16 th International Conference
on College Teaching and Learning
by Richard Pendarvis, Science

This spring, I attended the 2005 International Conference on College Teaching and Learning at Jacksonville representing CFCC as this year’s faculty recipient of the Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Technology.

I also presented a paper on some work I did on using computer animation in assessment. The concept that assessment can help students learn has basis in the literature. By incorporating animation into computerized testing, we can assess mental domains not easily open to us by ordinary means. My presentation was better attended than many and gave me some ideas to pursue. Many schools are moving to faculty content servers; I met one fellow from a small Connecticut school that has a separate server for the science department.

In the past, I presented at the Jacksonville conference in 1996 and 1998. Quite a lot has changed over the years. Attendance is much greater now and presenters from out of state make up a larger part of the program. Quite a lot of those attending now are faculty from four year colleges and universities. Although technical support was really lacking in 1996, this year the technical support personnel were actually roaming the halls trying to find people who might need their help. The food was even a lot better than in the past! In 2006, attendance at the conference will probably be up somewhat because it is moving to Ponte Vedra.

Floriculture Field Day Trials
by Bob DuMond, Horticulture

I am excited to report that my trip to Gainesville in May for the Floriculture Field Day Trials at UF has left me pumped. I know you are all saying that my head is always in the clouds. Regardless, the seminars were better than outstanding this year covering material such as annual and perennial container displays and recipes, maintenance of annuals in the landscape, bog plants, native wild flowers, and evaluation of the garden trials themselves.

One of the best things that came out of the trial was the networking I was able to accomplish. It is often hard to ask industry for materials and support, but I try hard to achieve this. This time, it really paid off. Bethel Farms has recently imported plants form Australia that may prove to be a substitute for some of the more troubled common groundcovers we use here in Central Florida. I spoke to them at the show and showed them pictures of the maze garden in hopes of obtaining material for the garden. They asked me if I would be willing to trial about 10 new Dianella and Lomandra cultivars in both sun and shade. By the time you read this they will be planted and ready to be visited by all. Come visit—you have no idea what you are missing.

Thanks for allowing faculty the ability to attend these seminars. They mean a great deal to all of us!

Florida Association of Career and Technical Education
by Bill Schaeffer, Workforce/Vocational Ed

Held in Tampa on July 21, the annual FACTE conference is always beneficial because it provides an opportunity to appreciate statewide educational issues while socializing with peers from other community colleges and school districts. Some noteworthy observations:

Industry certifications for all vocational programs may become mandated within five years

Curriculum changes are expected in 2006 for the Personal Services programs including cosmetology, specialty nails, and specialty facials

Gaggle.com allows instructors to establish and control e-mail accounts for student groups.

Consider Blogger.com to create web logs for you or your students.

Assembly on Education
by Millie Norris, Business & Technology

The Assembly on Education (AOE), a part of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is held annually for the HIM educators. We met on June 26-29 in St Louis, Missouri at the Hyatt Regency Union Station. It was a learning experience to view the history of the restoration of the 60 acres that had been the hub of the rail transportation in that area.

The Healthcare Informatics and Information Management Faculty Development Institute was held on Sunday. Dr. Elizabeth Zeibig of St Louis University used the VARK learning method, which determines learning styles, and asked us to participate as her students. She stressed the need keep students engaged in the learning process. I use games and group work now but I definitely plan to incorporate some of her ideas in my fall classes. I left her session with three pages of helpful resources, websites, and teaching strategies.

Other sessions that day included HIM curriculum for the future and an interesting session with Dr. Frank Waterstraat from Illinois State University on Student Learning Assessment Techniques. He sees no point in grades (“Where did grades start? Is anyone going to hire you because you made an ‘A’?”). He discussed his non-traditional methods and making the student responsible for their learning, and recommended the book, The Art of Possibility by Zander. I agree with the issues of grades and tests, and will focus on direct measures of student learning that will give a more accurate assessment of the student’s progress.

