Sloan-C International Conference
on Asynchronous Learning Networks

by Maggie Davis, Health Occupations

I attended the International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks in Orlando on November 17-19, 2005. This conference provided me with an opportunity to network with faculty from across the country. I learned what strategies, struggles, and triumphs they faced in their institutions when trying to implement online and hybrid courses. I attended several sessions during the conference including sessions on assessment, implementation, and evaluation of courses. My favorite session focused on assessing quality in online education. I came away from this session with useful strategies for evaluating the quality of the nursing program’s online and hybrid courses.

I appreciate the support of the Professional Development Center in providing the funding for my attendance at this conference. I believe students will benefit from my attendance at this conference because the nursing program will use the information I gained to I prove the quality of our online/hybrid courses to ensure students achieve their learning outcomes. In addition, I attended this conference with the objective that I would learn how the work that the nursing faculty members were doing on their course development compared to other programs and institutions. I also hoped to learn about new tools and strategies to enhance our ability to design and implement these courses.

I believe these objectives were achieved despite the fact that we lack many of the resources larger institutions have, I believe we are fortunate to have faculty who are willing to share their experiences and expertise with faculty who are new to online course development.

International Conference on Arts and Humanities

by Sarah Satterfield, Fine Arts

On January 11-14, I had the opportunity to attend the fourth annual International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, Hawaii. I performed a lecture-recital (on a Civil War fife) entitled “Fiddlers, Farmers, and the Folks Back Home: Traditional Music in Early Florida.” During my first year at CFCC, I received a mini-grant to research this topic. It was nice to have an opportunity to disseminate the findings of that research at a conference attended by over 1,400 individuals from various fields/backgrounds, including the visual arts, theatre, dance, literature, anthropology, philosophy, religion, and music. Participants came from approximately 40 different countries.

In addition to seeing the beautiful sites of Hawaii—the white sand beaches of Waikiki, Diamond Head, the Byodo-in Temple, Pearl Harbor, et cetera—I attended three days of lectures, recitals, and panel discussions presented by some of the most esteemed names in my profession. Most intriguing was a theoretical analysis of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok’s usage of tonality as a form of symbolism in his opera Bluebeard’s Castle. The speaker, Masataka Yoshika, discussed how Bartok used certain chord types in connection with different characters/scenes in the opera, reminiscent of the leitmotifs in Richard Wagner's nineteenth-century music dramas. I also enjoyed a lecture presented by David Kushner, head of the musicology program at the University of Florida, titled “From Phosphate to Plantation: The State Songs of Florida.” Dr. Kushner presented a longer version of this lecture in my Introduction to Humanities class this fall. In the lecture, he examined controversy-surrounding dialect in Florida’s state song, and various efforts at text “sanitization”—under the guise of political correctness—undertaken by local legislative figures.

I plan to use the information I learned at the conference in my music and humanities classes. I will be preparing slides and discussing with my students the musical and artistic traditions of Hawaii. I will also be sharing with them portions of my own lecture from the conference.

St. Petersburg Times
Festival of Reading

by Ron Cooper, Humanities

The 13 th Annual St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading held 10/38-30/05 was the largest in its history, featuring Carl Hiaasen, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bobbie Ann Mason, R.L. Stine, and other authors, including many from Florida. My funding request was particularly for “Novel Night-Author Reception” in which most of the authors who participated in the festival proper (the following day) attended a reception. This reception was by special registration only, and guests (like me) met in an elegant but casual atmosphere to talk with authors.

Florence , Italy in December 2005

by Michele Wirt, Humanities

The Florence Biennale—not to be confused with the Venice Biennial—is the largest artist supported international exhibition in the world. Its fifth event, held in the Fortezza da Basso, featured over eight-hundred artists, of which I was one, from seventy-five countries. (Visit http://www.florencebiennale.org to see your colleague’s name on the Artists’ Index!) Each day featured many activities, including two lecture sessions. Perhaps the most meaningful was “When Nothing is Something,” which addressed a kind of daoist look at how what isn’t there defines what is, in art, and elsewhere.

Meeting artists from other countries was a real treat, learning what inspired them on regional and personal levels. An informal group of us spent time after hours in a jazz club called Café Caruso, in which the proprietor was also an artist.

The curator of the exhibit is Dr. John Spike, who has written catalogues raisonne on both Caravaggio and Michelangelo. His wife is an accomplished writer herself. Her recent book, The Tuscan Countess , reveals the life and times of Matilda of Canossa, who lived in Mantua around the time of the Norman Conquest, who fought along with her soldiers to preserve the ideals of her lover, Pope Gregory VII.

