“Men have become the tools of their tools.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
The Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology starts tomorrow. I have hosted this UC Davis event for most of its 31 years. This will likely be my last year as host.
Imagine a cell biologist who stands next to a sociologist at a conference table. The biologist concerns herself with cellular structure; the sociologist tracks patterns of human behavior across populations.
The biologist mentions mutation and adaptation, and the sociologist hears how communities change under pressure. They begin to draw on the same whiteboard. Neither knows what the other knows, which paradoxically makes them useful to each other. Using tools such as whiteboard markers, the two are altered by the encounter.
These are the introductions that institutions, when they work, create.
The Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology has persisted for thirty-one years because it creates introductions, that is, conditions where faculty from different disciplines encounter new approaches to teaching and technology.
When we build systems to measure outcomes and deploy technologies to scale reach, we risk treating the teaching and learning experience as a problem awaiting optimal solutions. Focusing on the tools, we may come to believe that systematization equals progress and that efficiency equals virtue.
Taking a page from James Baldwin’s essay “A Talk to Teachers,” I aspire to let students know they are seen, to introduce them to previously unconsidered possibilities, and to invite them into intellectual and rhetorical conversations from which they might initially have felt excluded. Likewise, at SITT, faculty reveal to their colleagues how their teaching work looks from the inside, leading to faculty from one discipline encountering faculty from other disciplines and discovering unexpected kinship.
The early iterations of SITT (and I was there from the start, having attended the last 31 SITTs) depended on many in-person work meetings of the organizers and staff. We spent time making copies, filling loose-leaf binders, and compiling indices with archival care. We negotiated with Dos Coyotes for huge burrito orders. We brought toasters from home for the bagels. We were generous with our time and efforts with the hopes that faculty would be generous with one another. We wanted to hear their tips, their discoveries, and their stories.
These meetings happened because teams of center directors and staff stood in the background, making introductions, creating a space for collaboration, and trusting that a schedule of diverse speakers would lead to unexpected revelations about teaching in a tool-rich age.
We face an alternative teaching arena today. Systems can deliver content more efficiently than humans, algorithms can predict what students need, platforms such as UC Davis Canvas can help a faculty member manage every educational transaction. Such efficient systems can help a professor provide speedier feedback or adapt pacing to a student’s demonstrated competence.
But teaching is not primarily about efficiency. Like a poem or a genius comedian, teaching should introduce you to what neither you nor an LLM could predict. Teaching can and should follow a student’s questions into unmapped territory. Teaching shifts with a student’s particular fears and hungers. Teaching should meet the irreproducible singularity of each person rather than serving middling content for an algorithmic average.
This is why the theme of this year’s Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology is “Authentic Teaching in a Tool-Rich World.” Tools serve education only when they lead to the sort of introductions among learners and between learners and ideas. Consider the whiteboard marker, the projector, or even the Google Doc that a professor and her students will turn into a collaborative document or “sense of the meeting” together. Optimizing teaching to fit tools risks eliminating an essential human connection that is difficult to replicate online.
As the longtime host of this summer institute, I am grateful to my teaching mentors, to the teams that do the work to make SITT happen, and to the faculty who have introduced me and others to their ingenious and innovative approaches to teaching classes that are student-centered, activity-driven, and dependent on myriad forms of feedback. All these practices lead students not only to discovery, but to deep understandings that they can revisit and deploy for the rest of their lives.
Today will be the hottest Wednesday evening for the rest of the year, but the misters will be cooling all of us at the Sudwerk patio. I hope you can join us on the beautiful outdoor patio where we have room for almost everyone on this September evening. The rest of you can sit inside where players will still be having fun. As Albert Schweitzer said, “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.” I encourage you to come early to snag a table. Also, take heed that the performance of the quiz may move along quickly — the entire quiz is under 700 words long!
In addition to topics raised above, tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions on action stars, alcoholic beverages, ancient civilizations, antioxidant nutrients, Asian populations, athletes, blockbuster films, botanical expeditions, Canadians, cell growth vitamins, disease elimination achievements, entertainment legends, fast-moving toys, franchises, generational terminology, honorees, horror releases, hosts, international power structures, inventors, invertebrates, islands, locations, marriage milestones, measurements, metal combinations, multi-platinum artists, mystical song themes, nerve clusters, New England states, newspapers, 1950s musicians, office products, Pacific forests, rainforests, reptiles, revolutionary displays, rosters, Shakespearean tragedies, social magnetism, sports arenas, technological breakthroughs, television icons, current events, books and authors, and Shakespeare.
Thanks to all the patrons who have been enjoying fresh Pub Quiz content. Thanks especially to new subscribers Janet, Jasmine, Joey, Carly, and The Nevergiveruppers! Every week I check the Patreon to see if there is someone new to thank. I also thank The Original Vincibles, Summer Brains, The Outside Agitators, John Poirier’s team Quizimodo, Gena Harper, the conversationally entertaining dinner companions The Mavens who keep attending, despite their ambitious travel schedules and the cost of avocado. Thanks to everyone who supports the Pub Quiz on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of pub quiz boosters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
- Mottos & Slogans. Born in 1722, who has a beer named after him that claims “Independent Since Forever”?
- Internet Culture. People are really excited about GTA 6. What do the letters GTA stand for?
- Newspaper Headlines. Africa’s 2nd-richest economy has recently sent a massive aid convoy to war-ravaged Gaza with 62,500 food baskets and 1,874 tons of fuel. Name the country.