The Bonuses Keep Coming

Congratulations to our JSRCC Leadership on seeing the need to award incentives to those who are embracing the “technology shift,” as Allison Cerra terms it, in CJ Bracken’s presentation today. Dr. Hashmi explained the details in her presentation today. We are seeing the views on the undeniable shift from Australia to Mexico to all around the USA. Are we open to change? Many feel we must be, but there are still those who are hesitant – not necessarily because they object, but because of budgetary concerns, as well as the question, do we really know what to do? Do we keep technology as a supportive thing? Are we headed to a “bring your own” culture? What do we want our classrooms to look like and should not the supportive technology be installed there?


Whatever the outcome, one thing is for certain – we have to be open for change (Michael McGrath), and we are at the beginnings of transitioning to using mobile devices to teach concepts, critical thinking, and applied learning activities. Right now, I have begun Bracken’s course focusing on these applications, ENROLL. At the same time I am reading Take Your iPad to Work. As my smart phone has such a small face, I’m turning to the Pad for better reading, tracking work completion, spreadsheet mobility, transmitting content in my hand to the larger screen for others to see during discussion and reporting, and other work related tasks. Here I have consolidated all my e-mail accounts, and when I make a change in a contact, it automatically changes on all my devices. When I rolled down the window to say hello to a colleague yesterday, she commented that she had set up her class attendance sheets on her iPad.

I thank the Center for Distance Learning for making available to us free tomorrow’s all-day International Online Conference 2011: “Going Mobile in Higher Ed.” (Shh! don’t tell anyone, but the conference would have cost us individually, close to $100 bucks.) Each session sounds informative to help us decide what may be best for us – not necessarily immediately, but certainly in the coming semesters: You will find out more about the Mobile Educational Landscape, Communication Strategies, Class work Uses, Assessable Delivery Tools, Assessment Uses, and even Top Education Apps. We are indeed fortunate to be in the JSRCC Virtual Conference.

Barbara Glenn