The Concordia University Centre for Teaching and Learning Services Website
Concordia’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Services (CTLS) states that its goal is ‘to start conversations with faculty members and graduate students about what makes good teaching and learning in order to share these ideas face-to-face, through workshops, the web and university-wide contacts.‘ Their website is an excellent expression of this philosophy.
Concordia Website Header
Recently, Profweb ran a news flash on one of the centre’s website’s resources – an excellent module entitled Pedagogy and Powerpoint. In a screencast, media designer Andrew Dolan explained design considerations when trying to engage digital natives using a medium as ubiquitous as the PowerPoint Presentation. The screencast format is extremely effective, allowing both successful and not-so-successful graphic content on PowerPoint to be presented with pertinent commentary. Below the screencast is a well illustrated article that presents additional information to consider during the creation of PowerPoint presentations.
The ‘Teaching with New Technologies‘ tab of the CTLS site presents numerous articles for the college teacher to use to sharpen their information technology skills. Some articles are listed below followed by a small introduction mostly quoted directly from the site.
- Using Moodle
- These basic training sessions will introduce you to the pedagogical possibilities of using Moodle including user generated blogs, group work and easy to use instructions for uploading handouts and PowerPoint slides, managing feedback, and grading assignments online.
- Blogging As A Learning Tool
- Using blogs and microblogging is fast becoming a regular part of our everyday lives but how can the power of these tools and platforms be used to enhance teaching and learning?
- This article contains a listing of academic learning object repositories from around the world.
- Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning
- Dr. Mark Morton (of the) University of Waterloo explores the many pedagogical uses of today’s emerging technologies. Wikis, blogs, iTunes U and much more.
Mathematica at Concordia (Seminar Promo)- Alongside examples illustrating the relevance of Mathematica in Arts, Business, Computer Science, Science, Engineering, and Fine Arts, we have also arranged for two guided hands-on user sessions to help you determine for yourself whether Mathematica is for you, your students, and your research.
Social Media for Teaching and Learning- In his new screencast series Alex Enkerli talks about his use of social media both inside and outside the classroom.
Using Clickers- Dr. Robert Cassidy has been using the i>clicker student response system to engage his students using peer instruction pioneered by Dr. Eric Mazur.
Social Media for Teaching in Journalism- Discover firsthand how to use the most popular social media tools (Google maps, posterous) and the more discreet platforms (Dipity, Evernote, Google’s Public Data Explorer) to engage learners and create real world environments for them to publish their work.
Concordia’s teaching guide takes technology into account!
The website also gives brief profiles of the large and qualified CTLS team. Concordia University has made an impressive commitment to bring information technology into its own teaching community as well as to extend the energy of its efforts to other teachers looking to gain experience and counsel. The website indicates that the CTLS team is experienced in ‘teaching consultations and instructional design and development using technology to course evaluations and more.‘
Also on the CTLS website is an invitation to join their community of learning which they tout as containing ‘award winning lecturers and leaders in the field of professional development.‘ Visitors to the site are encouraged to drop by their offices at Concordia’s Loyola Campus. I intend to take them up on their offer!
Do you think that universities in Quebec should be seeking to share expertise in the field of information technology with teachers in the cegep network? If so, how could they take an active role in getting their services better known to this community? Share your thoughts with your colleagues across the province via the comments feature below.
