Language Collaboratory 2020-2021 Series

The Language Collaboratory – Past Sessions

The pandemic offered us opportunities to deepen our existing collaborations through virtual connections across distance and institutions. In the Fall of 2020, we launched a robust professional development series focusing on three challenges – accessibility, inclusivity, and learner autonomy and agency. Representatives from all five institutions informally addressed one of these challenges from their perspective as a practitioner or researcher and engaged with what we hope has been a stimulating dialog with both their local conversant and the session attendees.

Academic Year 2020-2021

Fall 2020 Discussion Themes

  • Accessibility: How can I ensure that my teaching is accessible to all of my students?
  • Inclusivity: How can I be more inclusive in my teaching? What do I need to consider and address?
  • Learner Autonomy and Agency: How can I foster student engagement and autonomy? What does learner autonomy mean in a language learning environment?

All sessions with the exception of the December 17 session were scheduled for 30 minutes, 3:30-4:00 pm central, 4:30-5:00 pm eastern. Each session required a separate registration.

Schedule

  • Thursday, December 17
    • Language Collaboratory Networking Session
    • Dan Soneson, Adolfo Carrillo Cabello; University of Minnesota

Spring 2021 Discussion Themes

  • Striking a Balance in Remote Language Teaching and Learning: Promoting Instructor and Student Well-Being

The Language Collaboratory’s spring series aims at furthering conversations that help uncover the complexities of striking a balance on the professional, academic, and personal goals to achieve the well-being of instructors and students of languages. What are the major challenges in promoting our own and our students’ well-being in the context of remote instruction and the ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic? As language instructors, what are concrete steps that we might take to better care for ourselves and our students?

Individual sessions in the series might address topics such as:

  • Work-life balance
  • Issues of equity in access to technology or to functional spaces to teach and to learn
  • Balancing academic rigor with flexibility in language courses
  • Balancing ethical considerations with compassionate approaches to assessment
  • Facilitating meaningful interactions in remote language courses and in co-curricular programming
  • New models for student (dis)engagement

Schedule

  • Thursday, February 4
    • Language Collaboratory Spring Networking Session: Strategies to Prevent Teaching Burnout
    • Dan Soneson and Adolfo Carrillo Cabello, University of Minnesota; Session Recording