Ursula Valdez keynote speaker at the 2017 UW Teaching and Learning Symposium

IAS faculty member Ursula Valdez was one of the keynote speakers at the 2017 UW Teaching and Learning Symposium on “Building Inclusive Classroom Communities.” Valdez’s talk focused on her work to open her classroom to international online interactions. In this case, students from UW Bothell and from a Peruvian university shared knowledge and ideas to tackle environmental issues affecting the Pacific Northwest and Peru. Valdez's work is part of the Collaborative Online Interactive Learning (COIL) initiative that aims to open in-classroom opportunities for global education.

In addition, Valdez presented a poster titled "Non-traditional assignments to assess learning: photos and social media posts" in which she provided examples of methods of engaging students in learning about natural history, using traditional methods such as writing naturalist journals and illustrations, but also incorporating current technology and social media that are highly present in student's lives.