Teaching, Learning and Networking at the 31st Annual AQPC Symposium

What happens when a class is integrated into a network? How does one use the multiple networks available to increase the IT abilities of our students? Do the social networks students use have their place in the classroom? How does our profession respond to this growing interdependence? These are all essential questions that will be explored in the upcoming AQPC symposium ‘Teaching, Learning and Networking, for personal fulfillment and collective success‘.

31^st AQPC symposium banner

The conference program offers six major conferences which address these issues. Professor Therese Laferriere of Laval University, a designer of learning environments, reflects on the classroom in the digital age. Nicole Gallant, Director of the Observatoire Jeunes et société explains her reservations about the use of social networks in an academic environment. Réal Jacob, a professor at the École des hautes études commerciales and chair of innovation transfer at CEFRIO, uses real life situations to illustrate how collaboration and networking contribute to learning in organizations.

Simon Larose, a professor at Laval University and project director at ERES (Évaluation du renouveau à l’enseignement secondaire) presents a profile of the new students entering college as a result of the educational reform in high school and their academic expectations. Gary Poole, president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and former president of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education makes the link between students’ perceptions and the quality of education offered. Finally, Jocelyne Gacel-Avila, professor in charge of the internationalization process at the University of Guadalajara positions collaboration and networking in a local-global continuum.

Overall, the conference program features 120 presentations including about thirty which directly touch upon the educational use of technology through innovations and new products such as dynamic tables, videoconferencing using the VIA platform and BigBlueButton, PC tablets, e-books using SpiderCats and SpatioPets, DECclic which is discussing a first assessment of its transition to Moodle and, of course, Profweb. As well, the IT partners have joined forces to propose a joint workshop in which they propose to answer questions from teachers about the potential of social networks.

Note that the program includes a major conference in English (by Gary Poole) and two papers in English for each time slot. In addition, there will be simultaneous translation into English or into French, as appropriate, for the six major conferences.

The official program of the conference will be available by the end of March and will be posted immediately on the website of the AQPC. Registration will begin at that time. The printed version of the program will be distributed to colleges at the beginning of April. Don’t miss the ten dollar discount offered for online registration to people with “connections” this year!

June 8-10 are dates to remember for everyone with an academic interest in higher education. Hosted by the team at Cégep Lévis-Lauzon, the Centre de congrès et d’expositions de Lévis is the place to be.