| Why Do We Keep Doing This by Jim Roe | Professional Development Activity Review |
| Summer Fantasy | Adjunct Junction by Sandy Scott |
| Faculty Meeting | My Teaching Philosophy by Erica Ongco |
| Textbook Affordability: What you can do by Ron Cooper | Stars |
A reflection on why we teach by Jim Roe, T/LI Coordinator
Why do we keep doing this? Maybe the answer is as simple as we love what we do. Like the Hokey Pokey, maybe that’s what it’s all about. |
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For years faculty railed against the textbook publishing cartel that raises prices as often as “revolutions” in education replace the old trends. Finally, others noticed the problem, and now the State requires certain procedures meant to help.* Those requirements do only so much. We can do more. State requirements/College Procedure. As you already know, the College must post book titles, ISBNs, etc., at least 30 days before classes start. The intention is to give students the opportunity to shop around for competitive prices. Also, changes in or additions of texts must be noted in writing to departmental chairs, especially when the change results in increased cost to the student. The intention here is that professors take changes and additions seriously change in texts, for those changes often result in higher costs to students. Further, instructors must provide written assurances that all components of “bundled” packages will in fact be used. This requirement is to get professors to think twice before they accept bundled packages that increase students’ costs but may include items not needed for class. Take a look at our College Implementing Procedure for College Policy 4.01, which has been adapted to reflect these changes. What you can do: Consider an e-text. Most of the gargantuan publishers offer some books in e-text format. They cost much less than the paper texts. Some e-texts are only PDF versions of book; other are interactive and features exercises, self-tests, etc. For most of these, students purchase access to a website where they find the text. When the semester is over, they lose that access. The downside may be that students have no book to resell to the bookstore and, in the long runmay not save much. Consider online sources. Many resources—from entire books to small modules—are available from an ever-growing list of websites. Project Gutenberg, for example, offers a trove of unabridged classics, while Orange Grove continuously adds items created by Florida faculty. You can simply supply students with the links, or you can post the items on Angel or the JICS class portal.See the list of online sources at the end. Allow students to use previous editions. Changes from one edition to the next typically are negligible, except for the price. Older editions often go for tiny fractions of the new edition’s cost. For example, the 7th edition of Fisher’s Living Religions (Prentice Hall), which I used to assign for my Comparative Religions course, is listed on Amazon at $100 but offered for $81. Used copies start at $66. Used copies of the 6th edition, however, go for $20, and the fifth edition for $2! The differences are only minor. When you enter your textbook information for registration, simply enter “any edition.” Create your own book. If you have extensive class notes, handouts, etc., or you create an anthology, you may have enough material to have printed and bound in book form by our Staff Services. The book can be sold in the book store for just a few dollars. One caveat: if you create an anthology of other people’s works, and those works are not in the public domain—that is, old—you have to give some attention to copyright. Fair use will probably be on your side, but you may need to pay some minor fees, perhaps with mini-grant funds, for permissions. The Copyright Clearance Center can help determine these things. Place materials on ANGEL or the class portal. For my Ethics and Intro to Philosophy courses, I created online anthologies. Students simply go to the portal or Angel and click on the readings. Students in these classes thereby pay nary a dime for their Plato, Aristotle, and others. Many of the readings came from Project Gutenberg, all of which are in the public domain. Put a copy of your text on reserve in the library. Students leave their IDs at the circulation desk and can borrow the book for a couple of hours. This is especially helpful for students who cannot purchase their books at the start of the semester, like those students who order their copies online. Look for workshops/idea swapping sessions offered by the T/LI.
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Florida Community College Early Childhood Educators’ Network Conferenceby Marybeth Kyle, Teacher Education Held in St. Petersburg Sept. 22-25, several important topics were addressed, including the following:
The state Birth to Five Standards will be reviewed. So far, 270 persons have been trained in the new Birth to Three Standards. The department will develop comprehensive standards for VPK |
and Birth to Five. The standards can be seen at www.flbt5.com.
All of the information received will be used to update the curriculum for the AS degree in Early Childhood Education. Students will be assigned activities that support the acquisition of the updated information.
