Wilson Nitunga smiling at the camera. Wilson is a young, Black man wearing a blue suit and tie.

Wilson Nitunga, Keynote Speaker

Fall Faculty Focus is on Tuesday, September 17.

We will spend the day exploring our roles as educators in a present and future that includes generative AI (artificial intelligence). Fall Faculty Focus is an event during orientation week that provides space and time for faculty to come together and share ideas, get inspired, have fun, and gear up for the year ahead. This event centers faculty and Instructional staff, but it is open to other staff who find the content relevant to their work at Clark and would like to attend.

All attendees must register. Please register by September 10.

Attending on Zoom? Here is the Remote Fall Faculty Focus Information. Thanks!

8 am - 9 am; Student Center

Welcome!

8 am- 8:30: Chat with colleagues and have some coffee or tea, muffins, and fruit as we settle in for the day.

8:30 - 9 am: We will begin introducing the day, participating in a warm-up activity, and prepping for the keynote speaker.

9 am - 10 am; Student Center

Keynote Speaker

We are so excited to welcome Wilson Nitunga, who is a faculty member at Portland Community College involved in the Center of Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Computing. He will be sharing his own academic journey from "at risk" student to college faculty, instructional and relational strategies to develop the best possible support system for students, and innovative ways to use AI for enhanced teaching and learning.

Wilson came to the United States with his family at the age of 12. He was born in Burundi and spent 10 years in a refugee camp in Tanzania before being resettled to Tucson, Arizona and, a year later, moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It was an enormous cultural shock and he struggled to adapt on many levels. He was labeled as an at-risk student starting middle school.

Fast-forward twenty years, Wilson is now on the faculty at Portland Community College in teaching Business & Entrepreneurship, while helping the department integrate Generative AI into its curriculum. In 2020 he was named one of Portland’s 40 Under 40. Wilson will share how he went from a struggling teenager to a successful academic, entrepreneur and consultant.

Wilson’s focus on AI has allowed him to become an avid AI user in everyday life and an AI Curriculum Integration Lead. He has successfully completed the Applied Data Science Program through MIT professional education. Wilson has given numerous workshops around integrating AI tools and frequently attends AI conferences & workshops to stay in the know of the latest trends.

When he is not in the classroom, Wilson works with organizations on student engagement, leadership, and the incorporation of technology and generative Artificial Intelligence into education. Wilson is the founder of WK Social, a digital agency revolutionizing the way businesses brand themselves and engage digitally.

Wilson believes in closing the opportunity gap…TODAY!

10:15 - 12:15; Student Center

PPI 101: Understanding the Influence of AI

This Power, Privilege and Inequity training is eligible for Clark College's antiracist training program.

Power, Privilege and Inequity 101: Understanding the Influence of AI, provides a foundational understanding of key concepts related to power, privilege, and inequity, and how these concepts can impact identities. As we discuss these concepts, we will explore how AI can amplify or mitigate these issues and examine the implications of AI development and usage.

12:30 - 1:30; Student Center

Lunch!

Catered by Bleu Door Bakery. There will be meat, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options. We will provide sparkling water, Spindrift, and Coke, and there are refillable water stations throughout campus. If you are planning to attend, please register by September 10 so that we have a good count for lunch, seating, and assessment purposes. No need to register twice if you've done it already : )

1:45 - 2:45 pm

AI and DEIA: A Starting Point; Library Instruction Lab (LIB 103)

Join Clark Librarians Laura Nagel and Marisol Moreno Ortiz in an interactive session to learn about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it intersects with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Explore how this impacts your work and what you can do to minimize risk and use AI in ethical and effective ways. This is a great opportunity to take a deeper dive into equity issues related to AI after our morning PPI session.

Engage Your Students: Improve Your Course With AI Art!; PUB 258 B and C

Join Jennifer Baran, Transitional Studies Professor, in this workshop on using AI art to engage students, support learning, and improve diverse representation to promote belonging. Engaging students takes some creativity, and let's face it: Canvas can look a bit dull. Many activities are just a bunch of words on a screen. If there are any images, they are usually just clip art or from a Google search. Since there are different types of learners, adding images and videos helps engage more students. AI text to image is one method to customize your online materials, and you can use it for your in-class handouts, too!