Being December in a largely catholic city meant the “Presipio” or nativity celebrations were everywhere, and a special holiday for the Annunciation was a lively weekday during which everyone took time off. In between Biennale days, I visited San Miniato, Boboli Gardens, the Uffizi, the Chiesa di Dante, and Santa Reparata, underneath the existing Florence Cathedral, to name a few.

In this seemingly ancient-come-metropolitan city, one drinks their cappuccino (don’t ask for “coffee”) standing up, no lingering, except in the afternoon or evening. In the Piazza de Reppublica, a violinist and her loyal audience casually clustered around an ancient upright marker, indicating the exact physical center of town, topped with a sculpture by Donatello himself.

Street artists next to the great Duomo hawk customers for “caricatura?” a young lady sat for one in particular, with her mother looking on. They argued over the appearance of the younger’s chin with the artist, who made it look double in the drawing. The pair finally gave up after what was clearly his relentless defense as I looked on; body language is fairly universal.

Covering classes during the week before final exams allowed students time to work on final projects independently, and/or work on study guides for exams. However, Spring Break would be a better time to visit, as summer is unbearably hot, not to mention expensive. Another part of my follow up to this professional development activity included a simple dish of caprese, served along with proscuitto and crispini, which accompanied a slide show for a recent Citrus Campus faculty meeting.

The flight out of Florence was where I met up with Christo, a featured artist at the Biennale, where it was too crowded to get very close while he spoke alongside Jean Claude. He refused to sign my passport, but did autograph a postcard he was carrying.

I strongly resisted photographing him in that more informal setting, but the flight attendants did not!

If you go to Firenze, be sure to try the riboleto, the grappa, and the limoncello, although maybe not in that particular order. If you like the idea of going with a group, attempts to offer a studies abroad course that includes travel to the city may materialize in the spring of 2007.

Exercise Physiology & Weight Management Strategies

by Patti Hooker, Health Occupations

This course, held on January 18 in Gainesville, was very interesting and relevant to the course I am teaching this semester. The speaker focused primarily on weight management, which was not as much my concern as was exercise and its relationship to certain diagnoses, but her knowledge of the topic intertwined with relevant personal stories made the presentation of her theory more interesting.

I did learn a lot relating to diabetes and Coronary Artery Disease in relation to exercise, including lifestyle change recommendations for patients/clients with differing diagnoses. The speaker reviewed ways to change standardized testing to use as an assessment tool for

specific age groups; the course manual also included photos of exercises for review.

I plan to implement some of the ideas presented in my Therapeutic Procedures class this semester.

American Choral Directors

by Gregory Ruffer, Fine Arts

The southern division meeting of the American Choral Directors Association in Charleston, WV on February 22-26 turned out to be a great conference for networking. I spend a good deal of time with Dianna Campbell, choral director at Seminole Community College. We discussed our music programs, course offerings, literature, etc. and I gained a great deal of insight into another community college’s program. We also discussed a joint performance by our concert choirs next spring.

I also met with Wayne Bailey, choral director at Jacksonville Community College and got helpful information from him as well.

Sessions on programming and literature were very helpful for ideas as were the dozen or so concerts I attended.

Pat Fleming
Live From Kyrgyzstan

Our thanks to Pat Fleming for the wonderful presentation “live” from Kyrgyzstan on College Planning Day, Feb. 16. Thanks also to the following local artists and participants from the University of Kyrgyzstan:

Phillip Kraskilnikov philcrosoft@mail.ru
Gulshat Maatkerimova glt09@yahoo.com
Zina Karayeva karayevaz@hotmail.com
Lizzy Mayrl artdialogue@intranet.kg
Shaarbek shaarbek@yahoo.com

She’s Got a Way with Words

Cassandra Robison, our very own creative writing instructor at CFCC and advisor for Imprints , CFCC’s literary magazine, has had several poems accepted by various magazines. Here is the list of poems accepted during the past three months, with publications and websites:

“Ben” & “Mandala;” to be published in an upcoming issue of Word Riot ( www.wordriot.org ); “Omega”- Mannequin Envy, January 2006 ( www.mannequinenvy.com ); “Nasturtium” & “Pilgrimage” published in Adagio Verse Quarterly January 2006 ( http://www.geocities.com/adagioversequarterly/ ); and “Vaccination” in Sunspinner winter issue ( www.sunspinner.org ).

