The Distance Learning Department of Carteret Community College is hosting the NC3ADL Regional Workshops this Friday, November 6th in the Wayne West Building. Powerpoint Presentations art linked below. Just Click and Download
Best Practices for for Online Online Teaching
Blogging for Beginners & Using iTunes and YouTube in Your Online Courses
I always get inspired when I go to these photographic conferences. It’s great hearing so many wonderful image makers talk about and share their work. I also enjoy seeing old friends and colleagues like my ECU Graduate School Professor Henry Stindt (photo below right) and so many other photo educators I’ve had the pleasure to meet over the years. It’s hard to believe I’ve been attending these conferences since 1985 and it was SPE that helped me land my first “real” teaching job. I’m motivated to go out a take pictures every chance I have in-between work and the various other demands on my time. My students got a lot out of the conference as well. I had them share their thoughts in class yesterday with the other students. Now the entire class wants to start planning for SPE National in Philadelphia this coming March.
One of the key themes behind this conference was making the transition from the college environement to the working world. Speakers like Mark Malone addressed exit strategies for transitioning from college to a photographic career. We just don’t spend enough time on this important issue in our photo programs. I for one plan on incorporating more business and marketing practices in my final Portfolio II course.
There is no doubt that the photographic industry has changed dramatically in the past 10 years and is in a constant state of change due to the rapid evolution of digital technology. Keeping abreast of technology is an important factor in preparing oneself for a career in photography & imaging.
It was also great to hear recent graduates talk about how they’ve pursued their photo careers. I heard it over and over again during the conference. You can’t be a quitter in this industry and you MUST be persistent when it comes to exploring ever option for getting a foothold in the photographic industry. When one door closes you just go to the next one. You get knocked down just get back up and explore your next option. This is great advise for all of us no matter where we are in our careers.
I must admit it was also exiting to be one of the presenters at this years conference. Teaching effectively in the online environment is so crucial now that so many colleges are adopting distance learning and using course management systems like Blackboard and Moodle at their institutions. It was also the first time I did a live Webinar at the same time of my presentation. To think I had people from Italy, Holland, and various states on the US watching my presentation and asking questions is mind boggling to me in addition to the 100+ who attended my talk. This is something I definitely want to do again and get more proficient at.
My colleague Cathy Crowell and I were able to attend this conference thanks to a Title III professional development grant. We always come away great ideas and techniques to incorporate into our teaching and online courses.
We are now 3 weeks into the Fall semester and the Distance Learning Team in working on a variety of professional development initiatives, in addition to making sure all online courses at CCC are meeting the Quality Assurance Standards we established last year. We have cross referenced a sampling of our online courses and I must report it is good to see how all the Blackboard training has paid off and so many of our faculty are implementing more creative and innovative instructional design strategies. Our Title III funding and support has played such an integral part in the progress we’ve made over the past 3 years.
Our fourth DL Pioneer team has been selected and we had our kick-off meeting last Friday. We have an excellent team made up of both faculty and staff and they’ve all made commitments to retool and upgrade their online courses, attend professional development activities in their disciplines and essentially take their knowledge of online learning and distance education to a higher level in the next year all made possible by Title III funds. Our staff members on this team will be exploring and implementing new and creative ways (blogging, Youtube, facebook, twitter) to work with our student in the online environment
As Vice President of the NC3ADL Eastern Region I’m also in the process of coordinating a Regional DL mini-conference/workshop for Friday, November 6th here at CCC. Due to travel restraints across the state it looks like there will be no NC3ADL conference this year so we are doing a series of regional conferences. NC3ADL will pay for lunch and I’m going to look to our DL Pioneers from Phase 1-3 to assist with it and have phase 4 attend. The following is a rough outline for that regional conference/workshop.
Big Picture – TWO Tracks (I am reserving 2 computer labs) November 6, 2009 9:00 – 4:00
2 tracks in the morning 9:30 – 10:30 and 10:45 – 11:45
Lunch 12:00 – 12:45
2 tracks after lunch
1-2 and 2-3 (Optional Track 3-4 on Dl Assessment)
1. Moodle Basics
2. Podcasting for the Technically Challenged
3. Best Practices for Online Teaching
4. Learning Object Repository
5. Social Networking as a Teaching/Learning/ Marketing Tool
6. Blogging for Beginners
7. Incorporating Itunes U and You Tube in your online courses.
8. DL Assessment with Don Staub
My constant goal is to make our online classes every bit as viable, interesting and dynamic as our traditional classroom lectures and labs. Thankfully there are a host of new and powerful communications tools that are making it easier and less time consuming for our faculty to do this. Carteret Community College has a Title III grant resources to help us implement our various professional development initiatives and put these tools in the hands of our faculty so they can take their online teaching to a whole new level of technical and pedagogical excellence.
