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Food For Thought – My Journey Mapping Journey

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Food for Thought Series Logo. Blue background with yellow lettering.

My Journey Mapping Journey

DATE:             Wednesday, March 22, 2023
TIME:              11:30am – 12:30pm
LOCATION:    Summit Centre (Bby Campus Library, room 213)

Journey Mapping is defined as:

General and analyis method that helps us understand the interactions that an individual has with a process, service or organization from the perspective of that individual. 

Journey Mapping – Living Guide to Social Innovation Labs (gitbook.io) 

From Oct-Dec, 2022, a journey mapping project was carried out with 9 EAL (English as an Additional Language) students and 4 EAL alumni from BCIT’s CIT and CST programs. Students and alumni were interviewed and then interview data was used to create individual journey maps. These were then analyzed to discover significant challenges and opportunities for interviewees in their goal of successfully transitioning from school to the workplace. Some of the key findings revolve around opportunities for experiential learning, guidance for self-study, and connecting to support services.

This workshop will present the journey mapping process, share examples from the actual journey maps, and elaborate on the key findings. Potentially, the proess could be replicated in other departments findings.

Headshot of David Brooks.

Since 1991, David has taught English as an Additional Language in Canada, Japan, and Qatar. In addition to his work with the Language Success Team at BCIT, David has also written curriculum for the International Student Entry Program, and has created two MOOC courses for BCIT’s Free Online Learning initiative. When not working, he can probably be found reading, writing, walking, obsessing about vinyl records, or having coffee with a good friend.

 

 

Canada. Future Skills Centre logo.

This talk is open to all members of the BCIT community. A light lunch is provided.

If you are interested in this event but cannot make it in-person, contact us – we are looking into offering hybrid in-person/virtual events. For more information about Food for Thought, please contact:  Deirdre Grace  Sylvia Gajdics

Food For Thought – BCIT Student Innovation & Research Projects

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Food For Thought series logo slide. Blue background with yellow lettering.

BCIT Student Innovation and Research Projects : Lots of Big Ideas

DATE:             Wednesday, March 8, 2023
TIME:              11:30am – 12:30pm
LOCATION:    Summit Centre (Bby Campus Library, room 213)

BCIT students do some great research and innovation projects as part of their programs, and there is funding available to support some of these projects. This presentation will look at some of the funding sources: Mitacs, BCIT Institute Research Funds, Student Innovation Challenge, the types of projects that get funded, and how faculty and students can access this funding.

Photo of Joe Boyd getting his face scanned and the image on the computer in the background.

Joe Boyd is the Research Liaison in BCIT’s Applied Research Liaison Office (ARLO). Joe has a background in Physics and Library studies, and while
at BCIT has sat on a number of funding committees. Joe is also responsible on reporting on BCIT’s research projects by faculty and students. ARLO helps
students and faculty with funding for their projects by identifying funding sources and liaising with external funding agencies. ARLO also runs the BCIT Student Innovation Challenge each year.

 

 

This talk is open to all members of the BCIT community. Light lunch provided.

If you are interested in this event but cannot make it in-person, contact us – we are looking into offering hybrid in-person/virtual events.

Food For Thought : The collaborative creation of Buds, Branches and Bark

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The collaborative creation of Buds, Branches and Bark: A Guide to Winter Identification in the Pacific Northwest, a BCIT OER textbook.

In celebration of Open Education Week!

DATE:             Monday, March 6, 2023
TIME:              12:30pm – 1:30pm
LOCATION:    Summit Centre (Bby Campus Library, room 213)

Have you ever wanted to create your own book, but don’t know how to get started? Join Julia Alards-Tomalin, a BCIT instructor in the Renewable Resources program as she shares her 4-year journey in creating a winter plant identification textbook with students across programs at BCIT. This new book fills a gap in the field of plant identification in our region and is available to all as a free, online Open Education Resource (OER) field guide. In this session, you will learn more about the steps to create an OER book and hopefully be inspired to create your own too!

Buds, Branches and Bark: A Guide to Winter ID in the Pacific Northwest. Second Edition. 2022. by Julia Alards-Tomalin and Tait, Alex

Julia Alards-Tomalin is an instructor in the Renewable Resources department at BCIT. She studied Forestry and Ecological Restoration at BCIT and recently completed a Master of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her background is diverse, including horticulture, arboriculture, invasive species management and ecological restoration, but is united by a common theme of plants.  Julia began creating and using Open Educational Resources (OER) in 2019, including the co-creation of a Youtube Channel: Interviews with Plants. https://www.youtube.com/c/Interviewswithplants

 

 

This talk is open to all members of the BCIT community. A light lunch is provided.

