Teaching in Higher Ed

David M. Perry, author and public historian who writes on medieval history, parenting, disability, and politics. He talks about applying scholarly methods to fast-moving news and local crises. He explains how teaching skills translate into public writing. He explores using constraints and autobiography as creative tools and strategies for handling online harassment and pitching timely pieces.

Flower Darby, associate director and author focused on inclusive, equity-minded online teaching, talks about bringing joy and “fizz” to asynchronous courses. She explores authentic personalization, low-lift tools and feedback strategies, balancing scale with connection, and practical ways to reduce burnout while keeping classes energizing and persistent.

Lewis D. Ludwig, mathematics professor and teaching-center leader, and Todd Zakrajsek, longtime faculty developer and conference director, explore integrating learning science with AI in teaching. They discuss backward design, standards-based grading, attention and spaced practice, TILT clarity, preventing AI over-reliance, and using AI to prototype and iterate course materials quickly.

Norma Montague, Associate Professor of Accounting and Senior Associate Dean who practices inclusive and reflective teaching, discusses interrupting classroom bias. She recounts teaching across community colleges and correctional education. Topics include auditing participation to spot gaps, rebranding office hours as student hours, using TAs as scribes, and strategies like warm calls and polling to broaden engagement.

Teddy Svoronos, senior lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School who studies statistics, public policy, and AI, explores how agentic AI reshapes teaching and research. He defines agents as looped tools that run toward goals. Conversations cover infrastructure over prompting, traceability and documentation, privacy and repo choices, cognitive debt from offloading, and rethinking what students need to learn.

Katarina Mårtensson, a Swedish academic developer and SoTL leader; Peter Felten, an engaged-learning historian and educator; and Nancy L. Chick, a SoTL scholar and journal editor. They discuss origins of SoTL curiosity, starting small with classroom inquiries, crafting consequential research questions, collaboration across contexts, and underused evidence like recordings and annotations.

Matthew Mahavongtrakul, a first-generation, multilingual educator with a PhD in epigenetics, shares practical productivity and neuroscience-informed teaching strategies. He discusses the Eisenhower matrix, time-boxing and triage tactics. Conversation highlights asking for help, iterating systems until they become habit, and simple tools for breaking down tasks to protect our future selves.

They explain how RSS cuts through algorithm noise to deliver the content you choose. They compare aggregators and readers and name practical tools for collecting and reading feeds. They share clever feed ideas—from journals to quirky sites—and ways to handle paywalls and newsletters. They also touch on using peer instruction to spark curiosity before teaching.

Marc Watkins, director of the AI Institute for Teachers and lecturer in writing and rhetoric, discusses balancing skepticism and curiosity about AI in teaching. He covers faculty anxiety and inconsistent AI policies, the need for clear institutional guidance, risks to online learning from agentic AIs, and assessment redesigns like embodied tasks and layered strategies to preserve human-centered education.

Lynn Meade, a teaching associate professor at the University of Arkansas who builds bridges between academics and career readiness, discusses ePortfolios as curated, reflective collections of student work. She explains focusing on audience and purpose. She highlights using portfolios for competencies, goal setting, authentic student voice, and making work portable after graduation.