Listen Up! Southeast Tech's Instrument Repair Programs

Ok, so we didn't get down there ourselves recently, but MPR published this nice piece on the violin repair program at Minnesota State College - Southeast Tech, Red Wing. Really great pictures.

CTL has had a number of interactions with the faculty in the band instrument repair program, and given a grant or two to the instrument repair faculty in recent years. These are teachers who, like those in so many of our programs, are respected professionals on the national and international scene, engaged teachers, and critical, deliberate educators.

Good to see them featured on Minnesota Public Radio--and on the Web site. Red Wing has three programs in instrument repair: band, guitar, and violin. Check 'em out!

Leadership: Key Skills

One of the sessions I attended at NCSPOD asked an interesting question. What are the 10 key skills required of academic leaders?

Granted that ten's an arbitrary number, try asking yourself to identify what skills you really expect in someone who's assuming a leadership role at your college or university. One of the first challenges that arose in the session was distinguishing between leadership and management, and what the relationship is between those two domains of skill and knowledge. (We decided that a leader has to have both sets, absolutely.)

It's easy enough to do a Web search for lists of these key characteristics, but what was most useful to me in this session was first to compose my own list. The session leaders suggested that the exercise of generating these lists, done as a group, makes a great workshop for hiring committees, advisory groups, etc. I'd have to agree: what sounds like a pretty simple task elicits many different opinions and assumptions, and without such a discussion those remain implicit--and possibly clashing with one another.

Campus Visit to Fond du Lac

I had the pleasure of meeting with 14 faculty members in a teaching circle on October 7, at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet. These energetic faculty and I discussed the topic of classroom management. Through the discussion they identified the most important factors challenging them in their face-to-face and online courses. Together we examined a variety of solutions. The answers always seem to come from one another, as it is nice to hear what works in other courses and disciplines. It is also great to know that as faculty, we are not alone in the challenges that students provide. Our discussion needed more than the hour to cover the wide variety of ideas to meet those challenges.

CTL Leader Patricia Grace, CAO Anna Fellegy, and I met to discuss the focus of the work taking place on campus and how CTL could support their efforts. Fond du Lac is working on two major areas in which CTL can play a role. The first is assessment. This fall they are working intensely to complete their redesign of the following:
- program goals and outcomes
- development of 4 competency areas
- general education rubrics for the competency areas
- a 3-5 year assessment plan
As we discussed Webinars, I told them that CTL was interested in developing some assessment Webinars, based loosely on the credentialing course I was teaching again this spring. They volunteered to test-drive the workshops in person before they were presented online this spring.

Another area of focus that they requested help from CTL in was in the area of D2L as and tool and online pedagogy. They would appreciate in basic instruction showing how to use D2L, intermediate instruction that takes them to the next level of the tools, and advanced pedagogical instruction in using it to set up groups, especially in hybrid courses. Anna also expressed an interest in having some faculty development in the area of setting up classrooms for instruction which focus on both the facilities and the classroom environment. This would include managing technologies in the classroom.

In all, I had a very productive day as I got to SEE the working of teaching and learning on the Fond du Lac campus!

Economics Discipline Workshop

My undergraduate degree is in Business, and I remember being "somewhat" interested in my economics courses. BUT, when I attended the CTL Economics Discipline Workshop, I wasn't "somewhat" interested; I was excited! The workshop was held last Friday, October 9, at Normandale Community College. Three sessions were presented about:

• Successful Macroeconomics Instruction Using Non-Textbook Resources
  Presenter: Adrienne Dinneen, Lake Superior College
• Tips and Tricks for Online Learning Management Systems
  Presenters: Brooks Herrboldt and Erin Daly, Normandale Community College
• Effective Assessment in Online Environments
  Presenter: Dave Switzer, St. Cloud State University

This was a workshop presented by educators who know their discipline and who are willing to share tips and ideas in order to help others provide excellent teaching and learning; and they did a great job doing so. Many thanks to the planners Jessie Martinez, Rochester Community & Technical College; Brooks Herrboldt, Normandale Community College; and Nathan Hampton, St. Cloud State University.

