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Oh boy, you're going to be displeased with this week's "More about Week 8" Teaching Hub post! pic.twitter.com/1IrydVned8
— FlemingLDS (@FlemingLDS) October 19, 2016
Engaging Teaching
Do you know what “flipped learning” means? If you ask the Learning Design & Support Team, they’d probably tell you that it is either learning how to do a flip, or that you can learn anything whilst flipping on a trampoline. They try, they really do, but sometimes you gotta wonder about them.
Here’s what flipped learning really is: structuring learning so that content is delivered to students before meeting as a class, rather than delivering content in class. That way, so the story goes, you can focus your time together on applying the content to projects and practice, and give feedback in person right as it happens. In other words, you can really crank up the active learning. ‘Tis is a noble quest, but it can be tricky if not all students come well prepared. So maybe just flip a little bit to start if you want to try it. You don’t want it to end up being flopped learning.
flickr photo shared by JAIRO BD under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license
Why are we mentioning flipped learning, right here, right now? Well, don’t flip out, but there is an ulterior motive. We want to flip the learning (only a little bit) for our week 8 Teaching & Learning Day this Thursday. So, if you are coming, we’d like you to spend a little bit of time thinking about what active learning means to you, and ways that you get your students actively learning. If you do this pre-thinking, you will be ready to actively participate in the opening session in which you will join a team effort to create something that shows active learning.
Learning Technology
Once upon a time, in the heart of The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a course called ds106 was born (the “ds” stands for digital storytelling). This course attempts to use technology to tell stories, and to tell other people how to do it. And not just for UMW students. Nay! Anyone with the wherewithal to get involved and make some fun digital stuff is invited. Thus was born an online learning community that pulls you in for life and never lets you go. A community which now spans the globe and possibly even the universe. Oh, and one of the main things they do is called the Daily Create, in which you make something and share it with everyone and everyone lives happily ever after.
Guess what? You just read a digital story! Granted, it is not well written, is only text, and the details are sparse, but it is in digital format and story-ish, so it counts. On Thursday, if you are coming to our Teaching & Learning Day that we have been constantly going on and on about, we will be joining in on one of those ds106 Daily Creates. In fact, the Daily Create for that day will be in Fleming’s honour, which is a great honour. At the beginning of the day, we will give you directions on how to get going, but in the meantime, check out the Digital Storytelling instructions we’ve prepared for the Makerspace on that day and all days after that. The Makerspace will be a magical free-for-all where no technological tool will go untouched, so make sure to wear sensible shoes. Hope to see you there!
Policies & Procedures
Policies Under Construction
During the Makerspace on Thursday, Sarah Beirness will be hosting a booth (and by booth, we mean she will be in a space with a table and some chairs that may or may not fit your definition of booth) for you to ask questions about the work Academic Council has been doing over the past two years. Like, for instance, did you know that working groups of Academic Council have revised or are in the process of revising the following policies/procedures?
Academic Integrity | Academic Appeals | Class Absence Procedure
Academic Advising | Applied Projects | Credit/Grade Standards
If you didn’t know that, just pretend like you did since we have no way of knowing if you knew or not. Let’s just move on with our lives now that we either know, or continue to know, what Academic Council has been up to.
If you have thoughts about any of these policies, or want to get involved in a working group, come visit Sarah during the latest of her “pop ups”. She’ll be in the Makerspace from 11:20 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. Only there and then can we finally end the debate on whether or not she is hosting in what can be really be called a booth, or if it is some sort of puppet booth. #boothgate
flickr photo shared by Tracy Hunter under a Creative Commons ( BY ) license
College Departments
This week’s department-of-the-week isn’t a department per se, but they are a group of people who do things for the college, so we invited them to our College Department Battle of the Week anyway. This week we held an IQ 2000 Game Night and, on the strength of Sarah Beirness’s knowledge of 80’s Saturday morning cartoons, Academic Council made it to Planet Quizaar first and won the honour to say the following:
Did you know that Academic Council now has its very own website! Please visit the Academic Council website for meeting information, meeting packages, terms of reference, and a Fall 2016 welcome message from Academic Council Chair, Thom Luloff.
Be sure to connect with the Academic Council Representative for your school or area to bring forward ideas, issues, or concerns that affect the academic division at Fleming College. Also, visit the Academic Council ‘booth’ during the Makerspace on Thursday (scroll up to the previous piece for more information)!
Services for Students
Trouble falling asleep? Read a Teaching Hub post. Trouble waking up? Don't read a Teaching Hub Post. That oughta do it. @FlemingLDS pic.twitter.com/FUe62eq7NT
— Lonnie Lonnerson (@Pancakes_Lonnie) October 20, 2016
Gee, thanks, Lonnie. We might need to start thinking about blocking her on Twitter. If students are falling asleep in class, do you: A) offer them a pillow B) talk louder C) refer them to the Sleep Smart workshop on Nov. 1! D) all of the above?
