June 2009, Volume 3, Number 8

Summer has arrived! We hope that you are relaxing and enjoying a much-needed break from a long semester. NISOD thanks all of its conference participants, presenters, members, partners, and exhibitors for their support in making the 31st annual International Conference on Teaching Leadership Excellence a huge success! Please plan on spending next Memorial Day weekend with us in Austin for NISOD’s 2010 Conference, May 30-June 2!

The NISOD Staff

• Renew Your College's NISOD Membership by July
• Gaston College: Doing More with Less
• Professional Development for the 21st Century
• Microsoft Business Certification
• SoftChalk Excellence: Best Online Lessons Meet the CODie Awards
• Community College Week–NISOD Student Essay Contest Top Ten Essay

• Internet Scout: Research that Delivers
• This month’s NISODcast
• CCLP Corner
• NISOD Publications Corner
• NISOD Conference Corner
• The Learning Edge Blog

Renew Your College’s NISOD Membership by July 1

You do not want to miss out on any of NISOD's membership benefits. No other organization focuses on the needs of community college faculty and celebrates excellence like NISOD. When funds are limited, college leadership must find the means to provide the most with the least expense. And when it comes to serving faculty, NISOD membership is the answer! Renew your college’s membership, or sign up as a new member in a matter of seconds! Don’t delay—the new membership year starts July 1!

Gaston College: Doing More with Less

Gaston College (GC) (NC) serves Gaston and Lincoln counties in the Central Piedmont area of North Carolina. Located 20 miles west of Charlotte, it was founded in 1964, and now offers more than 100 degree, diploma, and certificate programs that prepare students for the job market or transfer to four-year institutions. GC offers courses in four curriculum areas: Arts & Sciences, Health Education, Business & Information Technology, and Engineering & Industrial Technologies.

Under the leadership of Dr. Patricia Skinner, GC has grown to three campuses, with six major new buildings. Similar to other community colleges across the country, Gaston College is “doing more with less" while registering a record number of students during a time of unprecedented funding cuts. The college has distinguished itself in several areas.

Leader in Biotechnology
In addition to hosting the state’s BioNetwork BioEd Center, GC was the first community college in the region to offer introductory genetics and biotechnology courses, thanks to a grant from Duke Energy that built a specialized biotechnology lab. An Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree in Biotechnology followed as the result of regional collaboration between GC and three other community colleges. Students enroll in the program, complete much of their coursework on their home campus, and then enroll in GC to complete their degrees because of the specialized courses and fully equipped biotechnology instructional laboratory. The college’s AAS in Industrial Engineering Technology with Biopressing Option focuses on protocols and batch work in aseptic environments.

Safety Focus
GC’s Regional Emergency Services Training Center (RESTC) operates the largest live-burn firefighter training building in the country while leading the state in delivery of Industrial Fire Brigade training. Thousands of firefighters and rescue workers train with exercises that replicate in exact detail the worst conditions that they might face in the line of duty. The RESTC’s Swede Flashover Simulator, a mobile training unit, is used for firefighter training all over the southeast.

Targeting Textiles
North Carolina textile firms are re-inventing themselves as a route to long-term success in the global marketplace. The fiber, yarn, fabric, and technical-specialty producers in the state rely on the Textile Technology Center at GC as their primary partner for innovation. The Center assists firms up and down the supply chain with cost effective prototyping, backed up by world-class technical analytical data.

Enhancing Health
GC is acknowledged across North Carolina for its successful and innovative healthcare programs. Its associate degree in massage therapy, its dietetic technician program, and its year-long, evening-and-weekend LPN to RN program were among the first such programs in the state. Its nursing graduates typically have a 100% passing rate on the National Council Licensure Examinations (NCLEX). Completion of the David Belk Cannon Health Education Institute will enable more Associate Degree Nursing students to be admitted and will provide space for continuing education for healthcare professionals.

“Our success is due to strong partnerships and a committed faculty and staff,“ explains President Skinner. For more information, visit GC’s website, or call (704) 922-6511.

