[Spring Workshop 2014] Keynote and Facilitators
Keynote:
Dr. Jentery Sayers
Jentery Sayers is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Maker Lab in the Humanities (http://maker.uvic.ca/) at the University of Victoria. His research interests include comparative media studies, sound studies, and computers and composition. His work has appeared in American Literature; Digital Studies / Le champ numérique, e-Media Studies; the International Journal of Learning and Media; Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy; Victorian Review;Computational Culture; The Information Society; Collaborative Approaches to the Digital in English Studies; ProfHacker; and The New Work of Composing, among others. His research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Simpson Center for the Humanities. His first book project (a cultural history of magnetic recording) is under contract with the University of Michigan Press. At the University of Victoria, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cultural studies, 20th-century U.S. fiction, and digital humanities.
Maker Lab in the Humanities – University of Victoria
Facilitators:
- Robyn Schell, SFU & Kar-On Lee, SFU (It’s all Fun and Games in Ed Technology until…)
- Tannis Morgan, JIBC (Evolving Towards Open at the JIBC)
- Saeed Dyanakar, UBC (SOILx: A Location Based Augmented Reality Learning Tool for Soil Science)
- Jason McAlister, UBC , Lucas Wright, UBC & Cindy Underhill, UBC (Envisioning a learner’s future: Development of Learner Networks)
- Paul Hibbitts, Hibbitts Design (Developing a Course in the Open)
- Vania Chan, UBC-Okanagan (What technology skills do students need to learn to be successful in postsecondary studies and how can institutions help?)
- Esther Tiessen, KPU (Where’s the “Learning Management” in an LMS)
- David Porter, BCcampus & Irwin DeVries, TRU (Getting the Mix Right: Implementing Open Education Practices)
- Michael Minions, Okanagan College (Model Technology Enhanced Classrooms)
- Andrea Han, UBC & Joanne Fox, UBC (Improving Peer Review of Writing with Calibrated Peer Review)
- Brian Lamb, TRU (FIPPA in a big data post-privacy world)
- Meg Goodine, KPU (Extending Moodle with Voice Thread)
- Sandra Rogers, RRU (The Design Studio: Learning & Technology)
- Judy Chan, UBC and Isabeau Iqbal, UBC (Building an EDC Community Resource: Developing a Guide to Support an Educational Developer’s Portfolio)
- Kelly Warnock, TRU (My Toolbox is Full – How Why and When to use Digital Tools in the Online Classroom)
- Rajiv Jhangiani, Capilano University (Fostering a culture of innovation through a faculty learning community)
- Erin Fields,UBC & Janis McKenzie, SFU& Leva Lee,BCcampus (BCOER Group)
- Chad Leaman, Neil Squire Society (Who wants to be a Moodle-aire?)
- Ken Jeffrey, BCIT (Social Media in the Classroom: Talk about Learning!)
- Dennis Yip and Tannis Morgan, JIBC (The evolution of mobile learning at JIBC)
- Jessica Motherwell McFarland, JIBC (Move Over “Sage on the Stage”)
- Will Engle, UBC & Erin Fields, UBC (Hands-On Learning: The role of Maker Culture in Innovative Pedagogy)
Poster and Showcase Session
- Oren Lupo, Langara (How To and Beyond: Informal Adult Learning on the Web)
- Rajiv Jhangiani, KPU (Would you Please Stop Smiling at your crotch? Predictors of Student Classroom smartphone Use and faculty course smartphone policies)
- Kimberly Kao, UBC and Shaya Golparian, UBC (Un-tapping Social Media)
- Olga Routkovskaia, Douglas College and Mikki Herbold, Douglas College (Show Me the Video)
- Will Engle UBC and Brian Lamb, TRU (BC Open Open Ed Chat: Learning from Doing)
- Dan Wu,Tinkerine Studio (3D Printer Demo)
- Mary Burgess and Leva Lee, BCcampus (BC Open Textbooks)
Robyn Schell, SFU
Robyn Schell joined SFU’s Teaching and Learning Centre in August 2012. Her self-described passion is “excellence in online teaching and learning.” In fact, she is currently pursuing a PhD in online learning design. Before coming to SFU, Robyn worked as an online learning designer at Douglas College, where she helped faculty members and students migrate to a new learning management system. Earlier, she coordinated a national research project, the Simulation and Advanced Gaming Environments for Learning, while conducting research on online narrative-based medical case studies for problem-based learning as part of her master’s degree. Robyn has published in scholarly journals and presented locally and internationally. Her research interest is the integration of story into computer-supported teaching and learning. Her offline interests include cruising the Gulf Islands and playing with her standard poodle, Winslow. Someday, she confesses, she “hopes to run away to sea.
