On Wednesday, August 12, the CTTL organized its first-ever pre-semester professional development day featuring nationally known guest speaker, Dr. Mark David Milliron. Dr. Milliron is best known as a champion for education opportunity and beginning conversations on innovation. During his presentation, Dr. Milliron initiated conversations about the changing face of education. He provided issues and insights from research and practice on a wide variety of topics, including action analytics as a way to guide students towards success.
In the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Milliron illustrated through the “sexy or sneaky” hand exercise that, although difficult, it is vital to begin the discussion about addressing the diverse needs of students. This discussion should take into account the challenges of providing educational professionals the tools and training they need to meet students’ needs.
With the growing diversity of teachers and students, Dr. Milliron discussed the importance of delivering accountability analytics to faculty to help with students’ retention and success. Milliron compared accountability analytics to a doctor receiving medical history about the patient, whereas in the situation of a student, faculty would receive the student’s educational background in order to guide the student to meet his or her goal. By having as many resources available, educational professionals can use this additional information to make a positive impact on a student’s likelihood to graduate on time.
If you missed Dr. Milliron’s thought-provoking presentation, the CTTL hosts other influential guest speakers and also offers professional development workshops throughout the year. To learn more about professional development workshops and other activities CTTL provides, please bookmark The Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning Calendar. Questions about upcoming workshops, please contact skyprofessionaldevelopment@smccd.edu or Nina Floro at ext. 4414.
Article by Liezl Madrona | Photo by Claudia Paz
