Miscellaneous

ETS will host a fall workshop series on Project-Based Learning. Kris Wobbe, the director from the Center for Project-Based Learning¹ at Worcester Polytechnic Institute will lead each 90-minute workshop.

All who attend will receive a copy of Project-Based Learning in the First Year: Beyond all Expectations (Stylus, 2019).

Dates and Topics: 

Thursday, Aug 18 – 10:00 am – 11:30 am 

Topic – Supporting Equitable and Effective Student Teams

Outcomes: Participants will

• Understand how to support student work on teams
• Have a better understanding of and ability to promote an equitable classroom culture
• Use tools to foster a culture of equity so that all students have a better chance of benefiting from teamwork

Thursday, Sept 22 – Common Hour (11:30-1:00)

Topic – PBL as a First Year and General Education Strategy

Outcomes: Participants will

• Identify advantages of using PBL in first year and gen ed courses
• Identify key challenges and supports needed to effectively use PBL in these courses
• Examine example projects from first year and gen ed courses

Tuesday, Oct 18 – Fall Break Day 2  (10:00-11:00)

Topic – PBL in Capstone Courses

Outcomes: Participants will

• Identify advantages of using PBL in capstones
• Examine example projects and range of deliverables from capstone courses
• Discuss the possibilities of sponsored projects

Thursday, Nov 17 – Common Hour  (11:30-1:00)

Topic – Feedback, Evaluation and Assessment Strategies for PBL

Outcomes: Participants will

• Discuss best practices for providing feedback to & evaluation of students during PBL
• Identify mechanisms for supporting assessment of individuals in team-based projects
• Explore use of peer-feedback and review during PBL

¹ Worcester Polytechnic Institute has nearly 50 years of experience in project-based learning.

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This week ETS shares a top 5 list of Gmail and Drive “must know” features that could make your digital life easier.

Our top 5 are (drumroll, please):

1. Gmail templates
2. Confidential mode
3. Delayed sending
4. Blocking downloading, printing, and copying in Drive
5. Named revisions 

Feature #1
Let’s start with Gmail templates. Do you receive the same or similar questions frequently and are you tired of typing the same response over and over again?

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We are at that time of the academic year when we feel pressed for time. Voice Typing may offer you a time saving solution. We generally speak faster than we type, even if we possess pretty good typing skills. The Voice Typing tool allows you to dictate and format in Google Docs and in the speaker notes section of Google Slides.

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“We need to get past the ‘one size fits all’ thinking.
Lexend is not just the font, it’s also a tool like a pair of glasses
that can be specifically measured to create the optimum outcome.”

 ~ Dr. Bonnie Shaver-Troup

What is so special about the Lexend fonts?

These free fonts were designed specifically to adjust to each individual’s visual needs.

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What is Zotero?

Zotero is a free open source app that helps you gather and organize your research any way that you want.

What can Zotero do for me and my students?

Zotero allows the creation of private as well as shared collection spaces and each gathered resource can be tagged with keywords. These keywords can be searched on.

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What is social annotation?

Social annotation brings the individual experience of marking up a text with highlights, notes and questions to a shared online space where individuals can now share their mark ups and commentary as well as respond to each other’s comments and questions.

Why use social annotation?

“When we read and think together, a text can become a richer learning object.

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**Workshop sign up coming soon**

Summary 

On Saturday, December 4, the Ohio Five CODEX team hosted a workshop titled “Seeing Through Your Text with Voyant: Low Barrier Text Analysis in the Classroom.” As one of the main presenters, I can tell you without any bias that this was the best workshop that has ever been done in the Ohio 5.

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Last week I came down with something and spent 15 hours asleep in one day. It was my body’s way of saying it’s time to take a break, it’s time to get away from all the screens, it’s time to pause. During my time in bed, I had the rare opportunity to watch a squirrel build its nest, which I later discovered is called a drey, in the massive oak tree just outside my bedroom window.

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