If you are interested in this event but cannot make it in-person, contact us – we are looking into offering hybrid in-person/virtual events. For more information about Food for Thought, please contact:  Elizabeth Padilla  Deirdre Grace  Sylvia Gajdics

 

Teaching Excellence in Open Education Employee Excellence Award 2023

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Nominations for the Employee Excellence Awards 2023 are now open.

The recipient will be awarded $1,000. Nominations are OPEN until March 1, 2023.

Teaching Excellence in Open Education Award Criteria

The award recognizes teaching excellence in open education by meeting one or more of the following during the past year (April through March):

  • Improves teaching efficiency and effectiveness through using, augmenting, and evolving OER course materials aligned to course learning outcomes.
  • Develops Open Educational Resources (OER) to share with colleagues, enhance student-learning opportunities, and reduce barriers to education.
  • Uses Open Educational Practices (OEP) for learning, teaching, and assessment while challenging, supporting, and inspiring students to do their best work.
  • Demonstrates creativity and passion in delivering educational experiences that expand student reach and influence beyond the classroom by providing opportunities for students to collaborate and openly share their work with the wider community.
  • Displays creative and competent use of educational technology to enhance learning experiences with OER and OEP
  • Demonstrates knowledge of and passion for open education and the benefits it brings to learning and teaching while contributing to the ongoing work to make the global open education movement inclusive and fair.
  • Works collaboratively with BCIT colleagues and students on open education initiatives, aimed at integrating Open Educational Practices into teaching and learning.
  • Acts as a valuable resource for students, colleagues, and BCIT by sharing open education knowledge and promoting and encouraging the development and use of OER and OEP.
  • Participates beyond BCIT in open education initiatives such as sharing OER, contributing to OE committees/communities of practice, and pursuing or providing PD opportunities in open education

Julia Alards-Tomalin was the 2022 inaugural Teaching Excellence in Open Education recipient.

Moving Towards Improved Earthquake Performance & Resilience for New Buildings

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BC Housing Research Centre logo

With the devastation in Turkey and Syria caused by earthquakes, you might find value in this video series from the BC Housing Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience (MBAR) initiative.

Moving Towards Improved Earthquake Performance and Resilience for New Buildings / developed by BC Housing Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience (MBAR) Initiative with structural engineer John Sherstobitoff.

Link to playlist on BC Housing YouTube:

  1. Understanding code level earthquake design for new buildings
  2. Earthquake performance options for new buildings: ‘performance-based’ design
  3. Seismic isolation for new buildings
  4. Supplementary Energy Dissipation (dampers) for new buildings
  5. The cost of improved earthquake performance for new buildings – mini case studies
  6. Moving towards post-earthquake habitability in buildings; issues and challenges
  7. Considerations regarding seismic upgrading on an existing building
  8. Earthquake instrumentation for your building

 

Food For Thought – Research in Film and Theatre Adaptations

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Food for thought Series logo. blue background with yellow lettering.

When:     Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Time:       11:30am – 12:30pm
Where:    Summit Centre (BCIT main campus library, room 213)

Sanja Garic-Komnenic, will examine various sources that are used in film and theatre studies, share the experience of the challenges in retrieving archival material, and reflect on the shift in academia from strictly academic sources to all kinds of digital material, such as YouTube clips, blogs, and other previously considered non-academic sources.

photo of Sanja Garic-Komnenic

Sanja Garic-Komnenic teaches in the Liberal studies program at BCIT. She holds a PhD in film and theatre semiotics. Sanja has taught courses in academic writing, film, theatre, and urban studies. Her research articles have been published in the American Journal of Semiotics and the Pacific Rim Review of Books. Sanja is a member of the NECS – the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies and has been presenting papers at NESC conferences. Sanja translated two books into English, Footprints: Poetry and Threads of Poetical Impression (2008 Trafford  Publishing, Ed. George Payerle) and the novel Chernovs’ Toil and Peace (2010 Publish America. Baltimore, Ed. George Payerle). In addition to research in film and theatre, Sanja has written several feature-length screenplays. Her script for a children’s puppet play was produced for stage in 2004. She is currently working on a book on film and theatre adaptations, which will be published by Palgrave Macmillan later this year.

This talk is open to all members of the BCIT community.

A light lunch will be provided as we welcome ‘Food’ back to the in-person ‘Food for Thought’ series.

Today’s Special …

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by Ying Su

On Human Desire

It is just human to desire something, whether it is the tangibles or the intangibles. Tangible things can be houses, cars, luxury handbags, or the newest tech gadgets. In the name of passion or taste, people are willing to go to great lengths and pay a big price for the tangibles. However, these things are often just a medium to express the intangibles a human truly desires. On the surface, the intangibles could be fame, popularity, respect, or power. Though it is a basic human need to feel respected and autonomous, philosophers and scholars in various disciplines have suggested a deeper and more universal desire—a sense of superiority.

