To overcome difficulties brought on by the pandemic, it's taken copious amounts of grit by people from all walks of life. In the Season Two finale, Ray Schmitt, Zach Lonsinger, and Renea Nichols discuss how they've seen grit brought to life by fellow Penn Staters.

Episode transcript

As a first-generation college student, Renea Nichols came to know how differing backgrounds shaped how she and her peers navigated the higher ed world. Now, as an assistant teaching professor in Penn State's Bellisario College of Communications, Nichols puts that experience to use to help give her students an equitable experience. With the pandemic providing even deeper context around students' inequalities, Nichols joins co-hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger to talk about how she combats it, how to advocate for deeper change, and more.

Please Note: As Penn State prepares for more in-person instruction during the summer and fall 2021 semesters, changes have been made to the technology loaner program that's mentioned in this episode. Please visit the University's Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites for more details.

One Penn State 2025

Episode transcript

When the pandemic shut down in-person instruction at Penn State, assistant teaching professor Renea Nichols traveled to Arizona to live with family. From there she continued to teach her Bellisario College of Communications students, and worked hard to keep them engaged with the course materials. In this episode, Nichols talks with co-hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger about how her idea of student engagement has evolved, what student engagement could look like in a post-pandemic world, and more.

The Gorilla Glue story

Episode transcript

Welcome to Season Two of The Dreamery Sessions! Join Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger in getting to know this season's guest co-host Renea Nichols. An assistant teaching professor in the Bellisario College of Communications, Nichols has a strong track record of innovative and creative teaching methods. Their conversation touches on Nichols' teaching background, how she used technology to help virtually welcome a cohort of first-year students, and more.

Penn State's LEAP program

How Nichols created a virtual office and classroom

Explore Bitmojis

Episode transcript

We're back! This episode features a conversation with Jennifer Sparrow, associate vice president for Teaching and Learning with Technology and deputy chief information officer at Penn State. She shares her approach to leading the organization through COVID, lessons learned from the pandemic, and more. Also, Ray and Zach set the table for The Dreamery Session's full Season Two coming later this spring, highlighted by the announcement of a special guest co-host who will be a part of each episode.

Show Notes:

Tech Tutors and Tech TAs

Learn more about our new guest co-host

Episode transcript

How does an idea grow into something greater? What's needed to take an instructor's inspiration for improving students' communication skills and turn it into a course that has the potential to impact tens of thousands of students at Penn State? Susan Russell, associate professor in the Penn State School of Theatre and former Penn State Laureate, and Cyrstal Ramsay, manager of faculty programs with Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State, joined The Dreamery Sessions to discuss the Moral Moments project and how the Penn State community made its growth possible.

Show Notes:

The Moral Moments project

Episode transcription

How do you stand out among over 40,000 students at Penn State's University Park campus or among the nearly 100,000 combined Penn State students when you add the Commonwealth Campuses and World Campus? Let us introduce you to Carly Siegel and Khaled Khalil, two undergraduates at University Park who are taking advantage of available resources to make an impact on their education and their peers' education.

Show Notes:

Penn State's active and experimental learning spaces

Lion Launchpad SLO

Episode transcript

Penn State Greater Allegheny is advancing digital fluency by undertaking a project to provide free access for its students and faculty to iPads. The project has been in existence for a little over a year and it took a great deal of collaboration among administration, faculty, and staff to bring it to life. In this episode we talk to Dr. Jacqueline Edmondson, chancellor and chief academic officer at Greater Allegheny about the strategy and implementation of the digital fluency project along with Larry Dupak and Lori Hepner, two faculty members making use of the iPads in their coursework.

Show Notes

Penn State Greater Allegheny

Daniel Foster has taught agriculture teacher education, global agriculture competency, and more at Penn State since 2009. Yet, until this fall he has never taught in an experimental classroom. ASI 110 is a newly-renovated learning space that welcomed faculty and students for the first time at the start of this academic year. Foster spent some time with Ray and Zach discussing why he's excited to teach in the space, what used to stress him out as an instructor, and what makes him love agriculture education. In this episode, come for the edtech talk and stay for Daniel's Texas-sized personality and country music expertise.

Show Notes:

Robert's Rules of Order

Penn State's most recent enrollment snapshot showed over 97,000 students across the University. What's one thing they all have in common? They have free access to 3D printing! One of their fellow students, Walter Bain is a maker-in-residence at Maker Commons on the University Park campus. He helps to make sure thousands of prints are completed each semester, educates visitors about 3D printing, and prints some pretty impressive things himself. He sat down with Dreamery Sessions hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger to talk everything 3D printing and how it has impacted his experience as a Penn State student.

Thingiverse

Maker Commons

3D Printing at Penn State

Walter Bain, Maker-in-Residence transcription

Disclaimer: 3D printing copyrighted material at Penn State's Maker Commons is not allowed.