Teaching

A New Way of Learning in the Classroom

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

A New Way of Learning in the Classroom Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

Sidney D’Mello is a professor in CU Boulder’s Institute of Cognitive Science and Department of Computer Science. He is also director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming, which aims to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to facilitate social and collaborative learning experiences for all students.

Can you talk about your research with AI and education?

There are five flagship NSF research institutes that focus on supporting learning with AI, and we were the first one. Schools right now haven’t changed in a hundred years — they’re focused on efficiency as an outcome. The use of AI in education has been to keep that vision of efficiency going where students individually work with computer programs powered by AI.

The vision I want for classrooms is a place where students are working together, being loud, and it’s a noisy, rambunctious environment where they’re challenging ideas, and they’re building social relationships. This vision is centered around a different perspective of learning, which is that learning is authentic to students’ interests and identities and so on. A key question we ask is how best to integrate AI within that vision.

How could your vision be implemented?

This is a vision that’s been articulated forever in the learning sciences, but it is difficult for teachers to implement because they can’t be listening in on several student groups at once. Some conversations may go off track, or perhaps some conversations are amazing, but the teacher is unaware of the discussion happening. So the question is, how can AI help support this?

Our idea is thinking of AI as this social collaborative partner immersed in these small groups to help them along. The AI is actually interacting with small groups, listening in on the conversations, analyzing nonverbal behaviors like pointing, and then figuring out how to facilitate those small-group conversations, but always by coordinating with the teacher. The teacher remains the centerpiece here. The AI is providing decision support around the teacher to help them orchestrate their classroom as they see best.

How are students responding to your research?

We know that with AI comes great responsibility. We didn’t want to build anything without first working with the students themselves.

We know that with AI comes great responsibility. We didn’t want to build anything without first working with the students themselves. We organized workshops with them to be transparent, acquire their trust and have their voices heard. However, we soon realized that it was challenging for youth to imagine what good collaboration could look like beyond what they had experienced in school.

So we took a group of students to this cooperative house in Berkeley, Colorado, where they learned how house members had to live together and collaborate outside of schooling. They were introduced to the idea of community agreements, which are mutually agreed upon norms of behavior that the house members themselves co-negotiate and use to hold each other account-able. The youth wondered if an AI could help them to generate and maintain such agreements and developed a design sketch to embody their ideas.

What happened as a result?

This led to one of our AI technologies called the Community Builder (CoBi). With the help of the teacher, students work in small groups to input their examples of agreements into the CoBi interface. As students engage in collaborative learning, CoBi analyzes student discourse for evidence, or “noticings,” of these agreement categories. The results are visualized by way of a growing tree animation that everyone can see, where the noticings are shown as flowers that bloom. Teachers and students use these visualizations to reflect and make sense about their adherence to their agreements.

Now this is where privacy becomes really important. By working with students and getting their sense of comfort, we learned they are terrified of any of their individual talk being known to the teacher. So we do not give the teacher any information on who's speaking and saying what. We don’t even say which student group. It’s all aggregated in this class-level interface, which is the tree.

Are students interacting with the AI interface?

We actually show them what the CoBi is doing, and then the idea is they can correct it if they see something off with its predictions.That gives us good data,and the students can help it improve itself. But more importantly, they can have a conversation about why it’s doing what it’s doing. Because, remember, we also want to teach youth how to learn and collaborate. And so they can have a conversation like, ‘Hey, CoBi, we thought this was an example of being respectful, but you missed it.’

What concerns do you have about ChatGPT right now?

I don’t think we should ban these tools, as that never works. But there's a lot of stuff that still needs to be addressed with these AI programs still. For example, when I’m talking, I’m gesturing and pointing. So I’m making meaning in that context. ChatGPT and all of those other programs are good for their language piece, but they are not grounded in the real world. That’s why we are working with foundational AI to integrate semantics of speech with gesture, gaze and social cues to make an understanding from multimodal, multi-party discourse.

How can teachers quickly be trained in AI?

Right now a phrase that’s used a lot is “responsible AI”.

You can get teachers caught up in AI, and we’re developing curricula for AI literacy for this very purpose. But it’s really a more foundational thing — how can we change learning? How do you design a curriculum that does 21st-century skills, collaboration, critical thinking, inquiry, disciplinary knowledge, experimentation, investigation and developing character at the same time?