Health Information Management Education: Innovation and Collaboration was the topic for the next three days of the symposium. The many sessions covered the following issues:

• Virtual classroom- Distance Learning
• Allied Health Reinvestment Act – loans and scholarships
• Foundation of Research & Education (FORE) – programs and resources for educators
• Professional Practice Experience for students
• Curriculum Gap Analysis
• The future of HIM graduates

“The Perfect Storm – Future of Retention and Engagement" was presented by Jay Jamrog of the Human Resource Institute at the University of Tampa, FL. He employs 20 researchers who gather data on the different generations found in the workplace. There are four groups: Depression (1927-1945); Baby Boom (1946-1964); Baby Bust (1965-1983); Baby Boomlet (1984-2002). His slides show, Characteristics of the Generations, detailed 14 categories that included values, lifestyle, religion, value of authority, and work ethic. He discussed what the future employee would want and what employers would have to do to recruit and retain the best personnel.

Educators in Health Information Management will have to continue to look closely at how to prepare students to adapt and be successful in the quickly changing environment. We have to add more every term to our content to ensure we are keeping up with the new ways of maintaining health care data.

I look forward to next year’s annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

Gordon Research Conference:
Chemistry Education Research & Practice
by Ken Capps, Science

This conference, held in New London, CT June 26-July 1st, was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and American Chemical Society (ACS) with the theme of “The Emerging Vision of Chemistry Education Research.” This was an excellent conference that included poster sessions, speakers and informal discussions from chemistry instructors and researchers around the country. The conference allowed for extended discussion and the exchange of ideas about the various topics, which included research on teaching, learning and assessment; faculty development and its impact; uses and assessment of technology; and pedagogical techniques and evaluation.

Two topics I especially enjoyed were 1) the Virtual ChemLab; and 2) the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) Project.

Virtual ChemLab is a sophisticated and realistic laboratory simulation for freshman and sophomore chemistry. Using the program, students are allowed to complete simulations involving qualitative analysis, titrations, calorimetry, etc. prior to completing the actual lab.

POGIL is a classroom and laboratory technique that seeks to simultaneously teach content and key process skills, such as the ability to think analytically and work effectively as part of a collaborative team. Guest speakers discussed lessons learned from the POGIL project.

Keeping up the Pace XIV – an HIV Update
by Joann Rivers and Grace Gil, Health Occupations

Joann: “This conference for health care professionals was held in Gainesville on May 11, 2005. As a nursing educator for the ADN and this summer the PN program here at CFCC, my objective was to obtain information that I could use to help the nursing students meet their objectives to learn about HIV and AIDS.

The morning plenary sessions gave me the updated statistics regarding this disease for the general population and then specifically for Florida. In Florida there are about 95,000 people living with HIV/AIDS; this is about 10% of the national population. Locally in Central Florida there has been an 11% increase in AIDS cases and a 17% decrease in HIV cases (note that a person can live with HIV with treatment). The treatment regime for HIV varies by individual response to the medications. The important factor is that patients MUST take the medications 100% of the time. If they do not follow the treatment plan, the HIV can convert to AIDS.

It was a very good conference and I hope to attend the 15th annul update next year.”

Grace: “All of the information presented will be so helpful in updating my class presentations in this rapidly changing area of health care. As an instructor for HIV/AIDS in the nursing program, it is essential that I keep my material updated. Every summer I do a major revision of all of my HIV/AIDS notes, and this conference supplied me with a great deal of new information.

I was impressed by the attitudes of the conference participants, who spend every working day caring for persons with HIV/AIDS and yet have a spirit of hopefulness, which was pervasive throughout the day in every session I attended. I am grateful for the opportunity to have spent the day learning about the work of such truly dedicated individuals. Thank you for making my attendance possible.”

Southern Greenhouse Conference
by Bob DuMond, Workforce Technology

The Southern Greenhouse Conference was great from start to finish. On Wednesday, June 22, we boarded a bus at seven in the morning and made our first stop Costa Color, who supplies all the Lowe’s and Wal-Mart stores with annual and perennial color throughout the growing season. We spent about an hour touring their greenhouse facility and then headed toward the Biltmore Estate. Oh, you are all about to say how wonderful, but this was a behind the scenes visit to their perennial greenhouses, better known as the Biltmore Estate Nursery, which consisted of about four housed and four full time employees. If you are a season pass holder to visit the estate or just passing through on vacation you can purchase a day pass to see the estate and then buy some of these wonderful plants to take to your private garden.

After leaving the Biltmore we went to a very upscale garden center known as B.B. Barns, which is a great place to pick up anything you might want for the garden from pot, plants, and fountains to greeting cards. This was an awesome place to visit. The day ended with a tour of Faford, a large soilless mix facility that furnished soil for greenhouse growing. This was their 25 th anniversary and at the end of the tour we mingled with their employees, had a wonderful dinner and took in a seminar on biological control of soil fungus using other types of fungi.

