2023-2024 CLTL Programming

Affordable Course Materials Panel Discussion 

• When and where: Tuesday, Jan. 30, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Murray Aikins (2nd floor of the Dining Hall)
• Description: The cost of textbooks and other course materials can present a significant barrier for college students. In what ways are Skidmore students impacted by these costs? And what can we do to lower these barriers on our campus? This panel discussion will explain the ways in which course materials costs play out on our campus, identify what our campus is already doing to address course materials costs, and explore ways we can do more together to lower barriers for Skidmore students. There will be hearty nibbles! This conversation is a collaboration between SGA, the CLTL, and the Lucy Scribner Library moderated by Tess Malloy (VP of Academic Affairs, SGA), and Beck Krefting (CLTL Director and Professor in American Studies). Panelists include: Becky Mattison (Senior Academic Materials Associate, Skid Shop), Beth Post (Director of Financial Aid), Lia Ball (Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Chemistry), Marta Brunner (College Librarian), and Sarah Sweeney (Associate Professor and Chair of Art). 

Fear Not, for AI am With You: Strategies for Teaching Writing in the AI Age 

• When and where: Friday, Feb. 2 from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in the Weller Room (Lib 212)
• Description: Writing Center director Caitlin Jorgensen will help faculty move past AI anxiety and improve their writing pedagogy in an age of AI. The wide availability of generative AI has many faculty feeling overwhelmed, and it’s natural to worry about how your students’ use of AI may negatively affect their learning. But writing literacy remains a crucial skill for critical thinking and intellectual growth, and AI is an important part of that skill set. While we can’t promise to “AI-proof” your pedagogy, this one-hour lunch session will give you concrete strategies for teaching writing in the AI age. Lunch will be provided! Please RSVP here by Monday, Jan. 29. 

Spring Book Club: 'The New College Classroom' 

• When and where: 11:15-12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, in the Test Kitchen of Murray-Aikins Dining Hall ‌
• Description: This book by Cathy Davidson, distinguished professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Christina Katopodis, postdoctoral research associate and associate director of transformative learning in the humanities, uses the latest research in learning science to discuss easily implemented strategies for active learning across disciplines (Harvard UP, 2022). If faculty and staff are interested in participating in one of the two discussions, please email Beck Krefting to specify your preferred lunch time and receive a copy of the book prior to the event. There is space for up to 12 folks to participate in each discussion — first come, first served. You may only request a copy if you know you can commit to attending. Lunch tickets will be distributed in the Atrium prior to each event.  

Amplifying Student Engagement with AI:A pedagogical workshop designed to develop best practices for integrating AI-based classroom activities. 

• When and where: Friday, Feb. 23, 4-5:30 p.m. in the Weller Room
• Description: Seeing too many blank faces in your classroom? Need to liven up student discussions? Come to our AI workshop where facilitators will introduce various strategies for designing ethical AI-based classroom activities that foster active learning and encourage enthusiastic student participation. Led by Matt Lucas, Harder Chair of Business Administration, and Chelsea Taylor, visiting assistant professor of religious studies, participants will learn how to critically assess human inputs as well as AI outputs across multiple popular platforms and get the opportunity to workshop their own discipline-specific assignments with other Skidmore faculty and LEDS staff. Participants will also be invited to our follow-up meeting on April 19 to discuss student responses to the incorporation of these new AI-based classroom activities. There will snacks! Please RSVP to attend. 

Universal Design for Learning Consultants
This spring, the CLTL is joining forces with Student Academic Services to develop a consultancy program pairing folks on campus who have undergone training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with colleagues who wish to adopt UDL practices in their own course design and practice. Faculty who participate will have the opportunity for an individual consultation (60-90 minutes) with a fellow staff/faculty member trained in Universal Design for Learning. If you think you would benefit from this kind of tailored individual pedagogical support, please email Beck Krefting, who will connect you with a UDL consultant. We will do everything we can to accommodate requests, but there are a limited number of consultancies (first come, first served). This program is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Department of Education. 

Spring Research Salon with Lisa Jackson-Schebetta: ‘Peace-Building and Performance in Contemporary Columbia: Theatrical, Imaginative, and Corporeal Laboring’ 

• When and where: Thursday, March 28 from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Weller Room (Lib 212)
• Description: Peacebuilding performances in Colombia enact a constellation of creativity and care — one that is steadfastly ignored, downplayed, and invisibilized by an extractive US (and global) imaginary that profits from a Colombia predominantly (even, solely) mired in violence. As historians and political scientists point out: the world knows Colombia primarily through violence, not peace. An examination of peace-building performance in Colombia offers pointed critiques of dominant models of peace: Both liberal peace theory and peace processes centered solely on the human. For example, in 2016, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia leader Rodrigo Lodoño signed a peace accord to end 50 years of conflict. They used a pen made from the spent casing of an assault rifle, symbolizing the rejection of bullets for the writing of peace. That same month, in Medellín, dozens of people performatively “sowed” themselves in the street: planting their bodies by covering their legs with dirt and sitting silent vigil in protest of the displacement, disappearance, and destruction wrought by state and extra-state actors. Both are examples of peace-building performances. Just as conflict in Colombia is staggering in its complexity, peace building in Colombia is equally complex, long-term, and diverse. RSVP by Monday, March 25.

Universal Design for Learning Consultants 
This spring, the CLTL is joining forces with Student Academic Services to develop a consultancy program pairing folks on campus who have undergone training in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with colleagues who wish to adopt UDL practices in their own course design and practice. Faculty who participate will have the opportunity for an individual consultation (60-90 minutes) with a fellow staff/faculty member trained in Universal Design for Learning. If you think you would benefit from this kind of tailored individual pedagogical support, please email Beck Krefting, who will connect you with a UDL consultant. We will do everything we can to accommodate requests, but there are a limited number of consultancies (first come, first served). This program is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Department of Education. 

Activating the Teacher-Scholar Model: Synergizing Teaching and Research 

• When and where: 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, and 1-2 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in Murray-Aikins Dining Hall Test Kitchen.
  
• Description: How can we learn from each other about how to make teaching and scholarship work together synergistically? Our time and energy are precious, and we often want to shield our scholarly energies from getting drained by teaching or resent when scholarly deadlines come at exactly the wrong time in a semester. Are there concrete ways to foster those magical moments when research and teaching support each other? Come join us over lunch to discuss how to capitalize on the potential for synergy in our research and teaching. These conversations will be facilitated by Eliza Kent, professor of religious studies, and Juan Navea, professor and chair of the Chemistry Department. Lunch tickets will be distributed in the Atrium of the Dining Hall before the start of the event. Please RSVP here to reserve a spot in one or both of the lunch discussions. 

Debrief: Amplifying Student Engagement with AI - A pedagogical workshop designed to develop best practices for integrating AI-based classroom activities.

• When and where: 4-5:30 p.m. Friday, April 19, in the Weller Room (Lib 212)
• Description: This event is a follow-up to the successful February workshop where faculty were introduced to various strategies for designing ethical AI-based classroom activities that foster active learning and encourage enthusiastic student participation. At this event, we will discuss incorporation of these new AI-based classroom activities and student responses to them. This conversation will be facilitated by Matt Lucas, Harder Chair of Business Administration, and Chelsea Taylor, visiting assistant professor of religious studies. There will snacks! please RSVP here.