Stay tuned, as this discipline group plans to introduce other avenues to facilitate the sharing--maybe a session at the RSP/ITeach Conference on February 26-27.

STEM Equity Pipeline/MN New Look

About 50 secondary and postsecondary faculty and administrators are attending this workshop on October 12 at the Eisenhower Community Center in Hopkins, MN, where we're learning how to look at statewide enrollment data for programs preparing individuals for careers that are nontraditional for women and men. We're hoping to gain insight into gender gaps in students' enrollment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs. CTL staff Brenda Lyseng, Zala Fashant and Yvonne Shafer are also attending the workshop, which is part of the STEM Equity Pipeline Project that is a collaborative effort between State Teams and an Extension Services Group of leading researchers and practitioners in gender equity and STEM education. Staff members from the Minnesota Department of Education are also in attendance.

To make efficient use of national presenters and resources, the STEM Equity Pipeline group is facilitating the workshop along with the organization MN New Look that is focused on program improvement for nontraditional careers. For more information about the STEM Equity Pipeline Project, click on this link: http://www.stemequitypipeline.org/ .

Photography Lighting Workshop

The workshop started with some pretty complex questions about light. For starters, what IS light? Is it a medium? Is it a subject unto itself? It is definitely a critical element that adds to any viewer's emotional response to a photograph. This discussion about light set the tone for the rest of the workshop, wherein faculty worked under photographer Jake Armour's guidance. Armour is a master at creating light indoors and controlling light outdoors.

The workshop put 30 or so Minnesota State Colleges and University faculty in the position of being students of Mr. Armour for two days. On the first day, they learned lighting secrets in hands-on sessions focused on product photography--secrets they will be bringing back to their students. They also learned about marketing oneself as a commercial photographer, which is also of vital importance in teaching our students. Today they are learning how to photograph people in the studio.

A bonus of this CTL-sponsored discipline workshop was the inclusion of students enrolled in MCTC's photography program. In a competitive process, workshop planners selected two students to act as Mr. Armour's assistants for the duration of the workshop. In this role, they receive training that will be of great value when they graduate from the program.

Defining and Assessing Social Responsibility

On Friday at the AAC&U conference “Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments,” five faculty and staff members from Minneapolis Community and Technical College presented about how – for the past seven years – they’ve used an assessment model at the college that measures general education outcomes and social responsibility among students at MCTC.

What struck me about this presentation is that MCTC seems to have developed a strong and usable definition of “social responsibility” that can be applied collegewide. Throughout the conference, I’d been wondering exactly how this could be defined, and worrying that it means so many things to so many different people that it would be hard to compare or share programs or ideas. MCTC’s definition has five components, all related to their blanket definition of “social responsibility.”

Social Responsibility: Ability and commitment to contribute to one’s community as a responsible citizen.

• Demonstrates an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations among groups in contemporary society.
• Recognizes, analyzes and articulates one’s own beliefs and behaviors regarding racism, sexism and other forms of social inequality.
• Recognizes and values human diversity.
• Identifies a social issue and demonstrates an appropriate informed response.
• Identifies and demonstrates ways to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Given this clear and cogent definition (and it has measurable components, too!), I think higher education institutions should band together and create a universal definition that can be applied throughout the country.

Here’s a link to plenty of documents and information about MCTC’s focus and their program.

Connections and the Carousel

It’s been a fascinating conference so far, with lots to chew on and plenty of great ideas. I want to mention a few things about one of today’s sessions.

I’m attending AAC&U’s “Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments,” conference in Minneapolis. This morning’s plenary session was facilitated by L. Lee Knefelkamp, a senior scholar at AAC&U and faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University.

In educating for student’s moral and personal responsibility, I’ve always thought that the students’ moral and personal development is a key. Student Affairs researchers, from Arthur Chickering to William Perry (and others), agree that this development is important for students to become positive contributing members of society. Doesn’t it follow that this personal development is also important in developing personal and social responsibility?

