International Collegial Learning Exchange
Exchanging professional vision, thoughts, ideas, sharing, experiencing and learning together are what we all dream about being able to do with our global colleagues.
One such program has allowed 12 staff from Riverina Institute over the past five years to do just this with their peers from the Maricopa Community Colleges, (MCC) Phoenix, Arizona.
Read the latest news from Susan, Barbara and Jacqui on their Blog page!
On 5 January 2006, three additional staff members, Jacqueline Bates, Susan Carey and Barbara Withers, from TAFE NSW Riverina Institute, are giving up their summer holidays with families and friends to leave for this desert community. On stepping from the plane they will be greeted with open arms, warm hearts and lots of excited chatter about the opportunities to come.
Jacqueline Bates
is
the Manager of New Learning Technologies in our Teaching and Learning Support
Centre. Jacqueline was a Flexible Learning Leader in 2004 conducting research
in innovation and change management for teaching and learning. She is a
member of the Web Services State User Group and a member of the Steering
Committee for the TAFE Online Project.
Jacqueline will work with the leaders and drivers of MCC’s independent learning centres, virtual campus and skills centres. She will investigate and work with cyber librarians who combine their librarian skills with high level technology to manage knowledge and information.
Global learning in more ways than one!
UPDATE by Susan Carey
I spent my first week at the Maricopa District Community Colleges in Phoenix,
Arizona getting my bearings and a sense of how the community college system
operates. A special privilege has been to observe the universality of teaching
issues by attending faculty convocation and meetings at the beginning of
the fall semester. We heard Professor Vincent Tinto, one of the most respected
adult educationalists, discussing learner engagement, including an emphasis
on collaborative and active learning. I then was able to follow up on several
of his points by meeting with staff involved in some of the strategies discussed
by Professor Tinto.
Maricopa District has blended several innovative teaching practices into
a six week professional development program which encourages
their faculty to explore innovative delivery strategies. The benefit of this
format for professional development is the ongoing opportunity to share learning
between staff and learn from each other, as well as the facilitators. Another
strength of the program is it provides a number of approaches and strategies,
allowing the teachers to choose strategies which suit their own teaching
style, whilst providing additional resources.
The course includes the use of technology in the classroom, including using Blackboard – an
electronic classroom management and communication system as well as a teaching
and learning tool. I can see value in this system for introducing online
learning to both students and teachers within a supported environment as
the level of technical support available is high.
Learning Communities are also becoming more popular with
teachers working across faculty to co-deliver and/or co-assess courses. There
are a number of models for this type of course structure and I have been
able to observe some of the ways in which teachers work together in learning
communities.
I have also been very interested to notice a growing emphasis on global learning
and global awareness. International Education Directors at campuses have
discussed with me the importance of making both students and teachers more
aware of what is happening outside the USA due to the increasing numbers
of international customers and workers. I will be spending part of my time
here exploring the ways in which teachers are including global learning in
their curriculum and using internet resources to challenge student thinking
about global issues.
Susan Carey
is
the Head of Department, Adult General Education at our Deniliquin and Finley
campuses. In 2005, Sue has managed a Reframing the Future Community of
Practice which successfully set up effective networking practices across
agencies in her local area. At the same time she managed a LearnScope Project
that examined flexible delivery to Indigenous students in courses at Deniliquin
and Cummeragunja. Sue will be investigating effective mechanisms for collaborative
service delivery in communities. She also wants to further her understanding
of indigenous education, look at workforce re-entry programs, employability
skills (already implemented in the MCC programs) and to explore the Maricopa
Community Colleges' ‘Achieving a College Education’ (ACE) program.
This is a partnership program between school, college and the university
sector.
Barbara Withers
is
a teacher in the Community Services Department at our Wagga Wagga Campus.
She specialises in Children’s Services, home based care and working
with older people. Barbara is passionate about our environment and promoting
healthy environmental practices through teaching and learning at a young
age. She will take this focus to Maricopa and deliver workshops on reduce,
reuse and recycle in the creation of play environments. Other areas of
research Barbara will concentrate on while at MCC are school aged care
practices and training, how practical learning with children is structured
both at college and in the workplace and the professional experience /
workplace model used at Maricopa Community Colleges.
Maricopa Community College is one of the largest and most respected community college districts in the United States. It consists of 12 separate campuses ranging in size from approximately 3000 students to that of TAFE NSW Sydney Institute. The colleges are funded through a local property system and as Phoenix is an area rich in industry and high employment, the colleges are very well resourced with 58.2% of its income from tax. Maricopa has, as part of its mission, the internationalising of its curriculum and has a history of participation in many educational endeavours with international institutions of higher education. Riverina Institute has among its goals the collaboration with other institutions of higher education to provide student, faculty and other members of the academic community with opportunities to participate in inter institutional programs and projects for personal and professional growth. The Fellowship Program meets the needs of both these educational institutions.
Learning is fun and this trip epitomises that in both its richness for professional learning opportunities, for professional networks and for cultural learning. The three travellers are being billeted in the homes of MCC staff and are undertaking many activities outside of working hours. They will go on a weekend trip to the Grand Canyon, maybe hike up the Camel Back, visit the Desert Museum and the traditional lands of the native peoples. And, of course, there is always the shopping.
The Maricopa Community College/Riverina Institute, TAFE NSW is a fellowship exchange program rich in education, culture, history and language – an experience of personal and professional growth which is never forgotten and always valued by those who participate.