The Dreamery Sessions

A TLT podcast

These are the stories of how innovation happens at Penn State

At Penn State, “Driving Digital Innovation” and “Transforming Education” are two crucial elements of the Strategic Plan that is moving our University forward. Every day there are students and faculty who deliver on those themes through their coursework, research, and more. “The Dreamery Sessions” is here to bring you their stories and show how our community supports innovative, creative ideas that possess the power to revamp higher education in positive ways.

Episodes of “The Dreamery Sessions” are co-hosted by Ray Schmitt – public relations specialist at TLT – and Zach Lonsinger – learning experiences designer at TLT. A pair of Penn State graduates themselves, Ray and Zach are excited to bring you conversations with inspiring Penn Staters.

“Dreamery Sessions” episodes will publish bi-weekly beginning on August 26, 2019. The first season will feature seven episodes and conclude on November 18. The show’s second season will launch in January of 2020. Listeners can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you have feedback or suggestions for future guests, you can mention them in a review, or reach out to the guys on Twitter; Ray is at @radio_ray and Zach is at @ZachLonsinger.

Stream “Dreamery Sessions” episodes

Get to know co-hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger, and hear about what the first season of the Dreamery Sessions has in store.

Click here for Episode 0 transcription

Co-hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger talk with TLT leadership about the themes of digital fluency, innovation, creativity, and emerging technology. 

Click here for the Episode 1 transcription

 

SOC 119 is one of Penn State’s most popular courses with over 700 registered students each semester. Did you know, thanks to modern streaming technology and a dedicated student production team, it also has a worldwide audience? Tune in to hear about the inspiration for streaming every class live online, what it takes to pull it off, and more.

Click here for the Episode 2 transcription

 

Did you know that every Penn State student has free access to 3D printing technology? Hear our conversation with maker-in-residence, and Penn State student, Walter Bain who helps make it possible.

Click here for Episode 3 transcription

Thingiverse; Maker Commons; 3D printing at Penn State 

Disclaimer: 3D printing copyrighted material at Penn State’s Maker Commons is not allowed.

At the start of this academic year, ASI 110 opened as a re-designed learning space that would allow for experimentation, collaboration, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Daniel Foster, an agriculture education instructor who has been with Penn State since 2009, jumped at the chance to teach in the new space. Tune in to find out why.

Click here for Episode 4 transcription

Robert’s Rules of Order; Bloom’s Taxonomy; John Dewey; Hayes Carll; Corb Lund; Global Teach Ag Initiative; Daniel Foster Twitter

What did it take for Penn State Greater Allegheny to provide free iPad access and use to all of its students and faculty? How has that technology impacted teaching and learning there? That’s what this episode of the “Dreamery Sessions” strives to find out.

Click here for Episode 5 transcription

Penn State Greater Allegheny; Adobe Creative Cloud at Penn State; Træna municipality in Norway; iNaturalist; MC Escher; Tessellation

How do you stand out among over 40,000 students at Penn State’s University Park campus or among the nearly 100,000 combined Penn State students when you add the Commonwealth Campuses and World Campus? Let us introduce you to Carly Siegel and Khaled Khalil, two undergraduates at University Park who are taking advantage of available resources to make an impact on their education and their peers’ education.

Show Notes:

Penn State’s active and experimental learning spaces

Lion Launchpad SLO

Episode transcript

Over the course of a few years, Moral Moments has grown from an idea to a course that is impacting faculty and students throughout the Penn State community. How did it happen? Former Penn State Laureate and assistant professor in the School of Theatre, Susan Russell and TLT faculty programs manager Crystal Ramsay help break it down.

Show Notes:

The Moral Moments project

Episode transcript

We’re back! This episode features a conversation with Jennifer Sparrow, associate vice president for Teaching and Learning with Technology and deputy chief information officer at Penn State. She shares her approach to leading the organization through COVID, lessons learned from the pandemic, and more. Also, Ray and Zach set the table for The Dreamery Session’s full Season Two coming later this spring, highlighted by the announcement of a special guest co-host who will be a part of each episode.

Show Notes:

Tech Tutors and Tech TAs
Learn more about our new guest co-host

Welcome to Season Two of The Dreamery Sessions! Join Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger in getting to know this season’s guest co-host Renea Nichols. An assistant teaching professor in the Bellisario College of Communications, Nichols has a strong track record of innovative and creative teaching methods. Their conversation touches on Nichols’ teaching background, how she used technology to help virtually welcome a cohort of first-year students, and more.

Penn State’s LEAP program

How Nichols created a virtual office and classroom

Explore Bitmojis

Episode transcript

 

When the pandemic shut down in-person instruction at Penn State, assistant teaching professor Renea Nichols traveled to Arizona to live with family. From there she continued to teach her Bellisario College of Communications students, and worked hard to keep them engaged with the course materials. In this episode, Nichols talks with co-hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger about how her idea of student engagement has evolved, what student engagement could look like in a post-pandemic world, and more.

The Gorilla Glue story

Episode transcript

 

As a first-generation college student, Renea Nichols came to know how differing backgrounds shaped how she and her peers navigated the higher ed world. Now, as an assistant teaching professor in Penn State’s Bellisario College of Communications, Nichols puts that experience to use to help give her students an equitable experience. With the pandemic providing even deeper context around students’ inequalities, Nichols joins co-hosts Ray Schmitt and Zach Lonsinger to talk about how she combats it, how to advocate for deeper change, and more.

Please Note: As Penn State prepares for more in-person instruction during the summer and fall 2021 semesters, changes have been made to the technology loaner program that’s mentioned in this episode. Please visit the University’s Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites for more details.

One Penn State 2025

Episode transcript

 

To overcome difficulties brought on by the pandemic, it’s taken copious amounts of grit by people from all walks of life. In the Season Two finale, Ray Schmitt, Zach Lonsinger, and Renea Nichols discuss how they’ve seen grit brought to life by fellow Penn Staters.

Episode transcript