“Why would any human being anywhere in the world come to East Lansing, Michigan (of all places), for their education and spend lots of money to do so?”
We ask this a lot, because in order to serve the needs of students and create a culture of care,
I’m tired. In the best way.
Since mid-February I have attended the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) conference in Anaheim, an invited NSF work group on creating inclusive STEM studio learning environments, interned at an amazing design firm in Chicago for a week, and was the virtual engagement co-chair of the OLC Innovate conference.
The Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology has existed long enough for us to account for our scholarly work. That sentence might surprise readers. The Hub is new, both to MSU and in higher education. We aren’t precisely like other sorts of entities, and people are surprised when I note that our design work is grounded in inquiry.
Defining Access
If you haven’t had a chance to read the recent Digital Content Guidelines Update Memo from the Provost, I would recommend checking it out before reading on. It is an important reminder and provides important context for my argument.
You don’t have to look very far to realize that student “access” in higher education is an important challenge today,
The “business,” if you will, of higher education is to provide learners with transformative experiences.
Or it should be.
This is perhaps a controversial statement. To be sure, there are a number of different and contrastive if not competitive ideas about what a university is and should be.
In many museums, docents share knowledge about artwork or special exhibits with museum visitors. These docents receive training or are particular experts on certain movements or styles. For Science Gallery International, the docent role is transformed in several ways. First, the role is staffed by young people—the same people who are in Science Gallery’s target audience of 15-25-year-olds.
Earlier this semester, 134 faculty and staff from Michigan State University gathered at the Hub for six lightning talks from faculty representing the Colleges of Education, Music, Arts and Letters, Natural Science, and Communication Arts and Sciences.
When Manna Chowdhury first became aware of the Detroit Science Gallery mediator position for the HUSTLE exhibit, it was because of a class she was enrolled in, while still in high school. After reading the mission statement and realizing that the mission of Science Gallery’s dedication to public engagement with science and art,
Michigan State University has launched the first iOS Design Lab in the United States. The Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology and the College of Arts & Letters have been working with Apple to offer students a space to create, share, and impact their communities by solving challenges through Swift,
The #iteachmsu Commons is an initiative that has been in the making for almost five years, driven by educators, for educators. Initially, Melissa McDaniels of The Graduate School and a group of graduate Teaching Assistants launched “Inside Teaching MSU” as a space for graduate student educators to share their teaching ideas and learn from each other through workshops.