UP Tech Talk Podcast UPortland Academic Technology Services

Teaching from “among” students rather than teaching “to” them is one of the core concepts behind Academic Technology Services & Innovation’s “Untethered in the Classroom” project.  Faculty are free to roam throughout the classroom while teaching instead of being chained to the podium at the front of the room.  Better yet, students can review all of the class interactions anytime they want — everything is recorded.  Because they’re not furiously taking notes, students feel less stressed and more focused.  That’s the feedback so far, says Dr. Lorretta Krautscheid, interim Associate Dean of UP’s School of Nursing and our guest on this episode of Tech Talk.

Social Media seems to pervade every aspect of life and often consumes many waking hours for lots of people.  Something with such a large footprint deserves a serious look.  Peter Pappas, of UP’s School of Education, has put a spotlight on the topic of where social media has taken us. Once enthusiastic about the promise of this communication tool, Pappas is a little more hesitant these days.
In this roundtable-style podcast, we bushwhack through a lot of philosophical terrain from Orwellian outcomes and conspiracy theories to Troll farms and seatbelts for Twitter.

Theology professors face a big challenge. How do you make the words spoken a few thousand years ago talk to young people today? One way is to combine the multisensory stimuli of media with the connectivity of the web and add in a large dose of community building. That’s what Dr. Rebecca Gaudino does to bring the lives of her 21rst Century students into dialogue with ancient prophets and scribes.