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TEACHING &
TECH RESOURCES
AI Generative Tools Update
At the start of the semester, we shared an update about CU’s temporary usage policy and overall strategy around AI-generative tools. Since then, even more has been happening! I continue to add relevant resources to this collection here and strongly encourage folks to reach out as you have questions or if you would like me to speak to your course (as I have already) to provide a broader perspective on the tool, its possibilities, its concerns, and the large concerns about such tools & their role in systematic inequality. If you would like a sense of big-picture background at CU as well as some of my professional thoughts about navigating this tool but can’t schedule a meeting, feel free to read this blog post where I do my deep dive on the subject or check out this podcast including fellow faculty member, Autumn Caines & myself as we talk with Rebecca Hogue.
Additionally, I’ll be running a 1-hour webinar with NERCOMP on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 from 11:00am - 12:00pm called: The Future is Already Here: AI Generative Tools and Teaching. You can register here. The webinar is free though you will need to create an account with NERCOMP with your CU email account.
2 Workshops Happening Tuesday!
Critical AI Literacy Webinar
Join Anna Mills & Maha Bali from Equity Unbound on Zoom on Tuesday February 7th (12pm-1pm, ET) for a hands-on interactive session on Critical AI Literacy. Price: Variable ($0-$30)
Moodle Workshop: From reactive to proactive accessibility: Text-to-speech benefits
Tuesday, February 7, 2:00 - 3:00pm ET
Other Professional Development Opportunities
CU is a member of NERCOMP, a regional affiliate of EDUCAUSE–the higher education organization focuses on technology and learning. As a result, you can access many of their past webinars including:
- Social Presence: The Key to Engagement in Multi-Model Learning Environments
- Fostering Wellness PRactices
- Teaching Your Students to Innovate in the Public Sphere
- Enhance Your Asynchronous Online Instruction with UDL-Based Tech Tools-Online Workshop
- Rock Your Profile-Webinar presented by LinkedIn Learning
- Design for your Most Vulnerable Students First
- Universal Design for Learning: Easing the Change of Higher Ed Teaching Modalities
You can find these and scores more recorded workshops and webinars here. These are free though you will need to create an account with NERCOMP with your CU email account.
Design a Professional Development Opportunity (and get Paid!)
On Friday, April 28, 2023 from 9:00am - 12:00pm, NERCOMP will have its annual Idea Day where it works with attendees to develop an idea they have for a workshop for teaching and learning into a professional development opportunity that it will offer to its members. Do you have a professional development idea? Or a topic of interest? Thoughts to share? Or, maybe you wish to learn how to become involved. Interested in learning more? Check out the registration page or reach out and talk to me!
- Lance
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LAB FACULTY
Dear Lab Faculty,
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Tonight at 6:30-8 P.M.: Lab Faculty & Alumni Mentor Training on Disability Justice!
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Affinity groups are this week during cohort time from 7:30pm-8:30pm. All students are encouraged to register and attend one group.The affinity groups will meet online so in person students can stay in the building and join the group meetings on Zoom. Faculty are NOT required to attend or have additional meetings during this time. You are always welcome to join OR enjoy an hour of time for lesson planning, assessment, or self-care.
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Week 8 exhibitions are fast approaching! They will be held DURING class time and you can expect another CU faculty or staff member to attend. For LabA - there is a tab in week 6 labeled “About Exhibitions” that should be quite helpful. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Sage if you have any questions or concerns.
CU= Actively Building Beloved Community In Trying Times…
Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.— Martin Luther King Jr.
Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the beloved community, a nation, and a world society at peace with itself.— John Lewis
We are living in a historic moment. We are each called to take part in a great transformation. Our survival as a species is threatened by global warming, economic meltdown, and an ever-increasing gap between rich and poor. Yet these threats offer an opportunity to awaken as an interconnected and beloved community.— Desmond Tutu
Beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world. — bell hooks
I must admit that I am a recovering academic and perfectionist… while I am confessing, I am also someone who suffers from Imposter Syndrome and all the ills of being one of the very few women of color in elite colleges and universities and yet despite past traumas, I still love learning and higher education. Thus my habit of starting with many quotes from people who are respected and well-known as great minds. I value and respect each of them and think Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Desmond Tutu, and bell hooks have had amazing impacts on our communities and world from their various perspectives and positionalities as scholars, activists, teachers, politicians, and spiritual leaders. They each created beloved communities in different ways and they each are Black ancestors that I am calling into this space and our larger College Unbound community during this cold and short month of February when we take time to remember and honor Black History, Black Futures, and Black Excellence worldwide.
