Teachers and students have adapted to remote and online teaching in remarkable ways over the past few months. This work has involved intense personal and pedagogical traumas, as well as some moments of inspiration and perseverance. Even as we have learned how to use new teaching tools and techniques, we have also done everything we can to remain connected to our students and one another on a human level. The Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL) invites you to share your experiences, hopes, and challenges about online teaching during this one-day symposium. Featuring dynamic presentations from Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Fabiola Torres, Katie Linder, Doug Hesse, and Kathleen Blake Yancey, the symposium will highlight strategies for humanizing online teaching through practices of healing and interpersonal connections. The presentations will:
In addition to the presentations, the symposium will include structured opportunities for writing and small-group discussions. Participants will leave with ideas for new teaching strategies and an enhanced sense of belonging in a larger teaching community. |
Symposium Agenda
Times listed are Eastern
11am |
Welcome |
11:15am |
The Anatomy of Learning and the Importance of Cultivating Care from the First Click
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To navigate through these unknown and traumatic moments, educators must be knowledgeable about how learning happens (and why it often does not happen). Recognizing the affective and cognitive dimensions of learning illuminates the need to understand our students as humans with rich, complicated stories and foster positive instructor-student relationships to ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed. The presentation will focus on why it is critical to intentionally take time at the start of a course to establish positive instructor-student relationships and show examples from online courses.
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12pm |
Structured Writing & Discussion led by AEPL members |
1pm |
Silver Linings: Leveraging Teaching & Learning to Cultivate Resilience in Challenging Times
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In recent months, instructors and learners across disciplines have been challenged to learn, shift, and evolve in the midst of stress and uncertainty. In this interactive virtual keynote, Dr. Katie Linder will offer reflective questions to help participants explore what they have learned during this period that can contribute to their personal and professional growth. Participants will also walk away with concrete tools and strategies that can be implemented into classrooms of any modality to support learners' perseverance and resilience through difficult and disruptive circumstances.
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1:45pm |
Structured Writing & Discussion led by AEPL members |
2:45pm |
Practicing Radical Love: How to Implement Humanized Online Education while Promoting Social Justice
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Two changes are unfolding simultaneously in our lives and the lives of our students and institutions: the rapid, uncertain shift to online teaching that began this spring and the complex flourishing of social justice movements now underway. With these changes in mind, this dynamic keynote presentation will challenge participants to imagine deeper and more sustained commitments to promoting justice. Participants will acquire practical, equity-minded strategies for enacting a humanized approach to online teaching.
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3:30pm |
Structured Writing & Discussion led by AEPL members |
4:30pm |
Stories and Strategies: Pandemic Lessons about Learning Online
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Many of us have been learning about how to teach online even as we have been doing so these past several months. In this sense, we have been learning at least as much as our students. Featuring stories and reflections from two compassionate and influential writing teachers and researchers, this culminating session will focus our attention on what we are learning, and what we can continue to learn together, about humane and effective online teaching.
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5:15pm |
Closing Reflection |
Registration Information
The symposium is free for AEPL members. New members can join the organization for $45 for 1 year. Discounted rates are available for students, part-time faculty, retirees, and any who articulate financial need. Your AEPL membership includes registration for the symposium and access to recordings of the keynote presentations; discounted rates for our 2021 summer conference, “The Art of the Encounter in Teaching and Learning;” and a print copy of the next issue of the organization’s journal, JAEPL.
Before the symposium, AEPL members will be sent the log-in information to attend.
Questions? Please contact the organizers at aepl.learning@gmail.com
Before the symposium, AEPL members will be sent the log-in information to attend.
Questions? Please contact the organizers at aepl.learning@gmail.com