BrendaL

Barry
I think you are off to a great start to becoming electronically proficient.!

Roxy
You have great enthusiasm for learning and adding to your diverse skill set.

**Gil**

media type="custom" key="23139220"

Donna
Finishing hardwood floors. I appreciate how you discovered that maybe there is too much to learn.

Michael
I do play the accordian, but I prefer beer. Good research on the different kinds of beer and your rationale in selecting the most appropriate one. Again, consulting experts at the Grape & Grain to convert your recipe.

Tom
Liked the experimentation with the sad and happy faces to test out the technology.

Melodie
Excellent point of surrounding yourself with experts. Good information about wordpress. Wish I would have had this resource when I was at your stage. Now with a teenagers, I am using Twitter like the old 'back fence' to keep in touch with his peers' parents.

**Marnie** Knitting a scarf. I taught myself to knit using videos on google, too and experienced much of the same obstacles you did. Good luck! Check out knitting with wool and then felting it for a very cool technique.

Michele Deak (soon to be Clark)
Great that you had a place to do this. Nice attempt at including the video in your presentation. Looking forward to being able to see it later! Enjoy your wine at your wedding!

Elaine
Pyrography Very interesting project. I like how you articulated your thought process and made adjustments with your technique and tools along the way, trying to envision the end product. "If it do this... then..." Great storytelling technique.

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=== For May 9, 2013 Assignment #8 Feedback

[|Learner Centred Approaches - Brenda Lindberg]

Presentations - day 2

Wade
What age are your students? What do you do with students who have no prior knowledge (e.g., international students?) of Canadian business? Thank you for explaining your methods! Makes total sense.

Tom
Metal fabrication Love love love the idea of WebQuest for career exploration! Totally applicable to college learners too!

Debbie
Workshop facilitator: Generations in the workplace. Good to use the KWL for icebreaker. Two birds = one stone! Excellent approach for the workshop scenario. I would like to attend this workshop!

David
Storage Tank Erection - inquiry - good approach for cumbersome material. Case study prevents regurgitation on the exam... good project! Jump scaffolding! Beats a desk job, I'm thinking.

Bryan
Good clarification that the content compiled by the students has to be industry related. Problem Based vs. Project Based Learning - good to know!

Stefan
Liked your genuineness about how you have been enlightened. Cool. This will make you an awesome instructor. 'Get them to understand why' using the WebQuest. Like how you have the WebQuest giving them the background to the case study.

Gil
Like your sense of humour! Great to have another instructor in on the role playing assignment. Like how you defined the terms to reinforce the knowledge we have learned in this class. Cooperative learning - getting the students to cover the different operations of 4WD - cool. Like the question - "Did you buy into the project" I will use this. Your rationale of grading on a curve makes total sense as the students gain confidence and the ability to take feedback.

May 2, 2013 Assignment #8 Learner Centred Approaches Presentations

Barry
Good role play assignment. I could envision this happening. Good engagement even for the loafers. I appreciate your passion for creativity and problem solving.

Donna
Good Prezi Donna! That was great! You should be very proud of your work!

Roxanne
Esthetics I liked the triad learning experience with the equipment. Good for critical thinking. The digital storytelling will definitely inspire creativity!

Michael
CDI practical nursing. Intro to Physical Health Assessment PHA Great idea for flipped classroom - more time interacting in lab. This will be a very engaging activity.

Melodie
Yeah! First Prezi! It was delightful! Thanks for the advice on outlining first on the Prezi. Can't wait to try it! I also have real-time content and would like to use your Google Presentation Idea to have the students research because I can't keep up some years!

Marnie
Introduction to E-Business Also teaching online. Very interesting content - I would like to take your course! The auction role play does sound fun and I think retention would be much better!

Michelle
Small groups to foster interpersonal skills = cooperative learning. If you have learners from different cultures, this is very beneficial. Good luck, hope you are teaching soon! You were very clear and have some great ideas!

Elaine
Automatic transmissions Students already have the foundations for the content..

Graphic organizer - Gear project - like how you are really flexible with the format of the organizer. I think your awesomely detailed rubric will make assessment easier for you. Great use of rubrics to assist the learners, too. Good contingency plan for people lacking technology - and for taking consideration of what students do have access to. You have a very engaging style, too!

