The Teaching Hub

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

A Lovely Swarm of Pedagogy Goodness

Let’s just ease into the new term with a simple way to share warm teaching thoughts. In just four words, many educators have been able to share wonderful teaching philosophies to the Twitter hashtag #4wordpedagogy. Have a scroll through some of the submissions and, if you’re feeling generous, pop yours into the comments at the bottom of the page.

Visualization of the over 3000 #4wordpedagogy tweets. The nodes are people. A lovely swarm of pedagogy goodness. 🙂 pic.twitter.com/ibPWEMMQsa

— Jesse Stommel (@Jessifer) May 1, 2016

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Join the Team

We would like the Teaching Hub to be more of an actual hub by making it easier to include everyone in the ongoing conversation about teaching and learning at Fleming, so we created a space (in Microsoft Teams) for us all to have an ongoing discussion. Click this link to join the Digital Learning at Fleming Teams Channel and see the beginnings of the conversation. You can go there to find advice, support, help, and maybe even a partner in crime or two for your next project!

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Getting Involved in Getting Involved

Q. How many opportunities do your students have to get involved in Student Life at Fleming?

A: A lot. Get involved in your students’ getting involved by nudging your students towards the Student Life tab in the portal.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Support

Picture this scenario: You’re sitting in your office trying to come up with an icebreaker activity for your upcoming first class and are just plain stumped because you’ve already put so much mental effort into the rest of your lesson plan. Well, let us remind you that the ‘S’ in the LDS Team name stands for SUPPORT, and we have phones and computers that we are sitting by waiting for you to call (ext. 1216) or email (ldsteam@flemingcollege.ca). Or, you can join the aforementioned Microsoft Team and then we’ll respond saying you should try the “most boring thing about me” icebreaker because it is low stakes and hilarious.

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Nope

Professional Learning opportunities the same week you are launching all your new winter term courses? No, thank you! We’ll hit you up with some light learning opportunities next week. Have a great semester start!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Video Tutorial

See below for a video demonstration of what we recommend you do this week, rather than think about your pedagogy. You do not need to view the entire 2 hours.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Let’s Talk About Tech, Baby

We would like to introduce a space for us all to have an ongoing discussion about how we go about our teaching and learning with technology here at Fleming College. This will be a glorious space that sidesteps your email inbox and all look to each other for quick help and advice. Click this link to join the Digital Learning at Fleming Teams Channel and see the beginnings of the conversation. You can read more about the potential of Microsoft Teams for collaboration here. (we can use the space to talk about non-techy stuff , too!)

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Holiday Closure

We all know it. This is not news. But let’s just revel in the fact that the college is closing for the holidays. You are not invited to be on College campuses between December 23 and January 1st. Stay away. Go somewhere else. See you next year.

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Boot Camp/Get It Together

After the new year, when you return all rested and content from your relaxing holiday break, the cold hard truth will hit you that you have work to do to get ready for the Winter semester! Let the Learning Design & Support Team help you! See here for details on our week zero (Jan. 2 and 3) offerings of the Teaching & Learning Bootcamp and Get It Together sessions at Frost and Sutherland.

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Holiday Reading

The time is almost nigh in which you get the chance to catch up on some reading. Whether it’s about business or pleasure, what are you looking forward to reading over the holidays? Add yours to our group holiday reading list by clicking this link and then the + sign.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Tool Parade

Students in the University of Windsor Faculty of Education are building a cool website where they evaluate educational technology platforms and share the results. Especially appreciated is the consideration of not just usability, but privacy as well. They’ve even included last week’s learning tech suggestion PhET Simulation if you’d like an in-depth analysis of that tool along with the others. Stay tuned to their page for more in the future! Follow along to their Twitter hashtag as well.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Monday Matinee

Your students might need a reason to give their brains a little passive entertainment time and here is just such an opportunity: Monday Matinee Movie in the Pub! It’s put on by SAC from 2-4 every Monday afternoon in the Steele Centre. With two weeks to go until holiday break, we assume the next two movies are Home Alone and Home Alone 2.