We also took time in our gathering spaces to honor the life of Tyre Nichols this week and the 18 Asian-American lives lost in the recent mass shootings during Lunar New Year in California at Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. It often feels difficult to focus and fully mourn or process all of the feelings during times like these and yet this is the most important work we can do. We need to continually support each other and be responsive to the times because that is core to our values and why we exist. College Unbound is different because of this level of care and commitment to our collective humanity and social justice.
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LAB FACULTY CONTINUED...
I want to shout out and thank conspirators/ Lab Faculty members, Dr. Larome Myrick, for his expert resources on Tyre Nichols, Dr. Jacqui Springer for her sharing of statements from her role at URI and resources to respond to ongoing Anti-Asian American violence, and Dr. Silas Pinto for his continual responses and leadership within his role as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) and working with the Providence Police Department this past week and helping train them to be more culturally competent and understanding. This is not easy or simple work. It is layered and multifaceted. It can often be dangerous and draining. MLK was killed for actively building beloved communities in a world that wasn’t ready for his visions and politics. I can’t say enough how incredibly grateful I am to be able to work with EACH OF YOU and your brilliant minds because you are actively doing this community-building equity work and it is a long process. It can often feel heavy. This is compounded by the fact that it is freezing cold in all of our CU locations right now and illness keep circulating. I hope you continue to take moments to reflect and warm your mind, body, and spirit and add short mindfulness activities (such as those listed below) into your cohort. Even taking 2-3 minutes to breathe after having a difficult conversation about race, gun violence, and police can make all the difference. Know that we are CU are here for you and are happy to help jump in and help facilitate a session or suggest further readings, guest speakers, or resources for your upcoming classes.
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Personally, the recent breakfasts, coffees, lunches, and zoom calls we have been having together have been the highlights of my week and they help me believe in these visions of the beloved community, not as an abstract idea but as something that is happening. I could feel it pulsing throughout my body within the MET Blackbox room this past Wednesday evening for the Imagining America visioning and on again on Thursday for the Black History Month celebration and in the recent visits to Philly and Chicago cohorts I have been hearing about. We are all interconnected through this work and different and proudly living our truth and identities and modeling that for our students each day. Looking forward to seeing you all tonight as we learn even more tools we can use to reach more of our students in executive functioning.
In peace, joy and justice, excited to be in this work with you all!
-Sage
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TA2BA CORNER
In honor of Black History (this month and all months), it is important that we learn about and from black leaders whose work and vision have been instrumental in shaping equity-centered and social justice-oriented education. Feel free to share additional resources, but here are a few that I encourage us all to engage with and share with our students:
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PA & NJ CORNER
It’s Week 5 and time is flying! Thank you for the amazing in-person gatherings we had last week! Shout out to all our amazing cohorts! More to come soon and we cannot wait! Thank you for joining us at Happy Hour on Friday at Juno!
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Lab Faculty Spotlight: Sha
Meet Sha! Currently in Semester B TA to BA with SDP (School District of Philadelphia). Sha is a teacher at Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice where she serves as Director of the Peace and Social Justice Academy, co-chair of the School Advisory Board, school leadership team member, and PFT Building Representative. She received her Master of Science in Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum from Drexel University and her undergraduate degree in History with a minor in Biology from Fisk University. She is a member of the Office of Teaching and Learning Teacher Advisory Board. She recently received her Principal Certificate from Point Park University and is a 2021 Lindback Award recipient.
Sha’s teaching with College Unbound leads the way for paraprofessionals to become future certified educators as she is always advocating for more opportunities for teachers. Her work has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Library of Congress, and PBS Learning Media. She has been interviewed about her practice by various news publications, including Good Day Philadelphia, Good Morning America, USA Today, The Hechinger Report & The Philadelphia Tribune.
- David & Melina
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Sincerely,
All of Us at College Unbound, including:
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