most all students these days have a 'smart phone' of one sort or another. another way to sort, tapping into cultural/geographic diversity resources, is ask them to line up by number of MacDonalds in the city/town where they grew up. they all know how to type in that or something similar and quickly get a rough estimate of how many, then you just group: more than 50 (houston?), ..., none (yellow springs, ohio). always good on the first day to find some 'gimmick' that breaks the ice between students, might be funny, gets them wondering all the implications or meanings of your directive - becomes a great discussion point about tbl too. Dean Dean Parmelee, M.D. Robert J. Kegerreis Distinguished Professor of Teaching Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Boonshoft School of Medicine Wright State University Dayton, Ohio http://www.med.wright.edu/aa/parmelee.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hInNy-O_h8 On Aug 1, 2013, at 10:09 AM, Tom Brown wrote: > I have a very diverse class with many international students and recent immigrants. I use gender, first language and # of years in Canada to create balanced teams... > > -Tom > > On 2013-08-01, at 7:01 AM, "Winter, Liz" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> Hi Judith, >> >> From my perspective, computer skills may be predictive of academic success (I am not familiar with the research, but it makes sense intuitively). >> >> I think you could probably find some data to support regular participation in physical activity as positively correlated with academic success, but participation on varsity athletic teams may behave differently depending on the school, sport, conference, etc.. >> >> I would be cautious about computer ownership, since this may end up acting as a proxy for socio-economic status, particularly if your factors disclosed to students. >> >> I teach graduate Social Work courses, so I have a number of course and profession-related factors to draw on. I sometimes use distance between school and place of origin, since it helps to distribute cultural backgrounds and views among teams, which is of great value to Social Work education. >> >> Good luck with your course! >> >> Liz >> >> Liz Winter, Ph.D., LSW >> Academic Coordinator and Clinical Assistant Professor >> Child Welfare Education for Leadership Program >> School of Social Work >> University of Pittsburgh >> >> 2327 Cathedral of Learning >> Pittsburgh, PA 15260 >> Phone: 412-648-2371 >> Fax: 412-624-1159 >> >> >> NOTICE: The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by person or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Judith Garrison >> Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2013 8:39 AM >> To: [log in to unmask] >> Subject: TBL & Freshmen >> >> I am another newbie who will be starting TBL this semester in a class of freshmen and have been thinking about team assets. Since my class is college orientation and information literacy there are not the obvious or traditional assets. I have been thinking about using participation on athletic teams and maybe some basic computer skills or computer ownership. Anyone want to share some ideas on this? >> >> -- >> Judith S. Garrison, M.L.S. >> Head of Reference & Instruction >> Lane Library >> Armstrong Atlantic State University >> 11935 Abercorn Street >> Savannah, GA 31419 >> >> 912.344.3012 >> [log in to unmask] >> >