2004 Wakonse-South Retreat Inspires DIIA Staffers
Joanne Holladay and Coco Kishi are shown here sharing a discussion between workshops at the recent 2004 Wakonse-South Conference on College Teaching sponsored by Texas A&M University. The retreat is held each year for faculty from Texas A & M, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Women's University, and Oklahoma University. Several DIIA staff and a number of UT Austin faculty attended.
Wakonse is comprised of a weekend of workshop activities exploring teaching through highly interactive large and small group presentations, discussion groups, and hands-on experiential sessions. Many informal opportunities for support and networking occurred as participants shared their talents and experiences with each other.
Marilla Svinicki, the director for the DIIA's Center for Teaching Effectiveness, gave an informal presentation on the Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT Engineering Research Center or VaNTH ERC coalition and the CTE's involvement with their college instructional environments. "UT Austin's department of Biomedical Engineering is the focal point for our involvement in VaNTH, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. They are developing several learning modules in aspects of biomechanics that follow the Legacy cycle developed at Vanderbilt. CTE is doing a sub-project that is looking at the specific behaviors that the students engage in when they are working on these modules," said Marilla. The VaNTH ERC initiative concentrates on generating ideas, building prospective teams from industry and academia that are focused on new technologies in learning science, learning technologies, and assessment.
Coco Kishi, the New Media group leader for the DIIA's Center for Instructional Technologies, attended the workshop for the first time and felt renewed by the experience. "The faculty were very motivated and shared their successful classroom strategies. The inclusion of undergraduate and graduate students in the retreat made for insightful discussions. It was valuable to hear their opinions and perspective," said Coco.
Wakonse-South is affiliated with the National Wakonse Conference and the Wakonse Foundation. Wakonse is the Lakota Indian term meaning "to teach, to inspire" and the gathering, in the words of the Foundation's Director Joseph A. Johnston, "provides inspiration for personal and professional renewal of a commitment to teaching. "