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IAP 2012 Activities by Sponsor

Teaching and Learning Lab

Active Learning Techniques for Teaching Communication
Mary Caulfield
Wed Feb 1, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

Active learning techniques help students learn nuanced concepts by providing opportunities for in-class problem solving and discussion. This workshop will present some background on the pedagogy of active learning, and it will offer practical tips for designing classroom exercises for teaching writing and speaking. The emphasis will be on helping students to bridge the gap between communicating their technical expertise and understanding the needs of multiple audiences.

All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Writing and Humanistic Studies

How to Speak
Professor Patrick Winston
Fri Feb 3, 11am-12:00pm, 6-120

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event

You can improve your speaking ability in critical situations by observing a few heuristic rules. Professor Winston's collection of rules is presented along with examples of their application not only in lectures, but also in job talks, thesis defenses, and oral examinations.
Contact: Leann Dobranski, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu

Making the Most of Your Presentation
Dr. Jean-luc Doumont, Communication Consultant, Principae
Mon Jan 23, 02-04:00pm, 32-123

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event

Strong oral presentation skills are a key to success for engineers, scientists, and other professionals, yet many speakers are at a loss to tackle the task. Systematic as they otherwise can be in their work, they go at it intuitively, sometimes haphazardly, with much good will but seldom good results. Based on Dr. Doumont's book "Trees, maps, and theorems" about “effective communication for rational minds” this lecture proposes a systematic way to prepare and deliver presentations. Among others, it covers structure, slides, and delivery, as well as stage fright.
Contact: Leann Dobranski, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE)

Polymathy: The World in 10 Curves
Charles Fadel; Visiting practitioner at Harvard’s Graduate School of Ed., Nadezhda Belova
Mon-Fri, Jan 18-20, 23-25, 12-04:00pm, 8-119

No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 16-Jan-2012
Participants requested to attend all sessions (non-series)

Feed your inner DaVinci! Explore how ten curves (from power to sigmoid to cusp etc) can be found all over life-not only in scientific and technical fields, but in social sciences and humanities as well (philosophy, history, law, art, music, etc)-leading to understanding the concepts behind the curves. Construct your knowledge through exploration and synthesis (minimal lecturing), and practice project-based learning.
Web: http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=70
Contact: Nadezhda Belova, Co-Instructor, nadezhda@alum.mit.edu

Response and Revision: Helping Students Develop their Ideas in Writing
Suzanne Lane
Tue Jan 31, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

What kind of feedback will help students understand how to revise their essay, report, or article, to hone and extend their thinking, or to write more effectively in their next assignment? This workshop will draw on research on the writing process and revision to help faculty and TAs understand the range of responding practices, from rubrics to peer review to individual conferences, and when each is effective. By considering feedback in relation to other forms of instruction, participants will learn to provide the kinds of comments and strategies that will help students understand how to improve both their essays and their abilities as writers.

All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Writing and Humanistic Studies

Road Signs: Finding Your Way in the Visual World
Dr. Jean-luc Doumont, Communication Consultant, Principiae
Fri Jan 27, 12-02:00pm, 32-141

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up

In most countries, road signs are graphical: rather than words, they use shape, color, and a variety of icons to convey meaning. Still, are they truly visual? Are they, for example, interpreted faster than word signs? Are they more intuitive, more accessible, more universal?
Through observation of road signs in their natural ecosystem around the world, this session explores basic concepts of visual communication, applicable to a wide array of graphical representations.
Web: http://www.principiae.be
Contact: Leann Dobranski, Asst. Director, Teaching & Learning Lab, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE)

Structuring Your Scientific Paper
Dr. Jean-luc Doumont, Communication Consultant, Principiae
Tue Jan 24, 02-04:00pm, 32-123

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event

Papers are one of the few deliverables of the work of researchers. Well-designed, they efficiently allow each reader to learn only what he or she needs to. Poorly designed, by contrast, they confuse readers, fail to prompt decisions, or remain unread. Based on Dr Doumont's book Trees, Maps, and Theorems, about “effective communication for rational minds”, the lecture shows how to structure scientific papers, theses, and technical reports effectively at all levels to get the readers' attention, facilitate navigation, and, in this way, get the message across optimally.
Web: http://www.principiae.be
Contact: Leann Dobranski, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Dean for Graduate Education (ODGE)

Teaching Students to Write from Research
Dr. Andrea Volpe
Thu Feb 2, 10-11:30am, 12-134

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)

Wondering about the best way to teach students to do scholarly research in the age of Wikipedia? This workshop will examine some of the common road blocks that the Google generation encounters when they are faced with writing assignments based on their own research. We'll consider creative ways to draw on students' digital strengths, while also helping students gain a rhetorical understanding of the purpose for using sources. To help students become better academic writers with this research, we'll discuss ways of sequencing research instruction with writing assignments.

All WAC workshops are open to faculty and teaching assistants who are interested in integrating writing and speaking into their subjects.
Contact: Ashley Caval, 12-117, x3-0650, acaval@mit.edu
Cosponsor: Writing and Humanistic Studies

Tech's Top Teachers Talk Turkey
Facilitated by: Lori Breslow, Teaching & Learning Lab
Mon Jan 30, 12-01:00pm, 4-163

No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event

Join us for a session in which some of MIT's best teachers — both faculty and teaching assistants — talk about how to teach well. This is a panel discussion at which questions are strongly encouraged.
Contact: Leann Dobranski, 5-122, x3-3371, leann@mit.edu


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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Last update: 7 Sept. 2011