There are numerous benefits to using AI art. In this session, you can learn how to generate images tailored to your course, your students, and your activities. There will be a demonstration showing the step-by-step process of adding AI imagery to activities in Canvas. As with all new technology, there are limitations and controversies. Open conversation is encouraged at the end of the session.

Artificial Intelligence: Powerful Learning Tool or the Easy Way Out?; PEC Center (GHL 022)

Join Dani Depuy-Grobbel and Dena Al-Mousawi from Clark's Penguin Early College (PEC) Center for an exploration of how AI can be an asset to enhance learning. Description of Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, faculty will:
Understand how to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their teaching practices in fun and creative ways.
Learn methods to teach students about ethical AI use and academic integrity, and hold them accountable to those standards.
Learn to identify signs of academic dishonesty involving AI.
Develop a growth mindset regarding AI's role in education.

AI and Universal Design for Learning; GHL 205

Join Lindsey Schuhmacher from the Teaching and Learning Center for an exploration of generative AI tools that help brainstorm ideas for universally designed lessons, activities, and more! See live examples of using AI to apply UDL guidelines: multiple means of representation, engagement, and action/expression. Share ideas for how AI can support us in our work towards culturally inclusive teaching and active learning. Tools we will explore: Magic School, Goblin Tools, and Gemini.

Open Lab: Explore AI Tools!; SHL 135

Join Reference Librarian Andrew Shaman in Scarpelli Hall 135 for an open lab where you can explore AI tools in the company of your colleagues! This will be an informal session where you are free to try things out, play, and investigate. There will be a handout from the Teaching and Learning Center with a list of potential AI tools to practice with, as well as some prompts and ideas for trying them out. The last 15-20 minutes of the session will be a discussion with peers about your experiences - which tools did you find useful and might try again? Can you imagine using these tools in your lesson planning or with your students in class? What questions and concerns do you have?

3:00 - 4:00 pm

A Way Forward: Appreciative Joy and Valuing Adversity in Times of Transition; PUB 258 B and C

Join Professors Tanya Diaz-Kozlowski and Sarah Blanchette for a joyful and creative session. Collective exhaustion, grief, racial trauma, accelerated efforts to privatize medical care, limit access to affordable housing and food, instability in instructional leadership, and increased stress and tension are coalescing as COVID-19 shifts from pandemic to endemic. Structurally reimagining diversity, equity, and inclusion in educational institutions is rooted in fostering appreciative joy, belonging, and connection (embodied) among faculty which cannot be tended to by using the master’s tools of productivity, hustle and grind, and hyper individualism.

An overreliance on artificial intelligence through disembodied and asynchronous communication coupled with holding fast to fear is cultivating a kind of artificial intimacy among Clark College faculty. Our relational capacities as people, as educators, are atrophying. Now is not the time to push through, to write more emails, schedule more Zoom committee meetings, create more committees, hyper focus on outcomes and deliverables, to do more, or pretend this is the ‘new normal’. We’re out of alignment.

Appreciate joy, not artificial intimacy, is a way forward. How could teaching with and valuing appreciative joy possibly make a difference in such difficult times and turbulent transitions? The kind of joy people tend to chase after usually depends upon circumstances that they may or may not be able to control. On the other hand, appreciative joy is our innate ability as human beings to delight in what’s good in the present moment, independent of our external circumstances or perceived successes. Appreciative joy is an essential quality for mindful educators because it provides us with more balanced perspectives, a foundation for conflict resolution and resilience, and a tool for healing and liberation.

The fall faculty focus is an important time for faculty to pause, to connect as community, to witness each other, and reorient ourselves to ourselves as colleagues and human beings. Faculty are leaders at Clark College. We are the change we've been waiting for. So let's build a campus culture in which people embody appreciative joy and prioritize learning, collaboration, transparency, trust, and boundaries. This is possible! Come cultivate appreciate joy and support it in your colleagues as a way forward in transition.

Baby Steps to Authenticity: Using Small Teaching to Nudge Writing Pedagogy into the AI Age; GHL 205

Join English Professor Toby Peterson for some active learning with colleagues. This session is inspired by Baby Steps—the fictional book penned by Dr. Leo Marvin in the cinematic classic What About Bob?—and informed by Small Teaching, the real-life pedagogical approach championed by educational theorists James Lang and Flower Darby. Small Teaching champions “small but powerful modifications to our course design and teaching practices” (Lang, 2016). In this hands-on workshop, participants will plan a brief (5-10 minute) class activity, one-time course intervention, or small modification in course design or delivery that responds to the proliferation of artificially intelligent chatbots and their potential impacts on student writing. Participants should bring an existing class syllabus, lesson plan, and/or assignment to work on.

