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Welcome to our September 2024 Newsletter!
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“Hispanic Barbie” engages in a literature review despite missing a shoe.
I had a large collection of Barbie dolls as a child, more than 30 once my older sister lost interest and magnanimously handed hers over to me. The two of us did our part to keep Mattel in business in the 1970s and 80s: We had a Barbie camper van and convertible, a horse, and the Barbie “Dream House”—two, in fact, as our first one was crushed when I attempted, as a toddler, to get inside it. Our Barbies included one with hair that grew, one with an eye that winked, and one that could leave a kiss. Of course, all had Barbie’s signature blond hair and blue eyes.
A few years ago, on a trip back home to Chicago, my dad asked me to sort through old boxes in the basement and toss what I no longer wanted. Among the bedraggled Barbies I discovered in a box of old toys was my highly-prized “Mexican” Barbie, the only doll I ever owned that had dark hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. Introduced in 1980, “Hispanic Barbie” wore an off-the-shoulder blouse, red skirt, black flamenco-style heels, a black lace shawl, and rose choker at her neck—what I now recognize as a stereotypical, quasi-”Spanish” outfit. As a child, though, her features made me feel seen, and being reunited more than 40 years later brought a smile to my face. She was one of the few toys that made the cut and was shipped to California, only to end up in a storage bin in my garage.
I forgot about her until this week, when higher ed leader Dr. Annmarie Caño shared a photo of her Hispanic Barbie in a LinkedIn post reflecting on Latinx Heritage Month. Her words deeply resonated with me: "As I progressed in my career, [Hispanic Barbie] reminded me that I did not have many Hispanic or Latina models for how to be a professor, researcher, and leader. . . . Times are changing and I'm happy to see more Latinas and Latine folk being recognized for their contributions, AND we are still undervalued, overlooked, and marginalized for the good work we do to uplift our communities and lead from our values."
Dr. Caño inspired me to take Hispanic Barbie out of storage and bring her to work. She now lives on a bookshelf alongside the Chicana/o literature I studied in grad school as a reminder of the limited representations of "Latina" I encountered while growing up, and how my journey through higher education enabled me to discover and contribute to a much richer understanding of our cultures, histories, and communities.
Do you have anything from childhood—whether in a basement, garage, or in a place of pride in your home or office—that is a symbol or reminder of your personal or professional journey? How did it once shape your own sense of identity and belonging, and how you imagined your future self? How might it enable you to start a conversation with students about how you have grown in your understanding of who you are and what drives you? And most importantly, consider how often you still make time to “play,” whether with youngsters in your life or the time you set aside for your current hobbies and passions. Let’s not lose that sense of imagination, wonder, and fun innate in all of us!
Sincerely,
Magdalena L. Barrera
Vice Provost for Faculty Success
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Updates from the Center for Faculty Excellence and Teaching Innovation
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Panopto is an excellent video sharing and storing tool that is integrated in Canvas. It is similar to Canvas Studio, but there are a few main differences:
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For students to upload or record videos in Panopto, instructors must first create an assignment folder in Panopto. Then create an assignment using the text entry option for the submission type. Feel free to share this page on how to submit a Panopto assignment with your students. Also, please advise your students to not use the Canvas app when using Panopto. Panopto’s features work best on a browser.
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- Introduction to Teaching and Thinking with A.I. -- September 24
- A.I. Literacy & Prompt Engineering -- October 15
- A.I. Grading, Detection, and Policies -- October 22
- A.I. Assignments and Assessments -- November 12
Register for the series with a CSU domain. Once registered, you can attend sessions live or view recordings from the Zoom event portal. Recordings will be available in the portal shortly after each session.
Visit Systemwide Generative AI Resources to learn about other online resources, systemwide activities, and recent publications available across the California State University.
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Hybrid meetings offer flexibility, as participants may attend in person or remotely. It's more than simply streaming your presentation. Instead, the virtual and live aspects should be planned together, providing both audiences the opportunity to equally engage with one another. Learn the strategies for implementing inclusive and collaborative hybrid meetings. We’ll cover steps you can take before, during and after meetings to ensure an engaging experience for yourself and your participants.
The workshop will be held on Thursday, October 3 at 2:00 pm in IRC 202. This one-hour workshop is for faculty and staff. To participate, please register in advance.
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When is the challenge?
Our challenge will begin on Fix Your Content Day on October 3rd which is a 24 hour global competition to create more inclusive digital content. It will end on October 31st. So you have the whole month of October to improve the accessibility of your course content, but the estimated time commitment is only a few hours!