Kar-On Lee, SFU
Kar-On Lee is a learning technology specialist in the Teaching and Learning Centre. She supports instructors interested in employing technologies such as clickers in the classroom. Kar-On has several years of experience in ESL teaching, administration, and development. She holds a BA in linguistics from the University of Victoria and a master’s in education technology from UBC. She also holds diplomas in business computing (Capilano College) and education – TESOL (UBC) and has completed the BC Provincial Instructor Diploma at Vancouver Community College (VCC).
It’s all Fun and Games in Ed Technology until…
Tannis Morgan
I’m the Associate Dean of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation at the Justice Institute of BC. Prior to coming to the JIBC, I was an instructional development consultant at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. I have been working with educational technologies since 1993 and have primarily worked in Distance Education and Computer Assisted Language Learning. I came to BCIT from the Office of Learning Technology (formally Distance Education and Technology) at the University of British Columbia. My PhD was also from UBC, looking at online teaching in international distance education contexts.
Evolving Towards Open at the JIBC
JIBC now has 10 completed open projects–ranging from apps, to courses, to simulations–and an additional 5 underway. JIBC’s participation in open has been quiet, but is gaining momentum as the institution adopts more open tools, desires greater visibility of what it provides, and adapts to a changing post-secondary sector.
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Dennis Yip
Tannis Morgan
The evolution of mobile learning at JIBC
In this session we will talk about how we started with mobile learning at JIBC three years ago, where we are now, and what we are learning along the way. The session will cover the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of our mobile learning pilots, how they are being funded, designed, developed and implemented, and how this has changed our thinking about program delivery at JIBC. There will be some hands on opportunity to explore some of the things we’ve created, and there will be a chance to hear from our IT expert on how this is being handled and managed on the backend.
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Saeed Dyanakar, UBC
Saeed is a Digital Producer with a background in engineering, photography, filmmaking, and information technology and an interest in applications of
emerging media in education.
SOILx: A Location Based Augmented Reality Learning Tool for Soil Science
As mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets continue to gain popularity, opportunities to create mobile-based learning resources with more engaging learning capabilities also continue to present themselves more than before. The Virtual Soil Science Learning Resources (VSSLR) group (soilweb.ca) developed an innovative, location-based tool called SOILx that connects educational soil science content to specific geographical locations.
SOILx is created by integrating open technologies such as Google Fusion Tables, Wikitude Augmented Reality browser and WordPress content management system. SOILx enables learners to undertake self-guided field trips and take advantage of experiential, hands-on learning at real life field locations combined while having access to the content created by experts specific to each location. The flexibility in design of SOILx allows for user-generated content to be added to the dynamic database. The target audiences including students, soil scientists and professionals, land managers and even avid gardeners can input information from more geographical sites expanding the network across Canada and connecting people interested in soils.
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Jason McAlister, UBC
I am originally from San Diego and after completing a BS in Biology at San Diego State University I was off to the University of Nebraska for a MS in Geochemistry. I am forever thankful for the opportunity to live and study in the prairies, as it completely changed my outlook on the meaning of home, family, and directions in life. Having become thoroughly enthralled with academia, I came to UBC to pursue a PhD in Oceanography, studying trace metals as indicators of carbon flux and water mass distribution. My experience at UBC has been more than I ever could have imagined, a twining of both the fascinating research opportunities, along with the opportunities to facilitate and teach.
Envisioning a learner’s future: Development of Learner Networks
Here at ETUG we will demonstrate and develop a Learner Network, capturing and contextualizing the sessions of this workshop in 1-3 minute video screencasts. More than a video recording of a session or a summary of the content, learners are asked to interpret, contextualize, and personalize content to communicate a message that is both unique to each learner while providing diverse perspectives for all learners.
Presented here is one iteration of a future developed around Learner Networks, demonstrated through production of screencasts. Analogous and complementary networks coupled with reflections, assessments, collaborations, and other learning activities all enrich the opportunities of learners as networks are structured. Join us as we begin to build this Learning Network here at ETUG.
