SONIA CHAIDEZ

I am the Senior Instructional Technologist at Whittier College’s Center for Teaching and Learning.
I work as part of faculty and staff development to drive and inspire the effective and ethical integration of education technology tools. My job is to also lead initiatives on creative pedagogical innovation across all disciplines and the facilitation of faculty learning groups.

I build programming and projects that focus on digital pedagogy, media & digital literacy, blended learning, and inclusive teaching. I am also part of braving the wilds of teaching and learning with Generative AI as described in our college’s issue of The Rock.

My work on inclusive teaching and faculty learning communities inspired a recently published academic article based on a three-year case study titled, Next-Generation Professional Development: A Case Study of Inclusive Pedagogy as the Design Framework for Faculty Learning Communities.

This year my work in leading the Center for Teaching and Learning will continue as part of a new initiative and grant project titled Mellon Humanities for All Times, where we explore and support humanistic modes of inquiry across all disciplines in the Liberal Arts curriculum. 

I have also produced and hosted a podcast called Teaching at Whittier.

My specialty is teaching digital storytelling to engage students in higher order thinking, deep learning, and to build digital literacy skills.  I occasionally work with the team at STORYCENTER who promote healing, growth, and social change by creating spaces for listening and sharing stories. 

In 2020 I contributed to a chapter in the book Digital Storytelling: Story Work for Urgent Times on digital storytelling in higher education.

I also work on a series of multilingual PhotoVoice projects, the most recent called “Connections to Home/Conexiones a Nuestro Hogar” (2024), “Nuestro Arte: Community & Photography” (2023) and “Life During Pandemic/La Vida Durante La Pandemia” (2021).

My research and teaching interests include partnering with community-based groups to create learning spaces (physical and virtual) that provide opportunities for diverse populations to participate in digital media making projects like digital photo archives, story maps, multimodal storytelling & podcasts.

Equity and inclusion are at the forefront of every digital initiative that I engage in. The ethos of reflection, education, and social justice greatly influences the dynamic of my workshops and partner projects.  I believe that through creative and collaborative projects, participants are invested in learning communities that we build together. 

My background is in filmmaking and I have traveled to various locations across the world to make documentary films that show the plight of cultures trying to preserve their history while adapting to modernity.
My documentary projects can be viewed on Vimeo.