May 2, 2013 Assignment # 10 Webquest

Please click the link to view a Popplet for a webquest plan for Special Events Management. I'm not sure about this, though. My question is, can anyone directly link to the Popplet through here or is an account needed to view it? Otherwise, I've also included a jpeg version, but unfortunately, the links within the Popplet won't be active.

[|Webquest Popplet]



May 2, 2013 Assignment #7 Role Play and Simulation



As a full time instructor at the new Paterson Global Foods School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts, I am buried under a mountain of assessment at the end of the term. After reading the articles assigned in class, I am struck by how much role play and simulation I use over the four courses I have taught this term. Here is my most challenging;

I am currently assessing 20 Special Events reports in which second year Tourism students took on roles in designing and delivering an actual special event for first year Hospitality and Culinary students to network with the industry. Students were in small groups to design a trade show for employer exhibitors; design and deliver a concurrent speaker session featuring professionals from tourism, culinary, and hospitality. Another group of students created a marketing plan using social and traditional media to engage industry and attendees. The registration team had to coordinate schedules for 200 students to attend the networking trade show and two speaker events of their choice over the course of the afternoon. A financial team developed the budget and worked with the groups to monitor expenses.

The theme of networking with industry never changes, but every year the event is different because of the goals students set which lead to the decisions and logistics they plan for along the way. It is also very dependent on the size and dynamic of the group. Hopefully the leaders emerge to motivate their teams. Hopefully, the 'thinkers' set solid paths and training plans for volunteers they might need. Hopefully, risk management plans are developed. Sometimes this happens and sometimes it doesn't - sometimes the students go above and beyond. One of the rules we establish early on is, "EXPECT TO MAKE MISTAKES AND EXPECT TO LEARN FROM THEM." The students spend a lot of time outside of class in meetings within their own group, and with the other 'departments' to ensure the goals of their event can be met. Our classroom times are run as meetings where the different teams report their progress and identify other areas that need work or problems that have arisen.

This year's event posed an additional challenge for the students as they were putting on the very first FACES of the Industry event on at the new PGI building on Main Street. Floor space was limited and parking was one of the weaknesses identified. The students contacted the parking companies in the Exchange and managed to purchase 35 spots for our exhibitors and guest speakers which were included in the registration costs for the exhibitor booths. The project took six months from inception to day of delivery and then the self evaluation and reporting the students need to do for the client at the end of the event. It is as realistic of a project as it gets because some of them come into class thinking they are going to be picking out table linens and balloons, but that's just the icing on the cake. By going through the process and developing critical paths, they soon get a real 'feel' for the tempo of planning events, and having a plan B,C,D,E in their pockets; troubleshooting and putting out fires when things fall through or a speaker gets ill. These among other soft skills are honed because it's where real life goes to school.

One final comment on facilitating this kind of project: You can't phone it in. You have to be on the ground with them the whole time. It's kind of like parenting, you can't prevent them from falling and scraping their knees, but you can be there to help them up.

So yes, role playing and simulation have a huge part in and outside of my classroom. It creates an experience of learning that can be taken into their respective careers.

Marnie-LeighB - Hi Brenda, what a great project for the students to do. I agree with you that with a project this big you (as the facilitator) needs to be onsite for the whole time. I am trying to figure out how my program (Business Information Technology) could do something like this on a smaller scale. Great Job.

Assignment #4 <span style="color: #2b00ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 33px;">The Flipped Classroom

Sources: [|Understanding the Flipped Classroom Part 1] Understanding the Flipped Classroom Part 2