It’s week 8 and the students are probably all nestled in their beds catching up on some much-needed sleep. Sleep is awesome! Just ask Arianna Huffington, or Rip Van Winkle, or a hibernating bear. If you can’t get a hold of any of them, you can also ask Counselling Services. As part of the Campus Health Workshop Series, Counselling Services will host a Sleep Smart workshop on November 1st from 3-4:30 in room TBC. Hosted by Fleming’s very own Reta Wright, a counsellor with 20+ years experience in the sleep industry, students will learn about why sleep matters to student success (aka if you don’t snooze, you lose!). #sleeprevolution
*New!* Professional Development
We have a new category, everyone! Now, let’s not over-celebrate this, but it is a pretty big deal. Do you like the new icon for it? It’s a shopping cart with a plus sign, as in “add to cart”, as in “add more stuff to my brain”. Wouldn’t that be cool if you could just add knowledge to your cart and upload it to your brain? We would all be cyborgs in no time. Actually, maybe this is a bad idea.
Anyway, in this section we’ll talk about professional development opportunities. If you have any you’d wish to promote, let us know!
This Week: Top Ten Conferences
Advancing Learning http://www.advancinglearning.ca/2016/ but hold the date for June 2017 and we’ll post new information as soon as it is available!! This conference is hosted by and for Ontario Colleges and focuses on teaching and learning AND educational technology.
Digital Media and Learning Conference http://dml2016.dmlhub.net/ Love their tag line: Let’s Build. Let’s Design. Let’s Solve! Check out the twitter feed from the recent #2016DML event and mark your calendars for DML2017 (first week of October).
Open Education Conference http://openedconference.org/2016/ Everything OER and beyond is talked about at this annual conference. Our very own Terry Greene will be attending this one and will be sure to share his learnins’ with us. Follow the conversation on #OpenEd16 and look for it in 2017.
You’ve heard of ComicCon… well, now we have OpenCon http://www.opencon2016.org/. This event is SO open that you can attend in person (by application only) BUT everyone can attend virtually http://www.opencon2016.org/opencon_2016_live. Mark November 12 – 14, 2016 on your calendars and no need to pack a bag!
CONNECT 2017 http://www.canconnected.com/ It’s billed as Canada’s Learning and Technology Conference, and has become of one of the bigger ones to attend. It offers different streams for teachers, leaders, technologists, and librarians. The date for the upcoming conference is April 25 – 28, 2017.
BringITTogether.ca is a common favourite: http://bringittogether.ca/. It was born out of the desire to bring teaching and technology together! This year’s conference is coming up quickly, from November 9-11, so get in quick if you are interested in attending. Alana Callan is attending this year’s event and will share what she learns when she comes back from Niagara!
Celebrating Great Teaching is a local favourite http://www.algonquincollege.com/cgt/, and is billed as a retreat, not a conference. It is hosted in May so mark your calendars when the information gets published!
The STLHE Conference, hosted by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education https://www.stlhe.ca/conferences-events/stlhe-annual-conference/, is being held in Halifax this June! If going to Halifax in June isn’t enough to get you there, the focus of the conference, “Cultures, Transitions, and Transformations,” may get you interested!
Oh Ya… Vegas Baby!! D2L Fusion is at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada this upcoming July https://www.d2l.com/events/fusion/. Learn about new advances with D2L, lots of sessions on teaching, engagement, innovations, and education trends… and it’s in VEGAS!
The e-Learning and Innovative Pedagogies Conference http://ubi-learn.com/2017-conference/format we be held in Canada in 2017, and if previous conference information is accurate, it is one to put on the bucket list… There is not a lot of information available on this conference yet, so stay tuned!
Chatter
Last week, we are mildly ashamed to admit, we used a little guilt-shaming in order to get more comments. And it worked! So far, we’ve received three more comments than the previous week, for a total of three (+ 3 responses from us).
In last week’s post, we described the Week 8 Makerspace that we will be hosting as part of the Teaching & Learning Day. That prompted Kyra Cockwell to let us know about the more permanent makerspace, called the Centre for Making, just being completed up in Haliburton, which sounds amazing. Here are some details about it: through a grant from Haliburton County Development Corporation, the Centre for Making at the Haliburton School of Art + Design houses 3D printers, a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter, and an industrial sewing machine. Additionally, the space provides access to education and support for students, staff, faculty, and community members (including local businesses and individual citizens). It will allow students to work outside of the “comfort zone” of their programs. For example, a ceramics student could create a prototype of their piece digitally and on the 3D printer before creating it with clay. So cool. We want to go to there.
More Information
Looking for more information? Visit the LDS Team website, give us a call at extension 1216, follow us on Twitter @FlemingLDS or send us an email: LDSTeam@flemingcollege.ca!