Millersville 2nd Annual Academic Festival: A Celebration of Scholarly and Creative Activities
Bolger Conference Center
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
This daylong festival is designed to share faculty research and teaching expertise, enhance research techniques and develop scholarly ideas, and celebrate this past year's scholarly and creative achievements of faculty and staff. The event will include panel discussions and presentations on research, teaching, and scholarly topics, a recognition and awards luncheon for faculty/staff authors and grant-writers, and the Ganser Library's "Scholarly Passions" exhibit. All faculty and staff are invited to attend and enjoy the daylong festival.
Co-sponsors:
Center for Academic Excellence
Office of Graduate Studies and Research
RSVP: To reserve a space at the celebratory luncheon, please contact Stephanie Vlajic in the Graduate Studies Office at x3099 or by email at goffasst@millersville.edu
Event Overview and Program:
8:45 to 9:00 am
Registration and Continental Breakfast (Bolger Center Foyer)
9:00 to 10:15am
Panel #1: Research Across the Disciplines
10:15 to 11:30
Panel #2: MU sponsored projects sampler: A cross-section of externally funded activities and the funding mechanisms that support them
Panel #3: Globalism in the Curriculum: Effective Study Abroad Approaches
Panel #4: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: MU Exemplars
11:45 to 12:45pm
Celebratory Luncheon (Lehr Dining Room) – Provost Prabhu recognizes faculty/staff grant writers and scholars with research and creative works from the past year whose work is on display in Ganser Library's "Scholarly Passions" exhibit.
12:45 to 1:55pm
Panel #5: Encouraging Engagement: Description and Assessment of a General Education Initiative for First-Year Students
Panel #6: CCERP: First Year Highlights and Future Directions
2:00 to 3:15pm
Panel #7: Collective Knowledge Creation: Resistance May Be Futile
Session Descriptions and Presenters:
Time Slot: 9:00am to 10:15am
Session Title: Research Across the Disciplines
Session Description:
Approaches to doing research vary from discipline to discipline and have changed over time. Learn about cutting edge research methodologies in several subject areas and hear from four Millersville faculty members about how they are applying quantitative and/or qualitative methods in their own research.
Panelists:
Clarence Maxwell
History
Jean Kabongo
Business Administration
Marcia Nell
Elementary Education
Dominique Dagit
Biology
Room Assigned: Old Main Room
Convener: Marjorie Warmkessel
Time Slot: 10:15am to 11:30am
Session Title: MU sponsored projects sampler: A cross-section of externally funded activities and the funding mechanisms that support them
Session Description:
External funding at MU plays a key role in a wide array of activities and projects currently under way across campus. The speakers in this session will demonstrate how various funding mechanisms (training grants, collaborative grants, contracts, research grants, etc.) are facilitating the achievement of their scholarly and professional goals.
Panelists:
Dan Anna
Industry & Technology
Kimberly Mahaffy
Sociology/Anthropology
Marilyn Parrish and
James Gerencser
Library
Dickinson College
Stephanie Elzer
Computer Science
Room Assigned: Audubon Room
Convener: Ryan Sauder
Time Slot: 10:15am to 11:30am
Session Title: Globalism in the Curriculum: Effective Study Abroad Approaches
Session Description:
Helping our students to appreciate global perspectives continues to increase in importance at Millersville University . Through formal partnerships with international universities across the globe, and through the efforts of individual faculty with course-based study abroad, our undergraduate and graduate students have ample opportunities to visit and learn at exciting international destinations. This session will highlight the various options for study abroad and address how this activity fits into our teaching and research environment. Through case studies of recent “success-stories,” our faculty will discuss the design and implementation of effective study abroad programs.
Panelists:
Kirsten Bookmiller
Office of Global Education and Partnerships/Government and Political Affairs
Dominic Scott
Educational Foundations
Cheryl Desmond
Educational Foundations
Room Assigned: Old Main Room
Convener: Victor DeSantis
Time Slot: 10:15am to 11:30am
Session Title: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: MU Exemplars
Session Description:
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has been an area of growing at interest at Millersville University over the past two years. Faculty experts from a variety of disciplines will focus on what they have learned about teaching and learning through their research efforts, and how this learning has supported their own scholarly and professional development.
Panelists:
Frederick S. Foster-Clark
Psychology
Laurie Hanich
Educational Foundations
Linda L. McDowell
Educational Foundations
Stacey Irwin
Communication and Theatre
Sepi Yalda
Earth Sciences
Room Assigned: Lehr Room
Convener: Tracey Weis
Time Slot: 12:45 to 1:55pm
Session Title: Encouraging Engagement: Description and Assessment of a General Education Initiative for First-Year Students
Session Description:
This session will feature research on t he First Seminar/Learning Community initiative, cornerstone of the plan to revamp Millersville's General Education program and in its second year of pilot-testing. The program involves three-credit, content-based thematic first-year seminars linked with fundamentals courses in a living-learning community, with components such as Student Affairs programming, service learning, and use of peer mentors. The panel session reports on the qualitative and quantitative assessment results from the pilot study. Practical issues, successful strategies, and potential pitfalls in implementing and assessing first-year General Education programming are also discussed.
Panelists:
Frederick S. Foster-Clark
Coordinator of General Education/Psychology
Laurie Hanich
Educational Foundations
Linda L. McDowell
Coordinator of First-Year Experience/Educational Foundations
Daniel O'Neill
Counseling and Human Development
Thomas D. Burns
Associate Provost for Academic Administration
Carol Y. Phillips
Former Associate Provost for Academic Programs and Services
Room Assigned: Old Main Room
Convener: Thomas Burns
Time Slot: 12:45 to 1:55pm
Session Title: CCERP: Recapping first-year success and setting future directions
Session Description:
The Civic and Community Engagement and Research Project (CCERP), one of Millersville's newest initiatives, had a very successful first year in 2006-07. The first event --“Envisioning Public Scholarship and Community Impact at Millersville University ” -- opened the dialogue regarding creative and pragmatic solutions to challenges facing our region, nation and the world. The "Closing Educational Achievement Gaps Conference" brought to campus regional educators, policymakers, and other interested parties to discuss unequal educational opportunity and underachievement. Finally, the recent "Student Leadership and Public Responsibility Conference" helped to acquaint students with civic and community engagement planning and to solicit their input. This session will explore the themes and findings from the successful first year and identify the future avenues and opportunities for CCERP.
Panelists:
Melvin R. Allen
Philosophy
Room Assigned: Audobon Room
Convener: Diane Fleishman
Time Slot: 2:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Session Title: Collective Knowledge Creation: Resistance May Be Futile
Session Description:
New Internet-based (including Web 2.0) information technologies are challenging established knowledge structures at all stages of the research process, from data collection and evaluation to publication and access. While many students, teachers, and scholars are excited about the potential of these emerging technologies, others scoff at concepts such as the democratization of knowledge or the new online collectivism. In recent years, new methods of using and disseminating information have emerged. These include open access journals and databases as well as Web 2.0 tools such as weblogs, wikis, and RSS feeds. These new tools accelerate the creation and transmission of knowledge, although there is also legitimate cause for concern, specifically the qualifications of potential participants in these new knowledge technologies. Academics who understand emerging technologies will be able to enhance their own research and teaching, guide their students in the appropriate use of new technologies, and participate fully in conversations about the place of these tools in future knowledge creation.
Panelists:
Megan O'Malley
Library
William Walters
Library
Room Assigned: Audobon Room
Convener: Majorie Warmkessel
Event information from the 2006 Millersville Academic Festival
MU Academic Festival 2007: Call for Proposals - Web-based submission form