The following day started with lectures on “Propagation from A to Z” and during the afternoon session all participants planted seed and different types of cuttings using the techniques addressed during the morning session. That evening we heard a great lecture on the history of “American Seed Houses” presented by Jim Nau of Ball Seed, followed by a trip downtown to Greenville for a light food fest at the Hyatt.

On Friday and Saturday I spent most of the day attending lectures on new growth regulators for the industry, Poinsettia production, container garden workshops, and one exceptionally outstanding talk given by Dr. Paul Nelson on water quality in the greenhouse. When I was not in the lectures

“Mobil A/C Trainer”
Mini-Grant Update
by Paul Rossiter, Workforce Technology

Last spring’s mini-grant project, “Mobil A/C Trainer” was a great success. This joint project between the automotive, welding and auto collision programs resulted in the construction of a useful teaching/learning training device.

In addition to the design, fabrication and assembly of the trainer, the completed unit was used during the summer semester to instruct the auto collision students. I held a workshop teaching the basics of air-conditioning principles; phase two of the workshop was a hands-on session using the trainer. We will continue to conduct workshops for the auto collision students each semester with our new Mobil A/C trainer.

Feedback from the students indicated that the A/C workshop was a success. On behalf of all the program administrators involved with this project, I thank the T/LI for awarding us this Mini-Grant.

