We are excited to announce and invite you to the 11th ANNUAL UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT LANGUAGE FEST on Sat, May 2nd, 2020 in Oak Hall.

Language Fest is a University-wide research conference that brings together the full community of language researchers at UConn, including undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty, for a day of sharing results, ideas, methodologies and fostering future interdisciplinary collaborations.

We are excited to announce that our Keynote Speaker this year will be Dr. Alfonso Caramazza, the Daniel and Amy Starch Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.

In addition to the Keynote, data blitz, and poster session, we are also pleased to announce a new item to this year’s program: the Language Fest Graduate Symposium, a cohesive cluster of graduate student presentations that showcase the community’s interdisciplinary approach to the Language Sciences. If you are a graduate student or undergraduate student working on language, please start thinking about presenting a poster about your project(s) at the conference!

Further details about the program and submission process will follow in Jan/Feb 2020.

For general inquiries about Language Fest, please contact: Katherine.Vlahcevic@uconn.edu.

We look forward to your participation!

Sincerely,

UConn LangFest Organizing Committee

Jennifer Mozeiko

Erika Skoe

Umay Suanda

Cynthia Boo

Elizabeth Collins

Crystal Mastrangelo

Ashley Parker

Yanina Prystauka

Amanda Wadams

Noelle Wig

Kara Vlahcevic

Professor, Educational Psychology 

University of Connecticut

 2131 Hillside Rd., Unit 3007

Storrs, CT 06269-3007

860-486-2754

Office: Tasker 2

On behalf of the Neag School of Education Learning Sciences Search Committee, we invite you to participate in candidate visits . . .

 

Dr. Vanessa Vongkulluksn

Search Candidate, Learning Sciences

 

The Learning Sciences Search Committee is pleased to welcome Dr. Vanessa Vongkulluksn as a candidate this week on Thursday, December 5, 2019.  She is currently the School-based Research Lead and a Postdoctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology, Department of Educational Studies’ Research Laboratory for Digital Learning.  Vanessa holds a Ph.D. degree in Urban Education Policy from the University of Southern California, with a concentration in Educational Psychology and Quantitative Methods. She has focused her research on examining factors that impact learning and motivation in technology-integrated contexts. Her additional research interests include the development of digital literacy skills and their influence on children’s academic motivation and achievement in technology-rich learning environments. She has over five years of experience in school-based research and statistical analyses of data related to learning, cognition, and motivation.

 

Dr. Vongkulluksn will give both a research presentation (10:30-11:30, Tasker 12) and co-facilitate a teaching discussion (9:00 am – 10:00 am, 340D) which are described below.  We hope that students and faculty alike can come to one or both of these events. The teaching discussion is intended to be an opportunity to reflect on a shared problem of practice that teachers in higher education wrestle with.  Please come to one or both of these events!

 

Research Presentation

Teaching and Learning in the 21^st Century: Affordances and Demands

5 December, 10:30-11:30

Gentry 340D

 

The widespread permeation of digital technology has brought new possibilities for supporting students in their learning process. At the same time, it gives rise to new skills students need in order to be successful both inside and outside the classroom. In this presentation, Dr. Vongkulluksn will discuss research that stand at this critical junction. She will describe her research that examined how technology affords new avenues for learner support and the psychological factors that are central to positive student experiences in digital environments. She will also discuss research that illustrated how students develop key 21^st century skills such as information literacy and self-regulation, as well as what educators can do to support these developmental processes. The two strands of her research work together to examine technology and learning from both sides: what a technologically-driven world demands and offers. They both are key to understanding how learning occurs in the modern era and how to leverage advance technology towards creating learning environments that lead to student success.

 

Teaching Discussion

Facilitating Inclusive Classroom Discussions:

How to Encourage Diverse Student Voices in Higher Education

5 December, 9:00-10:00

Tasker 12

 

One key goal in higher education is to help students express their ideas during classroom discussions and relate class content to their own personal and professional experiences. Participating in classroom discussions not only help students better understand class content, but also motivate students to find personal relevance in what is being covered in class. An important issue related to this teaching endeavor is how to help students from diverse backgrounds feel comfortable and confident about participating in classroom discussions, especially in sharing personal stories that may seem different from the typical narrative. A related issue is how to encourage typically quiet students to participate. Dr. Vongkulluksn and Dr Wilson will co lead a discussion on different approaches and strategies to tackle these issues. Creating an equitable and supportive classroom environment is essential to helping diverse students succeed in higher education.