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Technology Conversation – EP. 16 – Center for Teaching Excellence

Anchalee Phataralaoha: Welcome to our podcast, Technology Conversations, where we discuss technology related topics from how to find resources for your technology needs to how technology can impact our lives. My name is Anchalee Phataralaoha, and I will be your host.

Today, we welcome Alex Bitton-Bailey, Director of Center for Teaching Excellence or CTE. Hi, Alex and welcome.

Alex Bitton-Bailey: Hi, thank you so much for inviting me.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: Thank you for being here. Before we start, share with us your background and your journey to the University or UF.

Alex Bitton-Bailey: Absolutely. So I grew up in Montreal where my family emigrated from Morocco. And I went to a very rigorous school in Montreal primarily because my parents didn't have the opportunity to get an education, and they wanted the best possible education for us. And I think that's where my love of learning really began. And years later, when it was time to go to college, and I'm a first -generation student and I was an international student at UF back when there weren't that many international students quite a while ago, I visited different campuses but I was very young and I didn't know very much about higher education and I picked the University of Florida to attend for my undergraduate simply because the campus was beautiful. That's a really simple and sometimes I feel silly reason to have picked a campus, but it really was the start of my experience in higher education and really thinking about what this future might hold for me.

I finished my undergraduate degree really quickly. I then moved to Virginia for a year. And then when I came back to Gainesville, since there's a very small Francophone community, and that particular year, they were short a couple of TAs to teach intro to French classes. Somebody reached out to me and said, “Would you like to get a master's degree and teach a few classes for us?” And I thought, gosh, that should be pretty darn easy, because French is my first language. I can teach this with my eyes closed. And I was truly drastically wrong. Teaching something that you know that well can be really difficult, more difficult than you can imagine, because you don't even remember learning it. And so I don't think I was a very good instructor that for semester. I think the thing that saved me was that I actually cared a lot about my students and wanted to do well for them. I've had a lot of experiences since, including some instructors that really showed me how to think about language and language learning that transformed that for me. And I began to see that teaching was probably my life's work. And I love it. I stay in touch with my students. I see them traveling the world and doing amazing things. And it brings me immense joy.

And in my current role, that is one of the things I have the pleasure of doing is sharing the love of teaching with others and so as the Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence, in part that is my role is helping others gain that just deep appreciation and love and joy in teaching.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: Tell us more about CTE or Center for Teaching Excellence.

Alex Bitton-Bailey: Absolutely. So the Center for Teaching Excellence started in late 2015. It is a center really dedicated to continuously improving and supporting teaching at the University of Florida for all of our faculty and for all of our graduate students as well who do any kind of teaching. So since 2015 we've grown significantly and we really are entirely dedicated to supporting folks who teach in any modality and in any college through different programs that we run so from courses to workshops to faculty learning communities through our online resources and our podcast through consultations and special one-on-one programming. We really try to create opportunities for everyone to meet everyone's needs at whatever career stage they are at. So from new faculty to faculty who've been here for a while and just want to continue to grow their expertise, or folks who see the classroom changing and want to explore new and unique ways of preparing their students.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: So in your role, do you see any changes over the years, especially since technology has been more involved as part of the teaching and learning?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  Yes, I think we've always been cognizant of it and I think one of the beauties of the Center for Teaching Excellence is that we partner with teams across campus to offer complementary opportunities for development. So working with folks like CITT (Center for Instructional Technology and Training) or COIP (Center for Online Innovation and Production) or instructional designers across the campus, or librarians, so that we can really think about both our teaching practices and how technology can support, supplement to that.

I see some significant changes over the years, in particular in the space of, you know, recently AI. AI has been a huge topic that we've been approaching and trying to really find ways of helping folks think about what that might look like in their classroom and for their students.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: And what services that you provide?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  We try to meet people's needs where they are. So we offer things like the Passport to Great Teaching, which is a certificate program where you can earn badges or certificates in, I think, 10 different areas of specialization. We also offer courses like the Teaching Excellence Academy or the Great Online Courses. We offer one-off workshops that are either run by CTE folks or some of our partners from different units across campus or faculty who are doing exceptional things and want to share their practices. We also offer things like Cafe Conversations, which are tiny opportunities for faculty and staff to come and share one practice that they've embedded in their class that's been impactful and then engage in conversation. So it's a very relaxed, fun time to talk. We offer Teaching Sparks, which are tiny 30 minute, one little nugget of information. And we offer faculty learning communities such as the Harnessing AI for Teaching and Learning, the Research in Teaching and Learning, or AI Research and Teaching and Learning, Promoting Well-Being, which is another learning community we're offering this year. And every year those topics change, but some are offered on a yearly basis. And then we have a big teaching and learning conference that we do every spring called Interface and we do a Research in Teaching and Learning Symposium the same week.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: So are they on campus?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  They are on campus and they are free. Every service and conference we offer is free to all UF faculty, staff, and graduate students.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: And they are one-day events?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  Yes, Interface is a one-day event and RiTL (Research in Teaching and Learning) is a one-day event as well.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: What do you think is the key to success in teaching?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  There are a couple of things I think are really key. I think it's the desire to continuously grow because we're never done, we're never the best and last version of ourselves and we want to be adventurous and try new things that align with who our students are in that moment. So I think that curiosity, that adventurous nature, is one piece. I also think, and this seems very simple, but there's a lot of research behind it. So you can look at the Gallup Big Six Experiences, you can look at research on teaching and learning over the years, and one of the things that has the greatest impact on students and really on faculty contentment in their work is that the students felt cared for and the faculty cared for their students. It's that ability to connect as humans and emotionally that really increase your impact significantly. And it seems like a simple thing to say, right, that you can do in very simple ways, you know. But it has a huge, huge impact on our students. I think those are two of the big things that I would mention that are easy to do in some ways and have life-changing repercussions.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: So if anyone would like to get in touch or get more information, how could they do that?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  Super easy. So our website is one of the easiest websites to remember. It's teach.ufl.edu. And they can check out our services and learn about all of our team members there. And they can find my email address on there as well. And everyone is welcome to email me at any time.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: Any final thoughts?

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  I think what I want to encourage us as a university and as faculty to think about is that we are really one community committed to this work. And so finding our people and connecting with others who share that love and enthusiasm is really important. So if it's with our Center or with one of the other centers that supports your work, find your people.

Anchalee Phataralaoha:  Thank you Alex for spending time with us today.

Alex Bitton-Bailey:  Absolutely, thank you for inviting me.

Anchalee Phataralaoha: And that's it everyone, and we will see you next time for a topic of interest in IT.