Hilgartner Open Learning

Kinnear Centre - Banff Centre I enjoyed the Leadership Academy at Banff but I am glad to be back among colleagues and friends at Bow Valley College.  I am even more glad to be back with my family.  I have come back with a renewed passion for the work I do and I would like the opportunity to share with you this renewed passion in hopes that you too may feel inspired.  Over the next few weeks, I will share some interesting ideas I gleaned from the Academy in building an informal leadership academy of our own.  I do so because I believe we are all leaders and the need for us to lead in what we do has never been greater. At Banff, I certainly was fortunate to look out some beautiful windows at the most extraordinary landscape in the universe.  Yet, the most revealing window I looked through was my own shared view of the world.  The Leadership Academy quickly started off with an awareness exercise, the Johari Window, as a precursor to thinking about leader...

At the end of day 4 of the Leadership Academy, I find myself thoughtful, tired, challenged and inspired.  We looked at effective team development yesterday and strategic planning and I find myself trying to sort this all out. As for what I have learned, as program or service leaders, we read and actively discussed how clearly defined role in meetings or work groups are essential.  We watched a segment of the movie "12 Angry Men" and made observations of how the jury, which became dysfunctional, was made functional again through the facilitation by one juror who forced the group to discuss and put aside agendas and personal feelings.  Next, members of the group performed a role play of a department meeting regarding student issues, the audience unaware that each had been assigned a dysfunctional role.  Two of the role players dominated the discussion.  A couple were interrupted or ignored.  The facilitator did a good job at reining the meeting in towards...

I just finished the first session of the Leadership Academy held at the Banff Centre.  I saw an elk, navigated through a high speed bike race and found my way inside the Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation. Certainly, you could not find a more beautiful place in the world, with the fresh air, the looming mountains and the rolling river.  An excellent place to relax and think. And the participants, from Alberta, British Columbia and even Indiannapolis, are friendly and eager to share.  Everyone has checked their agendas and issues at the door, so people are free to speak.  Over the half of the group is from SAIT, and many of them were meeting their colleagues for the first time. The focus of the academy will be to tap the current experiences and knowledge from this group to be "transformative" through this "learner-centred approach".  They have already us fill out three surveys and an learning styles inventory.  They have had us moving about t...

This year's Anytime Online goals have leadership at their core. Leadership is an appropriate goal for our team, because we are ready.  We already lead in so many ways, from instructor presence, subject-matter expertise to course development.  We have been working hard to move down the track and over the hill to improve our courses and reach our students.  We have learned enough about how, we have set the pace, and we have become the example for the college and the province.  We need to solidify this achievement.  We need our accomplishments to last, not for us, but for our students, for adult upgrading in this college and province, so that we do not get lost: so that as a important service we are not diminished. So what does it mean to lead? As a supervisor for Anytime Online, I have been ruminating about what it does and doesn't mean.  I say leadership but what does that mean beyond vague associations.  Tom Wilkinson (left) I turn to peopl...