You’ve talked a lot about ethical and equitable AI. What does that mean? Right now a phrase that’s used a lot is “responsible AI”. It’s not asking what AI can do, it’s asking what I should do, basically. We have a framework of responsible innovation that we implement in everything we do from the start, and it begins with ourselves — our values, our processes and our commitment to our students and teachers.

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Photo by Patrick Campbell

Sidney D’Mello is a professor in CU Boulder’s Institute of Cognitive Science and Department of Computer Science, and is also director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming.

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Alum Becomes a New Teacher in His Mid-Fifties

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:00:00 +0000

Alum Becomes a New Teacher in His Mid-Fifties Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/11/2022 - 00:00

Alexx McMillan

At the age of 54, Mark Whelan (Hist’87; MEdu’18) quit his corporate job of 15 years to pursue teaching. After earning a master’s degree in urban education at CU Denver, he began as a seventh-grade social studies and language arts teacher at Aurora Quest K-8 in Aurora, Colorado. Here, Mark offers insight into what it’s like starting a new career in your fifties.

What was your favorite part about your time at CU?

CU is where I met all my best friends in life. I remember my time there very fondly. I was part of a team that won the Trivia Bowl in 1988, and that’s still one of my favorite accomplishments. I still have very strong ties to CU, and both my kids, Tavish (EnvSt’19) and Maddie (Psych’19), graduated from CU, too.

What pushed you to change careers recently?

I worked a corporate job for 15 years. It wasn’t the best job, but as a single dad, it allowed me to be a better father to my children. Then, my kids graduated and I met this really wonderful woman. I had talked about becoming a teacher often, and one day she said, “Why don’t you move in with me and go for it?” It was just one of those moments of clarity. I didn’t want to be one of those people who woke up in my 70s and thought, “What if I had done this?”

Why teaching?

When my parents got divorced, the people who influenced me most were my teachers. That really drove this urge, and finally I had to see it through. Watching my kids grow up, and the kids I met through them, also contributed to my desire to get into teaching. I believe there are a lot of great kids in this generation.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

It’s definitely helping students. Seventh grade is a really awkward and tough year in life. Being able to guide someone in their early teens and help steer their ship towards the right path has been really rewarding for me. And my students make me a better person, too. There will be days where I am dead tired or distracted by something, but every time I come in and feel like I don’t have anything to offer, my students always lift me up — always.

Do you have any advice for someone considering a new career?

Taking this chance on myself allowed me to have a better life. I think you have to call your own bluff in life, and you have to work hard to make things happen. God forbid, if I keeled over today, I would know that I went out doing what I was meant to do on this Earth. There’s this quote by Teddy Roosevelt. It’s a little corny but it says, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

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Photo courtesy Mark Whelan

At the age of 54, Mark Whelan quit his corporate job of 15 years to pursue teaching.

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What Happened to the Teachers?

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Sep 2018 19:05:00 +0000

What Happened to the Teachers? Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 09/01/2018 - 13:05

Christie Sounart

Colorado, like many other states, has a serious teacher shortage due to low salaries, demographic shifts, inadequate training, and the rising cost of college education and teaching licenses. Can CU help?

Stephanie Mares (EBio’17) was in demand.

By the time the 22-year-old left CU Boulder in May with a biology degree and teaching certificate, she had seven job offers in a single Colorado school district, St. Vrain Valley, in her hometown of Longmont.

Had she kept looking, she’d likely have had more offers still, given her science training and English-Spanish bilingualism. Colorado is struggling with a serious teacher shortage.

“There’s a shortage in all of Colorado except for the Front Range,” said Katherine Schultz, dean of CU Boulder’s School of Education.

There are shortages in many states, especially for special education, math and science teachers, attributable to a combination of low salaries, demographic shifts, inadequate training, and the rising cost of college education and teaching licenses and other factors, according to a 2017 Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) report.

The shortage became apparent in Colorado in 2010, and is most severe in rural areas — partly because of their typical distance from colleges that prepare teachers, the need for teachers to handle multiple subjects and a greater need for culturally and linguistically diverse personnel, said the CDHE.

“People have told me there are schools that haven’t had an 11th grade math teacher for a couple of years,” said Schultz.

The average starting teacher salary in Colorado is about $33,000.

Low pay is the biggest problem, though: The CDHE found that 95 percent of rural school districts’ teacher salaries are below the cost of living.

