October 24th, 2012: US Fulbrighter to Give Two Talks at DIT, Current US Fulbrighter, Shannon Chance, to Speak at DIT

Dr. Shannon Chance, a US Fulbrighter who is researching innovation strategies being used to teach engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology, will give two lectures over the coming weeks.

The first talk will take place on Tuesday, October 30th, 2012 at DIT Bolton Street at 2:00 p.m. as part of a seminar entitled “Building a Student-Centered Program – A College Case Study.”

This College Education Seminar will discuss the good and the bad of implementing a student-centered approach within the School of Electrical Engineering Systems.

The seminar presents a case study by academic and technical staff, students, management, and a graduate, on the implementation of a group-based project-driven pedagogical approach throughout a Level 8 program. These different stakeholders will give short presentations, which will be followed by Q&A on their perspectives, of the benefits and challenges of implementing this student-centered approach within the Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) program.

This seminar will be the first in a series of college education seminars to be held in this academic year. Although this case study is situated in electrical engineering, the discussion will be centered on generic pedagogical and curriculum design issues and therefore is of relevance to all college staff.

Date: Tuesday 30th October 2012 at 2pm in Room BL117, Bolton Street.

Seminar Outline:

·         Introduction: How radical have we been? – Head of School

·         “We want more lecture notes!” – Academic Staff

·         Autonomous learners or robots? – Academic Staff

·         Assessing individuals in groups – Academic Staff

·         The Student Voice – Students

·         Experiences from Technical Support – Senior Technical Officer

·         “You’re no use to the company for the first year” – Graduate

·         A View from the Outside – Fulbright Scholar

·         “Should we be another Aalborg University?” – Head of Department

·         Discussion

Shannon’s talk is titled “A View from the Outside: Transforming Pedagogy at the DIT” and will focus on how she, as an architect from the U.S., views DIT’s efforts, as well as principles for change in engineering education, the formation of a staff learning group, support available in DIT for those who change, and how the DIT case study is of interest to others in engineering and architecture.

The second talk is on Thursday, November 1st, 2012 at DIT Mount Street at 2:00 p.m. Shannon will be the keynote speaker at DIT’s launch of the 2012-13 Teaching Fellowships and she will be speaking on “Transformational Education at the DIT.”

To see the Prezi from this talk, please click here.

For more information on Shannon and a chronicle of her Fulbright year, you can read her blog, “Ireland by Chance,” here.