Three poems— “Appointment,” “Playing the Dead Home,” & “Knowing the Bead”—will be published in the June 2006 anthology entitled Washing the Color of Water Golden

VACCINATION
by Cassandra Robison

Tech Talk

back to top

Hello Carol.

Good morning!

You teach nursing students. What methods work best?

They like lecture; they really do. But we have to do a lot of hands on work.

Nursing students have to memorize a lot—but application is important. We have students practice applying in clinicals what they learn in the earlier classes.

Hands on experience.

Yes. I teach the last semesters, so by the time they get to me they have learned the book knowledge. In a hospital situation, they have to make decisions based on this knowledge.

Are they always ready to jump from the books to the hospital?

I try not to let students into a situation that they can’t handle but that isn’t always possible. We had a case last semester where a student was supposed to be observing, but what she saw was a baby being resuscitated. The parents had taken drugs the night before and fallen asleep in bed with the baby between them. One of them must have rolled over onto the baby and it stopped breathing.

So there’s an emotional aspect of teaching you have to deal with. Is the emotional part all learned in clinicals?

Oh no. They learn that in the first few semesters. The textbooks introduce this.

But I imagine there is a big difference between reading about how one might feel in a situation and then actually feeling it. This student who had to watch a baby be resuscitated the first day…

She was crying about it. I sent her home that day.

But it was ultimately a good experience?

Yes. She ended up talking about it to me, and then her fellow students. We encourage our students to share their experiences. There is a lot to process emotionally. For example, a while back I had a student who told me that dealing with an AIDS patient is a religious issue for her.

That doesn’t sound good.

I said, “No it’s not.” And she soon realized that it was a medical, not a religious, issue.

I had another student who told me she would never take care of a patient with AIDS. But after a while she changed her mind and actually chose to work with AIDS patients.

Really?

Yes, I told her how proud I was of her.

You’re a nurse, Carol. And you are a nurse educator. What brought you to teaching?

Well, I was out of school about three years, trying to decide if I wanted to do more than just work in a hospital. So I went to graduate school and it opened my eyes.

I was working in a hospital and one of the nurses there was teaching part time at a community college in Polk County. So, I started talking to her about it, and she told me they needed adjuncts. I applied and started as an adjunct for PCCC then continued my studies to become a nurse practitioner.

You were a full time nurse for 12 years before you arrived here.

Yes. Then the opportunity came up at CFCC, so I took the job here and got my nurse practitioner license a couple of months later. Even though I had been a full time nurse for so long, people here thought that I had come right from college.

You told me you teach differently now. You started teaching 18 years ago. What’s the biggest difference between the teacher you are now compared to back when you first started.

I think I see it now as the student’s responsibility. Now, I feel like… this is the way it is. You do this or you don’t. It’s

up to them. I think I’m a fair person. The students tell me that. I try to stimulate their thinking by asking a lot of questions. Why are these things happening with your patient? Did you look at this? I want them to be always questioning and not taking things at face value. But they are the ones that have to decide if they want to learn the material or not.

My guess is that nursing students have to learn just how to become a nurse. It must be much different from what they had first imagined.

Yes. They think it’s going to be like on TV.

Shows like E.R., Scrubs, Gray’s Anatomy.

Right. I remember I thought that, too. But it’s not like that at all. It’s very hard work and not as glamorous.

In the faculty focus groups a recurring topic was student readiness. Do you think students are different now than when you first started teaching eighteen years ago?

Oh, yes. Part of the reason is that we have a much more open enrollment now. This gives more students opportunity. We used to have a point system. We have a number of students in our program now who don’t pass the first two semesters.

So do you teach differently?

I feel like I constantly have to be changing the focus because they seem to get bored so quickly. I call out names. I ask questions I stand in the middle of the classroom so I can reach the people in the back. It seems that some of these students just want to learn enough to pass a test.

And as we discussed, they need to remember things from previous courses .

Exactly. I tell them that at the beginning. I tell them I expect them to know and be able to use the material they learned in Nursing 1 and 2. Again, the knowledge is important but the application of that knowledge is key in the nursing profession.

What would you tell a person just starting to teach nursing? What advice would you give?

Be patient.

Thanks for your time, Carol .

You are very welcome.

