Let's Talk Teaching @ Western Technical College: Recent Episodes
Academic Excellence and Development
In this podcast, hosted by Maria Slusarek, Quality Assurance Mentor, and Larry Sleznikow, Instructional Technologist, we interview faculty and staff at Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin about how they teach and support teaching and learning at Western.
In this episode, Maria and Adam interview Western Instructors Cindy Prindle and Jennifer Stangl about their not-so-secret secret of classroom success: therapy dogs Murphy and Ruben. We learn about different types of working dogs, their handlers, how they can help in teaching and learning, and ask the important question: should all of us humans get trained to be therapy dogs too?
In this episode, we meet with two members of Western's Project Proven team, Colin Walsh and Dillon Mader. Project Proven is Western's initiative to offer classes to justice-involved people while they are in the La Crosse County jail. We learn the differences between jails and prisons, take a philosophical detour, and how classes work "inside".
You can find more information about Project Proven on Western's website and, as we learn in the episode, they also have really cool merch.
This podcast is a discussion with Cate Hollowitsch, an adjunct instructor at Western, Chief Marketing Officer, Author and Speaker. We discuss with her thoughts on teaching and the use of AI in the classroom and her profession. She presents practical application uses of Generative AI.
This is a discussion with two instructors from Integrated Technologies Programs, Jacob McAllister and Nathan Crowder. We discuss their personal experiences with AI, their thoughts for it's future, and how it impacts them and their students.
All are welcome, please enjoy!
In this episode, we interview Western's new Instructional Technologist (and soon-to-be podcast co-host), Shawn Fredrick. We hear his origin story and what technologies he would marry, befriend, and avoid.
Julie Christensen, Community-Based Learning Specialist and Grace Janssen, Work-Based Learning Specialist at Western Technical College join Maria and Larry to talk about their journeys to Western and how they help faculty and students incorporate work-based and community-based learning opportunities into student's experiences while at Western.
Amy Poteet teaches Communication Skills in the General Studies division at Western Technical College. She discusses her long career as an educator and how she became a pioneer in teaching online. Her passion and excitement for online course design, student engagement, and accessibility are evident in her stories, and you will leave the episode with many ideas for how to enhance your own online teaching.
Western now has a new faculty developer! Karen Sorvaag joined Academic Excellence in August 2022 and brings with her a wealth of teaching experience. She'll be working with Western faculty, both full-time and adjuncts, to help enhance their teaching.
Roxanne Smothers teaches hospitality management at Western. This interview covers a wide range of topics including adding video to your Blackboard courses and how to best connect with your students. You don't want to miss it!
Kristin Born is a chemistry instructor at Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. This interview discusses her creative process for using videos for instructional delivery and student success. She has been using video in her classroom for over a decade! The content in this episode covers a wide breath of tips and tricks that directly applies to instructors' current classrooms!