“In some districts teachers make about $30,000 a year,” said Schultz. “It’s difficult to take a job in an area that pays so little money, especially if you still have student loans.”

Statewide, the average starting teacher salary in Colorado was $32,980 in 2017, according to the National Education Association. Adjusted for cost of living, teacher pay in Colorado ranks 44th in the nation, National Public Radio reported.

CU Boulder is stepping in.

“There are two ways to address a teacher shortage,” Schultz said. “One way is through recruitment of new teachers. The other is through the retention of teachers who are already there.”

To cultivate future teachers, the university is promoting teaching careers to middle and high schoolers through classroom visits, internships and college-level credit for some high school courses. A new CU bachelor’s degree in elementary education equips graduates with skills for teaching diverse populations and emerging bilingual learners.

Current teachers play a role in inspiring the next generation. Mares’ high school history teacher, Chris Barnes (Hist’06; MEdu’10), persuaded her to consider CU Boulder for a teaching degree.

“He really pushed me, and he took me on my first campus tour,” said Mares, who received, and could not have attended without, significant scholarships. “This one teacher changed my life. I thought, ‘I can do this for other kids.’”

Barnes, now in his 13th year of teaching, saw potential in Mares’ work ethic and interest in learning.

“The job of teacher is getting harder and harder,” he said. “Teaching used to be just the dissemination of knowledge. Now you’re a counselor, a liaison between family and community, a language specialist and a bureaucrat.”

In rural areas especially, where schools often face a distinct shortage of infrastructure, technology and financial resources, Barnes said, teachers often leave by their fifth year in the job.

Last spring’s national teacher walkouts and protests — including April’s march by thousands of teachers on Colorado's state capitol — have heightened awareness of teachers’ economic circumstances.

CU’s education school is meanwhile bolstering the skills of current teachers. It’s developing an online dual master’s program in bilingual education and special education, for instance.

This fall, Mares is prepared to start her own career as a physics teacher at Longmont’s Skyline High School. But she hasn’t ruled out a future position in a rural school.

“I would prefer a school that is struggling a little bit because I think it’s where I can make the most impact,” she said.

Comment? Email editor@colorado.edu.

Photo by @iStock/studiocasper; @Getty Images/Matt Hoover Photo

Colorado's teacher shortage persists. Can CU Boulder help?

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The Art of Living

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

The Art of Living Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2012 - 00:00

Staff

Buff Tribute: Ron Bernier 1943 – 2012

Art professor emeritus Ron M. Bernier died Jan. 25, 2012, as a result of complications arising from multiple sclerosis. He leaves behind hundreds of former students who spent their CU education trying to get into any and all of Ron’s art history classes.

He was born on June 19, 1943, in St. Paul, Minn., to Olivette and Milton Bernier. Ron held an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota, obtained his master’s from the University of Hawai’i East-West Center and received his doctorate from Cornell University.

His love of art was established at a young age. He told Coloradan writer Haley Sinn-Penfold (Art’05) in 2005 that he remained grateful to his second-grade teacher who brought to class a brochure of the Maori people of New Zealand.

“I remember asking, ‘Are there really people like that?’ She said, ‘Oh, yes, but very far away.’ I have been looking for those faraway people all my life.”

He went on to share his enthusiasm and passion with generations of students while touring the most remote regions of the world, including Nepal. He wrote the first book ever published on Nepalese temples. His love for places, people and their art was propelled by the fact that much of it was quickly disappearing amid modernizing.

In the early ’70s Ron was awarded the Teaching Recognition Award from CU-Boulder. After 35 years with CU, Ron was awarded the title of Exploratory Emeritus of Art History, a one-of-a-kind moniker for a unique and truly talented visionary. He leaves behind his friend and partner of 45 years, Dianne Bernier, as well as many friends in the Boulder area who will miss his wit and humor.

Art professor emeritus Ron M. Bernier died Jan. 25, 2012, as a result of complications arising from multiple sclerosis.

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Electing to Teach: Richard Pattenaude

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Electing to Teach: Richard Pattenaude Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2012 - 00:00

Murray Carpenter

Richard Pattenaude (PhDPolSci’74) may be chancellor of the University of Maine System, but his first love is teaching — teaching political science, to be more precise. But he almost became an economist.

In 1968 Richard was a candidate for a doctorate in economics at CU when he was drafted. A stint in the Army changed his focus.

“While I was in Vietnam I found myself increasingly drawn to political science,” he says. “So when I returned to CU in the spring of 1971, I came back as a political science major in the political science department doctoral program.”