UPDATE: we guessed wrong. It’s Elf.

https://twitter.com/FlemingSAC/status/1204100900811427840

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Entering Grades in Evolve

You have until noon on Tuesday the 17th to get your grades into their final resting place of Evolve. Here’s how:

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Not this week

We hereby refuse to offer you any more professional learning opportunities this week. Instead, use whatever extra head space you have this week to think about what shopping you still have to do, which must-see holiday movies you have yet to get to, or where to put that dang elf on the shelf tomorrow.

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Open Up

This edition of The Teaching Hub is a day late because the author had the onerous task of attending the Open Education Global Conference last week. So why not use this week’s hub as a way to report back on what happened at the conference? Okay!

First off, what’s open education? As per usual in academia, its definition can be hotly debated, but in general, there are two parts: First are open educational resources (OER), which are learning materials free to access, keep, share, revise, and build upon. The other side of the coin is open educational practices, which are teaching and learning practices enabled by the open sharing of… teaching and learning practices! To be concise, open education is sharing.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Go fetch some of these PhET simulations

On day two of the conference there was a keynote that highlighted a fabulous set of the aforementioned Open Educational Resources. Award–winning ones at that! The talk was entitled “Advancing Science and Math Education Worldwide through OER: Lessons Learned from PhET Interactive Simulations“. They have a set of 153 freely available simulations that can help students master concepts and ideas in all kinds of science and math topics in a safe environment. For free. FREE! Each of them take PhET about 600 hours to create. Here’s a short video about the simulations if you’d like to see more.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Open Education Influencers

Your students might get warm fuzzies knowing that the Open Education Conference kicked off with a keynote by students discussing how Open Education has helped them and how they have helped influence the growth of Open Educational Practices at their own institutions. It was entitled “Students: Storytellers and Creators of Their Own Open Futures.” You can read their entire script here. They shared it because, you know, open education!

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

UNESCO Recommendation

This section is usually reserved for college-level inner workings, but today we share a new inner working for the whole world. UNESCO has a few different levels at which they can influence what goes on around the planet. Their top level is a ‘convention’ like the Geneva ones, but only one step down from there is a UNESCO recommendation. And just in time for the conference, UNESCO adopted the Recommendation on Open Educational Resources as a key step in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education for all. Seems like a pretty big deal!

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Virtually Connect to More of the Open Education Global Conference

If you’d like to see and hear a little more about what people were talking about at the conference, you can watch people talk about just that on this recording of a Virtually Connecting meeting from the conference. Also have a look at just how comfy lecture hall seats can be. If you watch this during lunch, you can call it a self-made lunch ‘n’ learn and add it to your professional learning journal!

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Cross The Road

Kristin Ritchey from Ball State University, in this article, tells you not to be a chicken about crossing the road with your students. Why is she provoking us like this? What does she mean? Go read the article to find out how you can help build the scaffolding that students use to climb the ivory tower of learning. There are a lot of analogies going on here, but it all works out in the end.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Grades

Of course you have your grade book in order. We all do. Of course. But if you know someone who could use some help making sure it’s built properly, using the feedback tools, or linking grade book items to quizzes & drop boxes, tell them to have a look here. Or contact us at LDSTeam@flemingcollege.ca for help. Also, make sure to check the Inner Workings section below for important info for how to help your grades grow up and move out of D2L.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Avoidance Development

Learning to avoid things is a fun skill to develop and the library would love to help students avoid one thing in particular: plagiarism. This week, there are a couple of offerings of the Avoiding Plagiarism Information Literacy Workshop. Shoot this link to your students so they know when it is and where to sign up.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Grades Again!

As hinted above in the Learning Technology section, your final grades are not official until they are moved out of D2L and into Evolve. This is because the Records department are the ones who keep the official records, not us! We are just looking after the grades as they grow. A grade incubator, if you will. In order to help you get your final, adult grades to move out, you will receive some instructions via email, probably tagged “high Importance” and entitled “FINAL GRADES” from the Records department soon.

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Listen To These Failures

Last week a few Fleming representatives attended eCampusOntario’s #TESS2019 conference. Day two began with a panel of four Ontario educators discussing their experiences experimenting with technology in their teaching. It took a lot of courage for those panel members to go up in front of 200 of their peers and tell us all how it took a lot of failure in these efforts to get to the point where they are now, but it was lovely to hear and connect to their stories. If you’d like the chance to hear what they had to say, it’s all recorded here! We also heartily recommend listening to the keynote “The Anthropologist in the Machine”, by Dr. Donna Lanclos.