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">After reading the first article, I discovered this technique has been used for years! I had been trying to implement more of it in my own classes having no idea it was a 'real thing' and here I thought I was being innovative. After my first year of teaching, in which I concentrated on communicating information to the students via lecture so that I could prove I knew the material (and how smart I am), I quickly became enlightened (and bored/embarrassed) with being the one who did all the talking in class. The second article confirmed that I have good instincts about student centred learning and was on the right track as I have used similar techniques.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">I also discovered that teaching is not the same as learning and knew if I were a student in one of my classes, I would be sooooooooo unmotivated and bored, because I like to converse and chat and participate in my learning because I have some pretty good ideas, and I suspected that some of my students were probably as brilliant as me, and as I have since learned, get even more brilliant every year!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">My first attempt of using the flipped technique came with a group of readings on the impacts of tourism. The first year I had assigned three readings, approximately 7 pages each and, the majority of the class did not read all of them. When I scheduled the case study for them to discuss prepared questions I had for them when they came to class, their lack of preparation was evident and I ended up summarizing the articles and resentfully answering my own questions. What was learned that day had nothing to do with impacts on tourism, and I'm sure I took a lot more away from the lesson that my students. It was not pretty.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The next term I had the chance to do the same assignment, and reflected on my initial disaster. I split up the readings and assigned one of three to each student. I had some basic questions about tourism impacts prepared in the LMS study guide and asked for them to be submitted two classes before the case study via dropbox so that I could see who was prepared and remind the importance of preparing for the case study. Scheduled over two periods, the case study involved groups of 4-5 peers who read the same article, they had to discuss and answer more questions supplied that day and provide examples from the articles. I was able to circulate amongst eight groups and guide the discussions as needed. This took the first period, including a break. When we returned for the second period, the groups had to present their findings to the other members of the class - since not everyone had read the same article. As the facilitator, I guided them to compare and contrast and make connects within the three different readings. At the end of the class, the students handed in their questions and notes pages for my perusal and to use as a guideline for assessing their performance, but most importantly, I did minimal talking and they discovered the knowledge they needed to discover in the classroom with supports. The preparation beforehand is crucial and I have considered embedding recorded lectures so that class time is used for consultation, collaboration and completing worthy exercises and assignments for learning.

Brenda Lindberg Assignment #2 Reflection: “How Technology Can Improve Learner-Centered Teaching”

Since this course is set up to simulate the learning environment we want to create for our own students, I have been more conscious as my role as a learner and comparing what I am experiencing with what I perceive to be my students’ experiences.

Accessing the article on the website was a bit of a challenge. I read the free preview page and then tried to sign up to read page two. It gave me the option to sign in with my personal Facebook account, which I did not want to do, so I spent several minutes trying to get the sign-in to default to my 'work' Facebook page. After being diverted to two Facebook sites and then Twitter to converse with former students, my friend Stephen and then being recruited by the parent council at my son’s high school, my time for homework had expired. I realized that I, as a highly motivated student am susceptible to the same online distractions that my student might encounter. Or maybe I am merely projecting... I never did get that second page of the article because if it was important, I would have had easier access to it. (Or so I think!)

Otherwise, the portion of the article I did read was in-line with what goes on in our school. In Hospitality and Culinary Arts, our faculty uses a lot of the techniques as outlined by Ike Shibley in the five core principles of learner-centred teaching.

The main reason for this is that our department, unlike a lot of faculties at RRC has a dedicated curriculum developer in Stephen Yurkiw who manages our Learning Management System so there is consistency throughout the four different programs we offer. It is also easier for us as faculty to be able to teach several courses developed by other instructors because of that consistency.

From the beginning of my teaching career, I have been trained by Stephen and colleagues to use the LMS for quizzing, discussions, blogging, and tried to use wiki one year for a class, but I wasn’t very confident in my own abilities which translated to the lack of engagement from the class. I think that after some specific training in this area, I could certainly try again.

I would also like to further explore using more technology for students to self- evaluate. Although I provide rubrics online through LEARN, I get the impression students aren’t fully using them to maximize their marks. I think it would also provide feedback for me to improve assignments and the rubrics themselves.

In conclusion, this was a good article. Although I was familiar with much of the content, I have obviously taken my faculty and colleagues for granted. I have been very fortunate to have had solid access to learner centred techniques from the beginning of my instructor career. It has always seemed natural to teach this way and I learned pretty quickly, it’s better for the students (and me) to be the guide from the side over the sage on the stage.

Donna April 20- Nice reference to the distraction Brenda. I am guilty of this on a regular basis when working online with a bunch of different windows open. I think if we suggested to keep all other windows closed it would help those who are disciplined and those who are rule breakers will break them no matter what you say so you can only do your best to keep online work interesting and engaging to help deter wandering.