NISOD 2008 - Keynote - "America's Community Colleges: The Nation's Best Defence

This keynote address was given by Dr. Ronald Williams, Vice President of the College Board. Much of his address was based on a College Board report " Winning the Skills Race and Strengthening America's Middle Class: an Action Agenda for Community Colleges".

Community Colleges in the US currently enroll 46% of all undergraduate students and community colleges are much more diverse than universities. It was pointed out by Dr. Williams that the US lags behind most developed nations in most educational measures and that it is community colleges that are preparing the current and next generations of the people that will run the national infrastructure.

There are four threats to the community college:

• Rising costs
• Mismatch between demand and resources
• A culture that has emphasized access more than success
• The challenge of monitoring outcomes

We are looking at very similar issues in Canada and it was somewhat reassuring to realize that institutions in the US are dealing with many of the same issues.

A thought provoking address that I am sure gave US-based faculty and staff lots to think of. If you get a chance, take a look at the report - it has lots of relevance for colleges outside of the USA as well...

CIT 2007 - Some Final Thoughts

It's taken me a while to get to this point - my last post about CIT 2007. This has been partially due to returning to a busy job, and partially due to some obvious inertia on my part. But the single biggest reason why it has taken me this long to get there is that there was just so much to absorb and reflect upon.

CIT 2007 was an amazing experience on many levels. I met some very cool people who had some amazing things to share - and that was probably one of the coolest things about the conference - how willing people were to share and talk about what the were doing - there was a great collaborative spirit throughout.

I also learned a lot about myself , the community college "industry" in North America, and about my own institution as well. For myself I confirmed that I am well immersed in all things Web 2.0 and learner and learning-centred, more than I realized - several of the presentations were at the introductory level, discusing isues of implementation and engaging learners. This may explain why in some circles I may be considered "weird".I need to keep an eye on that one...

As for the state of the community college "industry" I found that most colleges have the same issues - retention, engagement and how to reach the current generation of learners. While there were no perfect answers at CIT 2007 for these problems, it was nice to know that we were not alone in going through them and that it appears to be a phenomenon right across North America. The other good thing is that many are trying to find solutions, and the solutions seem to hinge on the following - engagement, collaboration, mobility and openness (much more on these themes in later posts).

And the thrd piece is that here at NSCC we are doing some great things - portfolio learning, education without boundaries, access, service learning, project-based learning, and many other educational innovations. We need to be better and do more on the blended side of things - to move towards what Mark Milliron called "blurring blended" - a model where 15-20% or learners are entirely online, 15-20% are entirely in brick classrooms, and the remainder are blended learners taking a mixture of online and classroom courses. I truly believe that blended learning is the furure - it meets learners where they are - the engagement and mobility pieces, along with the openness. CIT 2007 also confirmed fo me that learning is now a collaborative function - there is simply too much information and too many sources for a learner to successfully navigate their education in anything but a collaborative environment.

So, all in all, CIT was a great opportunity and presented me with several confirmations and challenges. It confirmed that I am on the right track as an educator and challenged me to realize that the journey is just beginning that we as educators must continue to evolve and adapt to provide the learning environments and opportunities that will provide learners with the best possible chances for success. The next few years in adult education are going to be very exciting, and who knows - I may even become less weird,a s others catch on and catch up...

CIT 2007 - Technical Issues

Hi everyone - CIT 2007 has been an absolutely amazing experience, and if you are a community college educator, you MUST get here. CIT 2008 will be in Salt Lake City.

Unfortunately there have been some technical issues here with the networks at the hotel and convention centre, so uploading to this blog has been erratic at best. I'm heading home tomorrow and will finish posting my experiences, thoughts, and things that made me go hmmm... (and there were lots) when I get home.

So stayed tuned - lots more to come...

CIT 2007 Nashville

I'm leaving later today for Nashville where I will be attending the League for Innovation in the Community College's Conference on Information Technology (CIT 2007) in Nashville Tennessee (11-14 November). There are a total of fourteen of us from NSCC attending the conference, so look out nashville, here we come!

CIT 2007's mission is to offer a diverse program and cutting-edge exposition exploring the intelligent application of information technology in community and technical colleges (from the CIT 2007 Web site). I'm heading to CIT 2007 to see what's new and hot in community college education, innovative use of technology in learning, and perhaps most importantly to meet amazing people and listen to what they have to say. Oh yeah, and to go to the Grand Ole' Opry too!

It's going to be an amazing, jam-packed few days ate CIT 2007 (here is the conference program - it's also downloadable as a 164 page PDF file). I'm going to be blogging my experience at the conference, so if you what to se what's up and what I'm learning - stay tuned...