Institute for Innovation in Education

An incubator of ideas, projects, and collaborations

2017 Ann Arbor Gathering: Projects

Digital Storytelling with Twine: A Mightiest Mini-Story Jam Showcase

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.

Contact:

Trying to introduce games into the classroom, but struggling to engage the girls in your classroom? Join the presenters and participants from the mightiest mini-story jam as they showcase the work they produced during Sunday’s iiE workshop. The game jam was a high-tech creative exercise where participants crafted their own wild adventures and wield the power of Twine to breathe life into plots and characters. The project poster will provide a brief overview of educational game design and Twine, a free computer program that allows users to create interactive, nonlinear stories akin to the “choose-your-own-adventure” stories that became popular in the 80’s and 90’s. Applications and implications for the classroom will be discussed, with special attention to how teachers can utilize Twine to capture the attention of girls with STEAM. Showcased games will be relevant to educators and the Gathering’s theme of “Wonder Together.”

Feminism Is

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contact:

The Access Feminism Project is a project that has been compiled by a masters student at Michigan State University. The goal of this project is to help educate people about intersectional feminism and the expanded scope that feminism can have while involving many issues.


Feminism is for everyone, and the topics that are displayed here reflect an angle of feminism that is both diverse and intersectional. Not every feminist shares the same ideals or ideas, but this project aims to explain some of the issues that can be important within the feminist movement. This is by no means a complete list of all the topics that feminists can have interest in, but it is a start in order to better explain feminist topics for a newcomer to feminism.
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Hopefully this project will help people better understand the many facets of intersectional feminism and provide a starting understanding about its importance in our lives.

Reinventing Homework

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.

Contact:

Critical insights and observations of redefining the purpose of homework to increase student self-efficacy that can be translated into the classroom and beyond by means of 5 keys to successful homework.  Why continue doing something that doesn’t work?

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Hopefully this project will help people better understand the many facets of intersectional feminism and provide a starting understanding about its importance in our lives.

Rhythm and Race

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contact:

Our project is a documentary created by High School students on the history of African American music in Grand Rapids. Rhythm and Race takes a look not only the music but the historic social and economic conditions of the African American community in Grand Rapids. We worked with The Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archive as well as the Grand Rapids Public Library on this project.

Institute for International Teaching

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contacts:

  • Toko Oshio
    Assistant Professor, Education Department, University of Michigan-Flint
    toshio@umflint.edu
  • Suzanne Knezek
    Associate Professor, Education Department, University of Michigan-Flint
    knezek@umflint.edu
  • Sapna V. Thwaite
    Associate Dean, School of Education and Human Services, University of Michigan-Flint
    sapnav@umflint.edu
  • Melissa A. Sreckovic
    Assistant Professor, Education Department, University of Michigan-Flint
    msreck@umflint.edu

The School of Education and Human Services at the University of Michigan-Flint is developing an Institute for International Teaching where we will invite educators from all over the world to learn about our innovative ways of teaching in higher education. At this gathering, we would like to hear your thoughts about this institute. For example, what countries may be interested in the program? What do you think administrators and faculty would be most interested in learning about? What extra-curricular activities (culture, shopping, food) should the program include? How do we build and sustain community during and after the program (e.g., Facebook page)?

Mindfulness in Education

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contact:

Mindfulness has been a hot topic in schools and education. This project is designed to explore research and resources related to mindfulness.

Legally Speaking…

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contact:

Developing an online course that looks at how law affects the educational system including teachers, parents, and student’s rights both inside and outside of the classroom.

Meemic Foundation Grants

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.

Contacts:

Williams Insurance Agency of Southeast Michigan proudly serves the educational community. We are Meemic agents and happy to be in a position to give back to teachers and their classroom projects! Let’s chat about how we can support you! Contact us anytime! WilliamsInsuranceMichigan.com.

Wholemindesign Studio for Teaching and Learning

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contacts:

  • Diane Tamblyn

Service to people and their ideas inspires what we do at Wholemindesign Studio. We want to empower you to have positive impact in the lives of others by supporting and invigorating your professional growth within a hopeful, rejuvenating, and collaborative environment.

