Lessons from the Googleplex: How Silicon Valley Corporate Culture Can Inform the College Classroom

This session will present how faculty can utilize social technologies such as e-mail, Facebook, and even the LMS outside the classroom to replicate the best elements of Silicon Valley corporate culture within the classroom. We will explore the potential of such technologies to leverage faculty-student interactions for more effective student learning and engagement. Special attention will be afforded to research on building a faculty-student relationship and its relevance to learning science. Recommendations will be offered to guide faculty to design opportunities and identify potential roadblocks in the creation of more dynamic and productive classrooms to advance student success.

Outcomes: Learn what makes Google corporate culture unique and how it can be replicated through social technologies and course design in the college classroom * Articulate how the freedom to fail in intellectual pursuits can nurture student learning and engagement * Generate 3–5 specific ways you can make your courses more experimental and relationship-based to promote student learning and engagement