VSCS Academic Retreat May 24th 9 to 3:15/3:30
Academic Retreat Schedule at a Glance
The Vermont State Colleges annual retreat is an opportunity for the VSCS community to gather, reflect, and look toward the future. We are glad to announce that this year we will be back… IN PERSON! (+Virtually on Zoom for those who wish to attend this way)
The Changing Face of Education: Achieving Accessibility and Equality with Technology
Location: Castleton University and Virtually!
We are currently planning for this retreat to be primarily on campus, but all presentations will be available for you to join remotely via Zoom.
About This Year’s Retreat Theme:
The challenges of the pandemic have taught all of us, staff as well as faculty, about the many possible uses of technology in teaching, supporting students, and working with one another. These insights should help us as we anticipate the new faces of virtual education and the hybrid university of the future. As we look at the rapidly changing landscape of higher education, the Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee invites you to reflect on the lessons we’ve learned over the past few years and look forward to what will be possible in the future.
Keynote Speaker: Sarah Lohnes Watulak, Ed.D., Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media, Middlebury College
Mind the Dip: Moving From Emergency Hybrid to Intentional Hybrid Teaching and Learning
9:15 – 10:15
While the early stages of the pandemic were characterized by academic continuity and emergency remote teaching, hybrid learning has more recently emerged as a dominant modality on many of our campuses. Touted as a flexible modality positioned to address the needs of diverse learners in a complex and uncertain higher ed landscape, prognosticators suggest that hybrid learning is here to stay.
However, much of the hybrid learning that emerged on our campuses during the pandemic is what we’d call emergency hybrid learning: created quickly, sometimes on the fly, in response to ongoing uncertainty. We’ve experienced the challenges of connecting on ground and online students in meaningful ways, leading to the question, how can we move toward designing intentional, inclusive, and equitable hybrid teaching and learning? In this talk, we’ll explore the mindsets and practices that support intentional hybrid learning design, including how to make space for the inevitable messiness and discomfort that accompanies exploration and implementation of new practices.
About our Keynote Speaker:
Sarah Lohnes Watulak, Ed.D., Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media, Middlebury College
As the Director of Digital Pedagogy and Media in the Office of Digital Learning and Inquiry at Middlebury College, Sarah leads a team of instructional designers focused on creating inclusive digital learning opportunities and environments that support learner agency. She is also a founding co-facilitator of the Design Justice Network’s Instructional Design Working Group. Sarah earned her Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2008, and before joining Middlebury, was an Associate Professor of Instructional Technology in the College of Education at Towson University. Sarah’s most recent research, on the barriers that students faced in the transition to remote learning in 2020, will be published this spring in the edited collection Towards a Critical Instructional Design. For more info: http://sarahlw.middcreate.net/
Transformation Update
11:20 – 12:00
Join Chancellor Zdatny and Presidents Judy and Grewal for transformation updates and a discussion about how they see technology moving us forward to support our mission and vision in addition to how they see us building two strong institutions, working together to further the success of our students and state as a whole.
Canvas Walk-In Clinic—Available during Workshops in Stafford 157
Informal Breakout Spaces—Need a space to engage with colleagues? We have outside picnic tables, chairs, and benches. Walk with colleagues around the campus or down the rail trail. We can also find a small classroom space for you to connect with virtual peers.
10:30 – 11:10
12:50 – 1:30
1:40 – 2:20
2:30 – 3:10