Richard has fond memories of professors Dennis Eckart, Horst Mewes and Conrad McBride. He wrote his dissertation on “the role of experts in organizational decision-making.” Richard found that engineers are everywhere, but politics ultimately drive decision-making.

“That has served me well to this day,” he says.

After stints at universities in Iowa, New York and Connecticut, Richard landed in Maine. He served as president of the University of Southern Maine for 16 years before becoming chancellor of the University of Maine System in 2007. At each post Richard served as an administrator and taught a course every year with just two exceptions — his first year at University of Southern Maine president and his first as chancellor of University of Maine.

“I taught as a provost, as a president, as a chancellor,” he says. “I keep in touch with what brought me. I do not mythologize the classroom as some wonderful place where magic happens. Magic does happen, but it’s hard work and I can have a more honest conversation with faculty.”

Richard will step down as chancellor in June 2012. He says he is proud of cutting the operating budget and having the lowest tuition hike in 10 years in 2011.

“We are a much healthier system than we were five years ago, and I feel real good about that,” he says.

And after decades of being in administration, Richard says he is looking forward to full-time teaching in 2013.

“I always thought I’d be a faculty member in a tweed coat, you know, Mr. Chips,” Richard says. “Now I’m the CEO of a $650 million corporation with 5,000 employees. It’s a long way from the emotional and intellectual things that brought me to higher education. So being a faculty member keeps me in touch with my roots.”

Richard Pattenaude may be chancellor of the University of Maine System, but his first love is teaching — teaching political science, to be more precise. But he almost became an economist.

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Dora Beale Polk

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Dora Beale Polk Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/01/2010 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

Making a life of calm

A quiet life is the one preferred by Dora Beale Polk (MFA’50). After spending decades as a professor, writer and entrepreneur, the 87-year-old explains that a slower lifestyle may be better in the long run.

“I have always been my own boss,” Dora says, adding that teaching was “my favorite avocation as well as my vocation” although she’s had many others. For much of her life, she was career-oriented and viewed teaching during the decline of humanities and the rise of the computer as a challenge.

Dora spent her early life in Wales. She attended Cardiff University during World War II, which, she states, was a time that is difficult to forget. In the early 1940s when the women’s movement was just beginning, she took the opportunity to move to the United States and begin her career as a teacher at a small college in South Dakota.

CU was the next step in Dora’s life where she received her master’s degree in fine arts in 1950. While in Boulder, she assisted in running many Democratic political campaigns and also began writing. She penned adolescent romances but soon abandoned them to “take on more serious writing.” She wrote The Island of California (University of Nebraska Press), a book that delves into the fascinating myths that fueled settlers to explore California. While doing research for the book, Polk and her sister traveled to Great Britain every summer to do research in libraries. They also started an investment business and a drug company.

She received her doctorate in English at the University of California, Irvine and has written other literary works, including a recent book of poems, The Will (Orlandon Press), published as a record of her life. Her poems span many years and include personal and emotional stories, beliefs and opinions.

“Poetry deals with the element of choice and human conduct,” she explains.

Throughout her life, Dora has maintained a positive outlook on life. She is involved in local politics in El Segundo, Calif., where she lives with her sister. She likes observing the working-class lifestyle of El Segundo in comparison to surrounding beach towns like Santa Monica. She attended her 50-year class reunion on the Boulder campus in May.

While she enjoys her calm lifestyle in California, she says she is reminded daily of her childhood in Wales. Her Welsh background allowed her many of the wonderful opportunities she has fully embraced. As she speaks about her life, she says she has adopted the existentialist belief that life is mostly made by individual choice.

In the words of Dora, “You make your own life.”

Dora Beale Polk on making a life of calm.

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A Century of Buff Spirit

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0000

A Century of Buff Spirit Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/01/2010 - 00:00

Alex Bak

Elizabeth “Dee” Graham Demmon’s (A&S, Edu’32) life has been straight out of a history book. The longtime Boulder resident, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, attended Mapleton Elementary School as a little girl, watched the Boulder Courthouse burn down Feb. 9, 1932, and attended CU during the Great Depression. She even met Buffalo Bill Cody.

“You can’t imagine the dust that his horse stirred up! But it was the thrill of my life,” Dee says.