Professional Development for the 21st Century

Graduates no longer simply compete with their classmates—they compete globally. To be successful, graduates need an education that not only gives them a solid understanding of their field, but also enriches them with a firm grasp of 21st-century skills. The key to imparting these skills to students is by first providing them with the best faculty and staff—professional development for the 21st century.

To create a 21st-century professional development program, you must first understand what 21st-century skills are. Though various organization and countries around the globe have different variations of what these skills are, several key themes and concepts are most common:

• Global Awareness
• Financial Literacy
• Civic Literacy
• Health Literacy
• Creativity & Innovation
• Communication & Collaboration
• Research & Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Literacy
• Growth & Leadership

Each of these areas is not exclusive to a specific subject area and does not need to be taught outside of the existing curriculum. Instead, 21st-century skills should be infused into current course materials.

One resource to help you create a 21st-century professional development program and train individuals on 21st-century skills is available from trusted Web-based training provider, Atomic Learning (MN). Their new 21st Century Skills Collection is designed especially for educators and offers a full professional development solution that guides individuals through 21st-century skills and concepts while providing access to a teacher assessment tool and resources for course integration that are adaptable to a variety of subject areas.

To help you set up a 21st-century professional development program, Atomic Learning currently offers a complimentary eBook focused on 21st-century skills. Learn more at www.AtomicLearning.com/highed, or request a copy at atomic@AtomicLearning.com.

Microsoft Business Certification Ensures Students Have Excel® Skills to Help Drive Success in the Classroom

Tulane’s Freeman School of Business (LA) students use the power of industry credentials in Microsoft Office to enhance learning and attract potential employers.

Challenge
As students of Tulane University’s highly regarded business program, Freeman School of Business, MBAs are required to know and use Microsoft® Excel®. But because Excel® knowledge and skills varied between students, 50 percent of incoming MBA students could not pass a test of basic Excel® skills during entry orientation. Lack of Excel® skills meant some students could not keep pace with their more proficient peers. But never fear—find out how Microsoft Business Certification can help your students succeed.

SoftChalk Excellence: Best Online Lessons Meet the CODiE Awards

Today’s online educators not only share their own expertise and content, but also develop ways to engage the digital learner by expanding their online content beyond the resources of a Learning Management System and their own desktops. SoftChalk (VA) provides the power of a desktop application and the resources of the Internet to create the ultimate “mashup” solution. SoftChalk recently announced the winners of its Lesson Challenge (award-winning lessons created by our clients) and received two prestigious CODiE awards—together demonstrating why SoftChalk is the educator’s only choice for easy QUALITY content creation.

The Lesson Challenge Award Winners

The SoftChalk Lesson Challenge received more than 85 submissions from more than 60 lesson authors from amazingly diverse academic and professional fields. Our panel of judges noted that there were so many extraordinary lessons that choosing a single lesson from each category was difficult.

The winners:

• K-12: Lyn Hawks, Duke University TIP
  Lesson title: Mendelian Genetics
• Undergraduate: Jacqueline C. McNair, Baltimore Community College
  Lesson title: The Lymphatic and Immune Systems
• Graduate: Suzanne McGinnis and Elizabeth Miles, VCU School of Nursing
  Lesson title: Health and Wellness for Your Computer
  

To view the full lessons for the three winners and the seven Honorable mentions, visit our website.

SoftChalk Wins Two CODiE Awards: The Academy Awards of the Software Industry

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) (DC) named SoftChalk the winner of a CODiE Award in two categories:

• Best Postsecondary Instructional Solution
• Best Education Technology Solution for Productivity/Creativity

Judged through a unique combination of journalist and peer reviews, the CODiE Awards remain a standard of quality and innovation in technology today. SoftChalk is honored to be recognized as the best among many well-known companies and high-caliber products. Read the full press release.

Conclusion

The “proof of the pudding….” for these CODiE Awards is in the quality of the lessons our clients have created. In these lessons our clients show how SoftChalk makes them so much more creative and productive. For more information about SoftChalk and our products and a 30-day free trial, please visit our website.

