Welcome to the Intentional Teaching newsletter! I'm Derek Bruff, educator and author. The name of this newsletter is a reminder that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also in how we develop as teachers over time. I hope this newsletter will be a valuable part of your professional development as an educator.
AI image generators and multimodal projects
Multimodal AI Projects with Emily BruffBack in the spring of 2023, when faculty and other instructors were justifiably worried about students having ChatGPT write their papers for them, I would give this advice: "Turn your paper into a multimodal project! ChatGPT can't help with those!" That advice is sadly no longer true. The newest versions of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are no longer just text generators, but multimodal in nature. That is, they can work with text and images and audio and in some cases video, too. To help us better understand what roles these AI tools might play in multimodal assignments, this week's podcast episode features an interview I conducted earlier this year as part of the slow read I ran of my 2019 book, Intentional Tech. One chapter of that book is about using technology for multimodal assignments, and to bring some fresh perspectives to that topic, I talked with someone I knew who was using an AI image generator in her professional work. That someone was my wife, Emily Bruff! Emily is a marketer for Zondervan Academic, and earlier this year she completed an interesting multimodal project to support the release of a new book called Know the Theologians. In the interview, Emily shares her experience using an AI image generator to make theologian trading cards. Yes, theologian trading cards! We debrief that on-the-job use of AI and extrapolate from that to working with students and AI. I’ve been sharing Emily’s story at talks for months now because it has a lot to say about the relationship between expertise and generative AI. You can listen to my conversation with Emily Bruff here, or you can search for "Intentional Teaching" in your favorite podcast app. Visio DivinaEmily's scholarly work explores the intersection of art and faith, and part of that work includes hosting a conference called Visio Divina this fall in Nashville, Tennessee. If that interests you, read on! Here's how Emily describes Visio Divina: Have you ever longed for a different way to connect with God, either as an individual or in ministry? This conference extends an invitation to participate in a variety of sessions that use visual art history, art-making and art experiences to commune with our Creator. No matter what your previous experience with visual art, you belong. Save the date for the next Visio Divina: an Art and Faith Conference: Saturday, 9/14/2024, 9am-6pm at Otter Creek Church West End, Nashville. Featuring Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt, author of Redeeming Vision, as the keynote speaker and a session presenter. Breakout sessions range from contemplative painting, learning from medieval church art, wrestling with the meaning of contemporary art, and the place of visual art in the worship spaces. Registration includes lunch, snacks and art materials. Early bird pricing ($85) ends 8/31/24. For more information or to register, check out the Visio Divina conference website. Thanks for reading!That's it for this week's newsletter! I'm at the beach this week for my niece's softball tournament, so I'll leave you with a photo of this friendly seagull. |
Intentional Teaching with Derek Bruff
Welcome to the Intentional Teaching newsletter! I'm Derek Bruff, educator and author. The name of this newsletter is a reminder that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also in how we develop as teachers over time. I hope this newsletter will be a valuable part of your professional development as an educator.
Teaching Habits of Mind with Becky Marchiel Last year while working at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, my colleague Emily Donahoe and I organized a panel of faculty on the topic of alternatives to the traditional essay. One of the panelists that Emily recruited was Becky Marchiel, associate professor of history, who asks students in her United States history survey course to conduct oral histories with people born before 1970. Students can...
Around the Web I'm busy leading lots and lots of faculty learning communities, so I'll keep this week's newsletter short and sweet. Here are a few items of interest around the web that I think readers might find interesting. Behind the Curtain of Higher Education: Faculty Aren't Trained - This Forbes essay by San Francisco Bay University president Nick Ladany has been lighting up my little section of LinkedIn. Ladany points out something that many of us in higher ed know well, that training...
Teaching in an Election Year with Bethany Morrison It is a presidential election year here in the United States, and that can make for some high-stakes discussions in our classes. I had been wanting to share some strategies for navigating those conversations, when earlier this month I saw a new blog post titled "Preparing to Teach During the 2024 Election" from Bethany Morrison, political scientist and assistant director at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the...