In 1889, American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen coined the term “conspicuous consumption” in his work The Theory of the Leisure Class which analyzes the American upper class’s behaviours in displaying higher social status. In The Luxury Strategy, the French brand strategist and scholar Jean-Noël Kapferer devotes the first chapter to elaborate on the concept of conspicuous consumption and its connection to the need of luxury to satisfy the desire for a sense of superiority. In her entertaining memoir—Primates of Park Avenue, Wednesday Martin, Ph.D., describes what women in New York City’s upper class do to establish and maintain higher status over each other.

Our collection has some great titles on the topic of human desire. They are not only about the dark side of desire but also provide suggestions on how to use our desire constructively and to our advantage.

The molecule of more : how a single chemical in your brain drives love, sex, and creativity–and will determine the fate of the human race / Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD and Michael E. Long.
This title explains what dopamine is and how it affects human desire and behaviours. Interestingly, dopamine is only responsible for wanting and drives action to pursue what we want. It is the H&N molecule that determines whether we enjoy something. The authors suggest that the pursuit of mastery could be a constructive use of human desire.

 

Wanting : the power of mimetic desire in everyday life / Luke Burgis.
Often, we think our desire is original. At the same time, we are aware that we want what other people want too. Burgis draws on René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire to explain how people always derive their desires through others’ desires, and how conflicts and violence arise from such mechanism of desire.

 

The power of meaning : crafting a life that matters / Emily Esfahani Smith.
Smith discusses the most important human desires contributing to human flourishing: namely, a sense of belonging, self-actualization and transcendence. These desires are also the topics of the higher tiers in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Today’s Special …

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by Deirdre Grace

For this post I’d like to highlight some new books at the library about the deepening divisions within our society, and the possibility of a simple solution – conversation.


I Never Thought of It That Way / Monica Guzman

The author, Monica Guzman is concerned about the growing divide in society, she is a journalist by trade and now working for Braver Angels, a depolarization project.

This book encourages people to have conversations with those who hold opposing views, not to persuade them or to debate with them, but to learn where they’re coming from. The author would like us to talk with people, ask questions out of curiosity and listen.

As Guzman sees it, bridging the divide is going to take more than stopping the flow of fake news and false information, “I’m done, too, going along with the idea that if we could just rid the world of ‘misinformation’ everything would be fine…..False stories soar because good people relate to something in them that’s true: a fear or value or concern that’s going unheard, unexplained and unacknowledged.”

The book includes techniques on questioning and listening to foster better dialogue, and anecdotes from the authors personal and professional life.

Why We’re Polarized / Ezra Klein

Journalist, podcaster and blogger Ezra Klein examines the research on the deep divisions in American politics and offers his analysis and some solutions. Not surprisingly, the reviews are polarized. So why not check it out for yourself?

 

 


Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management and Critical Media Literacy / by Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff

Higdon and Huff introduce theories and strategies to help readers improve communication skills, become more discerning media consumers and sharpen critical thinking abilities. Includes case studies.

National Sweater Day

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Sweater with a polar bear on the front promotion WWF National Sweater Day at BCIT

It’s time again for National Sweater Day! This annual WWF Canada event is held every February, to encourage actions that individuals can take to reduce climate impact and save energy. BCIT has been a proud participant for over a decade, and this year our BCIT Green Team is excited to be doing multiple events, as well as giving away prizes of BCIT hoodies and mugs!

At Burnaby’s SE2 on February 2, we’re doing two live events:

  • From 10am to 1pm, please wear your sweater, bring your own mug, and join us in the Great Hall for a coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, get tips on saving energy and reducing your personal greenhouse gas emissions, write your personal pledge to save energy, and drop a ballot in the prize draw box.
  • Then, from 12:30 to 1:30, please join us in Town Square D for a presentation on actions some of our BCIT staff have taken to reduce their footprints, and take home some ideas. You’re welcome to bring your lunch as well!

For our staff, faculty, and students at each satellite campus, our wonderful librarians will be putting information and take-home packs of dry hot chocolate and tea in their libraries leading up to February 2.

Prize draw entry may be done by posting a sweater selfie to Instagram using the hashtag #BCITSweaterDay

Draw deadline will be Thursday Feb 2 at 11:59 PM, and winners will be notified to pick up their prizes at their preferred campus.

To learn more about National Sweater Day, see https://schools.wwf.ca/events/primary-sweater-day/

And for a look back at a previous year’s Sweater Day campaign, there’s an awesome video done by WWF:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AoBu_U-mNM

Hope to see you at one of the events!