a culture use it and think about it.”

The “Global Ethics” segment featured some opening comments from David about the importance and characteristics of global ethics, a cultural role play that tested the participants’ ethical beliefs, and finally a passionate discussion by the student that left them wishing this segment was at least another 30 minutes longer in length. This segment set the foundation for on-going conversations over dinner as well as spilling over late into the night following the last segment of the day, The International Showcase.

The Intercultural Showcase segment was designed to allow a platform for the GELE participants to share something unique about their culture of origin.  Participants had the opportunity to learn first-hand about a wide-variety of traditional customs including; attire, music, dance, toys, games, and spoken word from Japan, China, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Africa, and the United States. The Showcase was not only entertaining but very educational.  The students all enjoyed the opportunity to learn and the fun atmosphere of the evening was capped off by the American tradition of a campfire with s’mores. Several of the international students had not yet experienced this American delicacy and the reviews were mixed, ranging from “delicious” to “it’s just not for me.”

Sunday morning was designed to prepare the students to make the connections between thinking globally while acting locally. Charlie Brooks, The Inn Keeper, started our morning off by highlighting all the features and amenities of the Inn that has it competing for a LEED (Leadership, Environment, Energy, Designs) Certified Gold rating.  73% of the construction waste from the Inn was kept out of the landfills because it was disposed in a more environmentally sound manner.  Some of the most unique features of the building itself are: that the countertops in all the units are made from recycled auto glass and the countertops in the conference rooms are made from sunflower seed hulls, the building is heated and cooled using geo thermo technology, rainwater is harvested and used to flush the toilets, every inch on harvested rainwater results in 1500 flushes, 80% of all lumber used to actually build the Inn and all of the furniture used within came from regionally sourced materials, meaning less than a 200 mile radius form the building site, and finally the building itself is built on an East-West axis in order to make the maximum use of full Southern exposure.

After concluding the remarks by Charlie the students were treated to a segment on Global Leadership-Global Challenges facilitated by Neil Brown.  Neil started off by simply asking each student to share how their current major plays a role in sustainability. The conversation was easy to relate to and for some of the students the connection was easy to make for others it was far more difficult and they need to rely on their peers to help them out. Next Neil asked them to think about sustainability being defined as “thoughtful progress.”

The take-a-ways from this segment included noting that poor communication prevents effective collaboration, that we each come into every situation with our own lens of perception, and that global leadership is a complex system made up of four components.  The four components are collaboration, strategy, innovation, and communication.  Finally, Neil reminded us that global leadership needs to be about the movement not about the individual and that the first follower is always the most courageous.

This incredible weekend ended with a final segment facilitated by Kirk Simmons. Kirk engaged the participants in a free flowing conversation about the global climate at Penn State.  This segment organically morphed into the participants sharing what GELE meant to them and how they could take all that they learned and experienced back to campus with them.  Our time at the Nature’s Inn ended with lunch and several requests for group photos. Then it was back on the bus to head back to campus.

There is no way to effectively measure the immediate impact that this weekend has had on the participants and facilitators. However, based on the energy, excitement, and meaningful conversations that occurred over the past weekend we have all been impacted in ways we may not even be able to articulate until days, weeks, or even years later.

Due to the high demand and the lasting effects of this program, GELE will be duplicated in the spring during the weekend of March 16^th -18^th.

 

For more information about the Global Engagement Leadership Experience http://www.global.psu.edu/dgrp/gli/

I am working on a survey designed to provide information about how students perceive their place in the larger State College community. One of the questions I am tweaking (which I borrowed from another survey – thank you, UNC Wilmington!), asks students to rate their level of agreement with the following statement: “I actively demonstrate respect for my peers”. This seems pretty vague to me – how does one “actively demonstrate respect”? Perhaps it’s in the “I know it when I see it” category? But I delved into the source of all information – Google – to explore this question. In my wanderings, I found a fairly simple list that I thought was a good start and it reminded me that I am not always the person I want to be when I don’t model the examples on the list. Anyway, I thought I’d share the link: 10 Ways to Show Respect.

Article below is very interesting and shows the need to collect information about our LGBT students. Hopefully this trend will continue with the COmmon Application and CERP etc. so that we can have more information about not only health related issues but retention of our LGBT students on campus. Perhaps one day soon sexual orientation and genderidentity will be available demographics on college appications.

 

 

HRC Statement on Health and Human Services Secretary’s Commitment to Collection of LGBT Health Data

 

       

 

      WASHINGTON – According to press reports, today at a White House press conference, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters that her department “fully intend[s] to collect LGBT data,”

including on national health surveys.  Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese issued the following statement:

 

       

 

      “We applaud Secretary Sebelius for her commitment to collecting critical data on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  It has been repeatedly demonstrated – including in a major LGBT health report issued just months ago by the Institute of Medicine – that LGBT people experience significant health disparities and that we cannot fully understand those disparities and how to address them until major health studies ask about our community.  Since this administration took office, HRC has urged HHS to take steps to collect data and address LGBT health disparities and has also lobbied Congress to call for and fully fund the inclusion of LGBT questions in federal health surveys and programs.  We thank Secretary Sebelius for her leadership in addressing the health needs of all Americans and look forward to continuing our work with HHS to ensure that LGBT people are fully a part of the department’s commitment to health.”

 

       

 

      The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

Given the discussions surrounding the use of technology in assessing student learning at the last Cocurricular Learning Committee meeting, I thought others might be interested in a recent AIR conference paper entitled, Interactive Technology and Effective Educational Practices, presented by Allison BrckaLorenz and Amy Garver. The full paper can be accessed at http://cpr.iub.edu/uploads/AIR2010%20Interactive%20Tech%20FINAL.pdf, but here is the abstract.

Abstract: Using data from the 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement, this study explored the effect of students’ general use of interactive technology tools on their engagement in effective educational practices. In particular, a range of demographic and academic variables were examined to better understand characteristics of students who tended to be frequent users of interactive tools (e.g., collaborative editing, on-line portfolio, blogging) for the purposes of learning. Results revealed differences in subpopulations of students, specifically, by major and among international students. Findings also confirmed that students using interactive technologies were engaging in more collaborative behavior with both their peers and instructors, with the largest effect sizes occurring for Student-Faculty Interaction among first-year students. Implications for future research and practice were discussed.