Facilitating Across Difference: IGD Tools for Everyday Teaching
Date: Friday, February 6, 2026 (noon-1:00 p.m.)
Location: Merrill House
Facilitator(s): April Baptiste and Carolyn Hsu
In 2014, Intergroup Dialogue was first introduced at Colgate and since then, has been dynamically engaged by faculty, staff, and students at curricular and co-curricular levels. Intergroup Dialogue (IGD), founded in the early 1990s at the University of Michigan, is “a face-to-face sustained and facilitated dialogic methodology that asks participants to listen deeply across difference, to bravely share their own stories, and to commit to taking action to create a world where all can fully realize their humanity.” This teaching table offered an open conversation about IGD pedagogy in curricular courses, drawing on the facilitators’ experiences of incorporating IGD to build dialogue in their classrooms, as well as the unique experience they created through a co-taught course with extended study abroad. The facilitators shared some advice about how to weave IGD into a syllabus and to implement activities to foster an environment for dialogue through systemic awareness.
Reflective Writing for Learning
Date: Monday, February 9, 2026 (noon-1:00 p.m.)
Location: Lathrop Hall, 107 Conference Room
Facilitator(s): Jenn Lutman and Emilio Spadola
Research in Writing to Learn (WTL) consistently demonstrates that reflective writing can support students’ learning in multiple ways. During this teaching table, we reviewed examples of (WTL) assignments and highlighted two approaches from the presenters. Jenn shared an assignment she calls students’ “WRDs” (Writing, Reading, & Discussion reflections), an in-class practice in which students handwrite responses to prompts designed to help them clarify each day’s learning outcomes. These entries accumulate in a graded journal, offering insight into students’ engagement and creating a record of how their thinking evolves across the semester. Emilio shared his recently developed “Reflection & Response Journal” or RRJ assignment, a cumulative document of weekly entries in which students respond to assigned texts and complete mini-research exercises paired to the week’s key theme or theory. Having introduced the RRJ in spring 2025 with introductory anthropology students and revised it for 200/300-level courses in fall 2025, Emilio described the practicalities and positive outcomes of the assignment as well as course-specific adjustments made and recommendations for continued use in the AI age.
The Attention Economy and Reclaiming Cognitive Sovereignty
Date: Friday, February 13, 2026 (12:15-1:15 p.m.)
Location: Lathrop Hall, 107 Conference Room
Facilitator: Doug Johnson
Drawing on the history of the “attention economy” (Herbert Simon 1971), this teaching table invited faculty from all disciplines to discuss how we can help students cultivate cognitive sovereignty, which we will define as the agency to control their own attention. Modern digital infrastructure is optimized for capturing attention from moment-to-moment as well as providing algorithmic recommendations and instant responses. Yet deep reading, writing, and learning are inherently difficult; they require cognitive friction, ambiguity tolerance, and sustained attention. This disconnect is creating a challenge for educators and learners, where students increasingly view the struggle of learning as a system error rather than a feature. Discussion explored how to build “attention-aware” pedagogies, how to address the “continuous partial attention” driven by mobile tech, and how to create classroom environments that protect the time and space required for rigorous scholarship.
Learning, Coursework and AI: Communicating What We Do (and Why)
Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026 (noon-1:00 p.m.)
Location: Lawrence Hall, 105 Ho Lecture Room
Facilitator: Jeff Nugent
In the college classroom students and faculty alike recognize a range of common and expected practices: shared readings, class discussions, writing assignments, and exams. These are accepted as so normal, that their absence in a course would be seen as surprising. However, perspectives about the use of AI technologies in coursework is far from being normalized. Students receive mixed messages about how AI can impact their learning while engaging in commonly accepted educational practices. At the same time, faculty would likely agree that there are certain things they want students to do where AI is simply not involved! How do students perceive faculty guidance about the ways in which AI can directly undermine learning? What might it look like to normalize non-AI use as a common practice, and an expected part of certain learning experiences? How can faculty and students co-create language to support shared expectations for cognitive development? During this open forum discussion, colleagues gathered for a lively brainstorming session to consider these and other questions.
Student Perspectives on AI
Date(s): Tuesday, March 10, Tuesday, March 24, and Tuesday, March 31, 2026 (noon-1:00 p.m.)
Location: Lawrence Hall, 105 Ho Lecture Room
As a continuation of some conversations sparked during the mid-January UnConference on AI, the CLTR organized a series of three panel-style discussions focused on student perspectives around the use of AI in education. The panels featured students serving in peer-facing roles (e.g., Writing and Speaking Center Consultants, Digital Learning and Media Center - Media Mentors, and Academic Tutors) who will reflect on how AI is showing up in their work with fellow students. These conversations fostered a supportive and respectful environment in which students and faculty engaged in meaningful dialogue about the ways they see the use of AI having an impact on teaching and learning. Each session began with a set of framing questions, followed by open Q&A among all participants.
Peeling Back the Curtain: Making “Invisible” Skills Visible at Colgate
Date: Friday, April 17, 2026 (noon-1:00 p.m.)
Location: Lathrop Hall, 107 Conference Room
Facilitator: Jessica Murray
We often tell students what to learn, but how much time do we spend discussing how they learn? Metacognition is a cornerstone of academic success, yet it often remains an “invisible” skill with no designated space for explicit practice or instruction. Jessica designed this teaching table as a collaborative open forum “temperature check” for faculty and staff to discuss the metacognitive climate of our campus and explore the ways we support student success together. Participants shared real-world observations of student behaviors, traded strategies for “peeling back the curtain” on the learning process, and considered where our students excel—and where they struggle—to take ownership of their intellectual growth.