02/19/2024

Staying on Top of Teaching Trends

News You Can Use

From the web:

• In the Chronicle’s Teaching Newsletter, they recently highlighted the role AI is playing in the classroom. Many faculty have found ways to allow students to use AI while still making a significant contribution to the assignment, insisting that students be upfront about their use of AI. Other faculty have re-written assignments to make it difficult for students to use AI. You can read more about these strategies
• With climate change comes more emergencies that we need to be prepared to address. The CDC has a list of resources, including online, interactive trainings, about Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH)-related Emergencies & Outbreaks.
• The National Academies recently health a workshop entitled, “Mitigating Arboviral Threats and Strengthening Public Health Preparedness: A Workshop.” The general summary of the event is that we are not prepared for the spread of mosquito- and tick-borne illnesses in the United States. One potential answer is bioengineering, which can use gene-editing to decrease the mosquito population. This technology is currently being tested in Brazil, according to this recent NPR report.
• Have you ever thought about having students create memes to summarize concepts from class? Here are some tips (written for K-12 educators but many still apply to college education) about doing that. Memes can be a fun way for students to internalize what they’ve learned. Here’s a recent journal article about using online creative work as a portion of graded class work in an education course.