AI and Information Literacy in the Classroom; Library Instruction Lab (LIB 103)

Join Librarians Katy Anastasi and Laura Nagel for discussion and collaborative resource-building. Information literacy requires us to think critically about how we obtain, evaluate, and use information. How has artificial intelligence changed the way we practice information literacy? How do you and your students use AI to find information? How do you evaluate information with a lens critical of AI? What constitutes "ethical use" of AI in your classroom, your discipline, and your everyday life? Join Clark Librarians for a thoughtful discussion and collaborative review of AI literacy guides from other community colleges. Our conversation will lay the groundwork for a similar AI literacy guide at Clark Libraries.

Open Lab: Explore AI Tools!; SHL 135

Join Reference Librarian Andrew Shaman in Scarpelli Hall 135 for an open lab where you can explore AI tools in the company of your colleagues! This will be an informal session where you are free to try things out, play, and investigate. There will be a handout from the Teaching and Learning Center with a list of potential AI tools to practice with, as well as some prompts and ideas for trying them out. The last 15-20 minutes of the session will be a discussion with peers about your experiences - which tools did you find useful and might try again? Can you imagine using these tools in your lesson planning or with your students in class? What questions and concerns do you have?

Stopped Listening: Co-Creation of Knowledge in the Age of AI; GHL 213

Join Keynote Speaker Wilson Nitunga for a deeper dive into his talking points from the morning session. Explore instructional and relational strategies to develop the best possible support system and relationship with every student, including AI best practices for teaching and learning. Bring your questions.

4:10 - 4:30 pm; Student Center

Takeaways and giveaways

Please come and say goodbye to your colleagues, share some takeaways from our day of learning together, and have a chance to win fun prizes! There will also be information on upcoming learning communities. And candy, of course.

Information and Resources

Modality

This year, Fall Faculty Focus will be held in person on Clark's main campus. If you cannot attend in person, there is a Zoom option. People who attend on Zoom will receive a keynote video to watch in the morning, and Zoom options for the afternoon sessions.

Food and Beverages

There will be coffee, tea, muffins, and fruit in the Student Center before the keynote, and lunch will be served there at 12:15 - 1:15. Lunch will include meat, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options. We will serve sparkling water, Coke, and Spindrift, and there are water refill stations throughout campus, so bringing a water bottle is a great idea. The bookstore will also be open and will be selling the usual array of snacks and drinks.

If you need a snack or a cup of coffee during the day, you can also visit the Teaching and Learning center (TLC) Commons in GHL 206E, and we will leave some things out for you.

Maps and Locations

Fall Faculty Focus sessions will be on the main campus, mostly in Gaiser Hall, Cannell Library, and the Penguin Union Building. Here is the Gaiser/PUB map with elevators marked. The campus map has a checkbox for gender inclusive restrooms that will show you where to find those around campus.

Accommodations

If you need an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please contact Clark College's Human Resources office by phone at 360-992-2105 or by email: hr@clark.edu. Sign language interpretation is scheduled through Disability Access Center - contact Angela Childers at achilders@clark.edu. Please don't hesitate to ask questions or let us know if there is a way we can support you.

Adjunct faculty Compensation

Fall Faculty Focus is a workday for full time faculty.

Adjunct faculty can receive compensation for their attendance. Adjunct and part time faculty who attend the full day (keynote and afternoon presentations) will be paid a stipend of $200 by the Teaching and Learning Center.

Adjunct attendance form

This attendance form will be due no later than Friday, September 20 in order for payment to be processed. Please note that the full day includes the welcome, keynote, two afternoon sessions, and the takeaway.

Please note that if you are not able to attend the keynote and both afternoon sessions, your stipend will be adjusted accordingly. You are welcome to attend any portion of the day : )

The morning PPI trainings are also compensated - the college pays for one mandatory PPI training for adjuncts each academic year. This is a great time to get that checked off your list! Contact the Administrative Services Manager of your unit to let them know if you attend a PPI training (these are not paid by the TLC).