At Wholemindesign we believe that knowing how to think like a wholeminded~wholehearted designer enables you to turn your ideas into action and drive positive change in people’s lives. Designers are question posers, problem finders, connection seekers, and solution generators. Designers know how to create choices and when to make choices. They are curious, flexible, resilient, empathic, and strive to build coherence between people and ideas. No matter what your work is in the world, at our studio you will be equipped with new tools and creative strategies to move your ideas forward in service to others.

EDT631 Online Collaboration Tools and Methods

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contacts:

Graduate students from the recent course “Online Collaboration Tools and Methods” will be on hand to share information about the new educational technology tool reviews and resources they created as part of their collaborative group project during the course. Stop by to chat with them about the new pages they have published on the iiE website. Learn about some technology tools you might not know about, provide feedback about their work, contribute suggestions for for links, or ideas for iterations of the pages that could be undertaken by future students in the course. EDT631 is designed to provide participating students with an introduction to online collaborative tools and methods for success when working within remote teams. A key outcome of the course is participation in an online collaborative project to the develop and publish educational technology resources.

Piano Lesson Design: Hand Practice

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contact:

Exploring teaching techniques for exercises to improve hand issues and linking these techniques to typing and ergonomics. A work in progress to create a resource board (electronic and physical), with key points, pictures, exercises, notes, drawings, and best practices that can be followed to improve hand issues after injury. This project is designed to help with ergonomics, posture, stress level, and stretching to lessen and prevent hand pain during piano practice.

Design Thinking with littleBits

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contact:

Explore, design and problem solve using littleBits. littleBits (http://littlebits.cc/) — pre-engineered electronic modules that allow users to create in a Lego-style format, providing interactivity rather than static Lego bricks. littleBits come in kits or “libraries” that allow users to interchange modules by snapping them together to create circuits with varying functions. Be prepared to play and have fun while creating with others!

Menlo Innovations Tours and Workshops

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.

Contact:

Menlo Innovations provides innovative consulting to our clients through education and training, software design and development, and cultural transformation. We do all of this using the Business Value of Joy. We enjoy sharing our knowledge with others through tours of the Menlo Software Factory and workshops around The Menlo Way.

EMU SEL Collaborative

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contacts:

Based at Eastern Michigan University, this collaborative will develop brave spaces (virtual and in-person) in which stakeholders can share/co create Social/Emotional Learning practices, ideas, stories in order to develop educational systems that provide its members with the opportunity to become the best version of themselves.

Multi-Genre Projects

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contacts:

With multi-genre projects, learners of all ages can deepen their understandings about a topic and broaden their writing repertoires, and you can enjoy reading the fruits of learners’ work!  See examples of multi-genre projects and discuss ways to use them effectively in teaching.

United People of Faiths

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.
  • Additional collaborators welcome.

Contacts:

  • Jeff Stanzler
    Director, Interactive Communications & Simulations (ICS)
    School of Education, University of Michigan
    stanz@umich.edu

United People of Faiths is a simulation in which participating high school students are charged with creating a multi-faith school from the ground up. The parameters include a floor plan, calendar, curriculum, menu, inter-faith services, and a dress code that honor a variety of religious beliefs. Communication among groups in different schools will be done through online tools with the support and guidance of university students and professors. Through character and role-play, along with the introduction of difficult decision points, a wide range of values, cultural practices, and norms will be explored in a thought-provoking, yet safe environment.

Using the Tools You Have

  • Will be at Project Showcase on June 26.
  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.

Contacts:

Create a website easily using templates and embed  google docs, forms and sheets along with video and communication tools. See how to create a webpage that will help you present ideas, encourage communication and contribution, assess and organize assessment data. You can even contribute to conversations and monitor progress from the convenience of your phone! An example site is available here.

Build Inclusivity and Community into Your Summer!

  • Will be at iiE Design Mindset collaborative project work day on June 27.

Contact:

Design an online summer activity for the incoming class at the University of Michigan around the topics of The Digital Divide, and Building a Diverse and Inclusive Community. Our thematic question: Is digital access a human right?