Five years ago I started working at the Nova Scotia Community College and one of the requirements for full-time employees is that they have to take part in a program called CCEDP (Community College Education Diploma Program). It usually takes about 2 years to complete, which includes a couple of summers spent in residence taking courses. I completed the program and was lucky enough to be chosen as the valedictorian which gave me the opportunity to sum the experience up in my valedictory address. The best parts of the experience of learning how to teach adults were the connections made between the participants and instructors in the program. Now I know dozens and dozens (maybe hundreds) people from all over the province who work for the college.
A few months ago Carolyn asked me if I'd like to be part of a session that she was organizing called Engaging the Digital Learner that would be part of the New Faculty Orientation that happened in Yarmouth in October. I had a great time when I was in Yarmouth for it and I jumped at the chance to be able to give something back. It was a lot of fun and I contributed with some information about podcasting. I didn't realize until afterwards that I'd been in CCEDP courses with most of the members of the team that facilitated the workshop, but now we were all at the front of the classroom with a few years of experience within the organization. It was very nice to have it all come full circle, and I'm so glad that I could be involved.
tags: nscc, ccedp, yarmouth, teaching
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All too often we seek technological solutions to human problems. In gearing up for the Fall term I've been thinking about ways to integrate technology into the classroom and I realized that I was approaching it the wrong way. I should be thinking about ways that I can improve my teaching and the learning that takes place. The focus should be the learning and not which tools are being used.
As with the design of curricula and teaching in general, the first thoughts should be related to the outcomes and less about the tools. I want to be a better teacher, not a better technologist. No matter what classroom you're in, there is technology involved, whether it's paper and pen, a chalkboard, a whiteboard, data projector, mobile phone, or computer. But we don't have fancy workshops or books about integrating whiteboards into your teaching or advanced flip chart use. A "smart" classroom is where learning happens, so it doesn't even have to be a room or have a class.
It's important to ask "why?" before a lot of time, effort and money is spent on setting up things that are never used. Whichever techniques or tools that you use for teaching have to be effective and appropriate for you and your learners. I love playing with the latest tools and being on the cutting edge, but if you're leaving a lot of people behind, it's not efficient or effective. So I am trying to think of ways to engage my learners and to use all of the tools that work for them. Ideally we can get out of me standing at the front of a room and talking and get into building spaces for learning.
Technorati Tags: learning, teaching, technology
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