Tag / Brian Bowe

by shannonchance

Group-Based Learning in Action

I’m becoming a bigger and bigger believer in collaborative learning!  Last semester I did lot of research about how engineering professors (i.e., lecturers) here at Dublin Institute of Technology worked together to develop new ways of teaching electrical engineers.  I was amazed to discover how incredibly much they learned by working together.

Such impressive knowledge gain is the premise behind Project-Based Learning and other group-based learning formats.

Orla and Shannon in the throws of course planning.

Orla and Shannon in the throws of course planning.

My day today was filled with meetings about collaborative research and teaching projects.

With the help of five different tech guys, I got SPSS up and running so that I will be able to help analyze data on that Mike Murphy and I collected from engineering and engineering technology students. We asked them what they saw themselves doing in the future, how well prepared they feel to start work, and what kinds of things they’ve focused their efforts on over the past few years.

After lunch I met with Orla Hanratty of DIT’s Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC) and introduced her to Brian Bowe. She’ll be co-teaching a course (i.e., module) with us in May.  We aim to increase the usage and visibility of Problem-Based Learning at DIT by teaching more teachers to use Problem-Based Learning in their own classrooms.

And now, tonight, I’ve been working on a proposal for funding with Ted Burke and Damon Berry.  It’s an opportunity that the college’s head of research, Marek Rebow, told me about yesterday and it has to be completed immediately.

I rallied the troops. Ted drafted some text. Then Damon and I were adding our own contributions to it using Google Docs.  It was so strange… Damon and me editing the same document at the same time.  It turned into a bit of an academic chat session.  We tossed ideas back and forth, discussing budget, objectives, and ways to improve what we’ve already got in place.

We’ll do more of that tomorrow, when the three of us meet to hash this out… and have some fun learning in the process.

RoboSlam website that we hope to tweak.
Ted Burke advising me on robot design at the recent RoboSlam.
Damon Berry and John McGrory learning together.
by shannonchance

Around the Dinner Table

We had a ball with my work colleagues Friday night; it is a real treat to be welcomed into someone’s home here and to meet the family!  Pam Eddy and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with Mike and Mai Murphy, their boys Sean and Patrick, and the soon-to-wed Brian and Theresa (Hedderman???? or perhaps Bowe????  Only time and a golf tournament will tell for certain).  Regardless of uncertainty on the name front, the meal and the conversation were outstanding!  I so enjoy spending time with the folks at this table.

By the way, Mike and Brian are my Fulbright hosts. Pam and I are Fulbright scholars; she worked as a Fulbright at DIT in 2009 and I have been since August 2012. Lots of brilliant people around the table below… my colleagues’ families are amazingly skilled, talented, and educated, and they are loads of fun to boot.

Dinner at the Murphy home.

Dinner at the Murphy home.

by shannonchance

Birthday Surprises

Who ordered the rain?

Who ordered this weather?

Wow!  What a day!

It’s my birthday; the 43rd one of my life.  Besides the weather, great things happened!

#1) I awoke to great news: I’d been invited to review a manuscript for a special edition of JEE (a different edition than the one we’ve written for).  I’m hoping this is a good sign.  Apparently the editors though I was sufficiently competent to be part of their rigorous peer-review process.

#2) My aunt Kitty Lee and her friend Patty Asplund arrived fresh off the plane. This is the first day Kitty has ever spent outside North America!!!

Shannon, Kitty Lee, and Patty.

Shannon, Kitty Lee, and Patty.

#3) Mom woke up in the middle of the night (Pennsylvania time) to call and wish me a happy day.

#4) I put Kitty Lee and Patty on the hop-on hop-off bus and headed for sushi with my colleagues. Little did I know they’d planned a birthday lunch. Sima *baked* a gluten-free cake using truffles, chestnut flour, butter, and cream. Amazing!!!!  The sushi was awesome too.

#5) My replacement bank card finally arrived. YAY!!!!

#6) I visited the former House of Parliament (now owned by the Bank of Ireland, a long story that I’ll save for another day).

Sima, Brian, Gavin, and Shannon.
Birthday cake alla Sima!
Blowing out my (4)3 candles!