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Paul Hibbitts, Hibbitts Design
As principal of Hibbitts Design (est. 1998), Paul has provided custom-tailored user experience consultation, interaction design, and training services to companies and organizations ranging from SAP BusinessObjects to VanCity Saving Credit Union to The University of British Columbia. He helps teams with hands-on design and with coaching to improve user experiences for a range of contexts, including mobile devices, the Web, and desktop applications.
Developing a Course in the Open
While Open education resources (OER) get all the love, and deservingly so, developing any course in the open can also add a lot of value and possibilities. In this session Paul Hibbitts will share his first-hand experiences of developing both a university course (SFU) and continuing studies course (UBC) in the open. Topics will include the various aspects of undertaking an open development approach and some of Paul’s favorite tools and techniques used along the way.
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Vania Chan, UBC-Okanagan
Vania Chan joined the Centre for Teaching and Learning as an e-Learning Instructional Support Specialist in December 2009. She works closely with faculty to assess their technology needs, discuss possible solutions, and provide personalized training and support throughout the technology implementation. Vania also facilitates workshops for faculty and orientation sessions for students and teaching assistants. Vania supports Connect (BlackBoard Learn), i>Clicker, TurnItIn, iPeer, Optical Mark Reader for multiple choice exams, Respondus and other technologies for teaching and learning.
Vania studied Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science and Education at UBC’s Vancouver campus and enjoyed an 8-year career at IBM. Since moving to the Okanagan, Vania loves visiting the local farmers’ markets. She enjoys hiking and snowshoeing but the primary purpose is to take scenic pictures – exercise is a secondary benefit. She is pursuing a M.A. in Education, part-time, at UBC’s Okanagan campus and is working towards completing her thesis.
What technology skills do students need to learn to be successful in postsecondary studies and how can institutions help?
At UBC’s Okanagan campus library, fourteen Learning and Technology Assistants (LTAs) are on the front lines of student technology support. As students themselves, the LTAs are employed part-time to provide service and support to students, answering technology questions, and addressing technology issues and problems that occur in the library or other learning spaces on campus.
In 2013, a study was conducted using questionnaires and interviews with the LTAs seeking to determine what technology skill set would be required for success in post-secondary studies from the perspective of the front line technology support assistants. The study also strived to identify any technology deficiencies and how these could be remedied through institutional support. For the ETUG conference, we would like to present results from this study and engage in a discussion of how post-secondary institutions can best offer technology support and skill development to their students.
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Esther Tiessen, KPU
Esther is currently an instructor in the School of Business at Kwantlen Polytechnic and has worked for many years with educational technology, as an instructor, designer, and researcher.
Where’s the “Learning Management” in an LMS
Online course delivery systems such as Moodle, often referred to as “Learning Management Systems,” have been available now for about 20 years. These technologies facilitate students’ progression through a course and their participation in a variety of learning activities such as accessing content, participating in discussions, submitting assignments, and constructing representations of their learning. While presumably students are learning by participating and completing these learning activities, within these systems, there is a woeful lack of tools for “managing” that learning. For example, there are no tools for students to manage their learning goals: i.e., to construct learning goals, check how their learning goals align with the course learning outcomes, use the course learning resources and activities to intentionally work on achieving their learning goals, or to monitor their progression in achieving their learning goals. While the last 20 years have seen progress in system integration tools for system administrators and course management tools for instructors, there have been few advances, if any, in tools and features that would help students to manage their learning.
In this thinking session, I will invite participants to brainstorm designs for “learning management” tools for inclusion in LMS’s that would help students to both learn more effectively and to become expert learners. In doing so, we will consider:
- What are the important types of cognitive and metacognitive activities that students should be engaging in to learn more effectively and to become expert learners? (e.g., setting learning goals and focusing learning activities on the achievement of their learning goals)
- How could technology be designed to help students to manage these activities within an LMS?
David Porter, BCcampus
A long-time advocate for the benefits of adapting new technology to deliver educational opportunities, David’s extensive experience in the education and training fields has included working with both public and private sector organizations.
Irwin DeVries, TRU
I’m Director of Curriculum Development at Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning Division in Kamloops, Canada. We are a founding anchor partner of the OERu. In the past I’ve called myself an instructional designer, educational technologist, program developer and administrator in open and distance learning, variously in career, professional and academic programs. I now lean toward the term “open educator” but that’s a big concept and I don’t nearly live up to its full meaning or potential. But I keep trying…and learning…
I’m currently convening the Partner Manual group for the OERu. My earlier projects in WikiEducator have included collaborating on the redesign of the Art Appreciation and Techniques #OERuART100 course, and participating in the planning and hosting of the OERu 2013 meeting at Thompson Rivers University.
