It was so nice to see everyone back from summer break during Convocation Week!
The EMCers hit the ground running before the semester started by offering several opportunities and professional development events during Convocation Week. Many digital badges were awarded to participants who participated and accomplished the events’/workshops’ objectives (perfect for including as evidence in contract renewal / tenure / promotion dossiers). Here’s a quick re-cap of what happened.
Tech It Out Day
We enjoyed another great Tech It Out Day at Leeward CC on Tuesday, August 16, 2016. Tech It Out Day is an event to explore how technology can enhance teaching and learning in the classroom and online where participants can “test drive” a variety of technology tools, network with peers, and celebrate the start of a new semester.

This year, we were fortunate to have some faculty facilitate sessions by sharing how they use technology in their classes and leading folks through getting started with using the technology tools that they shared. A participant said, “Thank you for the short but very useful sessions! I learned a lot without feeling like the workshops went on for too long! Also, these workshops are so helpful, I can definitely use them in classes.” Another participant commented, “Thank you for engaging sessions. They got right to the point and provided immediately useful information and other resources.” Facilitators and participants earned Tech It Out Day 2016 badges for their involvement and participation.
Now that you got to see and try a few new things, if you would like further help using what you learned or tried, feel free to contact us. We’d love to help you take it to the next step.


For more photos, check out our Tech It Out Day 2016 album.
Laulima Challenge
Following Tech It Out Day on Tuesday, we had a full house at the Laulima Challenge workshop, facilitated by Greg Walker, Brent Hirata, and me. Everyone was super engaged and learned how to set up the basic tools in Laulima by working together in pairs to do several tasks in Laulima to complete the Laulima Challenge activity. At completion, they earned the “Laulima Challenge Finisher” badge.

Smart Classroom Challenge
On Wednesday, August 17, 2016, Brent Hirata facilitated two Smart Classroom Challenge workshops where instructors had the opportunity to learn about, troubleshoot, and try out the Smart Classroom technologies. Reef Amano, Electronics Technician at the EMC, was also there to lend a hand answering technical questions about the hardware. Participants appreciated the opportunity to access a typical Smart Classroom as well as the newer Smart Classroom in the Education Building. By completing the Smart Classroom challenge activity, participants earned the “Smart Classroom Challenge Finisher” badge.
Syllabus Makeover Challenge
On Thursday, August 18, 2016, I facilitated the Syllabus Makeover Challenge workshop. We had guest instructor, Michele Mahi, start things off by sharing her visual syllabus. Then, we discussed various syllabus activities and how we can create more value of it for the students through creativity and design, created a basic doc with the textual contents for a syllabus, and then transformed it into a dynamic, purposeful, and visual syllabus. A free Google Slides template was shared and participants learned different ways to share their syllabus with their students. A collection of instructors’ syllabi can be found here. Participants were excited to bring new life into their syllabus and many finished creating their visual syllabi after the workshop. Once they implement and share how things went, they can earn the “Visual Syllabus Creator” badge.
Self-Introduction Video
Convocation week was also an opportunity for folks to record a self-introduction video. A self-introduction video is great to help students get to know you, about the course or service you provide, and establish a connection with you. Visit our growing collection of self-introduction videos by Leeward CC faculty and staff.
See You Around!
We enjoyed our time with you and hope to see you around, work with you, and see you in our upcoming workshops/events this semester. If you haven’t attended our Convocation Week events this semester, we hope that you do next semester!
Upcoming Events
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