June 23, 2021 Values in Context Greg Andrews was a contingent instructor in the Information Technology program. With 30 years of experience in designing IT systems, he had seen the good and bad uses of technology....
June 22, 2021 The Heart of Democratic Citizenship–a discussion summary for IF’s online community conversation An exploratory discussion of the meaning of the office of citizen in a self-governing society "In a democracy, the highest office is the office of citizen."– Felix Frankfurter, Supreme Court Justice A...
May 19, 2021 Facilitating Like You’re Skipping Stones “How many of you have skipped stones?” so began Sonja Jefferson as she introduced the class session on facilitation. Almost every hand went up. “Good, you have already learned the...
May 18, 2021 Just Imagine…a Democracy Keeping Pace with Technology When domestic terrorists attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the FBI was able to identify many of the terrorists using facial recognition technology (FRT). Artificial intelligence algorithms can...
May 12, 2021 Collaborative Bonds On the first day of class Professor Alan Nelson was going over the syllabus. “One of the unique things about this class is the discussion groups you will be in...
April 25, 2021 Jim Burke Shares his Experience Volunteering with IF Jim Burke volunteered as a facilitator with the Interactivity Foundation during January-February 2021. I talked with Jim afterwards about what inspired him to volunteer, what it was like to facilitate...
April 21, 2021 Syllabus Ideas for Student-Centered Discussions Dr. Janice Horton was mentoring a graduate student, Erin Roberts, as she was putting together her syllabus for a freshman history class. Roberts wanted to make discussions a strong element...
April 7, 2021 Avoiding Distractions Dr. Reginald Whitcomb was a former Nasa engineer at NASA who was asked to teach a class on design thinking to a cross section of students on campus. His course...
March 31, 2021 The Art of Facilitation and Collaboration Diane Vest was asked to teach a student-centered class where students would learn how to facilitate discussions as well as become effective collaborators in their small-group discussions. To prepare for...
March 24, 2021 Good Words It was the 21st century equivalent of a debate competition. The focus, however, was not on a winning argument but on creative innovation--developing viable possibilities for an emerging national issue....
March 10, 2021 Types and Sequencing of Discussion Questions Professor Jens Sigmund had used class discussions in is courses for years. He noticed that the way he framed questions had a major impact on the success of the discussions....
February 3, 2021 Cascaded Note-Taking Dr. Jimenez was frustrated as he read the discussion summaries from his students. One student from each discussion team served as a facilitator. The facilitators took notes on a flip...
