The Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI) is designed to address the professional development concerns of 21st-century graduate students at Virginia Tech. Developed as the result of a collaborative effort between Learning Technologies and the Graduate School, GEDI focuses on multi-disciplinary pedagogy practices that integrate the critically engaged use of advanced technologies.

GRAD 5114 – Pedagogical Practices in Contemporary Contexts

This seminar will engage participants in an exploration of pedagogical approaches appropriate for contemporary learners across differentdisciplines and in different contexts. We will examine several issues that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries, including teaching to diverse groups with inclusive rather than divisive pedagogy, creating curriculum that integrates global contexts with innovative eLearningcomponents, exploring the ways in which problem-based learning creates active learners in every discipline, andexploring how managing complex contexts can be a paradigm for learning strategies that create active, critically engaged, and independent learners attentive to broader social contexts in their acquisition of disciplinary-specific domain knowledge(s).

In addition, we will examine the complexities of cultural identities that are informed by issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, religion, age, ability/disability. We will discuss ways to negotiate the ever-shifting demographics, identity politics, and multi/cross-positionalities in our contemporary classrooms regardless of the subject of the course(s) we are teaching, or are planning to teach.