Digital Pedagogy Lab Cairo: An AMICAL Institute

Thanks to support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, AMICAL will be sponsoring this Spring an event focusing on digital pedagogy, the thoughtful application of technology in teaching. Hosted at the American University in Cairo over 20-23 March 2016, it will be open to a number of local institutions but is principally targeting AMICAL members.

This Digital Pedagogy Lab Cairo is the first international version of the Digital Pedagogy Lab Institute, a professional development initiative from the creators of the journal Hybrid Pedagogy. It’s also one of several consortially-supported actions this year building momentum around one of AMICAL’s 2015-2018 strategic priorities: Curriculum-Integrated Digital Initiatives.

Dr. Maha Bali, a faculty developer at AUC and editor to Hybrid Pedagogy, is leading this effort to bring the institute to Cairo. She’s also playing a key role in helping AMICAL organize itself around consortial goals related to digital pedagogy — about which we’ll be posting more here soon.

Are you an AMICAL member interested in attending? An overview of the event is provided below, but see the announcement sent to the AMICAL representative at your institution for additional information, including funding possibilities.

Digital Pedagogy Lab Cairo - Overview

The international Digital Pedagogy Lab (DPL) institute comes to Cairo, facilitated by some of the leading and most compelling voices in the field, pushing at the edges of critical digital pedagogy. AMICAL members are invited to join the institute and get involved in some intense and inspiring conversations about teaching and learning in the digital age.

The learning community we create together will be welcoming to a wide range of skill levels and interests. Participants attending the entire event will choose one of two tracks and work collaboratively with a cohort in small peer-driven classes. Additional participants will join us for keynotes and drop-in workshops. At the end of the day on the 22nd, participants will have the opportunity to give brief lightning talks, pose lingering questions to the group, share example assignments, or briefly demo useful tools. Our hope is that this will help frame the discussions and activities that continue during the Unconference on the 23rd.

Participants will work with an international team of faculty from the United States, Egypt, and Canada, including Jesse Stommel, Bonnie Stewart, Maha Bali, Sean Michael Morris, and Amy Collier. The unconference will be co-facilitated by David Joseph Wrisley of the American University of Beirut and Maha Bali of AUC.

Tracks

(1) Praxis.
Facilitators: Amy Collier and Sean Michael Morris

Pedagogy is praxis, the intersection between the philosophy and practice of teaching

Pedagogy is praxis, the intersection between the philosophy and practice of teaching. It involves reflecting on and actively investigating the work of teaching and learning. In this track, we will explore philosophies of teaching, our own and others. We will think specifically about the ways our pedagogies are reflected in the specific choices we make as teachers. We will discuss and experiment with various technological tools from the chalkboard to moveable chairs, computers, mobile devices, social media platforms, and learning management systems. Individual sessions and workshops will focus on teaching philosophies, discernment practices for using digital tools in courses, emergent learning, digital composition, and discussions of the impact of the digital on traditional and critical pedagogies.

(2) Networks.
Facilitators: Bonnie Stewart and Jesse Stommel

Networked learning, from blogs and Twitter to open courses and collaboration

This track will focus on the nature of digital networks and network-building, from blogs and social media to open courses and collaboration. It will include discussions of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), rhizomatic learning, how influence and reputation circulate in professional learning networks, the social contracts of closed and networked spaces, and the intersections between networks and face-to-face learning environments. We’ll especially focus on Twitter as an experimental space for thinking about how networks are both responding to and creating the Internet as a learning environment. Individual sessions and workshops will introduce tools and hybrid approaches that can help build learning communities that extend beyond the bounds of the classroom. Participants will also explore the challenges, risks, and benefits of having learners collaborating openly on the web.

Further information and questions

For further information — or more details as the event draws nearer — subscribe to the DPL e-mail list, follow @digpedlab, and watch digitalpedagogylab.com/cairo. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Maha Bali bali@aucegypt.edu.