{"id":21704,"date":"2015-12-06T10:34:21","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T16:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=21704"},"modified":"2015-12-06T10:34:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T16:34:21","slug":"apsu-professor-minoa-uffelman-using-skype-to-connect-students-with-scholars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2015\/12\/06\/apsu-professor-minoa-uffelman-using-skype-to-connect-students-with-scholars\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU professor Minoa Uffelman using Skype to connect students with scholars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – When Austin Peay State University history major Rick Casteel raises his hand in his \u201cThe South To 1861\u201d course, he knows that it\u2019s important that he say the right thing.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not because Casteel is worried about answering incorrectly, or impressing his teacher, APSU associate professor of history, Dr. Minoa Uffelman.<\/p>\n

\"APSU<\/a>

APSU professor Minoa Uffelman<\/p><\/div>\n

Having just read Cornell University professor Ed Baptist\u2019s study on American slavery, \u201cThe Half Has Never Been Told,\u201d the 58-year-old non-traditional student is forming the perfect question because he has a chance to meet face-to-face with the author himself \u2013 from his office nearly 1,000 miles from APSU\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n

Technology has made the world a much smaller place, and Uffelman\u2019s class is using the power of the internet and Skype video conferencing software to connect her students with scholars and authors from around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get a chance to ask questions of authors and scholars who wrote the works you just read, you want to make sure that you\u2019re well-read on the subject,\u201d Casteel said. \u201cAnd for me, knowing that (a question-and-answer with the author) was coming up made our studies more interesting, and asking good questions of the authors just made the fruits of our labor feel more worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working in collaboration with APSU Distance Education, and instructional technologist Bob Anderson, Uffelman has been able to connect students in her history courses with authors of important and informational works on subjects critical to the subject matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe integrate the study of these books throughout the semester, and each time we\u2019ve done (a Skype session), the students have really brought their \u2018A\u2019 games,\u201d Uffelman said. \u201cThe really great thing about using technology like Skype is that we\u2019re now able to connect APSU students here in Clarksville with preeminent scholars around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

University of Buffalo professor of history Carole Emberton recently penned \u201cBeyond Redemption,\u201d an award-winning look at violence in the South in the decades following the Civil War. A major part of Uffelman\u2019s \u201cThe South After 1861\u201d course, students were assigned Emberton\u2019s book before receiving a chance to chat with the teacher and historian through Skype.<\/p>\n

\u201c(\u2018Beyond Redemption\u2019) was one of the best books on southern history the year it was released; it\u2019s a really great, complex book and I threw our students into the deep end of the pool with this,\u201d Uffelman noted. \u201cBut the students digested the work and they had a great discussion with (Emberton).\u201d<\/p>\n

[320left]The rare chance to explore history with respected experts in the field has been invaluable for Uffelman\u2019s students, many of whom have more than a passing interest in the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to pick the brain of the author of a book you have just read is second to none,\u201d APSU student Jay Averitt said. \u201cReading can often become a passive experience, but the Skype session really brought the voice of the author to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some, a chance to converse with outside historians and professors goes beyond the subject matter. APSU history major Katelynn DiStefano, who noted her interest in both history and higher education, said the discussion with Emberton was an invaluable experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was amazing talking to an award-winning scholar in my field of study,\u201d DiStefano said. \u201cThe experience helped me learn about life outside of college and the world of academia that is not shown often in the college setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the first faculty to use Skype as a way to communicate with experts, Uffelman said she plans to continue its use in her classroom. Future courses, Uffelman said, will continue to incorporate scholars and published authors from outside APSU as a way to broaden her students\u2019 outlook.<\/p>\n

One future session, Uffelman said, will be with author and historian Rebecca Sharpless. An associate professor of history at Texas Christian University, Sharpless\u2019s study, titled \u201cCooking in Other Women\u2019s Kitchens\u201d explores the history of female African American workers in the South from 1865-1960 and their domestic work in the kitchens of generations of white families.<\/p>\n

As higher education continues look for ways to engage students, APSU President Dr. Alisa White credited Uffelman for her creativity in integrating modern technology into the classroom setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin Peay is nationally known for the use of technology to promote student success,\u201d White said. \u201cWhat may be a surprise to some is that technology is used very successfully in the classroom to broaden the student experience, and Dr. Uffelman\u2019s use of videoconferencing is a great example.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – When Austin Peay State University history major Rick Casteel raises his hand in his \u201cThe South To 1861\u201d course, he knows that it\u2019s important that he say the right thing. But that\u2019s not because Casteel is worried about answering incorrectly, or impressing his teacher, APSU associate professor of history, Dr. Minoa Uffelman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[509,22711,23,2751,11642,13778,7207,262,27273,1485,825,22957,27275,27276,4472,27277,25756,27272,703,27278,27274],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-5E4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21705,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21704\/revisions\/21705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}