Episode 032 - Cornelia Lang

This month, Leading Lines has a pair of episodes that look at the use of laptops in the classroom. Both episodes blow up the assumption that laptops are for notetaking, and they push back on that transmission model of college teaching. Both episodes explore the use of active learning classrooms, classrooms that are outfitted with a range of educational technologies, from movable furniture to whiteboards to good wifi to AV systems, designed to support active and collaborative learning In this episode, we talk with Cornelia Lang, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Iowa. Cornelia teaches one of Iowa’s “Big Ideas” courses, which are large-enrollment, interdisciplinary, team-taught courses that satisfy general education requirements. And she teaches this course in one of Iowa’s active learning classrooms. In the interview, she talks about the kinds of hands-on, laptop-enabled activities she engages her students in when she’s got access to the affordances of an active learning classroom. Links • Cornelia Lang’s faculty website, http://astro.physics.uiowa.edu/~clang/ • TILE at the University of Iowa, https://its.uiowa.edu/tile • Big Ideas Courses at the University of Iowa, https://teach.its.uiowa.edu/initiatives/big-ideas-courses