SCETUG Planning Day 2015

 

This year the Stewardship Committee for ETUG (SCETUG) gathered at BCIT Downtown Vancouver for our annual planning meeting just ahead of the Fall 2015 Workshop.  It was a full and productive day with 14 SCETUG members in attendance representing 13 institutions from all over the province.  Many of our committee members are new this year and bring fresh perspectives and brand-new experiences to the group.   Our committee is very committed to continuing to bring quality professional development and networking opportunities to our ETUG membership.  So, our day was filled with thinking about setting our direction and programming our main activities for the upcoming year and brainstorming new ideas.
Those readers familiar with SCETUG may have noticed a slight shift in name as described in the opening paragraph of this post.  Yes, it’s true the committee decided to tweak its name!  Many of you know SCETUG as a group of individuals who collectively guide and contribute to ETUG’s events and also support the ideas emerging from the community.  This core goal certainly won’t change.  SCETUG-ers felt that “steering” didn’t accurately describe the activities of the committee or their roles as committee members.  Rather than driving and directing the community’s activities, SCETUG-ers feel that they are stewards to the grassroots energy, expertise and ideas that emerge from the community.  As SCETUG-ers and representatives from each of our institutions, our role is to act as community leaders and mentors to help bring common questions to the surface, collaborate on solutions, and build and sustain the community framework to allow members’ ideas to grow and flourish.
With this new intention set, here are a few highlights from our 2015 Planning Day…

Communications Channels

SCETUG continues to foster solid communications with the ETUG community via Etug.ca, the monthly ETUG newsletter, use of our Twitter account (tweets with #etug), and good old fashioned email communiques.   So, not a lot of need for augmenting our work here, but we did take some time to map out the annual schedule for featured ETUG news content like our institutional reports and member profiles.  We’ve noticed an increase in faculty attendance at our workshops over the last couple of years.  
New for 2016 in ETUG’s newsletter → Faculty showcases that will capture faculty member’s adventures in teaching with technology in our monthly newsletter, and also a series of articles featuring a diversity of roles in higher ed that are working in edtech (e.g. IT, Admin, Faculty, EdTech).  We’ll be looking for volunteer reporters/writers for both of these new columns.

T.E.L.L. Sessions

SCETUG has also worked tirelessly to bring you professional development opportunities outside of the two annual workshops, via our T.E.L.L. Sessions. These online lunch and learns are running tickingly well with good participation from across the province from both facilitators and attendees.  
T.E.L.L. sessions will continue monthly into 2016, so stay tuned for a new roster of edtech explorations.

ETUG Workshops

Planning is underway for ETUG’s Spring Workshop and details will be available in January. 

Watch for New Stuff!!

Tracy Kelly and Leva Lee from BCcampus led SCETUG through a couple of Liberating Structures activities to generate new ideas.  A few new ideas emerged from the brainstorm that SCETUG decided to focus on in 2016.
Reading Club → Like a book club where ETUG-ers can suggest topics of interest and share resources and readings.  We won’t set a limit on formats for suggested readings (e.g., blog post, how to, scholarly article, magazine article, book).
Geek Out! → Many ETUG-ers come to our annual workshops to gain insights from their peers’ experiences with a particular ed tech tool or to share theirs.  Our annual workshop programs typically feature hands-on workshops and demos.  SCETUG would like to start a new series between our workshops to learn from their fellow geeks with gadgets.  We’ll also include a summary of takeaways in our monthly newsletter.  
Innovation Showcase /Awards → ETUG, via BCcampus, used to sponsor an annual Innovation Award at the Spring Workshop.  These awards were given to recognize and honour the outstanding work and achievement of our peers in the BC public post-secondary field of ed tech in innovation, knowledge sharing and collaboration, and leadership in ed tech.  The awards have been on hiatus since 2010, and 2016 could be the year of a refreshed version of  how we will showcase and celebrate the great work being done in our province.
Watch for  these new ideas and stay tuned for details on upcoming ETUG events in 2016!
kele fleming, SCETUG Chair, UBC-Vancouver 
& Emily Schudel, SCETUG Vice Chair, Camosun College
This lovely graphic was done by SCETUG members Tracy Kelly & Jason Toal.