Nell Ruby

Monday, September 10–Two markers of success

1. A tutor makes a support document
   Daney Flanagan, a student in two of my courses, and a tutor for Center for Digital and Visual Literacy sent me a presentation she created to support an initiative I’ve been working on for 15 years. It presents an easy to follow step by step procedure for creating the process log–a requirement for my courses–to add to the d-portfolio.
   Categories and Menu Items in WordPressWhy I see this as success: I have been part of a small coalition of people at the college who have been working on the project of promoting better education through reflection via the d-portfolio for close to 20 years. The notion of learning better through understanding and taking responsibility for your own learning is not a new concept, but using the dportfolio as a visual tool for seeing and reflection is. And it’s something we’ve been pushing and pulling for. The seemingly simple event of Daney making this tutorial is a historical key point. She is in a now established (but hard-won!) College supported educational resource–the CDVL–where she has the training, agency and wherewithall to make the leap between thinking and making on a meta-cognitive level an easy process for her peers. She becomes a link to empowering her colleagues. Through this center, the teacher steps out–the students start to learn  rhyzomatically and disseminate information for more effective engagement and knowledge gain. 
2. Agnes Scott is named #1 most innovative college by US News   (via peer schools and presidents–link to methodology)
   Why I see this as success:
   Summit is being realized through creative effort and heavy lifiting by everyone at Agnes Scott, from the president on down. Or maybe from the groundkeepers on up. We are in the middle of a paradigm shift as the academy moves from linear thinking and information gathering to a method of connection and flow, and it is a tough transition. It’s hard to understand–much less embrace–the tsunami of information in the digital age. How do we distill and discern what information is valuable? We are burdened with the overwhelming task of teaching students what we don’t yet understand ourselves. It’s a monumental problem. The fact that my workplace is changing in response to the new age is exciting to me. That I have vocally advocated for every student embracing the digital world makes me proud of the part I play in advancing digital and VISUAL literacy as an essential proficiency of an educated adult in the 21st century.

It’s a red letter day!