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I am a bad teacher . . . (?)
by Anna Atkinson, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Vancouver Island University At this time of year—actually, at this time of term, no matter which term it is—the question of whether I’m actually a terrible teacher looms large. I’m tired, my students are tired, the workload has intensified, and for some perverse reason…
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WHAT?? Four Crazy Student Incidents From My Teaching Days —
by Melissa Robertson, Learning Technologies Support Specialist, Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning, VIU I was taking a walk down memory, thinking about my teaching days, when I realized there were many situations I was prepared for and a few I was entirely not prepared for. Here are the four craziest incidents I had…
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Chilly Learning: The Sequel
by Greg Klimes, Teaching Faculty, RMOT, Faculty of Science and Technology, Vancouver Island University A couple of blogs ago I wrote about our upcoming overnight field camp in the forests of Vancouver Island and only 30 minutes west of VIU. Here’s what happened. Not surprisingly to many field trips lately, it was sunny and warm.…
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I have to get an A on this!
by Rob Ferguson, Teaching Faculty Member and Co-Chair, Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, Faculty of Management, VIU Our current higher education system has created a culture where the almighty ‘A’ has somehow lost some of its sheen. I’m confident that most, if not all, university educators have been confronted with the student who asserts…
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Typing with Two
By Wendy Simms, Biology Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Vancouver Island University I have a confession to make. I STILL, to this day, do not know how to type properly. Sure, every once in a while I throw in a thumb-to-space-bar dance move, but I pretty much wrote my entire MSc thesis with two fingers.…
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The student 3.0 in our classrooms: fiction or reality?
by Olaf Ernst, Visiting Scholar, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences (Visiting Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, VIU) Like with new technical products, which new versions replace the old ones after a while, within educational environments much is said about the ‘new student’. Many popular and scientific articles are published about this new prototype,…
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A light-bulb moment 30 years in the making
by Sandra Johnstone, Teaching Faculty, Faculty of Science and Technology, VIU Illumination A few weeks ago I had a busy day. I attended a morning meeting to discuss learning outcomes for our programs in the Earth Science department. In the afternoon my daughter and I jumped on the ferry to visit my parents. Over the…
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International Women’s Day
by Melissa Robertson, Learning Technologies Support Specialist, Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning, VIU This year International Women’s day will fall on Saturday March 8th. The UN theme for International Women’s Day 2014 is “Equality for Women is Progress for All”. The purpose of this day is to encourage advocacy for all women. The…
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What’s the purpose of higher education?
by Andrea Noble, Online Course Support Assistant, Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) 100% Human Connection If the purpose of higher education is to gather information, the Internet would’ve replaced teachers by now. When teachers bring the human element into the classroom, students experience transformational learning. Ideally, we should inspire each other to…
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Auditory Learners and the Lecture Format
by Doris Carey, Faculty Member, Faculty of Academic and Career Preparation, VIU In my decades as an educator, few students have ever claimed that their preferred learning modality is auditory. Not that it matters, since no research evidence exists to support the widely held belief that students learn best when their preferred modality is accommodated.…
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Righty-Tighty, Lefty-Lovey
By Carrie Johns, Secretary Registrar and Convocation, Registration Centre, VIU My grandmother had magical hands. Oh, she couldn’t move solid objects with a flick of her wrists but she was exceptionally gifted at transformation. Flour, sugar, and butter were magically whipped into feather-light shortbread; yards of fabric could be reformed into skirts and dresses in…
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I love it when a plan comes together
by Rob Ferguson, Teaching Faculty Member and Co-Chair, Department of Recreation and Tourism Management, Faculty of Management, VIU While I refuse to acknowledge that I am well past my youthful prime, I am old enough to remember the popular TV series A-Team that pitted a group of misfits who used their wits and creativity to…