What’s happening in Ontario Colleges in relation to education technology?
Technology for Teaching > Education Technology Committee
The short answer to this question is this: many similar things are happening across colleges, along with practices that are unique and exciting.
The Education Technology Committee (ETC) is a provincial committee whose members report on what is happening vis-à-vis education technology at their respective colleges to the provincial Vice-President, Academic group. Via the ETC, we can engage in give-and-take discussions about how technology is supporting student success in our Ontario community colleges.
The ETC meets four times a year which culminates with the annual "This is IT" conference in May. This event is hosted at a different college each year. Mohawk hosts "This is IT" in May 2008.
Read the ETC’s newsletter and find out more about the conference.
An ETC website is in the works where you can find out more about the mandate and activities of the committee. Once published, this web address will be shared with you through this newsletter and Algonquin's Professional Development web site.
Did You Know . . .
Here are a few snippets about education technology in Ontario community colleges:
- Seneca has been using Wimba voice software to add audio to documents posted in their LMS (learning management system).
- Sheridan is a completely mobile learning college where every student uses a laptop. They focus on using classrooms as active learning environments where students are expected to come to class prepared to participate.
- Audience response systems (Clickers) are used in the classrooms of several colleges. These devices allow anonymous student participation within the classroom through the immediate deployment of survey questions. The ETC is compiling a summary of how this resource has been used. Stay tuned for more information about clickers in an upcoming newsletter.
- There is a common interest among all colleges in sharing best practices of how technology can help us create student-centered learning environments.
Gail Allan, from Learning & Teaching Services, represents Algonquin on this committee (Rudi Aksim was the former representative).
What questions would you like Gail to ask other colleges? Conversely, what would you like other colleges to tell us about technology and learning?
Contact Gail at allang@algonquincollege.com. She is happy to bring forward to the ETC any questions that you may have, or to connect you with more information and ETC contacts.