Educator’s Café – Enhanced Seminar Room

Click on the slideshow to see more images. (7 total)

On January 30th, 2015 ETS hosted a panel on innovative teaching using the upcoming Ponderosa building’s new enhanced seminar room.

Presenters Monique Bournot-Trites and Meike Wernicke gave a detailed description of how they use innovative digital tools, such as Connect, Collaborate, and CLAS, to work with their M.Ed cohort of French Immersion teachers across the country. Dr. Bournot-Trites and Dr. Wernicke discussed their learning experiences with educational technologies, and new applications and improvements of these tools. There was an engaging discussion of the unique challenges and opportunities that come with teaching in blended learning environments.

Afterward, Kirk Macdonald and Ken Watanabe presented the layout and features of the planned enhanced seminar room, which include cutting-edge audiovisual equipment for classroom recording, a dynamic seating arrangement, and several web conferencing stations. Attendees had many thoughtful questions, and left feeling excited about the possibilities for course development that these speakers showcased.

Presenters

Monique Bournot-Trites

Monique Bournot-Trites is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. She teaches second language methodology in the Teacher Education program and courses in second language assessment and research methods and reading foundations at the graduate level. She has developed and now supervises a French M.Ed. cohort at UBC. The 4th cohort started in September 2014. Recently, she has been the project lead for writing the Theoretical Language Framework for the Canadian Language Benchmarks. She did her Master’s Degree (1986) in School Psychology at UBC, and the title of her thesis is: “Bilingualism and Reasoning Ability”. Her Ph.D. (1998) was in Educational Psychology at UBC. The title of her Ph.D. dissertation is: “Relationships between Cognitive and Linguistic Processes and Second Language Production in French Immersion.” She taught grade 1 and grade 3 French immersion and most of her research interests are in French immersion, including second language acquisition, learning content in a second language, grammar teaching and learning, assessment and language assessment, literacy, intercultural competence, and learning disabilities.

 

Meike Wernicke

Meike Wernicke is a graduate from SFU with an M.A. in French Linguistics and from UBC with a Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education. She currently teaches courses in applied linguistics and second language education in the French M.Ed. program in the Faculty of Education at UBC. As a German instructor she supervised the German Department at Capilano University from 2002 until 2013, and now teaches French in addition to co-coordinating the First-Nations Language and Certificate Programs at Capilano. Her research focuses on second language teacher professional development, French second language education, and plurilingualism in language teaching and policy. Meike is a Board Member for the Vancouver Westside German School and chair of the Standing Committee on Language Articulation (SCOLA) Working Committee for the adaptation of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for post-secondary language education in British Columbia.

 

Kirk Macdonald

Kirk Macdonald has been a project manager with UBC IT – Audio Visual Services since 2011. He is responsible for the planning, design, procurement, and management of AV system installations across the UBC campus, and is the primary point of contact for AV systems on the Ponderosa Phase 2 project. He has 15 years of experience in the Audio Visual industry, and managed all AV systems at the Vancouver Aquarium prior to joining UBC.

Ken Watanabe

Ken Watanabe is a member of UBC IT – Audio Visual Services. He is responsible for AV systems design, infrastructure planning and project management for campus wide projects ranging from small to medium sized class rooms, lecture theatres and new construction. He is an experienced electronics technologist with over 16 years of combined experience in the areas of Audio Visual, broadcast, and electronics engineering.