Thank you to everyone who attended this year's ATLC!

The 19th Annual Advancing Teaching and Learning Conference at Texas Tech University was held virtually via Zoom on Friday, February 24, 2023. Check out the information and resources shared during this conference below!

This year, our featured speaker was Dr. James M. Lang, a former Professor of English and the Director of the D'Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. Read more here.

This engaging teaching conference has a well-established history and a strong reputation in our area. The conference pulls in faculty members, staff, and graduate students from our region including Texas Tech, Midland College, South Plains College, Wayland Baptist University, Lubbock Christian University, West Texas A&M, and others. Past speakers include Ginger Clark, Emily Miller, Peter Felten, Sandra McGuire, Stephen Brookfield, George Kuh, Diana Halpern, Josh Eyler, Kevin Gannon, Mays Imad and others. 

Morning Session:

Teaching Distracted Minds: Old Challenges, New Contexts (10:30 – 11:45 AM)

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Faculty concerns about distracted and disengaged students have intensified in the wake of the pandemic, but our real focus should be on how we help students achieve attention. This keynote draws upon scholarship from history, neuroscience, and education in order to argue that distractions are endemic to the human condition, and can't be walled out of the physical classroom or online course. Instead, we should focus on creating educational experiences that cultivate and sustain attention. Participants will learn about a variety of potential pathways to developing such experiences for their students.

Afternoon Session:

Teaching Distracted Minds: Attention to Community – (1:30 – 2:45 PM)

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Attention is a gift that we can give to our students, and that students can give back to us, their classmates, and to the course material. When faculty pay closer attention to the needs of individual students, we're more likely to find that attention returned to us. The lens of attention research thus can help us think more clearly about how we cultivate community and belonging in higher education. This interactive session will explore some of the ideas presented in the keynote in greater detail, and orient them more directly toward the creation of learning communities in our courses.

Check out these resources & suggestions from both sessions:

• Speaker Biography
• Be a Good Steward of Attention
• Engaging Virtual Students
• Participation Statement Example 
• Utilizing Name Plates
• Recommended Reading

For questions about the ATLC, please contact Molly Jacobs.