Knefelkamp suggested that students’ development is kind of like a carnival carousel; some horses are up, and some are down, but they are all moving together in a developmental direction. I guess it’s up to us as educators to make sure the carousel’s wheels and sprockets are properly greased, so that the “horses” can keep moving on. On toward personal development, and personal and moral responsibility.

I’ll post again soon.

Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Thoughts from a National Conference

I’ll be attending this national conference on Friday and Saturday this week, and am pretty excited to tell you about the interesting things I’m sure to discover there.

The conference in downtown Minneapolis is “Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments.” It’s sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

I’m pretty excited about the subject matter, and there are many interesting session topics -- ranging from service learning and community engagement as part of the curriculum, and motivating students toward responsibility, to creating a culture change among students and faculty. Maybe most interesting of all the topics, for me, might be the sessions about how we can assess the changes and programs we create on campus about personal and social responsibility.

Faculty and staff members from Minnesota are presenting, too: from Winona State University, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Hamline University, Augsburg College, Macalester College, Concordia University, and the University of Minnesota.

Stay tuned over the next few days as I tell you my thoughts about this important topic!

Chemistry Discipline Workshop

The 185th 2YC3 Conference and MnSCU CTL Chemistry Discipline Workshop was held at Rochester Community College on September 25 - 26, 2009.

I attended for a half day and had a grand time seeing the chemistry faculty from Century College - they were ALL there! There were also faculty from Anoka-Ramsey, Inver Hills (great to see colleague Judy again!), Minneapolis, MSU Mankato, Rochester, Saint Paul, and Winona. PLUS other 2 year and 4 year from the mid-west region. Kudos to the planners (Jason Jadin, Heather Sklenicka, and Teresa Brown) for the organization and sessions.

There were several sessions about teaching chemistry online. Attendees seemed open and accepting to this mode of teaching. There are different models of handling the lab - from labs on campus, kitchen labs, and simulation labs. Each has benefits - and in each case the faculty made sure that the student was gaining critical thinking skills. No matter the method of doing the lab, there would be no sloughing off for the students.

Rehka Ganagamur did a nice job of laying out the factors a college needs to consider when launching an undergraduate research program. The benefits to students are many but there are some challenges. One of them stems from the MSCF contract which does not have language about work load issues for faculty that supervise research done outside of the classroom. Deans and faculty have to work together to figure out a fair solution. It's a challenge but shouldn't stand in the way if a department is truly committed AND the dean is truly supportive. I would love to see this happen at Century.

I also went to session that reminded me of the National Science Digital Library. What a great resource!! I'm not going to try to describe - you just have to click on it and discover for yourself!

The sessions and conversations reminded me again of the importance of being supportive as a dean. Encourage your faculty to try new ideas, to share their successes, to attend workshops.

STEM Student Summit

Metropolitan State University hosted a Student STEM Summit on September 25, 2009. Students from Century College and Saint Paul College were also invited to attend. I was only able to attend the keynote and wish I could have stayed - I missed the wind turbines, figuring out how much work I could generate, detecting an earthquake, programming a robot, and watching the bomb show.

The keynote was by Liesl Chatman, Director of Professional Development at the Science Museum. She gave an unconventional keynote but then, she's an unconventional person - a maverick as she would say. She told her story of how she became a STEM professional. It was NOT a straight, direct path. She presented the opposite of the school of thinking in which you have career plans, 5 year plan, steps to take, etc. Instead, her path involved a deeper reflection about who she is and what her skills are. I asked her where she thought she would be in 5 years - alive, camping, riding motorcycle.

Liesl had 4 main points:

• there are many paths to STEM careers
• the way you were taught science probably doesn't reflect what science really is
• STEM habits of mind will help you in life
• STEM literacy is a moral imperative for our time

What has been my path? Where is my path leading me? What got me excited about science? How are my children learning about science - inside and outside of school? How can we look at STEM education from a whole school systems approach? How can we get people out of their discipline and start integrating ideas?