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Month: July 2014

Published on Leave a comment on My 1 Year Anniversary!

by Karen Nichols

Greetings! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for this incredible first year in CAT as Xavier's Distance Education Coordinator. I have learned so much and feel so privileged to be part of such an extraordinary team. CAT has an exciting calendar of events and workshops for the upcoming academic year and I'm looking forward to presenting a few as well as participating in them.

It would be easy to look back at this past year or to look around at the current state of distance education at Xavier, but I prefer to use the opportunity to look beyond our campus instead. My professional reading has led me to a positive report on the state of distance education in Africa.

The eLearning Africa Report 2014 contains several interesting articles, from a retrospective of Nelson Mandela's contributions in the field of education to a focus on distance education in three arenas--agriculture, health and tourism. 55 countries in Africa are included in the various data analyses. I highly recommend the editorial at the beginning in order to give you an idea of the scope and fairly optimistic tone of the report.

With the beginning of the fall semester right around the corner, I'm busily making preparations for our faculty and students but I'm glad that I took the time to learn about our distance education colleagues in Africa and the hope and vision they have for the future and their students. I believe I'll celebrate my future anniversaries by "looking outward" as well.

Published on Leave a comment on Using technology for teaching … or not

by Karen Nichols

Faculty Focus just released the results of a poll of instructors which included asking them if they used technology in their classes this past year. 75% said they did. While discussing this percentage yesterday in a meeting, our Director was thinking that number was rather low. I mean, everyone uses technology these days, right?

Well, actually, there are some professors who don't wish to have technology invade and take over their face to face classes where they are bonding with their students. They prefer for their classroom discussions to be organic without the clutter of gadgets and digital distractions. I can't fault them for that.

In my own discipline of world languages, technology has greatly enhanced our ability to provide students with authentic experiences. We can take virtual tours of museums, skype with a partner class on another continent and perfect our skills using recordings and videos. But I can also remember experiencing a class on learning Bantu via the Peace Corps method of the 1960's. Just a few students and instructor and only the target language and gestures. It was intense but 25 years later, I still remember a few words and that experience helps me to empathize with how our students may feel when they approach second language learning.

So technology or no technology? That's a decision best left up to the instructor and the material. I do believe one should keep abreast of what's available in order to make an informed decision that will ultimately provide the best experience for the students.

More information on Dartmouth and the Peace Corps

Published on Leave a comment on 3 Megatrends Influencing Distance Education

by Karen Nichols

One interesting session I attended at this year's Distance Learning Administration conference was a presentation by Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild called Future-Focused Leadership: Three Mega-Trends Influencing Distance Learning. To paraphrase her three trends, Dr. Reimers-Hild discusses the rise of the "Gig Economy", the fact that more people are choosing to live with purpose and the global marketplace becoming de-centralized.

I was not familiar with the "Gig Economy" but having learned more, I can see numerous examples here in New Orleans. In fact, there's a group of gypsy adjuncts in the city who have created a social network to promote their skills, inform each one of potential employment and support each other during these difficult economic times. How this phenomenon affects distance learning is far-reaching in that we must offer support in the way of courses, advisement and training programs to assist this burgeoning sector of the workforce.

We must also prepare our students for a de-centralized global marketplace. In addition to offering appropriate courses, all of the course offerings can be designed to promote higher order critical thinking skills and include projects in which students use and develop tools they will need to be able to survive and thrive in this environment. Distance learning providers must also consider these economic conditions in their strategic planning.

Finally, I found it interesting that "living with purpose" is a mega trend. CAT has worked a great deal with contemplative pedagogy. For distance learning, I have been researching ways to include contemplative aspects in online courses. For me personally, living with purpose and meaning is a necessity. In fact, I have posted in my office a quote I found from Dr. Vicki Zakrzewski, director of the Greater Good Science Center:

"Helping students find a path to purpose is one of the noblest aspects of teaching." This is my mantra whether I'm teaching a face to face class or online.