Last week, I posted about some of the multimedia assessment guidelines we’re developing in the Graduate Multimedia Fellows Seminar. This week, I’d like to try to apply those guidelines to a professional video clearly intended to communicate an academic-style argument. Mike Rugnetta of PBS’s Idea Channel posts new videos once a week investigating “connections between pop … Continue reading »
Author Archives: Louis Epstein
Evaluating Multimedia Assignments
We’re asking a number of important questions in the Graduate Multimedia Fellows Seminar: What is multimedia? Why assign multimedia rather than a traditional paper? What kinds of assignments are worth giving in which disciplinary contexts to develop what kinds of knowledge and skills? But more important than any of these questions is the one that … Continue reading »
Learning by Doing: Podcasts
In the Graduate Multimedia Fellows seminar, co-sponsored by the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching and the Bok Center, we’re generating best practices for designing, implementing, and evaluating multimedia assignments. Every week, we read scholarship, examine exemplary student and professional multimedia work, and discuss what kinds of assignments (multimedia and traditional) work best in various … Continue reading »
Graduate Multimedia Fellows Seminar Application
The Graduate Multimedia Fellows Seminar is a new Teaching Certificate course offered at the Bok Center with the support of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching. Over the course of the spring semester, the course will train graduate students in the theories, research, and skills necessary to design and evaluate multimedia assignments. Fellows will … Continue reading »
New Teaching Certificate Course
Many TFs teach in courses that require students to complete multimedia assignments (videos, podcasts, websites, etc.), but these TFs often have few opportunities to learn how to create and grade these assignments. Thanks to a generous grant from the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, that’s about to change. This spring the Bok Center will offer … Continue reading »
The Science of Student Ratings
In early June, the Bok Center hosted a talk by Dr. Samuel T. Moulton, Director of Educational Research and Assessment at Harvard University and part of the team implementing the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching. Dr. Moulton reviewed the research (more than 4000 articles!) that underlies the design and implementation of student ratings systems. … Continue reading »
Teaching Philosophies: Bertrand Russell
Hazel Pearson, 2010-2011 Departmental Teaching Fellow in Linguistics, recently wrote in: I came across this teaching manifesto — by Bertrand Russell no less — and found it really quite moving. Feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it! Originally published in a December, 1951 New York Times article entitled, “The Best Answer to … Continue reading »
Gifts and Professional Conduct
Just because the semester is over doesn’t mean there aren’t yet more teaching-related issues to consider. Take, for instance, this scenario outlined by a colleague: Say a student left a thank you card and a gift certificate to a local restaurant in my mailbox. I received it yesterday, after grades were already due. Is it … Continue reading »
The Value of an Education
Once in a while, it’s worth thinking back to why – not what – we learn. XKCD’s Randall Munroe nails it in today’s comic (and don’t forget to scroll over for some bonus text): Yes. There is value in learning, no matter what subject you’re talking about. Even the most esoteric learning experience offers enrichment … Continue reading »
From TF to Course Head
For the last meeting of their year-long Teaching Colloquium and Pedagogy Practicum, third-year graduate students in the Music Department looked ahead to the next step in their professional development: teaching their own courses. Departmental Teaching Fellow Meredith Schweig assembled a panel of recent Music PhDs to share what they’ve learned as they transition from serving … Continue reading »
