Alegría Ribadeneira is making an incredible difference at Colorado State University and in fact around the region, because of the amazing work she does for our students and the leadership she shows in approaches to teaching.
Alegría has found ways to make the varied living experiences and complex cultural backgrounds of our diverse student body into an enormous asset in their learning and commitment to their education. One of the primary ways she does this is by giving the students voice and agency in their work in her classes — i.e., she’s been doing student-authored textbooks and renewable assignments purely for their pedagogical effectiveness! The openly available products of their efforts energize the students and gives them a feeling of the power of their own stories and of how these stories can be valuable for their education and not something to be ashamed of or to be papered over in a kind of self-censorship to fit with the dominant American culture. Take a look at these ‘open’ gems — a reflection of her ongoing work:
- Música y Sociedad: Un proyecto colaborativo con estudiantes de CSU Pueblo
- Comida y Sociedad: Un sitio para celebrar y explorar la importancia de la comida en nuestras vidas
- Nurturing Home Languages
Additionally, Alegría has become a beacon to her colleagues of this kind of open pedagogy which empowers students … often using a range of new technologies and platforms. As such, Alegría’s colleagues across campus have benefited by learning ideas of open pedagogy such as renewable assignments and student-authored learning materials, as well as supporting technological tools. Even instructors across the state and nation have similarly benefited as she has given workshops on teaching ideas and strategies at the state and national level, including her work with the National Heritage Language Resource Center at UCLA.
In recognition of this role as an instructional leader, Alegría has received campus, state, regional, and national awards, and has been invited to present in various fora including our recent online Colorado OER Conference.
Explore more about this award…
Podcasts from Open Education Global
Just hearing the enthusiastic voice of Alegría Ribadeneira, Professor and Director of World Languages at Colorado State University – Pueblo, not to mention her projects, practices, and passion for supporting her students, will make it clear why she was awarded a 2020 Award for Excellence in the Educator category.
In this episode of OEG Voices, Alan Levine and Marcela Morales from Open Education Global chat with Alegría about her path to realizing her teaching practices (as pointed by colleague Jonathan Poritz) were already acts of open education before she knew there was a name for it. Alegría describes the role of open pedagogy for her heritage language learners, where they engage in projects producing authentic products such as student authored textbooks and stories of experience.
Also in this episode learn about Alegría’s ambitious new project, working with a team code-named “Los Valientes” to develop an all OER, zero textbook cost Spanish language degree program at CSU-Pueblo.
Do you know an open educator deserving of this kind of recognition? Nominations are now open for the 2021 Open Education Awards for Excellence.
Learn More About Alegría Ribadeneira
- Meet Dr. Alegría Website
- Food and Society Website created by students
- Music and Society Book created by students
- Stories and Histories – Voices from the classroom
- Health and Wellbeing OER
- Language and Society OER:
- Nurturing Home Languages Website
- OER Grant Helps CSU Pueblo Fund Zero Textbook Cost Spanish Degree (CSU Pueblo news story)
Music for this episode is “Joyful Meeting” by Crowander from the Free Music Archive shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0) license.