Getting the Mix Right: Implementing Open Education Practices
Implementing open education practices is a multidimensional challenge for educators. In this session the presenters share data and findings from their research into the practical challenges of open education practices implementation in higher education. Using the analogy of mixing different audio tracks to produce a harmonious acoustic blend, they discuss the blend of elements that need to be considered and balanced in promoting open educational practices. The presentation is followed by small group discussions to further explore solutions to challenges raised.
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Michael Minions, Okanagan College
Since 2005, Mike Minions has been the Educational Technology Coordinator at Okanagan College. The big philosophy companies in downtown Calgary weren’t hiring when he completed his B.A., so he did a diploma in broadcasting, made TV commercials for 10 years, did educational media for the school district, and had fortuitously just completed his Masters in Ed Tech when the University of British Columbia took the U part away from Okanagan University College. It’s all worked out for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
Model Technology Enhanced Classrooms
With a mandate from our IT Steering Committee and a wee pot of money Okanagan College built Model Technology Enhanced Classrooms at each of our 4 campuses this past year. The intent was to provide instructors with an opportunity to gain familiarity with educational technologies currently in use but not available to everyone at OC. It also came at a time when we are wrestling with the demise of VGA as a universal connection standard, and instructors wanting to use iPads for teaching, and students wanting to be able to display on the projector, and bringing in guest speakers using Skype, and running a backchannel, and …
So we built them. And we learned a lot of things along the way. And I’ll tell you about them.
http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/Campus_and_Community/employees/itservices/edtech/Model_Tech_Classroom.html
Since 2005 Mike Minions has been the Educational Technology Coordinator at Okanagan College.
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Andrea Han, UBC
Joanne Fox, UBC
Improving Peer Review of Writing with Calibrated Peer Review
Are you looking for ways to incorporate writing in a large enrolment course? Would you like to help students think more critically about their own writing? Do you already incorporate writing assignments in your course, but would like to reduce the amount of time you spend reading and assessing student writing? If so, Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) may be the tool for you.
In this session, we’ll highlight the functionality of Calibrated Peer Review using SCIE113 as a case study. As a writing intensive course in a discipline not traditionally associated with writing, SCIE113 initially faced challenges with helping students understand the significant of peer review, how to constructively review a peer’s paper and how to think critically about their own work. We’ll discuss the development, evaluation, and evolution of Calibrated Peer Review assignments in SCIE113 and share both faculty and student feedback about the tool. We’ll also share guidelines for implementation and explore how CPR is used in other disciplines and contexts.
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Brian Lamb, TRU
Brian Lamb is Director of Innovation Open Learning, Thompson Rivers University. Prior to moving to TRU earlier this year, Brian was a Strategist and Emerging Technologies Manager at UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology for more than a decade. His work focuses on participatory online tools, open practices, student and community engagement. He co-founded blog and wiki platforms that were among the earliest such campus services. He’s been a Research Fellow at Utah State University’s Center for Open and Sustainable Learning (COSL), and a Visiting Researcher at Barcelona’s Open University of Catalonia.
FIPPA in a big data post-privacy world
Recent years have seen rapid transformations in technology and their associated social norms. In 2011, BCcampus convened a session which reported attendee’s “general sense that the [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act] legislation, and in many cases institutional policies surrounding digital privacy issues, have not caught up to this paradigm shift.” Although that event and subsequent policy documents have provided some guidelines to working educators in the province, there is still widespread fear, uncertainty and doubt whenever practice strays outside institutionally-provisioned electronic walled gardens.
And since 2011, we have also seen the emergence of two major developments which challenge what fragile understanding we might have possessed. Advocates of big data and learning analytics promise that their application will support revolutionary advances in personalized and adaptive instruction, to the extent that Audrey Watters has observed that “student data is the new oil”. What rights should students exercise in terms of the ownership and security of their learning data? Secondly, the revelations from Edward Snowden concerning online spying have significant implications for Canadians, in terms of US surveillance of “foreigners”, Canada’s participation as a “five eyes” partner, as well as the activities of Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). What does all this mean for the intentions and the credibility of BC’s FIPPA requirements?
