Talking to colleagues at commencement on Sunday it seemed that the summer is a potentially busier time than the rest of the year, as we continue writing, planning new projects, attending conferences, and still hopefully finding a moment to catch our breath.
Last Sunday our graduating students highlighted not just the importance of language and cultural learning as a means to further careers, but its value in making the world a better place. It was encouraging to chat with families who had given so much to provide this opportunity for their loved ones. It’s heartening in a sometimes cynical world that there are still people ready to invest in other’s success in such away.
I wanted to say thanks for your constructive comments following last week’s request for feedback, keep them coming, these are the emails I look forward to reading each week. There are a few things that I'll change and adapt accordingly, with a little more of what you enjoy reading.
Please let me know if you would like to include any events or upcoming projects that you'd like me to mention in this newsletter, look forward to hearing from you.
A new experience arrived in the Global Languages & Cultures Room. Kaleidoscope asks participants to answer a series of questions and explore ideas around identity, assumption, and cultural bias. Created in collaboration with the ETC, this exhibit will be open throughout the summer, so please come and try it out.
Links and Stories
Although this is straight from the parenting toolkit there are aspects that we can think about as educators, apparently, if you let your children fail, then you're doing them a favor. I read this Quartz article via educationalist Doug Belshaw's newsletter which I highly recommend. Doug is a pioneer of open badges and digital literacy and one of the presenters of the TIDE (Today in Digital Education) Podcast.
If you've got the podcasting bug, then you can search PodcastRE to find your niche. This collaboration between the Department of Communication Arts and Libraries at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a Digital Humanities project designed for researchers and students who are looking for podcasts on specific subjects. For instance, if you search for "languages" you'll get 3350 results, including whole shows and specific episodes. You can narrow the search further, just sayin'.
If you come across a useful technology or case study then you can submit it to Implemnt, a new project looking to create a useful bank of resources for blended learning. It's an approach that really thinks about the best way to deliver a learning outcome, whether that is face to face or online via canvas (for instance) or other digital tools. You can also get in touch and we'll happily provide support to get you started, make this the summer you try something new.
If you can't decide which technology to use then I recommend this useful spinner called Wheeldecide. It is easy to customize and create your own wheels, which you can use in class to pick discussion topics or presentation orders, or even questions and who should answer them. Wherever the wheels land though, that's what you've got to do.
On Screen
The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville, PA is showing a series of newly restored films. My personal recommendation is the Czech film "Daisies", which I remember as being one of the most surprising and mesmerizing films I've ever seen. The New Yorker called it "One of the great outpourings of cinematic invention in an age of overall artistic liberation."
Go Grandriders is a documentary about a group of octogenarians who embark on an intrepid motorcycle trip to Taiwan. There's a version on Kanopy and another on Youtube without English language subtitles (but you can add them if you click the CC button and settings bar).
Please drop us a line if you would like to include a link or let us know about an upcoming event. Thank you for reading and please share and forward this newsletter to those who might find it useful.
You're welcome to forward this newsletter to colleagues in other institutions who might find it useful, then can