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

Give it 3 Seconds

An article entitled “Increase Student Learning in Only 3 Seconds” sounds like some serious click bait, but it worked on us! Take 3 seconds to click that link, and then like 3 more minutes to read the article because it really does sound like a small change that can make a big difference!

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

H5P

You may think that H5P sounds like a cross between steak sauce and a printer, but you would be absolutely wrong. It’s actually an open-source tool that allows you to make your course materials (or any online content) more engaging in a fairly simple way. H5P interactions can be added to WordPress pages like this, or in your D2L course. You can try it right here in this true/false question loaded with creator bias:

Have a look-see at all the different types of content you could play around with here. The possibilities are endless! If you’re interested in finding out more about how we could use H5P in our courses, let us know! Contact details are below.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Enacting some change

You’ve probably seen the Enactus logo on t-shirts and walls around the college, and maybe you’re not sure what it is. Simply put, it’s an organization that helps students use their entrepreneurial skills to enact some positive change in the world. Sounds like a good plan! Check out the Paper Planet Project that Fleming students are working on!

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Skating Party!

At President Maureen Adamson’s recent Listening Tour get-together at Sutherland, we heard tell of an upcoming announcement for a holiday skating party for staff and family! We have no details as to when and where yet, but we are guessing it’s somewhere with ice and it’ll be before Christmas. Stay tuned!

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

TESS on VoicEd Radio

This week, eCampusOntario is holding their annual get-together known as TESS (Technology + Education Seminar and Showcase). Even if you are not heading to the conference, you will have an opportunity to listen to the goings on through the magic of microphones and the Internet. #TESS2019 attendees will be interviewed on VoicEd Radio throughout the two days and all recordings will be available. Check out the show page here.

Engaging Teaching

Teaching tips & more!

UDL Navigators

Did you know that Jodie Black of the LDS Team is one half of the authoring team behind UDL Navigators in Higher Education with Eric J. Moore? We believe that they each wrote one word at a time and passed it back and forth for 5 years, which is one of the reasons it is a skinny book, otherwise they would have never finished. A huge bonus for us here at Fleming is that you can visit Jodie directly and ask her for UDL advice and at the same time get her to sign your copy.

Learning Technology

Using the technology without it using us.

Headsets and Webcams

It shouldn’t be about tools first in educational technology, but sometimes having that tool kit sitting around comes in handy and opens new doors without you noticing. For example, there are endless opportunities for live, connected, professional development being offered online in the form of webinars and other virtual get-togethers. But a barrier for you may just be that you do not have a headset, microphone, and web cam in order to join a virtual meeting from your desk. But guess what? If you go down to your friendly neighborhood IT desk, they’ll just give you headsets and webcams! They are loaded with them.

Trickle Down

Stuff to tell your students!

Random Acts of Green

Following in the tradition of random acts of kindness and random acts of pizza, we now have Random Acts of Green, thanks to local climate change advocate Jessica Corrrea. Come and find out how to be random in the best way possible on Wednesday, November 13th in the Steele Centre at noon.

Inner Workings

Helping you navigate the inner workings of the college

Got $20 and some time?

You likely have the former. Maybe not the latter. Even so, you should know that if you are an employee here, you can take one of our courses for 20 bucks! Check out the details here and the course catalogue to see what interests you as another peak to climb in your professional learning journey.

Keeping it Professional

Professional Learning Opportunities

Let’s put U in UDL!

If you’re interested in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), check out this UDL in Higher Education (un)Conference! It’s taking place at Mohawk College on April 30 and May 1, 2020. Highlights include an interactive keynote session with UDL leader Allison Posey about the brain, emotions, and learning, and participant-generated agendas to share and learn about what matters most to you. Discounts are available until December 20th, and groups of 4 or more receive an additional discount. Contact Jodie Black at jodie.black@flemingcollege.ca for more information.

Vulnerability in the Classroom

It takes courage to be open and vulnerable with your students, but as you can see in this article, it pays off in the form of deeper connections with your students. It seems to be a theme that it is not very easy being an engaging teacher, so we will take all the help we can get. Speaking of vulnerability, check out the latest piece of the Open Faculty Patchbook: Vulnerability and Self Care.