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The opportunity to network, to meet new people and to reconnect with friends was a major benefit of this gathering. I am able to stay connected to the “real” world by questioning those in acute and alternate care settings, learning how problems, legislative initiatives, etc. are handled today. This information is invaluable to pass on in a classroom setting and goes beyond what is offered in most textbooks. American Health Information Management Association’s Assembly on Education (AOE)I also attended the educational component of my professional organization geared to the needs of health information management education in community college, baccalaureate, and post-graduate programs. This symposium was held in Las Vegas, Nevada at Planet Hollywood and I attended on July 27-28. The agenda was arranged in tracks covering best practices, international topics (representatives from several schools out of the country were present), and special interest topics. Topics were geared to the offering of curricula that maintained or exceeded accreditation requirements. Our programs are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). Note: The CFCC Health Information Technology Program was accredited by CAHIIM in 2005. Some of the subject areas of sessions I attended included: distance learning best practices, legislative updates, a review of AHIMA’s educational resources, and ICD-10 reviews (The United States currently uses ICD-9-CM to assign numerical designations to diagnoses and procedures for data retrieval and reimbursement purposes, but will have to transition to the more comprehensive ICD-10-CM version by October, 2013.) The opportunity to network with one’s peers to discuss common issues was invaluable. Treasure Coast Nursing Research Symposiumby Barbara Anderson, Health & Human Services This symposium on “Translating Research into practice: Implementing Evidence-Based Practice into Nursing” was held at Indian River State College in Ft. Pierce on May 15. During the one-day seminar, I was able to network with fellow nursing faculty also in the midst of the accreditation process—the CFCC nursing faculty is currently deep into preparation for a reaccreditation visit within the next two years. We are working on national nursing competencies, one of which is “Evidence-based Practice” (EBP), and are restructuring our curriculum to assist students in becoming more focused on using research data (evidence) in providing safe, effective nursing care for their patients. The symposium focused on preparing and |
implementing models for EBP, and how to equip students with skills related to analyzing journal articles and research data for use within client scenarios. One hands-on activity that I found particularly useful involved audience participation, which was so helpful for our own mental alertness! Research experts assisted the audience in analyzing a selected journal article and its application to current nursing practice. It reminded us to assist students to analyze research data with a focus on the outcomes of research that can make a change for patients receiving “bedside nursing care.” Florida Criminal Justice Educator’s Associationby Gregory Dawson, Public Service The conference on May 11, 2009 in Tampa was attended by 18 criminal justice professionals in the education field. At this meeting we discussed the state curriculum frameworks for the Advanced Specialized Training Courses and suggested changes. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Education. We discussed and agreed to changes in the curriculum Criminal Law, Discipline and Special Confinement Techniques, and all of the advanced traffic courses. We also discussed the new four degree programs that are being adopted by our community colleges and the formats being followed. The final item discussed was our next meeting at Gulf Coast College in Panama City.
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2009 Meeting of the American Political Science Associationby John Anene, Citrus Political Science It was historic! The American Political Science Association (APSA) for the first time in its 105 years history held its annual conference outside the United States. The 2009 APSA Meeting was in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The motto for the conference was “Politics in Motion: Change and Complexity in the Contemporary Era.” I reconnected and networked with fellow political scientists from the United States and from around the world. Some practiced their trade in the academia, some in government, some in international institutions and organizations, some in the civil society, and others in the business world. I attended various presentations, workshops, and plenary sessions on a number of issues on political and international relations. Both the opportunities for networking and the conference discussions undoubtedly enhanced my professionalism in the service of CFCC. Professor Peter Katzenstein of Cornell University and the President of the American Political Science Association remarked during the ceremony that “Teaching is a touch of immortality.” His remarks reminded me of some excellent teachers I had during my student days and now as professional colleagues in CFCC. I am, therefore, encouraged to do my best to contribute to student learning in my academic discipline in particular and at CFCC in general. Equine Acupuncture Conferenceby Marsha Pidherney, Equine Studies The Chi Institute of Chinese Medicine is located in nearby Reddick, FL. The large campus includes 2 modern high-tech classrooms, an herbal compounding pharmacy, 2 horse barns, a lunch room, product display area, and office suites. Over the past 10 years over 1,300 veterinarians representing USA, Canada, South America, Europe & Asia have graduated and become Certified Veterinary Acupuncturists and Herbal Medicine Practitioners. On October 22- 25th, 2009, I had the good fortune, thanks to a grant from the Department of Professional Development, to attend my third Equine Acupuncture Training Conference. Topics covered were: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Principles: Five Elements, Yin-Yang, Eight Principles, Zang-fu Physiology and Pathology, Meridians and Channels. |
Florida Writers 8th
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1. Musculoskeletal conditions, lameness and neurological disorders.National Association of EMS Educators Conferenceby Rod McGinnes, EMS In August of 2009 I attended the above conference, held in Orlando. This conference attracts EMS Educators from across the country, as well as many of the most influential people in the ever-changing world of emergency medicine. The main focus of this conference was upcoming changes in the way America’s emergency responders do business. These changes are the result of the federal response to Katrina, and they illustrate the power of embarrassment to change the world. Most of you are aware that in August of 2005, a very large storm called Katrina made a very large mess in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the government’s response to that mess was not universally applauded. What you may not know is that thousands of emergency medical services (EMS) responders eventually showed up to help from all over the country, and that when they did, the people in charge discovered a problem. The problem was that there are about 40 different “kinds” of