Scope

This workshop aims to build awareness, confidence and strategies that will enable teachers to identify and support students and pupils who experience learning problems related to social anxiety or shyness.

The workshop will be interactive, drawing on personal experience, evidence and reflection. Participants will:

• Learn about the causes of social anxiety and how to recognise it
• Consider their own experiences of social anxiety
• Explore the learners’ perspective by drawing on classroom experiences and evidence from two recent surveys involving 900 students
• Distil and extract key issues and challenges
• Collaborate to develop practical strategies that will help build teacher-confidence and awareness of social anxiety and shyness and student-confidence to participate in learning situations

The products of the workshop will be posted on a dedicated Wiki, which will facilitate continued discussion and collaboration beyond the workshop.

Graham Russell (Health Psychology)
School of Applied Psychosocial Studies
University of Plymouth, UK

Phil Topham (Counselling Psychology)
Department of Psychology,
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
University of the West of England, UK

‘One brick at a time’: An ecological view of factors that influence student disengagement

Scope

This workshop offers participants an ecological view of the factors that contribute to educational disengagement for middle-years students.  Individual, family, school and community perspectives are addressed.  A ‘hierarchy of needs for disengaged youth’ model will be presented and discussed.  A range of proactive and practical measures are offered that will assist participants in the development of plans that promote inclusive pedagogical practices within classrooms and schools.  Content will be derived from research and the personal experiences of the presenter.  The presentation will be supported by a range of case studies and initiatives/programs that the presenter has personally been involved with.

The objective of this workshop is to raise awareness of the plethora of risk factors that are often present in the lives of the young people that have disengaged or are in the process of disengaging from school.  Stories, ideas and initiatives will be presented that have been seen to work and are sustainable.

Large numbers of young people are ‘opting out’ of school education. Some of these students remain in the classroom, some refuse to attend school and others are prevented from attending school. Traditional practices that promote undifferentiated curriculums combined with limited teacher understandings act as hurdles to student engagement. 

Jaroslaw (Charlie) Kotiw 
La Trobe University, Australia

E-Learning Workshop (ELW-2009)

Scope

The ELW-2009 workshop is expected to stimulate discussions about the future development of appropriate models, methods, and tools for building E-Learning.

The aim of the E-Learning Workshop (ELW-2009) aims to address the main issues within E-Learning. ELW-2009 brings together researchers and practitioners interested in E-Learning.

Organisers

Galyna Akmayeva, Wessex Institute of Technology / University of Wales, UK
Charles A. Shoniregun, Infonomics Society, UK
Kinshuk, Athabasca University, Canada

Cinema for reaching the emotions: Improving teaching skills and fostering reflection among medical students and faculty

Scope

This workshop offers participants how to use movie clips to help learners be more reflective, promote
empathic attitudes, enrich professional values, and develop well-rounded qualities as human beings.

1. Describe how to use the cinema teaching methodology in faculty development programs to build a more reflective teaching team, enhance better communication between teachers and learners, and encourage faculty to develop strategies to aid student learning.
2. Describe a systematic strategy for preparing movie clips for teaching including:

• Selecting specific scenes from movies
• Reviewing movies efficiently
• Assembling the scenes
• Preparing the clips

Organisers

Pablo González Blasco, The Brazilian Society of Family Medicine (SOBRAMFA), Brazil
Mariluz González Blasco, IES, Mirasierra, Madrid (Spain)
Marcelo Levites, The Brazilian Society of Family Medicine (SOBRAMFA), Brazil
Graziela Moreto, The Brazilian Society of Family Medicine (SOBRAMFA), Brazil
James W. Tysinger, The University of Texas Health Science Center, USA

Hul’qu’min’um: A Canadian First Nations Language Meets Modern Day Technologies of Learning, Exemplifying the Potential of Partnerships to Revitalize Indigenous Languages

Scope

This workshop offers participants the use of technology as an instructional tool in an effort to revitalize a First Nations language and as a means to explore the potential of computer technology experts in partnership with Indigenous Groups in relevant areas including; distance education, economic development and language revitalization.

• How to partner with Indigenous groups in the areas of education, economic development and language revitalization.
• What are the technology needs of indigenous groups in the context of the Chemainus First Nation experience with an exploration of the currently limited computer technology resources available?
• How did a public school district form partnerships with local Indigenous groups in the context of the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District?
• Why is language revitalization important to Indigenous groups?

Organisers

Stella C. Bates, District Principal, Aboriginal Education, Canada
Charlotte Elliott, Director of Education, Chemainus First Nation, Canada
Pearl Harris, Manager, Hulquminum Language Program, Chemainus First Nations, Canada