Community College Week–NISOD Student Essay Contest Top Ten Essay

Congratulations to Sarah Krind, a student at Central Florida Community College, for writing one of the top ten essays for the Community College Week–NISOD Student Essay Contest. Sarah’s essay describes her most rewarding learning experience as a student in Professor Patrick Fleming’s leadership class. NISOD is proud to feature the top ten essays in upcoming editions of Hook’Em Up. For the month of June, please enjoy Sarah’s masterpiece!

Leadership Is Not “Being in Charge,” It's “Taking Initiative.”
Ask any student what he or she believes makes a great educator, and rarely will a response have anything to do with the curriculum for the course. A great educator goes beyond the curriculum and opens the eyes of his or her pupils. Professor Patrick Fleming does just that; he ventures away from the textbook to give us a hands-on, memorable, and enjoyable learning experience. It is not sufficient in Professor Fleming’s leadership class to merely be aware of the world around us. We are expected to go further; participating in various community projects that are not only beneficial to the town surrounding us, but are also beneficial to the students who participate.

One of the more recent activities that Professor Fleming involved us with was the Empty Bowls Project. When the other students and I initially became aware of this opportunity, we saw the event as a ceramics project; we thought we would spend an afternoon painting bowls. Once we began painting, the coordinator, Jillian Ramsammy, explained the project. The bowls that we were painting would be fired in a kiln. By the spring, we would have hundreds of finished bowls to be sold in Central Florida for $10 each at a mock soup kitchen. The event itself raises awareness for local hunger, and, as a result, community members take action. The money raised from the bowl sale is used to feed those in need in Marion, Levy, and Citrus counties.

By the end of the day, the students, Professor Fleming, and I had painted 24 bowls. We were now aware of a local problem that previously had not been in our consciousness. Not only did we contribute to the cause, but we also gained awareness of the local hunger issue, which is not always spotlighted the way world hunger is. Now, the class helps out with the project as much as we can. Knowing that helping to paint and glaze the bowls that will be sold to raise money for local hunger while instilling an awareness in others makes those who volunteer realize that it is important to take the initiative and go above and beyond what is expected.

Taking part in the community has become the apparent theme in Professor Fleming’s class. While the importance of becoming involved is learned from listening in class, participating in activities such as these encourages students to apply what is taught to their lives. Our initial understanding of the Empty Bowls Project lasted a day, and the project itself will last a few months, but the memories of painting to make a difference will truly last a lifetime.

Internet Scout: Research that Delivers

Since 1994, Internet Scout, a research center at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, has connected educators and librarians to high-quality authoritative resources on the web. Scout’s research projects, funded primarily by the National Science Foundation, have led to the development of tools and services that include:

The Scout Report—a free weekly newsletter published every Friday that provides readers with 20 exemplary resources of interest to the education community. Readers can sign up to have the Scout Report sent to them via e-mail or read it online.

The Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER) is a free online portal offering a collection of educational resources and services built specifically for use in community and technical colleges. Funded by the National Science Foundation as part of the National STEM Education Distributed Learning (NSDL) program, AMSER connects educators and students to authoritative online math and science resources, and offers tools to help incorporate these resources into classroom environments. The resources in AMSER are hand-selected by librarians and content experts, and include websites, lesson plans, activities, videos, podcasts, assessments, worksheets, and much more.

ATE Central is a free online portal and collection of materials and services that highlight the work of the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) projects and centers. These National Science Foundation funded initiatives work with educators from two-year colleges to develop and implement ideas for improving the skills of technicians and the educators who teach them. ATE Central is designed to help educators, students, and the general public learn about, and use materials from, the entire depth and breadth of the Advanced Technological Education program. ATE Central resources include curricula, learning objects, and podcasts.

For more information, contact Chanda Halderman, Publications and Outreach Coordinator, Internet Scout Project.

Each month, NISOD brings you conversations with educational leaders from across the globe, discussing urgent topics, innovative solutions, and success stories from NISOD members and partners. These short conversations are a great way to explore expert opinions on diverse topics from the comfort of any Internet-ready computer. No special software is needed—just click the link below.

