A talk and workshop with Dr. Ashley Holmes
Dr. Ashley Holmes is currently an Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at Oregon State University. Previously she served as an Associate Professor of English and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at Georgia State University. She is the author of Learning on Location: Place-Based Approaches for Diverse Learners in Higher Education.
This talk and workshop considered the question how can faculty across disciplines engage students through the power of place? Dr. Holmes introduced ways to engage students in meaningful learning experiences that connect with their identities, personal experiences, and the issues that shape their local and global communities.
In the talk, Holmes provided a framework for learning on location, demonstrating how this approach complements high-impact practices (HIPs), deepening student learning by rooting their experience within place. A learning on location framework calls on educators to remember that our campuses are located and to design assignments that ask students to critically engage with place, value diverse perspectives and traditions, and use reflection and praxis to move towards more inclusive and equitable learning experiences. Holmes highlighted three key practices of learning on location:
1) writing on location,
2) walking on location, and
3) engaging the civic on location.
In the workshop, Holmes invited participants to explore how they might leverage location in their courses and programs, brainstorming possibilities for where and how to locate meaningful learning. Participants received a copy of Dr. Holmes’ book.