Had anyone in the English-speaking college community even heard of the CCDMD in September 2005? For all practical purposes, nobody had. At that time, a financial aid program began to receive promotional and informational support through the CCDMD. The program’s purpose is to offer Québec’s English-language colleges products and services related to educational materials developed for their needs. This aid program is financed by Canada-Québec Agreement on Minority-Language Education and Second Languages Instruction, which, in Québec, is English.
Intensive meetings in the colleges, participation at pedagogical days and consultations with teachers proved very productive: in total, 28 projects were submitted in response to the CCDMD’s first calls for projects (2006 and 2007), and 14 were accepted and initiated. The CCDMD establishes a selection committee whose mandate is to evaluate the projects and to select those that should be implemented (some will be done under specific conditions). This fall, the CCDMD’s English-language division enters its third year and already has in hand several original products designed by and for English-language colleges. These products are now available for teachers and their students.
Cover of the manual Vox Methode: Training the Voice
The first launch of a previously unpublished project undertaken with the CCDMD’s support took place in May: a project by Steven Lecky, Chair of the Professional Theatre Program at Dawson College. His manual, Vox Method: Training the Voice, which is of very high pedagogical quality, is accompanied by a three-hour DVD on vocal technique. The practical exercises outlined in the manual are demonstrated on the DVD, which is most useful in helping the student assimilate them. This work will be of particular interest to teachers and students in the Professional Theatre program.
Poster of The Internet Directory for English Language Improvement
This year, the English-language division of the CCDMD introduced the first edition of The Internet Directory for English Language Improvement, inspired by the model of its highly popular CCDMD French-language counterpart (Répertoire des meilleurs sites Internet pour l’amélioration du français). This collection offers more than 100 annotated resources aimed at students who are either learning English or using the language for academic purposes. The directory is available for consultation and for downloading in the Learning Centre section of the revamped CCDMD website.
Website header of the Learning Centre
The Learning Centre section offers other helpful information and resources for improving college students’ learning skills. For example, information and practice exercises for the English Exit Exam in PDF format are available in this section. Also, an online multimedia application for improving essay-writing skills as well as an online supplement to prepare for College English are currently under development. Some modules of these two products will be available this fall. The Learning Centre section of the website will grow in the future as needs are identified and addressed to the CCDMD.
Problem-Based Learning website
The very latest CCDMD product has just been released – a website that deals with a problem-related approach to physics: Problem-Based Learning: A Website of Lifelike Situations. Initiated by Nathaniel Lasry of John Abbott College, this innovative project is a meeting place for the emerging community using new approaches to science. Teachers from across the province, both anglophones and francophones, will be asked to submit their problems and share them with their colleagues everywhere so that their students will benefit.
A number of other projects are currently being produced in collaboration with teachers at Dawson, John Abbott and Champlain-St. Lawrence colleges in the Social Services, Professional Theatre, Geography, Humanities and Nursing programs, and in collaboration with the professionals at the Learning Centres at Dawson, John Abbott and Vanier. Some of these projects should be launched between now and next spring.
The deadline for submitting a project this year is March 7, 2008. We look forward to receiving a lot of projects from you! Look for information that will be coming to our website. If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact us.
A Suggestion from the Animaweb Team
Are there projects that you would like to see CCDMD undertake this year but can’t do yourself? Post them using our Reader Response feature! Maybe, your suggestion will be someone else’s inspiration for a project!
