ICT in Review – Papers from the 2013 AQPC Symposium

The 2013 AQPC (Association québécoise de pédagogie collégiale) conference program included no less than 39 papers in English or French on information and communication technology (ICT). We can’t be everywhere at once, so perhaps you’ve missed some of these communications. Don’t panic! Many are in the AQPC’s electronic document posting feature for presentations of both ICT and non-ICT topics. And contributions are still arriving!

Here is an overview of the ICT themed selections with the workshop number under discussion indicated and when documents are available, a hyperlink to take you there.

Exploring Active Classes, Principles and Tools

An indicator of the popularity of these topics in the Quebec College Network, several papers focused on both the flipped and active classrooms.

• Among these is the paper of Christian Drouin highlighting resources to maximize interactions between students and teachers (315).
• As well, there is the work of Nathaniel Lasry, Michael Dugdale and Elizabeth Charles humorously titled Ooops! I just flipped the classroom (507).
• Adam Finkelstein recounts active learning experiences at McGill (608).
• Chris Whittaker and Elizabeth Charles examine the next generation of active classrooms (711).

Resource people also presented techno tools to enhance the following student skills :

• Mathematics (415 and 312)
• French (515)
• Disciplines covered by the Chenelière interactive platform (205)

In addition, a communication addressed the issue of assessment tools giving concrete examples (517). WordPress and Twitter were also presented as techno tools to share with the class and the world (716), as well as YouTube and podcasts in the context of the flipped classroom (817).

Keeping Track

Given that skills develop over a period of time and that we must now think in terms of lifetime learning, we are discovering more and more benefits of the portfolio. In this context, consult workshop materials on the principles of using a digital portfolio (305) and the e-portfolios SHERPA (210) and Carnet+ (217).

Educating Everywhere

Distance learning was also in the spotlight in the last AQPC symposium, with a focus on online teaching of literature (308) and philosophy (408) as well as on ways to reach students at all times and wherever they are through cloud computing (610).

Creating ICT Citizens

Some colleagues have addressed the issue of ICT in an ethical perspective, focusing on the following issues:

• Living together (805).
• Helping students to build their digital identity appropriately (605 and 705).
• Educating students about the media (806).
• Developing information retrieval skills (816).

Taking Everyone into Account

The presence of ICT in opportunities for professional and organizational development within schools was also discussed, including papers on the establishment of a virtual community of practice for program assessment (414), on supporting teachers in distance education (614) and during a discussion in two parts around a very pertinent question – Is ICT the future of the evolution of teaching practice? (604 and 704). Presentations also focused on the following topics:

• Principles for the optimal use of ICT in education (606).
• Development of teachers’ techno-skills (717).
• Electronic resources available to those in the college system (804).

Other presentations focused on the educational mutations that ICT could engender (707) as well as the adequacy of current techno trends given tomorrow’s international realities (803).

As can be seen, with its theme “Educating Our Students for Tomorrow’s Global Realities”, the 2013 conference had a wide variety of ICT-related communications. Check out the AQPC’s electronic document filing feature. In the coming weeks you will find more and more documents offering the pleasures of expanding your horizons until our next annual symposium, from June 3 to 5, 2014 at Collège Montmorency.