Enhancing Teaching and Learning Conference

KCPDC sponsored a teaching and learning conference here this weekend. Documents, handouts and an archive of what presenters have sent to me is available. Despite the awful weather (I spun out on I-70), attendance was respectable.

Dr. Mike Neal, assistant dean of the KU school of education, provided the plenary / keynote address. He noted that in the past - life was experience rich and information poor, so that students may have reacted better to instructors who functioned as fonts of knowledge. He conveyed his own past growing up on the farm and his experiences in college. Life today however, is "information flooded and experience poor." This demands new approaches by educators. We face a crisis in education and those who adapt will shape a new and revitalized future.

He added that the days of "Sit and Get" are over. There are a new 3 R's: "relationships, relevance and rigor."

Below will be an compiled video of many of the sessions I got to sit in on.

PODStock: Podcasters' Conference

This spring, in May 1st and 2nd (a fri and sat), Kansas will be home to a national podcasting oriented ...conference (?) The "stock" in the name connotes either love and peace or angst and exploitation - depending on your Generation. Either way it makes you think something will happen beyond the expected or prepared for. I want to go.

According to their website:

Podstock is a brand new conference designed to bring podcast creators and those who see the real value of podcasting as creators and consumers together. We'll have breakout sessions on podcasting for beginners, as well as sessions for and by seasoned pros. We'll explore podcasting as well as many other web 2.0 tools that can enhance learning and communication in your world. We invite you to join this site and add your thinking to the initial planning for this event. The conference will be held in Old Town Wichita, located in Wichita, Kansas and host participants from all over the country. It will be 2 days of education, learning & fun, so we hope you won't miss it!

You can also check out their social networking community (Ning).

By the way, the logo is an owl on a microphone - not Hello Kitty. Am I the only one who saw a resemblance?

Upcoming conference: NISOD

The National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) invites you to register for their 31st annual International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence, which will be held on May 24-27, 2009, in Austin, Texas.

Make sure to register by April 30th to take advantage of the early-bird discount.

General session information is available, and there's time to submit a proposal until Friday, Jan. 23rd.

upcoming conference - KCWE call for proposals

The Kansas Council for Workforce Education (KCWE) is seeking proposals for presentations for the 2009 Career and Technical Education Summer Conference on August 3-5, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita, Kansas. The conference theme is "CTE: Driving Student Success." KCWE members are encouraged to submit proposals with broad appeal on topics of interest to our membership and other CTE educators. Presenters will lead 50-minute sessions. The deadline to submit proposals is February 20, 2009.
Proposals should include:

• Your name and contact information. Include your institution, academic department, business address, business phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. If you will have co-presenter(s), please send the same information for your colleague(s).
• Title and a brief summary/description of your proposed presentation. This should be suitable for inclusion in the conference program. Keep in mind that the most successful sessions have been interactive, hands-on presentations.
• A description of AV equipment you will need.

Proposals should be sent to:

Bill Osborn (KCWE President Elect)
Associate Vice President of Instruction
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd.
Overland Park, KS 66210-1299
913.469.3868 (office)

Any further questions contact Ben Hayes at (913) 288-7224

Title 3 Conference in Denver

People keep saying you TItle III can be a catylist for changing campus culture toward more student centered practices, and a way for faculty to explore new ways to teach.

Carteret Community College, see their blog, have used T3 funding to rethink approaches to advising, assessment and distance learning to improve retention rates. Distance learning (aka Online ed.) thrust their program into a leadership role thru/due to aggressive professional development opportunities.

They used Skype to live webconference in the presentation. They also reccommended http://www.dimdim.com/ as a tool to web-conference. It's free and they said it's excellent software. They've also used all these tools and IM (Instant Messaging) to provide tutoring/ support to students.

Donald Staub, their director noted that administrators and facuty don't know what Title III is and we need to communicate with them better. One thing he does is to pay for adjuncts to cover faculty classes so that key faculty can attend professional development. He also reccomended

• we find out the attrition rate for online classes, as well as web-enhanced classes
• we establish a common language (specifically lexical) for our discussions
• we ask deans, "how would you like to see teaching change on campus"