When I return to SUNY Potsdam, I hope to establish a Center for Excellence in Education which will work with faculty to improve both their in class and out of class interactions with students. Part of the work of the center would be to provide seminars for faculty which would concentrate on the types of alternative instructional strategies the we have been learning in this class. I would also like to teach course to both in-service and pre-service teachers on the topics covered in this course.

1. Use collaborative writing techniques in web page design to anticipate where links go and to write content in an active voice.
2. Use critical thinking to evaluate web site - use a six hats activity for understanding of other view points.
3. Use various finger counts for voting or polling of a class.
4. Use icebreakers to help create a sense of community and trust in a class
5. Figure out which icebreakers work best in for the size of the class.
6. Use icebreakers to start people talking to each other.
7. Use reverse brainstorming to stop a negative train of thought especially in meetings (a frequent occurrence at SUNY Potsdam).
8. Have students develop a set of cards to hold up to express and opinion, example a light bulb for with a line through it for an idea squelcher.
9. Use brainstorming to collect ideas or perceptions.
10. Use celebrations to motive people to design web pages. Have the college establish a set of awards for different web pages. example, best page, most improved, best new page, most effective use of graphics.
11. Develop a workshop for faculty to introduce them to the ideas of motivation, creativity, critical thinking and collaborative learning.
12. Develop a course for graduate Education students to learn how to incorporate motivation, creativity, critical thinking and collaborative learning into their instruction.
13. Use critical thinking strategies like KWL, OPV and PMI to make people aware of their learning.
14. Use PMI as method for evaluating workshops and training.
15. In conducting a seminar on color, surround the room with color charts and colorful posters.
16. Use a computer classroom and have the monitors pre set to certain web locations to compare and contrast web sites.
17. Show faculty how they can change individual activities into collaborative or critical thinking activities. Example: Instead of putting a math homework problem on the board use a numbered heads activity.

The priority is based upon the time frame that these ideas could be carried out. For example I have already received permission to conduct a web design seminar in the fall semester. Other ideas will have to be cleared with the Provost at SUNY Potsdam before proceeding and thus are ranked accordingly.

• A rating of Immediate means the ideas will be implemented in the fall semester.
• A rating of Medium means it may be implemented in the fall semester or it may be later
• A rating of Late means it will be implemented at a later date (after I finish my graduate courseware).

For me this list developed through out the course. At the beginning I felt that I didn’t have enough information to create such a list. I have trouble brainstorming on thin air, I need something to attach the ideas to. However, once I have the information the ideas just start to flow, which is great. At this point I feel that I could go into any classroom, at SUNY Potsdam, and make recommendations to create a more learner centered environment.

At one point in this process I thought I wanted to have the ideas organized by class size and then type of strategy. At this point I don’t think this is necessary. However, I would like to build a database where ideas could be categorized by instructional strategy, class size, subject area, ease of implementation and source of the idea. This database could prove valuable when working with faculty for different areas.

I would also like to create some sort of flip chart based on creative thinking, critical thinking and collaborative learning that could be used to combine ideas much as we did in class, but this would have the function of being portable.