I got a fabulous tour of the most historic room by Phillip and Jeremy.  I’ll return again to learn more from John and Sean. And Jeremy will copy some information for me to pick up. While I was there, I met a group from Northern Ireland. They’d all been police (some representing loyalists and some representing nationalists — in other words, on both sides). In any case, they’d have been the ones “keeping the peace” while the men I met in the Cobblestone were out in the past *not* “keeping the peace.”

William of Orange

William of Orange

Phillip told me the stories depicted on the tapestries hanging in the hall.  The victor of the story was William of Orange. Three years after the event depicted, King William and his wife (Queen Mary) chartered the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Where I earned my PhD!  Philip said that Mary was much more important in all that than William. I said that’s why we have t-shirts that say, “Mary and William.”

#7) The bus was right there when I stepped out of the Bank, ready to whisk me back to my apartment.

#8) The post had safely delivered birthday cards and a package from each of parents (my Mom, and my Dad and Step-Mom).  It’s wonderful to be remembered.

#9) I got word that our photo show is on!  The title is

Inter-changes: Interpretations of Ireland by Three Virginians
Photographs by US Fulbright Scholar Shannon Chance, Dave Chance & Glen McClure

#10) Kitty and Patty have sweet-talked the hop-on bus driver into delivering them to my doorstep.  I am telling you: Patty is a charmer!!!!  She’s a seasoned traveller — and a former missionary — who has a way of touching people’s souls.  I’m glad she’s here to help Kitty Lee learn the traveling ropes!

We’ll be out for #11 soon!  I’ll let you know how it goes (they are likely to crash soon…).

A model of the Bank of Ireland building.
Shannon Chance in the Bank of Ireland.
Bank of Ireland’s former Parliament chamber.
by shannonchance

Improving Engineering Students’ Design Skills

ARROW logoThe article Improving Engineering Students’ Design Skills in a Project-Based Learning Course by Addressing Epistemological Issues that Gavin, Brian, and I wrote for the SEFI conference in Greece is available for download on DIT’s ARROW database.  Check it out!

by shannonchance

Brushes with Great Museums

Meeting with Brian Bowe and Gavin Duffy at the Beatty Library’s cafe.

The cafe at the Chester Beatty Library serves up a fine selection of Middle Eastern, North African, Mediterranean, and vegetarian entrees and gluten-free desserts.  We met there for lunch Tuesday since it’s halfway between Gavin’s base on Kevin Street and ours on Bolton Street.

Mom and her neighbors (Tim and Mary) spoke highly of this “Silk Road Cafe.”  The Dean had heard its praises sung as well.  Unfortunately, he was called to a more urgent meeting and couldn’t join us after all.

The Beatty Library’s sun-filled, glass-covered courtyard was a lovely setting for our discussion of student-centered learning, research, and publication strategy.

Shockingly, neither of my colleague had ever been to this incredible museum before!  Yet it houses one of the world’s most astounding collections of religious artifacts.  It represents all the world’s major religions and was donated by the American collector Chester Beatty.  And, amazingly, admission is completely free! (Lunch, however, is not.)

Although I didn’t get Gavin and Brian into the actual exhibit halls, at least they got to experience the covered courtyard and the stunning “Castle garden.” It’s surrounded by a high wall and feels very much like a secret garden. During my childhood, I dearly loved the book The Secret Garden.

Castel Garden, behind Dublin Castle. (Photo borrowed from W&L travel log.)

A few hours after our lunch, I had another brush with great museums when Seán Rainbird lectured at the DIT School of Architecture.  He’s the new director of the National Gallery of Ireland. He has also worked at the Tate in London and the Stattsgallerie in Stuttgart (designed by James Stirling’s office).

Seán Rainbird talked about Joseph Beuys’ fascination with all things Celtic when he spoke at the DIT School of Architecture.

Can you imaging that I delivered a lecture in the same “Schools of Thought” lecture series with such an accomplished person?  Wow!

Seán talked about Joseph Beuys and the Celtic World, the topic of a book he wrote.  He said he had just three weeks to write it!  Can you imagine being so knowledgeable about a topic that you could produce a press-worthy document in just three weeks?  Truly amazing.

They say everyone wants to “be like Mike.”  I’d rather “be like Seán” myself!