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BCIT Learning Commons
This free session will help you apply strategies to be a more efficient learner.
January 10, 2024 from 3:00 PM-4:15 PM
Offered in the BCIT Library & Online
To register or for more information please email learningcommons@bcit.ca or scan the QR code.
Hello!
It is with great excitement and warmth that we extend a heartfelt welcome to all our new students and a sincere welcome back to our returning ones. Whether you’re stepping onto campus for the first time or finding your familiar way back, we’re thrilled to have each and every one of you here.
Set yourself up for success at the Library’s Exam Jam.
Dive into a week of free events designed to boost your learning skills, foster connections, and ease pre-exam stress. Check out the detailed Exam Jam schedule (https://libguides.bcit.ca/examjam) and join us from Monday, November 27 to Friday, December 1st. This is your ultimate prep hosted by the BCIT Library.
Big shout-out to our awesome partners: Student Association, Student Life Ambassadors, Recreation Services, Peer Tutors, and our dedicated faculties!
Program for one week of Exam Jam
Unlocking the Power of Metacognition: Your Key to Success at BCIT and Beyond!
Knowing how the brain works is useful for learning. Right now you are gaining so much new knowledge.
Embark on a fascinating journey into the depths of your brain with Liaison Librarian Cindy.
Time: November, 15th
1:30-2:30 PM
Location: Summit Centre
Library- SE14
September 18th-24th 2023 is Science Literacy Week and this year’s theme is Energy!
To celebrate you can:
And find many other free Science Literacy Week events for all ages taking place at libraries across Canada.
Hello, BCIT Community! My name is Atreya and I am an MLIS student from the iSchool at UBC. I have spent this semester working with Elizabeth Padilla to coordinate an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) book club for library staff. Below are two take-always I’ve learned during my time here:
1. EDI work in libraries is happening!
a. Communities targeted by systemic violence hold the solutions for EDI issues within libraries. There are many resources out there to help implement successful and meaningful changes that are created by librarians and their communities. Utilize their work and give them proper credit when doing so! Check out the section “EDI in Libraries” in the EDI LibGuide for a list of resources.
2. EDI work requires institutional and individual change!
a. EDI initiatives include two areas of work: personal praxis and systemic initiatives. Ione Damasco (2015), Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence, Engagement, and Operations at the University of Daytona Libraries, states this excellently:
“Arm yourself with knowledge, and then have the courage to use that knowledge to start dialogues with your colleagues, administrators, faculty, and staff, not just in your library but across your campuses to examine existing policies and practices that have left far too much room for discrimination (both implicit and explicit) to occur.”
I’ll leave you with one last thought: Start somewhere! Watch lectures, request materials from booklists, or investigate your library’s policies. The resources compiled in the LibGuide provide a range of ways to start implementing EDI infinitives, so take those and get going!
BCIT EDI LibGuide
Reference:
Swanson, J., Damasco, I., Gonzalez-Smith, I., Hodges, D., Honma, T., & Tanaka, A. (2015). Why diversity matters: A roundtable discussion on racial and ethnic diversity in librarianship. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Retrieved November 29, 2022, from
https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2015/why-diversity-matters-a-roundtable-discussion-on-racial-and-ethnic-diversity-in-librarianship/
Final exams are coming up, so from May 1st – 5th, we’ve scheduled some extra drop-in learning sessions, peer tutor tips tables and de-stressing activities, including visits from the St. John Ambulance dogs, the Student Life Ambassadors, the Pollinators and some plant pot painting. Hope you can join us! Get the full schedule here.
The Burnaby Festival of Learning is a multi-day festival of lifelong learning taking place in venues throughout Burnaby (including BCIT!)
From May 5th – 9th there are five full days of thought-provoking community-led events and programming.
There’s truly something for everyone and all events are free!
BCIT workshops include:
Just a few of the other great sessions being offerered by other Festival partners:
Check out all the events here: https://festivaloflearning.ca/events/
All events are free, but many require registration!
When: Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Where: Summit Centre (BCIT main campus library, room 213)
The content of the session will concentrate on learning about our ourselves to be prepared for any uncertainties and challenges we face in the classroom that we can’t quite foresee. Utilizing SWOT will help us become agile and truly using EI to work on our approach to our interactions with others, specifically our students; it is important to deliver a quality instruction and to manage our own expectations and overall outlook about the courses we are involved with.
As a good quality professional, I always think that there is room for improvement.
The scholastic environment at BCIT has morphed due to factors such as Covid, and the ever changing demographics of our students, so let’s add another tool to our toolbox to deal with the changes.
The key learnings:
SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis, key points of each element to use in our journey toward improving ourselves and our classroom experience.
PDCA – (Plan, Do, Check Act) and EI (Emotional Intelligence) brief descriptions and how they relate to SWOT.
Bio:
Sandra Amador is an experienced quality professional with over 30 years in the field of Continuous Improvement and Quality Assurance. She has been an instructor since 2019 and as an avid learner, she strongly believes in providing as many easy opportunities for learning as possible, both at school and work; for her it is important to ensure students transform all the information they receive into real knowledge.
Sandra has worked in a variety of industries, from pharmaceutical to automotive and has been leading teams under different titles; her favourite title is change agent.
As a Certified Quality Auditor from ASQ, Sandra has taken audits to the level of collaboration and improvement catalyst that they are intended for, while ensuring fair compliance evaluation.
Sandra has been the Voice of the customer chair in the ASQ Vancouver leadership team in the past and a frequent speaker in annual ASQ Vancouver conferences. She has also participated instructing sessions at the BCIT’s Professional Development Day.
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.
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.
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.
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 or Sylvia Gajdics