|
Maricopa faculty are always ready to "fill-in" when needed. Last spring, Dr. Nancy Matte, then Phoenix College's Ocotillo chair, asked me to attend the last Ocotillo chair meetings. Somehow I managed to raise my hand and volunteer for something and now I help to lead Ocotillo as a Faculty-in-Residence at MCLI as well as being the representative for my college. I thought these things happened when you missed meetings, not when you show up!
With over 10 years in the district split between Rio Salado and Phoenix College, I have concentrated on innovative ways to integrate technology into my instruction. This has produced everything from virtual dissections for my online Anatomy and Physiology students, to our non-majors evolving virtual finches on the Galapagos Islands from the comforts of our computer lab. In the past year, I experimented with "hybridizing" my Environmental Biology classes with phenomenal results. I look forward to the challenges of this academic year in association with Ocotillo and the MCLI.
To share what we have planned for this year, we should first roll back to the May 2003 Ocotillo Retreat. The retreat's theme was "Guess Who's Coming to Learn" with our presenter, Jay Jamrog, leading discussion sessions on how we can better understand our multigenerational student body.
Like previous years, the retreat was very energetic and offered a chance to learn from colleagues across the district. Central to our success, however, was to convene the very next day for a planning meeting with the college faculty chairs and deans from many of the colleges. It was here we debriefed from the retreat and brainstormed a list of goals and initiatives that we should address for the current academic year. These include:
- Hybrid Courses: Develop strategies and best practices that can help faculty be more effective teaching hybrid courses.
- Faculty support and impact of technology: Address strategies for supporting adjunct faculty and research/survey how faculty time is spent on technology.
- Learning Objects: Develop understanding of how re-usable content can be used and shared.
- Visioning Forums: Continue to bring in leaders who can challenge our ideas on instructional technology and help us look farther into the future.
We also want to continue the successes of our Online Learning Group (OLG) with monthly meetings facilitated by Sandra Wells (Phoenix College) and Polly Miller (Estrella Mountain) as well as the Ocotillo College Centers Group, representing the various Centers for Teaching and Learning at the colleges.
Along with myself as a new Ocotillo chair, we welcome Jim Elam (Scottsdale) and Gary Marrer (Glendale) as new representatives from their colleges.
After barely two months having passed, we are preparing to evolve Ocotillo again, turning it from a monthly forum in which college representatives meet to discuss our work, to a working body of colleagues who are actively prioritizing and coordinating activities that support the above listed goals.
The first action is in the area of Hybrid courses. The response for the Effective Teaching in Hybrid Environments Dialogue Day on October 24, 2003 was overwhelming. It filled in less than 48 hours of its announcement so a second session was added on October 23 (which also filled). With this showing of interest, we have developed the concept of a follow-up session, which we are calling an "Epilogue Day" (get it?) where those that were interested gathered again on November 14 to continue the dialogue facilitated by our own faculty experienced in hybrid teaching. The goal was to develop a collection of best practices and a road map to assist faculty new to the hybrid format.
We plan to address Learning Objects in a similar fashion by holding a Dialogue Day in the beginning of the Spring semester and convening the "Epilogue" later in the semester. The Ocotillo chairs are working in teams to help plan these events, the May retreat, and a Spring 2004 Visioning Forum.
With our expansion, we encourage individuals to become actively involved in Ocotillo activities this year, whether it is the Dialogue/Epilogue Days, the Online Learning Group meetings, the Visioning Forums, or the retreats.
If you are interested in assisting with development and implementation of the Ocotillo instructional technology initiatives, contact your local faculty chair:
- John Arle (Phoenix College and General Ocotillo Chair)
- Dr. Mary McGlasson (Chandler-Gilbert)
- Dr. Roger Yohe (Estrella Mountain)
- Charlene Thiessen (GateWay)
- Gary Marrer (Glendale)
- Donna Gaudet (Mesa)
- Dr. Jon Storslee (Paradise Valley)
- Dr. Pat Case (Rio Salado)
- Jim Elam (Scottsdale)
- Dr. Mary Long (South Mountain)
 John Arle, Phoenix College
| 
