Over this past summer, a couple books that focus on the role of recall in learning came to my attention. Make it stick (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014)) and Small Teaching by James Lang (2016) both claim that retrieval practice is essential for durable learning. The authors argue that practicing recall builds strong connections in…Continue Reading Providing the opportunity to forget…and remember
In the midst of growing national attention to mental health several organizations have started providing resources and programming specific to the target demographic most relevant to our work as UP faculty: college students. One particularly prominent organization in this realm is The Jed Foundation, started in 2000 by a philanthropist couple who lost their son…Continue Reading Best Practices in College Student Mental Health: What The Jed Foundation Might Offer
“That is how innovation happens; chance favors the connected mind” -Steven Johnson What’s the most important thing an undergraduate should be doing at college? The answer, I’ve come to believe, is the simple act of drawing connections between classes. Students walk off with a diploma after taking some forty separate courses. A major forms one…Continue Reading Students as Bridge Builders: Encouraging Connection Across Courses
What do UP faculty, and staff on the academic side of the University, need to know about student mental health? This question has been much on my mind the last few years as discussions about mental health in college has seemed to accelerate both locally and nationally. At UP the issue particularly came to the…Continue Reading Student Mental Health: What Faculty (Might?) Need to Know
Microsoft Teams has come to the University of Portland campus. Teams is similar to the mega-popular work-based chat app Slack, in that it provides a new way to collaborate and communicate via an interactive chat-based workspace, and that can conveniently integrate with other powerful productivity tools. The idea is to provide 21st-century knowledge workers with…Continue Reading Microsoft Teams Getting Started Guide: The Basics