| The Multimedia Showcase includes video interviews
and more detail, depth, and perspective on the innovative approach
than can be provided in the Portfolio. |
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See technology note to
download required players. If you need further assistance,
please email the CII: cii@wwu.edu
Enjoy the show! |
| Loving Learning |
Running time:2 minute,
41 seconds |
Dr. Edward Vajda hopes to instill a love of learning in students who take his courses in linguistics, Russian, and Asian culture and history. Through his own enthusiasm and infectious interest for his subject, students begin to engage with the material and develop a love for learning that can extend beyond their college career into their future lives. |
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movie
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| The Nomads of Asia |
Running time: 3 minutes,
45 seconds |
There are many parallels between the Mongols of the 13th century and the United States today. Students in Dr. Edward Vajda's Nomads of Asia course learn about many of these parallels, including the fact that the Mongols were the lone superpower in their time, allowed freedom of religion and established the world's first transcontinental free trade zone. There are even military parallels between the Mongol Empire and modern America. Focusing on such unexpected similarities makes the course relevant and stimulating.
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movie
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| Learning Russian |
Running time: 2 minutes,
53 seconds |
| Learning Russian is a very interactive enterprise in Dr. Edward Vajda's first-year Russian classes. He teaches entirely in Russian, and allows the students to understand the Russian vocabulary by using contextual cues. Dr. Vajda also brings in Russian culture to make the course more interesting and engaging.
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movie
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| The Ket People |
Running time:6 minute, 27 seconds |
Dr. Edward Vajda spent a year in Siberia studying the Ket people, one of the last hunter-gatherer groups in Asia. There are only 1200 Ket left, and their language is dying out, perhaps to be gone within a generation. Ket is an isolate, like Basque in Spain, completely unrelated to neighboring languages, and contains many typologically rare linguistic features. At the end of the clip a native speaker of Ket tells a folk-tale in her native language, "How the Cuckoo Came to Be." |
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movie
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| Educating Global Citizens |
Running time:3 minutes,
1 second |
Dr. Edward Vajda's research on the Ket peoples in Siberia brings information and experience to his classroom that wouldn't be possible if he had just read about it in a book. Studying such an unusual language allows Dr. Vajda to bring in many examples to his linguistic classes of a language that isn't in a textbook, thus inspiring his students to become interested in different groups of people in different parts of the world.
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movie
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Technology Note:
Because the Innovative Teaching Showcase is an annual web publication,
each year's set of Multimedia Showcase pages was designed to provide
the best playback experience for the user, given available streaming
video technologies at WWU in the year it was developed. For this
reason, the various showcase pages may require your web browser
to have Flash, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or the Real
Player browser plugins. The player that is required is indicated
below each video clip. More information is available on the How
to Use This Showcase page.
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