This session will attempt to capture how practitioners in the province are responding to these challenges, and to identify strategies to deal with this disturbing and ever-changing reality.
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Meg Goodine, KPU
Meg is the manager of Learning Technology in KPU’s new Institute for Innovation in Teaching & Learning. She and her team work with faculty on the effective use of core and emerging technologies to support learning.
Extending Moodle with Voice Thread
Learning management systems can no longer keep pace with all of the potential tools available to faculty and students in the “real world”. Fortunately, the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard now makes it much easier to integrate 3rd party tools within the LMS.
This case study will present KPU’s experiences with integrating VoiceThread with Moodle. Faculty members Laurel Tien and Lynette Manton will demonstrate how they are using VoiceThread with their students and discuss the advantages of an integrated solution. Learning technology manager, Meg Goodine, will share her team’s experience assessing and mitigating the risks of integrating a cloud-based service within the LMS.
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Sandra Rogers, RRU
Sandra Rogers – Instructional Designer, Centre for Teaching and Educational Technologies (CTET), Royal Roads University. Sandra has more than 25 years of experience in higher education, having worked as an instructor, college administrator, course developer and curriculum designer. In her current capacity as an instructional designer at Royal Roads University, Sandra works closely with faculty to develop effective and engaging online learning environments. Her current research interests include social software and web 2.0 technology and their application in university level courses. Sandra holds a BAA in Instructional Media (Ryerson) and a MEd in Information Technology (Memorial).
The Design Studio: Learning & Technology
Do you work with faculty who are intimidated by technology? Lost in a social media sea? Questioning how to use collaborative assignments and alternative assessment strategies? If you answered yes, then consider using a design challenge approach to professional development.
This session introduces you to the Design Studio: Learning & Technology workshop, a 6-week online course developed for faculty at Royal Roads University. The course used the IDEO framework of Discovery, Interpretation, Ideation, Experimentation and Evolution to lead faculty through a personal exploration of their own challenges integrating technology into their teaching practice. In this session we will share what we learned by using the IDEO approach to professional development and how you can use a Design studio approach with your faculty.
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Judy Chan, UBC
After being an educational developer for some years, Judy cares deeply about the growth and development of this profession. She thinks about documenting our past successes and failures and preparing forall education movements in the future.
Isabeau Iqbal
Isabeau (pronounced ee-za-bo) has found her professional home in the Educational Development community. There she enjoys the company of bright and creative colleagues and campus peers who have taught her a lot about teaching and learning in post-secondary education. She also learns great deal from reading, but is unfortunately challenged by the fact that she can’t read more than one book at a given moment (!) [For the curious, current good reads include “Discussion as a way of Teaching” and “Steal like an Artist”]. In her work, Isabeau actively shares her learning with others. Isabeau currently works at a small, new teaching and learning centre in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC; prior to that, she worked at UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology for nearly a decade.
Building an EDC Community Resource: Developing a Guide to Support an Educational Developer’s Portfolio
The Canadian Educational Developer Caucus (EDC) is in the process of creating a guide to assist educational developers(1) who want to produce an educational development (ED) portfolio(2). With increased mobility and opportunity to engage in an ED career, the importance and need for a portfolio to document and situate one’s practice, and to facilitate hiring and promotion decision, has solidified.
We invite new and seasoned educational developers in various ED roles to join us for a world café experience as we present ideas and frameworks, and explore questions such as:
- Who are the potential users and audiences of ED portfolios?
- How would your portfolio be adapted for different audiences and purposes?
- Imagine 10 years from now that ED portfolios are fully integrated into your practice. What factors have supported their integration, impact, and use?
We also wish to engage educational developers in thinking about how to document and reflect on their past practices, and move towards their ideal future in higher education. Participants will be asked to review, reflect upon, and even bring the following materials to the session: job posting announcement, position descriptions, centre mandates/mission statements, interview questions/documents, teaching/developer portfolios, and so on.
1. Am I an educational developer? An educational developer works with faculty members, graduate students or other academics to consult about effective practices in teaching and learning. Our job title varies, including and not limited to instructional designer, educational technologist, and learning strategist.
2. We use the terms eportfolio and portfolio interchangeably. We define portfolio in the context of education as “A collection of material put together in a meaningful way to demonstrate the practice and learning of an educational practitioner” (Forde, McMahon & Reeves, 2009).
