Helena Belio-Apaolaza and Maria Khotimsky were two of the the 23 winners of a Teaching with Digital Technology Award for 2021, chosen from over 200 nominees.
In its sixth year, the Teaching with Digital Technology Awards are student-nominated awards for instructors who have effectively used digital technology to improve teaching and learning at MIT. The awards are co-sponsored by Open Learning and the Office of the Vice Chancellor.
After the shift to remote teaching, instructors faced many challenges. Maria Khotimsky pointed out in her comments “I think this whole year was spent looking for new tools that encourage collaboration and communication”
Helena pointed out that she encouraged to be unmuted to give a sense of connection “and foster free-flowing discussion.” She also used Slack to be in touch outside of class time. These strategies were to build a sense of community.
Congratulations to Helena and Maria!
The winners were honored in a Zoom celebration on and June 3, 2021
Dr. Helena Belío-Apaolaza holds a Ph.D from the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain Her recent work focuses on nonverbal communication in Hispanic cultures. Belío-Apaolaza’s other interests include psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and intercultural studies as applied in language learning.
Dr. Maria Khotimsky received her PhD from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in 2011. Her research interests include the history of literary translation in Russia, cross-cultural exchanges through translation, contemporary Russian poetry, and literary institutions. Her recent work includes articles and conference talks on the ideology of translation in the Soviet Union, poetics of translation in the works of several leading twentieth-century Russian poets.