In this episode, we’re circling back to a favorite topic here on the podcast: media literacy. Leading Lines producer Melissa Mallon recently talked with Renee Hobbs, professor of communication studies at the University of Rhode Island, about her new book, Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age. Professor Hobbs is a longtime leader […]
In this episode, we talk with James M. Lang about distraction and attention, the subject of his new book. He is a professor of English and the director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University in Massachusetts. He’s the author of five books, including Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of […]
In this episode, we’re exploring that future by looking to the past. Leading Lines producer Cliff Anderson shares a fascinating interview with tech entrepreneur Brian Dear about his book The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the Rise of Cyberculture. The book tells the story of PLATO, an experiment in the 1960s and 1970s […]
Rodolfo Rego is a senior instructor in the department of earth and environment at Florida International University. You may remember Rodolfo from Episode 59 of Leading Lines, about a year ago, when he shared some of his approaches for teaching earth and environmental science courses online. His courses are ones that one might think are […]
We’re back with another episode exploring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education. This time we are speaking with one of Derek’s colleagues at the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching, Cynthia Brame, about the Online Course Design Institute that was launched in May to help Vanderbilt faculty get ready to teach online this summer […]
During this season of Leading Lines, we’re exploring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education. A big part of that impact lands on our students. Robin DeRosa is the director of the Open Learning & Teaching Collaborative, or Open CoLab, at Plymouth State University, a public liberal arts institution that’s part of the […]
In this crossover episode with the podcast We Teach Languages, Leading Lines producer Stacey Johnson talks with Robert Elliott, associate director of the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon. The institute works with Native American tribes to support and strengthen language preservation and revitalization efforts. Robert helps teachers of indigenous languages through […]
In this episode, Mark Sample, associate professor and chair of digital studies at Davidson College talks with Derek Bruff. Sample was the keynote speaker at Vanderbilt’s Learning at Play: a one-day symposium on games for learning and social change. Sample didn’t have a chance to sit down for a Leading Lines interview while he was […]
Christopher Cayari is an assistant professor of music education at Purdue University. He teaches college students, mostly pre-service teachers, but his research considers how musicians use technology, particularly the internet and social media, to make music. Just as YouTube is changing how music is created and shared, Cayari is using YouTube and other video tools […]
In this episode, we first hear a short, speculative fiction audio story by Vanderbilt undergraduate Sarah Saxton Strassberg called “Hagar Rising” that explores the future of gene editing. Sarah Saxton created this piece for a course on the politics of reproductive health taught by Vanderbilt anthropology professor Sophie Bjork-James. After Sarah Saxton’s audio piece, Derek […]
In this episode, the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching’s assistant director for educational technology, Stacey Johnson, recently talked with Kylie about a new practicum the CFT launched aimed at preparing grad students to teach online. Stacey and Kylie discuss the origin and structure of the practicum, as well as a really useful framework for teaching online […]
Technology doesn’t have to be digital to be useful in teaching. In this episode, we feature an interview with Kimberly Rogers, who uses games and simulations in her sociology courses, two very analog technologies. Kimberly talks about why she teaches with games and simulations, about the importance of role-playing in discussing hard topics, and about […]