Favorite Quotes from our Adjunct Faculty   “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt  Cindy Brannen, Citrus Communications “A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose Happiness is good health and a bad memory. ~ Ingrid Bergman From M. Mayden, Business & Technology “It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated.” ~ Edith Hamilton “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ~ Nelson Mandela Both quotes from James Echlin, Math “The Wright brothers were the first to achieve controlled, powered flight because of their approach to the problem. Their method will ensure your success in all courses. James Tobin, in his book To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight, said, ‘It was a simple method, but rare. They broke a job into its parts and proceeded one part at a time. They practiced each small task until they mastered it, then moved on.’ Wilbur Wright said, ‘Skill comes by the constant repetition of familiar feats rather than by a few overbold attempts at feats for which the performer is yet poorly prepared.’” Bill Murry, Math back to top CFCC 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2007   In preparation for the 50th anniversary of the founding of Central Florida Community College, we are seeking documents, photographs and any artifacts of historical interest about our Hampton, Ocala, Levy, and Citrus campuses.   If you have college items dating from 1957 that you are willing to share, contact Kat Wade at (352) 854-2322 ext. 1588 or e-mail wadek@cf.edu. Book Club Donations and Inscriptions  Holiday 2005  “What book would you want your students to read?” Freethinkers: a history of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby from Peter Smith “Freethinking is never free. There is always a social cost.” PDS Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg from Sheila Evans “Christmas 2005. Just pull up a chair – get out your pen and follow NATALIE!! I’m going to read this book again ” Later, Sheila Evans, Librarian Letters from the Earth:Uncensored Writings Edited by Bernard DeVoto “Dear Student, This has it all – life, death, deception, creation, God, Man, Woman. It is a work you must read by a brilliant American writer who admits the devil made him do it.” Amy Mangan, Holiday Book Club, 2005 Why I am Not a Christian: and other essays on religion and related subjects by Bertrand Russell Edited by Paul Edwards “…or a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or…you get the picture. Be sure to read the companion work, Why I am not Bertrand Russell , by A. Christian, Lejoiner Press.” Ron Cooper 12/8/05 Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman “Dear CFCCite, Please read this – then either kill or at least seriously maim your television.” Dennis Owen Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau “To the CFCC Students and The LRC, Because our desperation is no longer quiet.” Sandra Cooper, Book Club 2005 The Maker’s Diet by Jordan S. Rubin . “I hope that America will get healthy once again and focus on activity.” Diana Corl The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan from Kristina Chandler: “The Feminine Mystique is still a worthy topic of discussion” “If society will not admit of women’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” Elizabeth Blackwell 1821-1910. Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln . by Doris Kearns Goodwin from Darrell Riley “This is a great lesson in how a diverse government should work. Maybe George W. should read this.” A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn from Peter Smith “We will never stride forward until we acknowledge what has made us stumble.” P.D.S. Seabiscuit: an American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand “Quite simply, one of the best sports books I’ve ever read, period. Hillenbrand’s words are at once powerful, beautiful and descriptive. Each page reveals another equestrian insight or conveys the majesty and grit of this wonderful sport. She made me love horse racing. And I didn’t at all – until I finished the first chapter. By then, I was hooked.” Dean Blinkhorn, 2005 The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life by Thomas Moore “To the Reader! Thomas Moore is a wonderful insightful writer about and of life. In his writings we find both peace and hope. May you find the same and more! Enjoy” Cash and Gwynn Pealer Dec. 2005 The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: a Calvin and Hobbes Treasury by Bill Watterson from Susan Bradshaw “I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar on my shelf.- Robert Bloch” Weird Florida: Your Travel Guide to Florida’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Charlie Carlson from Darrell Riley “I hope you enjoy ‘weirdness’ as much as I do!” D.G. Riley Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories by Mark W. McGinnis Winter Solstice - Florida 2005 “To the Citizens of the Central Florida Community under the auspices of the College via the book club: Wisdom is made manifest in many ways. It is my hope any reader herein and thus after will gain wisdom from both these pages and the planetary citizens who have different species than our own. Sometimes the way of peace is not easiest, but its wisdom is unequivocal.” ~ SuZi back to top   Book Club meeting dates in 1-101 from 12:00-1:00:  March  17 –   Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King.                       Facilitated by Susan Bradshaw April 21 –      Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.                       Facilitated by Amy Mangan For more information, call Sandra Cooper at ext. 1361.    Book suggestions relating to Black History Month from Sandra Cooper: Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity, and the Ambivalence of Assimilation, edited by Gerald Early. “Twenty writers consider W. E. B. Dubois’s notion that African Americans experience a double consciousness, ‘two warring ideals in one dark body.’ Includes essays from Henry Louis Gates, Nikki Giovanni, Stanley Crouch, and others.”   “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is an all-time classic for good reason. The story is a gripping account of life in slavery, and a lesson about the importance of education that still rings true for us today.” Coretta Scott King 2005 Author Award Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison Published by Houghton Mifflin Company