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Monday January 30, 2012 | 000 Multidisciplinary

Using APOP’s ICT Savvy

APOP Management Team

Are you considering using concept maps in your classroom next semester? Have you considered what effect they will have on your course outline and learning activities? Does your institution already possess concept map software? And if so, does it meet your requirements, or have you thought of trying a cloud-based solution? From there, how will you test the pedagogical activities you have designed? And, most of all, how will you evaluate your students’ work? And what about other departments and colleges: have they also attempted implementing concept maps in their classes?

This is but one example of the challenging, but oh so exciting, process of integrating a new resource or a new technology into learning. Many of these questions about course and learning activity design, testing and evaluation can be answered by colleagues, pedagogical advisors and, sometimes by web research, however, one may need additional resources and support to make such projects a success.

Since November 2011, APOP’s services have included this type of support through collaborative projects funded by the Canada-Québec Entente. These projects aim to support local ICT initiatives in teaching and learning by helping teachers and pedagogical stakeholders in activity design and resource development.

Call for Proposals

APOP is now accepting project proposals from Anglophone sectors within the Quebec College Network. To be selected, a project must be centered around one or more of the following activities:

Teaching Context (Citizenship Education; Intellectual Property; etc.)
Planning (Program, Classroom and Work-Study Program Management; Pedagogical Strategies, Learning Environment Development)
Information Management (Document Research; Content Analysis; Data Storage)
Editing and Producing (Coaching; Equations; Concept Maps; Tests; etc.)
Communication (Mixed; Synchronous; Asynchronous)
Evaluation (Diagnostic; Formative; Summative)

But how does that translate in terms of project descriptions? Some examples of collaborative projects that can be supported by APOP are below.

Project Examples

Software or new technological tool experiments in a specific program or department

Using clickers and an interactive whiteboard in class

Pedagogical Expertise: Collaborative pedagogical design on the introduction of clickers into a specific program
Workshop: Technical use of whiteboards and class strategies
Workshop: Formative and summative evaluation with clickers

Pedagogical coaching for the integration of an object of study

Introducing concept maps into course curriculum

Technical Expertise: Choice of a concept map editing software
Pedagogical Expertise: Determining student skills related to concept maps to introduce in course plans
Workshop: Technical use of concept map editing software
Workshop: Concept maps class strategies, scenarios and assessment

Planning and development of a resource database/blog in ICT for dissemination of teaching resources

Building a wiki to house a database of pedagogical and technical applications for smart phones in the classroom

Technical and Pedagogical Expertise: Determining the structure of the database after analysis of local needs
Technical and Pedagogical Expertise: Search, classification and identification of resources for the database
Workshop: Collaboration using a wiki
Occasional Assistance: Technical questions from teachers

Developing new formats and strategies for a specific course

Changing a classroom-training course into a hybrid class

Pedagogical Expertise: transposing classroom skills and contents online
Workshop: Using online asynchronous and synchronous tools and platforms
Workshop: Developing strategies and discovering software (Prezi, Google Docs, etc.) for online collaborative work.

And What is APOP’s Role?

Call management, project management and technical support are provided by the APOP Management Team as well as online customized workshops, occasional technical and technological support, pedagogical coaching, etc. If required, APOP may lend equipment for carrying out the project and professional development activities (headset, webcam).

We can assist you in structuring your project, helping you to foresee every dimension that needs to be addressed taking advantage of our 30 years of experience in the pedagogical application of ICT expertise.

With this new service, we hope to bring concrete and customized support to our users. How can APOP lend you a hand in finding technological resources for your local professional development initiatives and activities?

Comments by readersReact to this text

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Et ce n'est sans doute qu'un début!

Effectivement Moodle nous a rendu la tâche plus facile et rend désormais la gestion des activités de perfectionnement offertes par notre organisme plus fluide et dynamique. Et nous comptons exploiter sous peu d'autres fonctionnalités de l'univers Moodle qui nous permettront d'offrir davantage de services orientés sur les besoins des utilisateurs. Beaucoup de chemin parcouru... et autant à parcourir ;) Qu'à cela ne tienne, comme bien des intervenants en éducation nous devenons progressivement des adeptes du logiciel libre. Vive les communautés d'utilisateurs et de développeurs!

Hélène Martineau, Coordonnatrice, APOP [2012-1-31]

Interface pratique, chaleureuse, invitante

La nouvelle interface du site signifie bien, par son design, le caractère pragmatique de l’APOP que nous aimons! En premier lieu, l’onglet de marque de l’APOP en ligne. Au centre, les services « essentiels », des occasions de motivation pour les enseignants : perfectionnement, capsules technopédagogiques, soutien de l’APOP 411, services corporatifs! Enfin le regroupement supérieur de la barre de menu qui ne perd rien de l’esprit d’équipe qui caractérise toujours l’APOP! Bravo pour ces choix!

Émilie Lavery, Professeure de littérature et de français, Collège Édouard-Montpetit [2012-1-30]

Bienvenue dans Moodle !

DECclic tient à saluer l'arrivée d'un partenaire dans Moodle. Puisse ce virage donner lieu à une plus grande collaboration entre nos deux organismes. :-) Longue vie au logiciel libre en éducation ! François Lizotte P.-S. Je me permets une toute petite rectification technique: Moodle n'est pas du domaine public, mais bien sous GNU/GPL et porte la mention Copyright © 1999 onwards, Martin Dougiamas, ce qui garantit à l'utilisateur la liberté de copier, de modifier et de redistribuer Moodle aux conditions prescrites par la licence GNU/GPL.

François Lizotte, Coordonnateur, Plateforme collégiale DECclic [2012-1-30]

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