Beginning of June, I attended a 3-day faculty retreat for discussing graduation competencies at the college. Turned out an excellent retreat arranged by MassBay's Yves Salomon Fernandez. The conversations we had there were very enlightening. Graduation competencies are the skills or competencies each student graduating from the college is required to have acquired before he/she graduates from the college.
As an example, at our college, all students, whether they are STEM students or not, are required to meet computational literacy requirements before they can graduate. Our college has been offering a CS 100 class that currently satisfies this graduation requirement.
The question then is: Is this class still relevant to our students who routinely use digital and social media for connecting with the world unlike our previous generations who needed this class to gain those basic computing skills? What computing knowledge then should a Humanities student today possess other than what he/she already has as a result of living in an increasingly digital world? Why should a CS or an Engineering student take the same class as the Humanities student does?
If you can answer these questions, then another important question comes: If a change is brought about in the manner in which we teach this course, or in the course content itself, who will be affected by this change? How do we involve the adjunct faculty in this type of decision making? How do we satisfy students who must be trained for their respective professions in a timely manner?
Certainly, we were not able to answer all these questions, but it proved a discussion worth having. I learned several different ways in which people think, in my own institution. I expect to participate in a number of such discussions over the next year with my colleagues before we can actually develop a policy and implement processes that will help achieve the goal.
Toward the end of June, I attended the 2011 ASEE Annual Convention at Vancouver, BC.
Vancouver Convention Center
I presented a poster at ASEE convention based on my work for my MN 125 Engineering Computation with Application Software course. I developed this course over the last year in collaboration with Prof. Steve McKnight of Northeastern University, Boston MA. Steve's work in the High Tech Tools and Toys Lab is an exemplary work and we were able to integrate a few of his hands-on educational modules - into my class. (This calls for a separate entry in this blog so I will save writing on it for some other time).
I also went to DC twice this summer, for a NSF STEP grantees meeting and another as a reviewer for a grant. At the NSF STEP Grantees meeting, I had a chance to meet with several NSF Community College representatives. The workshops held by NSF were extremely good, generated a lot of interaction and gave me a good insight into what works. I also met some really smart women in the field of STEM education.
In addition to this, I also was the chair of a search committee and I was happy to learn today that our search was a successful one. I have a new faculty colleague and I am excited about the opportunities for my program this year.
But it has not been just work. I was also able to get some much needed vacation in upstate NY with my family and friends at a week-long camp. A week free from any digital media was actually an excellent idea! I hope to do it again next year.
Overall it has been a busy and satisfying summer.
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