She has seen Boulder change around her, although she has lived in the same house on Ninth Street for decades. She’s lively and exuberant as she eagerly shows visitors her walls, which are covered in photographs documenting her incredible life. A photo of Dee and her late husband Irvin Demmon (A&S ’34) at the Great Wall of China hangs on one wall. In another frame, there is a photo of her son, Bob Demmon (Mus’62), who was the leader of the legendary 1960s Boulder band, The Astronauts.

Dee was born on Feb. 11, 1910, and has lived in Boulder for nearly all of her life. When she attended CU-Boulder, the country was in the midst of the Great Depression.

“CU back then was like it is today but much smaller,” she says. “I lived at home to save money.”

Dee’s other son, Bill Demmon (A&S’71), elaborates proudly on his mother’s achievement.

“In those days, it was rare for a woman to earn a college degree, especially in the Great Depression,” he says.

On campus, she stayed involved through her activities as a Pi Beta Phi sister.

After graduating from CU, Dee spent part of her life working first as a teacher in Boulder, Delta and Magnolia and later in administration with the Boulder Valley School District. As an educator, she worked with many children at University Hill Elementary School who later became Boulder professionals. She also kept busy raising her two sons.

Decades later, she has had Buff football season tickets for more than 50 years and in 2007 attended a special ceremony for longtime season ticket holders.

“When my mom can’t make it to the games, she rewards sons, grandchildren and neighbors with the tickets,” Bill says.

These days, Dee enjoys being driven around the Hill and north Boulder, pointing out houses and commenting on who used to live in them. She has had a rich and rewarding life, surrounded by supportive and friendly family and friends. She has been an inspiration to many Boulder residents and is a force that will never be forgotten.

Elizabeth Graham Demmon’s life has been straight out of a history book. The Boulder resident attended Mapleton Elementary School as a little girl, watched the Boulder Courthouse burn down and attended CU during the Great Depression.

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Churchill Verdict Rendered

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Churchill Verdict Rendered Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2009 - 00:00

Former ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill was unlawfully fired from the University of Colorado for expressing his political beliefs, a Denver jury decided April 2. But the jury only awarded the professor $1 in damages.

Churchill ignited a heated national debate over academic freedom, patriotism and academic integrity in 2005 when an essay he wrote about the 9/11 attacks received national attention. In his essay he compared victims of the World Trade Center attacks to “little Eichmanns,” which led the university to launch a two-month investigation into whether his work was protected under the First Amendment.

While the university found Churchill’s work was protected by the First Amendment, it decided allegations of plagiarism, fabrication and research misconduct warranted a separate investigation. He was fired in 2007 for academic misconduct, including ghostwriting pieces for peers and then citing those works as support for his own theories.

A Denver district judge will decide whether Churchill gets to return to the classroom or is financially compensated. CU also will have to pay Churchill’s legal fees.

<p>Former ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill was unlawfully fired from the University of Colorado for expressing his political beliefs, a Denver jury decided April 2. But the jury only awarded the professor $1 in damages.</p>

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Taming the Terrible Twos

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Taming the Terrible Twos Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2009 - 00:00

If you feel like everything you say to your toddler goes in one ear and out the other, don’t despair.

Toddlers aren’t ignoring advice. They are storing it for later, according to a new CU study. This goes against the notion that has long been accepted by scientists and many parents — that children’s brains function as if they were little adults.

Led by psychology professor Yuko Munakata, the researchers found toddlers neither plan for the future nor live completely in the present. Instead, they call up the past as they need it. Any parent who has tried, to no avail, to convince a 3-year-old to put on a jacket when it is snowing has faced this issue. Munakata’s research indicates that toddlers don’t think, “It’s cold outside. I better wear my jacket.” Instead, they go outside, feel cold and retrieve in their memory where their jacket is and go get it.

The researchers don’t claim to be parental experts, but their findings could aid parents in relationships with their toddlers. Their advice? Avoid repeating commands that require your toddler to anticipate the future.

“Don’t do something that requires them to plan ahead in their mind, but rather try to highlight the conflict that they are going to face,” Munakata says. “Perhaps you could say something like, ‘I know you don’t want to take your coat now, but when you’re standing in the yard shivering later, remember that you can get your coat from your bedroom.’ ”

If you feel like everything you say to your toddler goes in one ear and out the other, don’t despair.

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Teaching

A New Way of Learning in the Classroom

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A Century of Buff Spirit

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Churchill Verdict Rendered

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