As the academic year begins at Profweb, there is always a moment of aprehension as we face our task. Will we generate reader support? Will our information be the ‘right stuff’ for the profs in the college system looking to integrate information technology into their teaching? Will we be able to document the changes that IT integration is creating in the institutions of our collegial network? Will we actually become a factor in the promotion of technology within the colleges? Answering these questions is not a simple task, but the members of the Animaweb team work to insure that the answer is in the affirmative. Our goal is to continue to expand our readership while becoming more and more useful to our readers.
We would like to use this last column of the year to thank you, our readers, for your enthusiastic participation. You are an important contributor to our pages. We on the Animaweb team have the privilege of working with you and learning from your experiments and expertise. We would like to share highlights of our autumn season with you to let you know how enriching this experience has been.
Denis Thibault
How can I ever thank Nicole Perreault, coordinator of the IT Representatives’ Network, enough for her generosity in taking the time to write seventeen comments! Although she is our champion in this respect, she is closely followed by Isabelle Laplante of CDC and Claude Bilodeau, IT rep of Cégep Beauce-Appalaches, who each contributed six times. I couldn’t close the file on this year in Profweb without mentionning Nicole’s report on on-line plagiarism which was our most consulted element. This report put the advances of technology into perspective by underscoring the problems that come along with them. It also opened up the need for ethics and citizenship to be taught in our schools.
Françoise Marceau
For me, I would like to thank our IT partners for making an ever greater contribution to Profweb. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to see how many organizations’ contributions appear in our Hot off the presses! feature. I would like to give a special thanks to the people at Cégep@distance who agreed to the loan of services which allows me to work on a project as exciting as Profweb. I particularly enjoyed working on the report on video teleconferencing with Martine Chomienne which was a result of resources produced for a project for on-line support in my organization. The stories in French of Frédéric Aubrais, Suzanne Baril and Réjean Fournier were also products of this work.
Lyse Favreau
The high point of my autumn was the story in French of Luce Marinier of Collège André-Grasset. Firstly, the IT Representative at her school is Lucie de la Sablonnière who is a member of Profweb’s Editorial Board. Lucie spoke to me about Luce’s use of IT in her teaching, and after a few e-mails we met by video teleconference to discuss her work. Luce uses a resource produced by CCDMD, Research and Social Sciences… The Course! 3.0. Two weeks later her story was on-line! Why was this project so special for me? I guess it was because of the tight relationship between myself, a teacher, a partner’s product and the real success that occurred in the classroom. I really believe in this process!
Norm Spatz
For me the highlight of my semester happened during a conversation where I welcomed Marleigh Greany, the new IT Rep at Vanier. As I started to tell her about the network, I realized how much had happened to me since I began working on the Animaweb team. I had met so many interesting people in the anglophone network. I thought of the trip I had made to Cégep de Gaspésie et des Îles, the really tight team at Cégep de Sept-Îles, and the wonderful reception I had had during a Pedagogical Day at Heritage College with Lee Anne Johnston the super active IT Rep. I also thought back to the Pedagogical Day Presentation at Champlain College in Lennoxville which was superbly organized by Thomas Goulet with input from the IT Rep Yannick Daoudi.
And now it’s your turn! What highlight of this year can you share with Profweb’s readers?
- If you’re an IT Representative, was there someone who was an inspiration for you in your work?
- If you teach, was there a resource, a reading or something that you did in class that you are particularly proud of? We are always looking for material about IT experiences for our stories!
- If you are part of the administration, what would you like to share with our readers that is in the IT file at your school?
- As for our IT Partners, what was particularly compelling for you this autumn?
The holiday season is always a special moment to let people know how much they are appreciated. Why not comment using Profweb’s Reader Response feature to send a truly unique greeting! It’s the gift that keeps on giving, not only to the person you write about, but to all those to whom it will inspire!
We look forward to seeing you again for our January 7, 2008 edition. We’ll be at the e-conference U R on Line on January 9 and 10. Maybe, we’ll see you there!
