12th CAE Technology Conference

The Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) recently held its 12th annual educational technology conference "Change Change Change: Preparing for the Present and Future." The event featured five sessions facilitated by QCC faculty and staff, focused on effectively integrating technology to best serve students.

"We think about the role that technology plays in education, as well as the role it should play. It all comes back to doing the best work we can do for our students and allowing us to grow professionally," said Academic Technology Facilitator and Professor of English Amy Beaudry. "The conference also serves as a way for colleagues to connect and collaborate with each other."

This year's conference covered programs such as Annoto, a plug-in for adding questions and discussion threads to videos, as well as multiple AI platforms such as Google Bard and Open AI. Presenters offered many tangible ways to embrace AI in the classroom and addressed concerns about data privacy and safety. All five sessions can be viewed in the Educator Instructional Resources course in Blackboard.

While much of the conference focused on high-tech tools, one group of faculty shared their experiences with an analog program, "the Faculty Academy for the Pedagogy of Real Talk." QCC is one of nine other community colleges that is participating in the program, which emphasizes building trust and community with students by modeling vulnerability and facilitating engaging conversations.

Presenters included Professor of Psychology Jen Arner Welsh, Professor of Nurse Education Mary Bruni, Assistant Professor of Computer Information Systems Gargi Chug and Professor of Occupational Therapy Erin Connor, who are all part of the first cohort of the Faculty Academy.

"The acceleration of technology comes with incredible opportunities. But it also comes with real costs, and one of those for me is an increased distance between teachers and students. Research shows there's a benefit in relationships, particularly for minoritized students," said Arner Welsh.

While retention data is still pending, the majority of initial responses from students have been positive in terms of feelings of respect and belonging. They shared their powerful classroom discussions of overcoming mental health stigma, dealing with the death of family members and finding common values among different cultures. Some of the professors noted that this program doesn't require a heavy workload, rather it builds on what most instructors already know about relating to their students in a positive way.

For more information on the technology conference or the Center for Academic Excellence reach out to cae [at] qcc.mass.edu.