Colorado State University-Pueblo history professors attract national media attention

PUEBLO – Colorado State University-Pueblo faculty members Dr. Jonathan Rees and Dr. Fawn Amber Montoya are in the national spotlight this month with Rees writing about classroom technology in the national higher education publication Inside Higher Ed while Montoya will debut this weekend on C-SPAN 3 teaching a class on the Ludlow Massacre.

Rees is quoted extensively in an Inside Higher Ed article, “To Flip or not to Flip,” that addresses alternative learning approaches to the traditional classroom lecture. Rees was pleased to be sought out as an expert on the topic and says the article sums up where he is related to the use of technology in his own classrooms. 

Rees writes that today’s education technology can change classroom dynamics by restructuring interactions between professors and their students.  He admits that such technology can eliminate the need for a set meeting time and can greatly expand the audience for the work that students do, but he suggests that just posting a lecture online doesn’t address the issues with the lecture format itself. He recommends that faculty who are interested in education technology should consider redesigning everything about their classes rather than just trying to recreate different features of existing face-to-face courses in an online environment.

“There are now more than enough good tools available for faculty to tear their classes down and build them back up in a digital environment without making themselves obsolete in the process,” Rees said. “The key is that faculty themselves must be the ones to decide which tools work for them and their students and which ones don’t.”  

Rees believes changing an approach to teaching should be based on a better educational experience for students, not just because it’s the hip thing to do.

The complete article may be found here: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/09/13/harvard-professor-reverses-course-online-lectures-debate-over

Montoya will teach a 50-minute class on the Ludlow Massacre that will debuts this Saturday at  8 p.m. & midnight ET on C-SPAN 3. The taping occurred in a CS 101 course filmed last spring at CSU-Pueblo.  The lecture focuses on the Ludlow Massacre and its impact on communities and families in Southern Colorado.  Montoya was co-chair of the Governor-appointed Ludlow Massacre Centennial Commemoration Committee and has presented on the Ludlow Massacre within communities of Southern Colorado, at History Colorado, and at national conferences.  Her book Making an American Workforce: The Rockefellers and the Legacy of Ludlow addresses the impact of the Ludlow massacre on a national and international level. 

“This was an excellent opportunity to share an important historical event that occurred in Southern Colorado with the rest of the United States,” Montoya said.

Once the class debuts, it will be available in its entirety at this site:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?425236-1/ludlow-coal-miners-strike-massacre

CSPAN also podcasts all classroom programs here:

https://www.c-span.org/podcasts/#lecturesInHistory

In addition, people who cannot access C-SPAN 3 can watch the stream of the network by logging in with their TV provider credentials:

https://www.c-span.org/networks/?channel=c-span-3

Colorado State University - Pueblo is committed to excellence, setting the standard for regional comprehensive universities in teaching, research, and service by providing leadership and access for its region, while maintaining its commitment to diversity.

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