[Air-L] AoIR Undergraduate Teaching Pre-Conference Workshop

[Holly Kruse]

For the third consecutive year, we are offering the half-day undergraduate teaching workshop at the AoIR conference. It will take place on the afternoon of Monday, October 18th. If you’d like to participate in the workshop but have already registered for the conference and didn’t register for the workshop but now want to, you can still register. I’m not exactly sure how that works, so don’t email me about how to add the workshop after you’ve already registered. Instead, contact Michelle, the association coordinator, at ac at aoir.org <mailto:ac at aoir.org>.

I don’t want to be hyperbolic or overstate the case, but I think that everyone who participated in the first two workshops was happy that they did. The feedback has been tremendously positive. And I’d like to answer here a question I’ve gotten from a few people in the past few years, which is: can graduate student teaching assistants participate in the workshop? The answer is “absolutely!” – we love having you, and that's a great point in one’s university teaching career to join our workshop. In fact, any point in your undergraduate teaching career is the perfect time to participate. So please consider doing so. I’ve included an edited version of the workshop description below.

Holly


Holly Kruse, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Communications
Rogers State University
1701 W. Will Rogers Blvd.
Claremore, Oklahoma 74017
holly.kruse at gmail.com or hkruse at rsu.edu


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Organizers: Holly Kruse and Kelly Boudreau

Teaching is a big part of most of our academic lives, whether we are graduate teaching assistants or junior or senior faculty members; tenure-track, tenured, or contingent faculty; experienced educators or instructors relatively new to teaching. In the classroom (on campus or virtual), our students’ understandings of social media and internet use don’t always align with broader press or research narratives.

This workshop endeavors to bring educators together to discuss the difficulties and joys of teaching in, on, and around the internet. Questions for discussion will focus on (but not be limited to): What do we learn from our students about the internet, how  are we using the internet to teach, and what’s the best way of bringing AoIR research into our classrooms? How do we use the internet in teaching when our students don’t have broadband access, aren’t digitally-savvy, and when our institutions do not offer robust technical infrastructures or support?

As professors with teaching experience that spans types of institutions, student populations, and institutional support, we understand that there are no one-size fits all solutions to teaching in ever-changing technological and social contexts. The experience of running two workshops has made us more aware of the ways in which teaching loads, expectations of service to students and administration, and institutional terminologies differ around the world. The workshop is therefore discussion/conversation-based so we can all learn from and with one another. This workshop adheres to AoIR’s Statement of Principles and Statement of Inclusivity, which is a commitment to academic freedom, equality of opportunity, and human dignity. This means that in this workshop, just like in the rest of the AoIR conference, no harassment or discrimination will be permitted, and members must commit to the inclusion and recognition of all members. We appreciate the participants in this session arriving with a shared sense of purpose, community, and respect as we discuss teaching today. https://aoir.org/diversity-and-inclusivity/

Prior to the workshop, participants will be asked to respond to a questionnaire so that we have a sense of the teaching contexts and expectations of those attending. We also intend to use that shared Google document as a resource that participants can use after the event, especially because we are asking participants to list helpful classroom resources as part of our session.

The workshops tailored to focus on experiences and resources brought forth by the participants and expand on them through discussion. Broadly, the first hour will focus on introductions, outlining the key concerns, questions, and issues resulting from the questionnaire responses. The second hour will focus on participants sharing their strategies, assignments or techniques employed in their teaching practices that center around digital media and internet research in a pedagogical setting. During the third hour, if time allows, participants will work in smaller groups, the topics of which will be determined by workshop participants. Each participant can then join the group that best addresses their needs and expectations. The fourth and final hour will include summation of any group work and discussion of plans for documenting and sharing strategies and materials that were discussed throughout the workshop.