Collaboration

First, I would like to thank everyone who helped to make this year's Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference a success. Our in-house catering, conference, and housekeeping teams and my student assistants, Yichen Liao and Angela Rosenberg, did a stellar job of making sure we were well-fed and everything ran smoothly behind the scenes. The fact that they were able to do so immediately following Bryn Mawr's graduation celebrations (and for the students, weeks of exams) is a testament to their talent and dedication!

I would also like to thank our 15 presenters, who agreed to expose their teaching and their discoveries to public scrutiny, so that we all might learn from the experience. Recordings of their presentations and any slides and materials they've shared are archived on our conference website -- just click on the title of a presentation in the schedule to see everything associated with it.

The conference was a huge success, attracting about 100 registered guests from over 30 institutions, not counting many Tri-College faculty and staff who dropped into sessions as their schedules permitted. As always audience questions and comments and the informal conversations over breaks and lunch were one of the most valuable and interesting aspects of the event.

Bryn Mawr College will be hosting the second annual Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference on May 20-21. This conference was designed as an opportunity for faculty and instructional technology staff who are experimenting with blended learning to share resources, techniques, and findings -- with a particular focus on how blended learning might work in a liberal arts college setting. Our definition of "blended learning" is quite broad, encompassing in which: 1) students get feedback on their learning outside the classroom through computer-based materials or activities, and 2) the classroom component informs or alters how an instructor uses class time. Advance registration is required, the conference fee will be waived for affliliates of colleges that were partners on the NGLC Blended Learning grant study. See the conference website for more information or follow us on Twitter at #blendLAC. 

One of the advantages of educational technology is that it creates new spaces for interactivity and collaboration. These three resources allow students to think through texts together, share their ideas, and even work through problems in a collective workspace. While all three are different, and target slightly different populations, together these three OERs provide a range of tools for educational collaboration using blended learning technologies.

Resources covered:
VoiceThread
Twiddla
Classroom Salon

OERs offer student writers an opportunity to learn from each other in ways that a traditional classroom setting doesn’t always allow. These resources include tutorials, interactive exercises, and examples of peer-reviewed work, and digitized reference guides designed to help students become more effective - and more comfortable - as writers.

Resources covered:
A Writer’s Reference
Perdue University’s Online Writing Lab
Writing Spaces
Classroom Salon