Information gathered in this session will help inform a national research project on the Educational Development portfolio. As such, participants will be asked to sign a consent form. All data gathered will be anonymous and remain confidential. If potential participants would like a copy of the consent form ahead of time and/or more information about the study, please email isabeau.iqbal@ubc.ca.
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Kelly Warnock, TRU
My Toolbox is Full – How Why and When to use Digital Tools in the Online Classroom
The purpose of this workshop is to explore digital tools that can be used to facilitate communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity for online students. We will look at a variety of tools and examine how they can be used for formative learning activities as well as assessments. Participants will be given the opportunity to explore specific websites and applications, reflect on current practices, and consider the benefits and limitations of use. We will also address concerns for implementation, such as evaluating non-traditional assignments, guiding both tech-savvy and tech-wary students, and other issues, such as copyright and privacy concerns.
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Rajiv Jhangiani, Capilano University
I teach psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and conduct research in political psychology (e.g., terrorism, genocide, peace & conflict, decision-making), social cognition (e.g., cognitive complexity), and the scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g., peer assessment, educational technology, MOOCs, etc.). I revised an open textbook for Research Methods in Psychology and am currently working on a revision of an open textbook for Social Psychology.
I am currently the Chair of the Provincial Psychology Articulation Committee, the Director of Research, Resources, and Special Initiatives on the Society for the Teaching of Psychology’s Early Career Psychologists Committee, a member of the Task Force on Undergraduate Skills Assessment of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and a Guest Editor for the Journal Psychology Teaching and Learning.
Fostering a culture of innovation through a faculty learning community
Over the past two years, faculty from different academic areas at Capilano University have participated in two separate year-long faculty learning communities (FLCs). Led by an experienced facilitator, each group of 8-10 participants meets about every 3-4 weeks to discuss pedagogical challenges, strategies, and goals while reading literature from the scholarship of teaching and learning. Along the way, the groups have developed a strong sense of trust and community (e.g., as evidenced by high levels of personal disclosure and the extension of these groups beyond their 1 year mandate). The strengths of this cross-disciplinary approach to addressing teaching and learning challenges as well as fostering a culture of reflective teaching and pedagogical innovation at the university will be discussed.
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Erin Fields,UBC
Erin Fields is a Liaison Librarian and Coordinator of Flexible Learning at the University of British Columbia. Her current work involves collaborating on a localized open online course on digital and information literacies, piloting an open badging structure across three programs, and supporting the flexible learning initiative at UBC.
Janis McKenzie, SFU
Leva Lee,BCcampus
As the BC Educational Technology Users Group Manager at BCcampus, Leva Lee has been the steward for the community since 2006. As a librarian and a member of the BCcampus Open Education team, she is currently working with collaborating partners and groups such as the newly formed BCOER group of postsecondary librarians to support the advocacy and adoption of OER.
BCOER Group
Initiatives like the BC Open Textbook project managed by BCcampus and flexible learning projects at UBC and SFU are increasingly presenting more opportunities to use Open Education Resources. One of the challenges of faculty in the first stages of adopting OER, however, is awareness about these resources and then finding the what they need.
BC postsecondary librarians are stepping in to assist with supporting faculty in using OER. The BCOER group has recently formed to share information and knowledge about OER and explore how best to help faculty in adopting and using OER and ultimately to create OER. The group is collaborating on several projects starting with identifying and developing assessment tools for quality OER. The group will jointly review and create OER assessment tools and following that develop discipline specific OER guides. A resource ‘hackfest’ is being planned this Spring to target some of this work.
Join in on this session to find out more about the BCOER group, to provide your input on the supports and tools needed to assist in the use of OER (or provide feedback on what has been developed) and how you can get involved in helping to make this happen.
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Chad Leaman, Neil Squire Society
Chad Leaman is passionate about bridging communities of knowledge and experimenting with technology for social good. By day, he is the Director of Development for the Neil Squire Society, a nonprofit organization that uses technology to empower people with physical disabilities. By night, he is a Moodle Evangelist for Lambda Solutions, which provides application support for BCcampus’ Moodle Shared Services. As a volunteer, he co-organizes NetSquared Vancouver, providing free technology workshops for nonprofit organizations. He’s also a father of young twins and most likely to get injured while playing sports.
Who wants to be a Moodle-aire?