How can I participate?
Register using the SJSU Document Accessibility Challenge Registration Form. Then use Ally in your Canvas courses to improve the accessibility of your course documents. The most common barriers to students are: missing headings, missing alternative text, or scanned PDFs. Ally provides step-by-step guidelines; just click on the colored gauge icons in your Canvas course.
Upon successful completion, you’ll receive a badge and certificate and you’ll feel great knowing you’re breaking down barriers to learning!
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Looking to incorporate Geographical Information System related topics, such as visualizing your data on a map into your curriculum? Esri licenses are available for both you and your students that provide software for both individual and collaborative projects.
Here are some resources to help with learning and teaching ArcGIS:
Some of the available Esri products:
Visit the CFETI ArcGIS webpage for information about our campus available licenses and upcoming workshops.
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Congratulations to the following Faculty!
Afshan Huma |
Amber(Gintare) Kizniene |
Angel Ruiz Blanco |
Bahar Shahsavarani |
David McFeely |
Deanna Fassett |
Desia Bacon |
Erik Johnson |
Fangjun Xiao |
Gary Castro |
Jessica Fraser |
Johanna Blandino |
Kyoung MiChoi |
Laura Guardino |
Lisa Walker-Vischer |
Marjan Khatibi |
My Ngoc Nguyen |
Olinda Mar |
Peggy Cabrera |
Rachel Turner |
Radha Aravamudhan |
ren williams |
Renee Billner-Garcia |
Sadhna Diwan |
Seher Vora |
Shawn Vecellio |
Singmay Chou |
Tsu-Hong Yen |
Vivian Wong |
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Are you already thinking about next semester? Don't forget to set up Library Course Materials (LCM) in Canvas. LCM works with your Canvas shell as a reading list and repository for easy access to class readings, including journal articles, ebooks, physical books and more. A course with more than one section can create one resource list shared across all sections depending on instructor preferences. Find more information at libguides.sjsu.edu/LCM
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Have you explored Padlet’s features yet? Padlet is a fun collaborative tool that is integrated into Canvas. Students can post text, images, videos and links for ungraded ice-breaker activities or formal graded formative assessments. You can also import your Jamboards and Flips! Both of which will be discontinued at the end of September.
Important note: Students’ Padlet posts will not show in the Canvas gradebook. Any grading must be done manually.
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Get Ready for the ATXpo 2024 at UCSF!
Monday, October 7th, 2024 | 8 am to 3:30 pm
UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center
The 2024 ATXpo (Academic Technology Expo), a one-day event hosted at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. This in-person event brings together faculty members, instructors, students, and academic technology staff/practitioners from Saint Mary's College of California, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Santa Clara University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, and the University of San Francisco to share, discuss, and promote effective practices for teaching and learning with technology, all the while generating collaborative opportunities with our regional colleagues. The 2024 ATXpo will feature plenary sessions, dozens of IdeaLab sessions, lunch, student and faculty panel discussions, and a closing social/mixer. For more information, please review the ATXpo website.
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September
20: Sabbatical: Chair’s Statement sent to candidate
27: RTP: Dossiers closing and submission date
October
10: BRIDGE meeting for Chairs and Directors, 12:00 - 1:15pm
14: Range Elevation: Department recommendations sent to candidate
21: RTP: Department-level reviews due in eFaculty
22: Sabbatical: College Committee recommendation and ranking sent to candidate
25: RTP: Department recommendations sent to candidate
November
11: Campus closed
14: BRIDGE meeting for Chairs and Directors, 12:00 - 1:15pm
15: Sabbatical: Dean’s recommendation and ranking sent to candidate
25: Range Elevation: College Administrator recommendation sent to candidate
27: Non-instructional day
28-29: Campus closed
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How to ‘Feel Seen’ in Academia: “In not seeing each other, we also often feel unseen ourselves. Our efforts feel unvalued, our challenges feel unappreciated, and our victories feel uncelebrated. So what is the solution? How do we feel seen in this context? And, just as importantly, how do we see our academic colleagues who have the same need to feel seen?”
Make It Awkward!: “[A]wkward moments aren’t cringeworthy. . . . [O]nce we realise the true nature of awkwardness, we can stop seeing it as an individual failure and start seeing it as an opportunity for social change.”
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Do you have a story, highlight, reading, or tip that you would like to share in this newsletter? Please reach out anytime to [email protected] .
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Contact Us
Magdalena L. Barrera, Ph.D.
Jennifer Redd, Ph.D.
Senior Director
408-924-2734
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