Effective Social Learning: A Collaborative, Globally-Networked Pedagogy

by Christopher Duncanson-Hales, Nathan R. B. Loewen, G. Brooke Lester (Editor)

Overview

The ground of higher education is shifting, but learning ecosystems around the world have much more space than MOOCs and trendy online platforms can fill, and Loewen shows how professors have an indisputable pedagogical edge that gives them a crucial role to play in higher education. By adopting the collaborative pedagogical process in this book, professors can create effective social learning experiences that connect students to peers and professional colleagues in real time.

Loewen moves beyond surface questions about technology in the classroom to a problem best addressed by educators in bricks-and-mortar institutions: if students are social learners, how do we teach in a way that promotes actual dialogue for learning? Designing learning experiences that develop intercultural competencies puts the test to students social inclinations, and engagement with course material increases when its used to dig deeper into the specificities of their identity and social location. Loewens approach to interinstitutional collaborative teaching will be explored with examples and working templates for collaborative design of effective social learning experiences. This is done by collaborative dialogue with G. Brooke Lester and Christopher Duncanson-Hales. As a group, Loewen, Lester, and Duncanson-Hales create a text that extends pedagogical innovation in inspiring but practical ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451488760
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	01/15/2015
Series:	Seminarium Elements
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Christopher Duncanson-Hales teaches in the department of philosophy at the University of Sudbury in Ontario, Canada. Chris"s interdisciplinary formation and his concern for the academicresilience of incoming students led him to establish MindGap Scholastics, a program specializing in academic preparedness. Chris is co-chair of the International Development and Religion group at the American Academy of Religion, is published in Postscripts, and is a guest blogger with ecclesio.com and Postcolonial Networks.

Nathan R. B. Loewen is an assistant professor in the department of religious studies at theUniversity of Alabama.He also serves as the faculty technology liaison for eTech in the faculty of arts and sciences.Hisresearch on teaching and learning seeks to adopt and adapt web-based technologies in order to enact pedagogies of active learning, universal design, and sustainable internationalization. As scholar of religious studies, Loewen"s publications focus on globalizing discourses within the philosophy of religion and analyzing the intersection of religious studies and development studies.

G. Brooke Lester is assistant professor of Hebrew Scriptures and director for emerging pedagogies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He curates and blogs at Seminarium and anumma.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

1 The Approach Nathan Loewen 1

Extend the Innovation 1.1 G. Brooke Lester 4

Extend the Innovation 1.2 G. Brooke Lester 8

Extend the Innovation 1.3 Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 9

Chapter Response I: How Did We Get to Here? G. Brooke Lester 20

Chapter Response II: Finding Your "Plan B": Asynchronous and Synchronous Technology Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 23

2 The Collaboration Nathan Loewen 25

Extend the Innovation 2.1 G. Brooke Lester 27

Extend the Innovation 2.2 Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 30

Extend the Innovation 2.3 G. Brooke Lester 38

Chapter Response I: Facilitating Virtual Community G. Brooke Lester 42

Chapter Response II: Finding the Courage to Teach Dialogically Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 45

3 The Foundation Nathan Loewen 47

Extend the innovation 3.1 G. Brooke Lester 51

Extend the innovation 3.2 G. Brooke Lester 58

Extend the Innovation 3.3 Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 60

Chapter Response I: Preparing for a Cross-Cultural Classroom Experience G. Brooke Lester 62

Chapter Response II: Considering Learning Disabilities in Collaborative Learning Environments Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 66

4 The Content Nathan Loewen 73

Extend the Innovation 4.1 G. Brooke Lester 78

Extend the Innovation 4.2 G. Brooke Lester 82

Chapter Response I: Teaching Online: The Bad News, the Worse News, and What to Do about It G. Brooke Lester 90

Chapter Response II: International Experiential Learning Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 92

5 The Plan Nathan Loewen 99

Extend the Innovation 5.1 G. Brooke Lester 104

Extend the Innovation 5.2 Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 108

Extend the Innovation 5.3 G. Brooke Lester 115

Chapter Response I: Assign "Fails" to Find Digital Learning Wins G. Brooke Lester 117

Chapter Response II: Minding the Divides Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 119

6 The Details Nathan Loewen 125

Extend the Innovation 6.1 G. Brooke Lester 131

Extend the Innovation 6.2 G. Brooke Lester 139

Chapter Response I: Creating a Community of Practice G. Brooke Lester 145

Chapter Response II: Creating Communities of Scholars Christopher J. Duncanson-Hales 147

Selected Bibliography 149