Today I am taking part in the Creative Assignments Faculty Institute at Lied Library as one of the presenters. This two-day event allows instructors to participate in workshops which focus on creating assignments which are not a research paper. The workshops include data visualization, oral history, service learning, Wikipedia editing, and my own workshop; smartphone video creation. Over coffee and pastries, one of the facilitators had us participate in the least obnoxious icebreaker I’ve ever tried. It was actually a lot of fun and I am definitely going to try it out at one of my own workshops.
It is the Three Minute Self Portrait. Here’s how it works:
Participants are given three minutes to create doodles that represent them. For this event, we were asked to create doodles which describe our personal life, subject area, and teaching philosophy. Overachievers were welcomed to include an actual self-portrait. I am, of course, an overachiever. I sketched a headset with microphone for my personal life because I am an avid gamer and spend a lot of time online. For my subject area, I drew a pot of soup. I feel like it’s my job to dip into the pot of emerging technology to see what can be useful for learning. I also drew a very crooked Nike swoosh to represent my teaching philosophy. Since I show people how to use tools, I usually take a “Just Do It” approach to learning.
What would your doodles be?
Leah Howd 