This month, join Dr. James Owen, President of Piedmont Community College in Roxboro, North Carolina, and Dr. Evelyn N. Waiwaiole, Suanne Davis Roueche NISOD Director, as they discuss the challenges and opportunities facing small and rural community colleges.

Listen to the podcast.

NISODcast is password-protected for NISOD members only. For access, email Sheryl Powell.

NISODcast sponsored by

Congratulations, 2009 CCLP Graduates!

Congratulations are in order for the 2009 graduates of the Community College Leadership Program at The University of Texas at Austin. This year’s class of graduates has worked diligently on their doctorates while acquiring the skills, training, and knowledge needed to be successful community college leaders.

Congratulations to the following 2009 CCLP graduates:

This year’s class includes a 2009 CCLP Distinguished Graduate and chancellor, and several vice presidents, deans, directors, and coordinators. Their valuable insight and professional accomplishments will strengthen any college or university in which they are employed.

Hats off to the 2009 graduates of the Community College Leadership Program for a job well done!

Innovation Abstracts

Innovation Abstracts, NISOD's flagship teaching strategies publication, disseminates practitioner-written descriptions of successful teaching and learning practices and strategies, programs, and initiatives each week of the academic year. While the academic year has come to a close, we hope that you will take the opportunity to use our search function to identify articles on specific topics. This month, we are highlighting our Innovation Abstracts that focus on diversity. Merely type in diversity in the search field and browse the results—you will find more than 50 articles. Our fully searchable online archives contain all articles published over the past 30 years. Innovation Abstracts is password-protected for NISOD members only. Members who do not have a password can complete a password request form.

Publish Your Good Ideas in Innovation Abstracts!

Are you an administrator or instructor who has successful practices, innovations, programs, or initiatives that work for you, your college, and your students? Consider sharing them with NISOD readers in an upcoming Innovation Abstracts. Find out how!

Another memorable NISOD Conference is behind us! NISOD’s 2009 International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence was a huge success. NISOD thanks all of this year’s conference participants including our Excellence Awards recipients, presenters, partners, and other lifelong learners. Your presence, talents, and support help fuel the high energy of this annual event. Highlights from the 2009 Conference include:

1. 1900+ participants
2. 1400+ Excellence Awards recipients
3. 250+ Forum and Roundtable sessions
4. 100 partners
5. Representatives from 48 states, the District of Columbia, and nine countries outside the United States
6. Eight Preconference Seminars
7. Four General Sessions
8. Ten Special Sessions
9. Five Featured Sessions
10. Receptions and live music
11. And a whole lot more!

From inspirational keynote presentations by Dr. Arleen Arnsparger and Dr. Wright Lassiter, to special sessions on such topics as developmental education; brain research; student success; educational technology; and relationships with trustees, faculty, and business partners, this year’s conference was packed with opportunities for learning, connecting, and reflecting. We hope that you were able to benefit from these learning opportunities and that you had an enjoyable conference experience. NISOD celebrated many record numbers this year, including Excellence Awards recipients and presentation proposals submitted. And, NISOD is proud to have hosted—for the third year in a row—the largest conference to focus on community college issues.

Save the date—NISOD’s 2010 International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence, will be held on May 30-June 2, at the Austin Convention Center, in Austin, Texas. Keep a close eye on future issues of Hook’Em Up for updated conference details.

Call for Presentations—The deadline to submit a presentation proposal for the 2010 NISOD Conference is December 1, 2009. Submission information will be available on the NISOD website early in the fall.

2010 NISOD Excellence Awards—NISOD-member colleges are invited to submit the names of Excellence Award recipients by December 1, 2009. The NISOD Excellence Awards submission system will be available on the NISOD website in the fall.

This month on The Learning Edge:

Bloggers provide behind-the-scenes reflections on the 2009 NISOD Conference experience. Share your thoughts and experiences.

Coral M. Noonan-Terry, Editor-in-Chief
Hook’Em Up is published monthly by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD), Department of Educational Administration, College of Education, 1 University Station, D5600, Austin, Texas 78712-0378, (512) 471-7545.

© The University of Texas at Austin, 2009, All rights reserved.