The Future is Now! When I first started teaching, many years ago, the world of teaching was a much different place (I know, I know, but I have changed very little!). I began my career in a small school on the outskirts of Chatham, Ontario. I taught multiple grades in the same classroom (7/8/9 and 9/10) and many of my resources (readers and texts) were from the 1950’s. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I taught typing on the old, manual machines (earplugs anyone?). There were only a couple of computers in the school, and I did not own one at the time. The school had one photocopy machine and it was expensive to use. The copies had a slippery surface and the kids liked to sniff the pages, there was kind of a chemical druggy type smell. Instead, we were encouraged to use the spirit duplicator and recycled green or pink papers, if we wanted to make handouts or worksheets. Spirit duplicators worked by applying alcohol to a carbon sheet and then cranking the drum so that the ink might transfer to individually fed sheets. Unfortunately, it could be a messy process. I often arrived to class with soggy copies and blue fingertips. The recycled paper did not hold up very well, but it was much faster than having students copy notes from the board. We were a little behind the other schools in terms of technology, but we did have cassette players and filmstrip machines. I put these to good use when I was teaching French - dimming the lights and having the all the students “Repetez, après moi!” If I was organized, I could request feature and documentary films from the local school board’s resource center. However, certain resources were popular, and you had to stake your claim well in advance and make sure you were at the right point in your curricula, when the films actually arrived. Our projector was a complicated beast, but you could run the film backward (a frequent request from the students) if you had a bit of time at the end of the period. Now jump forward 40 years. We’ve seen tremendous change. Affordable computers, the availability of resources through the internet, the influx of interactive whiteboards, Wi-Fi, the ever-presence of smartphones, and a constantly changing smorgasbord of learning apps has changed the way we teach and learn. And yet, with all that change in our lifetimes, it was still hard to make the leap to online teaching as a result of Covid. Many of us were stretched in ways we were not prepared for, pushed to learn new technologies and systems in a moment of near crisis, in what I like to call “the great hack of 2020”. That said, times of crisis could sometimes bring forth great leaps of progress. The Second World War necessitated tremendous advances in manufacturing and similarly, our year of Covid has seen tremendous improvements in online conferencing tools and teaching apps. You and I have learned a great deal about engaging and supporting learners in ways that we’ve never learned ourselves, and we continue to learn! In the next couple of weeks we continue on a visioning process for NorQuest, its learners and the people who make the place go (you and me)! There are sessions being offered by both the futurist group and the culture team. I’m very much involved in the Futurist work as a member of the group looking at “the role of faculty” and we will be connecting with you through LRN sessions as well as through presentations to individual faculties and departments. These presentations really won’t be “presentations”, we’re hoping to provide a few things to think about, ask several big questions, gather your thoughts and hopes, and continue to envision and prepare for the future of post-secondary learning. Some questions you might want to consider are:
Have a great week! Jeff
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Not sure what to write about this week. I have a couple of pieces started on online instructional practices and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, but I think I’ll save those two for a week when everyone is back. So this week’s Musings will be short and sweet.
Find Ways Forward This past week I’ve been reflecting on the Q’s and some of the next steps in the ambitious culture initiative we’ve all been involved in. I think the Q’s provide some very good starting places for individuals and units to build community, establish trust and continue working on the real work of providing quality educational experiences for students who come to NorQuest seeking a safe place to grow in their understanding, acquire new skills and create opportunities for themselves. That said, Covid and cutbacks have made it hard to keep positive. Enrollment numbers, especially of international students, are significantly down and that has caused some departments to face some very challenging scenarios and decisions. Once again, there is anxiety and uncertainty around staffing, support and service. Well perhaps now it is even more important to look to the Q’s for some direction and hope, while we face these troubling circumstances. Difficult decisions and uncertain conditions necessitate that we “show compassion”, “have honest conversations” and “find ways forward”. That means moving past the tendency to make our Q’s into cute but empty catch phrases or Coke bottle slogans, and dig deep to examine how we can put the principles in the Q’s into practice. I’ve had a quick look at some of the data emerging from the “difference makers” work and there are all sorts of suggestions and opportunities that were shared. The question is, “Are we ready to make that commitment?” How can we show, in our words and actions, that we are continuing to grow in our understanding of safety, inclusion, community, support, opportunity, respect and care? Moreover, how will this be very evident to our students and to our colleagues? More on this in a later musing, time to do some more deep digging! |
AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
March 2024
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