Digital Discourse

The Internet has enabled approximately 10,000 different ways to connect with other humans. Now, we are guessing the best way to communicate with your students is not via a smart fridge, but other than that, we are not sure what you think is an effective way to keep an open discourse with your class. Whether it be in D2L or not, what do you use? Let us know in this survey.

Developing Resiliency

Who doesn’t need some more resiliency in their lives? An opportunity to work on the ability to overcome fear of failure and deal with setbacks happens at 3 p.m. on November 4th at Sutherland (hey, that’s today). Students can register at fleming.mywconline.com on The Learning Strategies Schedule or email Michael Fleming to find out more.

Appropriate Use Policy

“This policy provides a framework for the appropriate use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services/resources/equipment and facilities at Fleming College.” A quick scouring of the entire policy shows that ITS takes no stance on whether those grilled cheese bags constitute appropriate use of a toaster, but there’s a lot of good information in there otherwise.

A Critical Examination

What is the Value of Subject-Specialist Pedagogy in College Teaching? We’re not sure yet but it sounds like Dr. Kevin Orr from the University of Huddersfield has something to say about it! The Centre for Academic Excellence at Niagara College is hosting a live session with Dr. Orr on Nov. 7th at 3:30 p.m. You can access the livestreaming session here. Want to have a viewing party together? Let us know!

Can it be done?

This article is a wonderful example of how taking small steps in a new direction can result in a beautiful transformation of learning experiences. Petra Menz went from wondering if it’s even possible to Indigenize her math course to weaving indigenous ways of learning right into and throughout it. What a beautiful journey!

Let’s Get Digital

Last week at the keynote for the Fall Teaching & Learning Day, a number of potential digital learning initiatives were proposed and discussed. If you missed it, or missed the opportunity to complete the survey to let us know which ones you are interested in, you can get all that right here. Let us know where you want to go with this digital stuff!

Time To Smash

Not sure what kind of smashing you’re thinking of, but on October 30th there will be some Super Smash Bros Nintendo action in the Steele Centre Pub. Let your students know. It’s a great way to let off some steam. Details are here. Go take a look for yourself; it’s hilarious to watch people battle. I call Mario!

Going Through Withdrawal

A quick reminder that next week (Friday, Nov. 8th) will be the final date for students to withdraw from classes and still get that “W” on their transcript. We are looking into the possibility of changing the “W” to a shrug emoji on transcripts: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. See the academic schedule for more details.

Sharing Your Professional Learning

This week may or may not be International Share Your Recent Professional Learning Week. Who’s to say? Just in case it really is, why don’t you go ahead and let us know about some recent professional learning you have been a part of. You can do that by commenting on this post. We’d love to know what you’ve been learning about!

Learning Community – Voice & Choice

This article from Faculty Focus gives some suggestions for creating a mutually respectful community of learners. Spoiler alert: It’s not easy! But working toward accountability all around will more than likely lead to a comfortable, supportive, and inclusive environment. That sounds like something worth heading toward.

Live Captioning

One way to increase accessibility and be a UDL hero is to live caption your presentations and lectures. Offering the option to read what’s being said live can increase student access to the content that you are trying to explain. But is the technology ready yet? You have a chance to see it in action at Tuesday’s Fall Teaching & Learning Day. Terry will try out the live captioning tool on Google Slides during the keynote. Let’s see if it works!

A Bad Week for Trickle Down ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is not a great week for the idea behind Trickle Down. You won’t even see your students, so how are you supposed to tell them about this stuff? If you do happen to run into one of your students, tell them there are a whole whack of drop-in sports happening during the break week on the events calendar! Do the sports!

A Great Week For Inner Workings ツ

Tuesday’s Fall Teaching & Learning Day will offer up a few different sessions that expressly describe some of the Fleming College inner workings. The day includes an Academic Plan Update, Next Steps for Quality Assurance, How Faculty Can Get Involved in Applied Research, the Revised Faculty Development Process, the Strategic Mandate Agreement, and more! We hope you signed up and we can’t wait to see you there!

Fall Teaching & Learning Follow Up

Well we’ve already mentioned Tuesday’s Fall Teaching & Learning Day twice in this Hub, so it’d be silly to say it again. So let’s just mention that week eight also has a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with which we could talk about some of the ideas that come up on Tuesday, and make some plans. Want to chat? Let us know! Contact details are ↓.