EMS providers in the US, and each “kind” has a different combinations of capabilities and training. When EMS was born in the early 70s the feds left it to the states to decide what “kinds” of providers there would be, and what these different kinds of providers would be allowed to do. A paramedic, for instance, is a “kind” of provider and paramedics are allowed to administer medications, insert advanced airway devices, etc. The people in charge of the federal response to hurricane Katrina made the decision after the incident that they would rather spend more of their time figuring out how to feed and clothe people, and less of it trying to figure out whether a Texas EMT-Intermediate could do the same thing as a Connecticut EMT-Cardiac Technician. As a result of this incident the feds have decided that there will be only four different kinds of emergency responders in the US, and that an EMT from Florida will have the same abilities and training as an EMT from Oregon. While this is a simple concept, implementation is proving to be difficult. All 50 states must, for instance, change their laws in some way to make this happen. All 50 states have to agree on a standard test and worse still, thousands of EMS educators from over 600 programs must be coaxed into teaching the same curriculum. Much of the discussion at this conference dealt with these daunting issues. |
The conference is broken onto sessions, some of them were riveting and others were …less than riveting. What follows below is a discussion about the more interesting sessions. One session involved a rather clever use of a free program called DVDx, which allows you to pull small, educationally interesting clips from movies and convert them to a format that you can include in your PowerPoints. For instance, there is a very accurate depiction of what happens to the inside of someone’s chest when they have a sucking chest wound in the movie “Three Kings.” This program allows the instructor to extract that small bit of video and play it during a lecture on the topic. Another session I attended dealt with using high fidelity computer simulation to teach students how to respond to emergencies. Dr. Philip Dickison, the presenter, discussed a study involving over 5000 students that evaluated the effectiveness of these tools in teaching students. The research showed that where these simulation experiences were integrated into the curriculum and supported with discussions between the students and experienced instructors, they showed a meaningful improvement in the student’s retention of the information. The research also showed that where educators stuck the simulation experience onto the side of the curriculum without integrating it or using it in instructor discussions with students, that these sophisticated and expensive programs made no meaningful difference in student retention. In other sessions I learned that admission tests do not do a great job of predicting the success of health occupations students, that teaching students critical thinking skills is a better use of one’s time than making them memorize facts, that the more patient contacts a paramedic student has, the better her chances of being successful after she graduates, that counseling students is difficult for everyone, and lastly, that EMS instructors really, really do not like cell phones in the class room.
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New Kid on the BlockBy Sandy Scott, Prep Reading 2 Instructor It has been an interesting and challenging semester. I am happy to report that I still get excited when my To date, I have only lost one student who had some international issues, and I have learned what to expect from my remaining students, such as who my “front row” people are—those who really do want to learn—and my “let me honor you with my presence” student, who makes it to just enough classes to complete most of her assignments but will miss a test because it is more important to celebrate her birthday a day early. That being said, I am enjoying establishing relationships with my students and don’t mind poking fun at myself in the interest of doing so. Something came up in class one day about the 60s and of course, one of my students assumed that I must have been a hippie.
I considered this a great day—not all learning comes from a textbook. I show the Power Points, discuss the chapters of our textbook and review vocabulary, but highly value the interaction of my students, from questions about the course to what they did last weekend. That tells me I am connecting, that the students realize I value their input. There is a lot of social work involved in conducting a class, which is the reason why I got my B.A. in Human Services when my colleagues thought I should be majoring in English.
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by Erica Ongco, Health Occupations Five years ago, I sat in the front row of my class listening to my teacher while she discussed the cardiac conduction I have learned that teaching, undoubtedly, is a two way process and effective communication requires the involvement of both the teacher and student. It does not imply monopoly by one party, and is a give and take relationship where one learns from the other. Teaching is getting your point across to the learner without compromising any part of the information. It also entails guiding students to think in the right direction, as Nursing is very complex. It requires “standards” and yet, every clinical situation is different. Student nurses have to be trained to look at every situation individually but look at patients holistically. Guiding students to understand material in a way that they are able to relate to is essential in successful teaching. I also believe that acquiring knowledge takes place in an environment conducive to learning. An environment that is favorable to learning is one where the students exercise the freedom to talk and discuss topics openly. This promotes a relaxed atmosphere where students feel at ease to express their thoughts and ideas. Some students fail to participate in class for fear of embarrassment arising from a wrong answer. With a less formal class setting, the learners are able to discuss subject areas freely and thus enable misconceptions or errors to be straightened out. When these errors are discussed in class, other students benefit from learning about it as well. These principles have nurtured my passion for teaching. I always strive to follow these principles, although I have not always been successful. Every class is unique and I find that there are obstacles in each that I have yet to overcome, and because these challenges are constantly evolving, so will my beliefs be in teaching. Ultimately, teaching will entail constant learning for me to grow as an instructor. |
system. My teacher that day was in total disarray – in her thoughts, her visual aids and in her lecture in general. I walked away from that class feeling frustrated. The class ended with the same information I had when I came in – nothing more, nothing less. It was at that moment that I thought to myself how big a role the teacher plays in the learning process. There was as much importance on the need to present or teach in an organized, motivating and comprehensible manner as there was on knowledge and mastery on the material taught. My teacher had the information but had difficulty getting her message across to the students.