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Congratulations, Pat, on being awarded a Fulbright. Tell us something about the Fulbright Scholarship program. The Fulbright Program was founded shortly after World War II by Senator William Fulbright, then a freshman senator from Arkansas It was designed to promote international education exchanges under the mantra that such “exchanges would promote peace and thus humanize mankind.” Since that time, more than 50,000 academics and specialists have spread the gospel of knowledge both near and far. In addition to the Traditional Scholar program which offers U.S. faculty, administrators and professionals grants to lecture, do research or participate in seminars, Fulbright also conducts visiting scholar programs in which faculty from other countries perform the same duties on U.S. campuses. I didn’t think Fulbrights were awarded to community college educators . I know you’re the first at CFCC. Fulbright awards to community college faculty have been rare. However, in recent years, the Fulbright program has been promoting (and awarding) scholarships to qualified community college teachers. What’s the application process like? To be eligible for a traditional Fulbright, a Ph.D. is preferred though not required. Significant teaching experience, sound health and U.S. citizenship are the other requirements. An extensive electronic application (mine was 15 pages) which includes a focused project statement outlining one’s plan for the Fulbright provides the basis upon which one is chosen. Once awarded, the recipient then undergoes a basic physical examination and personally handles the immigration process and travel plans to gain entry into the awarding countries. Getting the Fulbright really started with your interest in India, right? How did that happen? India played a great part in this process. I spent a transformative month in the summer of 2004 as part of a Fulbright Hays team from the University of Central Florida and the Orange County Public Schools visiting and learning about India. That program, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, sends teams of college and K-12 educators to other countries for short periods of time. As a doctoral candidate at UCF, I had heard about the program after listening to a presentation given by two Indian storytellers who had been visiting the U.S. as part of another Fulbright program which brings scholars and educators from other countries for short and long terms stays in the U.S. I submitted an application and was selected to go. We visited the cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi where we took part in more than 50 hours of seminars and visited more than 40 temples and historical, cultural sites. Since my return, each of these cities has been impacted by a significant event. Mumbai still reels from the monsoons of the past month. Indeed, the campus. In Chennai, pictures I took of Marina Beach on the Bay of Bengal show a place which has been devastated by the December tsunami which struck Asia. Finally in Delhi, recent violence between Muslim and Hindu communities has provided an unsettled tone to the Indian capital. Your work in both Armenia and Kyrgyzstan recently was part of it, too, wasn’t it? Tell us about Armenia. Yes. I was motivated to seek a year long Fulbright after participating in the year long U.S.-Armenia teacher exchange project. Like the Fulbright program, this project was sponsored by the United States Department of State and brought 22 U.S. educators to Armenia to learn about and to link up with an Armenia educator for a year of collaborative classroom activity. My partner, Hasmik Harutyunyan, hosted me for four days in her remote village in the Caucasus. And, as many of you know, CFCC played host to Hasmik last April when she visited local sites, made presentations to more than 12 classes and learned about American culture. Yes, she visited the T/LI during her stay. And your work in Kyrgyzstan? This past June, I visited Kyrgyzstan to present a paper at an International Symposium on Culture and Communication. This ten day trip allowed me to get a closer look at the region, the nature of university education there and the viability of my proposal to study technical communication in the region. This whirlwind adventure, chronicled in the blog I wrote during my stay, left me with nothing but good feelings about my decision to apply and the willingness of my potential partners to make my stay meaningful. While there I took more than 800 photos which provided a glimpse of various aspects of Kyrgyz life, from the rural school high in the Tien Shan Mountains, to the White House in the capital, Bishkek, where, some three months before my visit, the Tulip Revolution took place and the former president forced out. Did you get help on this end for your Fulbright project? Definitely. I must say that by keeping CFCC fully informed about my desire to apply for a Fulbright and the status of my application, matters on this end have been taken care of with consummate ease. CFCC has supported my quest for a Fulbright: President Dassance, VP Sharon Cooper and my immediate supervisor, Assistant VP Cheryl Fante have provided the guidance and pathways necessary for all this to happen. In addition, Trish Glennon in Human Resources has helped me navigate the process of taking a leave of absence. The Fulbright is a one year commitment. Where exactly will you be going? For ten months, I will split my time between Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages in Almaty, Kazakhstan and the International University of Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz Turkish Manas University in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. I am told by Fulbright that an award split between two countries is quite rare. However, in planning my project and checking a Rand McNally (if yours is older than 15 years, it will be difficult to find these countries!) I realized that these two cities are but 120 miles apart. The comparisons and contrasts possible between these two nations, united in their freedom from Soviet hegemony but uniquely Kazakh or Kyrgyz in other ways, would provide the substance for a challenging Fulbright year. These countries represent two of the world’s most recent democracies, both having declared their independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s, and are located in Central Asia. Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country, in square miles, in the world, is that place in your world geography memory known as steppes. Kyrgyzstan, a Nebraska in size but a Colorado in topography, with more than 90% of its people living at a mile high or more, depends on any level of tourism for its commercial survival. Both share an eastern border with China and are located on the same latitude as New England. So I am packing clothes for a cold winter as well as a hot summer. What’s it going to be like to see the fall colors again! What exactly will you be doing in these countries, besides trying to stay warm? In Fulbright’s terms, I will be “lecturing” and “researching” in both countries. Specifically, I will be seeking to understand how scientific and technical information is transferred within Central Asia. On one level, I will be teaching classes at my host universities in what might be called Business English to speakers who have come to English as their third and sometimes fourth language (after Russian, Kazakh or Kyrgyz, and Turkish). As these emerging countries vie for global standing, English is fast becoming the communication vehicle for their studies. I will be visiting the National Libraries in each city to see how technical communication has evolved as these countries have shifted their ideological focus from Turkic, to Arabic, to Russian, to Kazakh and now to English templates. You’re tying in CFCC with some of these activities, aren’t you? Right. I will be running an ongoing book discussion group, using the Learning Theme Committee’s selections, The Kite Runner and Clones and Clones , to generate oral and written activities for my advanced students. I am particularly interested in identifying fictional and non-fictional narratives like the Kite Runner indigenous to these countries. I am also hoping to use the Webcam features of Yahoo messenger to communicate directly with CFCC faculty and students while I am there. And what about the research? My research activities will consist of visiting Kazakh and Kyrgyz classrooms and photographing the visual messages which are evident in the room. I began this project last summer in India, followed it up with memorable photos from Armenia and look forward to visiting at least one school a month while I am in Central Asia. How can your colleagues contact you when you are there? I can be reached through my college email (flemingp@cf.edu) or through the blog I started while I was in Kyrgyzstan in June. Again, that address is http://asianattitude.blogspot.com < http://asianattitude.blogspot.com/ > . I hope to post pictures in a timely manner through a Yahoo service, flickr. I encourage you to have your students read about my Fulbright year and I would love to connect with your classes in any way feasible. And if any faculty members are interested in applying for a Fulbright? They should go directly to the Fulbright website at http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/ . Awards are organized by location and by discipline. And please, if you have any questions about the process of my application, contact me directly at flemingp@cf.edu and I will tell you what my experience has been like. Congratulations again, Pat. And have a great trip. We’ll keep in touch.

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