Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE) Annual Conference - Waterloo, Ontario - May 2012

Wow, hard to believe that it's already time for the CSSE annual conference.  This year the conference was held in Waterloo, Ontario so I had an opportunity to visit the cottage before and after this event.  The cottage sure looks good with the new vinyl siding and I even managed to arrange for a wireless Internet modem for the summer - all captured in pictures :)


Our MRU Department of Education & Schooling was well represented with a total of six sessions. I took the lead on two sessions:

• To be or not to be? Student and Faculty Perceptions of Engagement in a B.Ed. Elementary Program
• The Role of Mobile Devices in Pre-Service Teacher Education Programs

And, I helped out with another two:

• The Emergence of Professional Identity in Early Teacher Education
  
• The Visual Arts and the i-Generation

This year unfortunately we did not have an Education undergraduate student with us - but it looks like we might have some funding to send a couple next year!!

Faculty Development Webinar - Northwestern College, Minnesota - May 2012

I've always felt that the State of Minnesota was closely related to our Canadian identity and I have really enjoyed facilitating a series of Faculty Webinars for Northwestern College.

The latest version was on Student Engagement and Blended Learning: What's the Connection?

Mount Royal Faculty Association Spring Retreat - Kananaskis Country - May 2012

I must admit that I really look forward to our annual Mount Royal Faculty Association (MRFA) spring retreat.  Each year we have it somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and the past couple of years the event has been held at the Delta Lodge in the Kananaskis (again one of my favourite hotel/resorts).  


Our Department of Education & Schooling gang facilitated a presentation on  To be or not to be? Student and Faculty Perceptions of Engagement in the First Year Experience and Katja and I cycled as far up the closed Highwood Pass Highway before we hit an old avalanche slope.

Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference - Milwaukee, Wisconsin - April 2012

I have always wanted to visit Milwaukee and I finally got the opportunity via the Sloan-C Blended Learning conference.  The hospitality of the local people was amazing and I really enjoyed running along their newly established River Walk of course recorded via photos :)


I facilitated a full morning workshop on Designing for an Inquiry-Based Approach to Blended Learning which I really enjoyed!!


I'm already making plans to return to Milwaukee for the 2013 conference in July!!

American Educational Research Association (AERA) Conference - Vancouver, B.C. - April 2012

From my perspective, there is not a more beautiful city in the world than Vancouver (when the sun is shining :)


I had the privilege of attending the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) annual conference in this wonderful city in April 2012.  I made sure to enjoy some of my favourite runs in Stanley Park while enjoying some stimulating conference sessions - and of course I took some photos to record this event!!


I also had the opportunity to facilitate a session on Metacognition Online: Development of a Questionnaire with Randy Garrison, present a poster on my Investigating How Digital Technologies Can Support a Triad Approach for Student Assessment in Higher Education study as well as Chair a series of Community of Inquiry study presentations.

New Zealand Trip - March 2012

At the end of March I had the amazing opportunity to travel with a delegation from Mount Royal University to New Zealand, which I made sure to capture via photos and videos. The purpose of our visit was to establish Education student exchanges and faculty research partnerships with the New Zealand institutions on the North Island such as Unitec in Auckland, Wintec in Hamilton, and Massey University in Palmerston North.  We traveled by van from Auckland to Palmerston North to visit each of these institutions and we were very fortunate to enjoy some wonderful late summer weather.

While at Massey University, Jim Zimmer and I also facilitated a session on Student Engagement and Blended Learning that appears to have been well received based on the University news article that was written about our visit.