Lilly Conference reflections: 2019 edition

I recently spent three wonderful days at the 39th Original Lilly Conference on College Teaching at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This is the fifth time I’ve been able to attend this conference and have been privileged to present at the conference all five times as well. As I said in my post last year, if you can afford the time and money, I highly recommend attending this conference which is held the weekend before Thanksgiving every year.

The last two years, I’ve talked about my experiences combining specifications grading with learner-centered teaching. This year I focused on just specifications grading, leading a three-hour pre-conference workshop and delivering a conference presentation. I've blogged about specs grading here and here. I also volunteered to host a discussion table during lunch on Saturday for the first seven people who signed up to eat with me and discuss specs grading. All three events seemed to go well with lots of participant interaction and positive responses from the participants.

I’ve said it before, but every time I’ve attended Lilly, I’ve come away from the experience rejuvenated. When you spend time in conversations with others excited and interested in finding the best way to teach, how can you not become excited yourself? The conference attendees are a very friendly group of people. One has a sense of attending a homecoming and getting reacquainted with old friends when one attends Lilly.

I always come away from Lilly feeling like I was trying to drink from a fire hose; there is so much good information received in such a short time. I’m still mentally processing this year’s insights, so I’m simply going to provide a list of very briefly annotated quotes I wrote down while listening to presenters. They are presented here in the order in which I experienced them.

• “If you believe the words in your video are important, why wouldn’t you want all people to have access to them?” (Brenda Jo Brueggemann) Seems like a pretty obvious justification for captioning to me.
• “On quizzes, include questions about the new material, as well as previous material.” (Sheri Stover) Retrieval learning reinforces previous learning.
• “Cramming works for a day. A week later, you’ve lost most of it.” (Sheri Stover) Spread out the studying if you really want to learn the material.
• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” (Nelson Mandela) What more is there to say?
• “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” (Albert Einstein) If you can think, you can continue to learn.
• “Teaching is leading students into a situation in which they can only escape by thinking.” (Unknown) Sounds like a great situation to be in!
• “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of their tomorrow.” (John Dewey) As we learn of better ways to teach, we must adopt them.
• “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” (Eric Hoffer) We must be life-long learners, lest we get left behind.
• “Engagement requires both motivation and active learning.” (Elizabeth Barkley) One of them by themselves is not sufficient.
• “Rewards and punishment is the lowest form of education.” (Chuang Tzu) Carrots and sticks don’t work as well as other approaches.
• “Forget the mistake. Remember the lesson.” (Unknown) Move towards a growth mindset.
• “Unpredictability can generate emotional learning.” (Mike Pinter and Peter Giordano) Shake things up a bit and get people’s attention.

Share your thoughts below. What quotes resonate with you? What ones raise questions? Do you find fault with any of them?

Image credits: All images by Dave Largent