#FYE15 – recap and resources

So earlier this month I attended the 34th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience in Dallas, Texas.  This was my first trip to Dallas, at least where I left DFW, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

As the ACRL liaison to the National Resource Center on the First Year Experience, I thought I should take the chance to talk to this group about the Framework and what it might mean.  I wasn’t sure about what audience I would get, so I decided to focus on teaching — because that is of interest to faculty, teaching librarians and program administrators alike.

As it turns out, my audience was pretty mixed between those 3 groups — I probably should/could have given more background and justification given that there was a substantial non-library presence, but honestly, there probably wasn’t time.  Anyway, after a quick overview, we brainstormed learning activities. It was a facilitated discussion, and only 50 minutes long, so there was only so much the group could do, but I was really impressed with the activities they came up with and the depth of the conversation.

Here’s the handout summarizing the Framework (PDF on Google Drive)

Group 1’s Daily Show activity.

Group 2’s first-year seminar focused syllabus investigation activity.

Group 3’s 21 Questions activity.

The rest of the groups spent more time talking about specifics — possible metaphors for different parts of the research process, techniques like concept mapping and the like — and didn’t come up with step-by-step activities.  But they were all great.

And now — what about Dallas?

For the record, this is good coffee.

This is Downtown’s (Un)parked Library

The real public library was just a few blocks from the conference hotel.

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So was the Pioneer Cemetery.  This is the Fowler plot, highlighting Juliette Abbey Peak Fowler — one of the few women so highlighted.

The Farmer’s Market was pretty awesome.

This dog park is epic

And finally, on my first night, this was the sound when I left the hotel.  It was everywhere.  It drowned out traffic noise.  As it turned out, it was only an evening thing — but it was memorable.