That’s right game show junkies! You – YES YOU – have a chance to show your Moodle knowledge and win big (Canadian Tire) cash prizes! In this special ETUG adaptation of “Who wants to be a Millionaire,” the questions will be asked not to just one contestant, but the entire audience. You will vote on what you think is the right answer to various Moodlish questions, and progress to test the limits of your Moodle mastery. Plugins possibilities, version variations, module mastery, and awe-inspiring administration – validate and extend your Moodle knowledge. If you survive the host’s questions, you can then grill him and a couple guest experts on how they would tackle some of your burning Moodle problems.
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Ken Jeffrey, BCIT
I am a full time instructor and lab supervisor in design, technology, and printed communication at British Columbia Institute of Technology and, time permitting, at Emily Carr University. My background started with letterpress but has evolved to high tech imaging technologies and online solutions such as web-to-print implementations. Through the years, I’ve been a manual labourer, office drone, press operator, prepress troubleshooter, sales rep, business owner, board member, and now, teacher.
Social Media in the Classroom: Talk about Learning!
As social media continues to become part of our lives, today’s connected learner has more information at their fingertips than ever before. In this session, discover opportunities to improve student success through the implementation of creative, collaborative tasks through social media. Go beyond 140 characters of engagement, and encourage students to construct their own learning by using popular Web 2.0 tools to bridge the gap between pedagogy and technology.
Goals – At the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Establish criteria for implementing social and digital media in their classes,
- identify when students may need to unplug, and
- implement social media tools such as Twitter and Padlet into a lesson plan
Jessica Motherwell McFarland, JIBC
I am passionate about counselling and teaching and have dedicated over two decades to focusing on gender, youth, women’s issues, and transitions across the whole lifespan. Whether I am in session in my counselling office or teaching in my classroom, I have the same goal: to help you overcome unrealistic and unfair pressures to be who-you-are-not so you can truly be YOU.
Move Over “Sage on the Stage”
When I first brought Apple TV into my classroom, my goal was simply to improve the projected image quality from my iPad. I had no inkling that I had just introduced a tool that had the potential to change the fundamental teaching dynamics in my classroom.
During this session I will reenact with workshop participants that moment when my students — using their iPads to complete an in-class comic book assignment — realized they could “occupy the podium,” teach each other, and project their own work from the comfort of their seats. What followed for me — the surprised instructor — as I witnessed students’ improvising with their iPads and exercising their new-found power to teach each other, was equal parts awe, hilarity, and even a moment of panic when I realized I was not “in control” of the lesson and “my class” seemed like it was edging toward anarchy. My inspired students created with each other — at lightening speed — a democratized classroom where everyone was at once the teacher and student. They raced to show their work on screen and get feedback from each other. During that class I saw the “Sage on the Stage” booted out the door and something new and wonderful welcomed in.
In this workshop I will show participants how to set up and run Apple TV with iPads; assign a simple, fun assignment using a comic book app; and have everyone “occupy the podium” for show-and-tell. We will finish the session by brainstorming how we instructors can best take advantage of this brave new (Apple TV enhanced) teaching world.
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Will Engle, UBC
Will is a teaching and learning strategist and he is engaged with projects that are leveraging emerging technologies, approaches, and pedagogies to support flexible and open learning. With a background in library science, Will is interested in understanding and supporting the removal of barriers to accessing education, information, and knowledge. He can be found on twitter at @infology.
Erin Fields, UBC
Hands-On Learning: The role of Maker Culture in Innovative Pedagogy
In a report published last fall, the Open University described maker culture as an innovative pedagogy that emphasizes informal, networked, peer led, and shared learning motivated by fun and self-fulfilment. Likewise, Audrey Watters, an education technologist, states that maker culture involves “educational practices that we know work well: small group discussion, collaboration, participatory, project-based, and peer-to-peer learning, experimentation, inquiry, curiosity, play.” Universities, including some in British Columbia, are beginning to experiment with maker culture and are building spaces where students can informally share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and experiment with tools and technologies. This session will explore how the embracement of maker culture can support formal learning outcomes. It will examine specific case studies of maker culture in higher education and open a dialogue through audience participation and brainstorming.
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Mary Burgess
Mary Burgess is the Director, Open Education at BCcampus. Mary’s portfolio includes the BC Open Textbook Project and other Open Educational Resource initiatives, as well as the professional learning offerings and educational communities of practice support delivered by BCcampus. Mary is a recent board member of the Open Courseware Consortium. Prior to her work at BCcampus, Mary worked at several institutions as an instructional design, and educational technology leader.
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