He's been nominated for the Manning innovation award for his role in Olds College's Connect Your Passion initiative, but Jason Dewling, the school’s vice-president of academics and research, refuses to take credit for it.
He's been nominated for the Manning innovation award for his role in Olds College's Connect Your Passion initiative, but Jason Dewling, the school’s vice-president of academics and research, refuses to take credit for it.
Dewling instead said the nomination is a reflection of the school and people who work there.
"I guess they had to put a name forward so my name was put forward," he said. "But it's really an honour for the college."
The Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation has recognized Canadian innovators since 1982. There are several prizes that come with monetary rewards, including the Principal Award, $100,000; the David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction, $25,000; and two innovation Awards, $10,000.
Dewling, along with 58 others in Canada, is nominated for the innovation award. Eighteen nominees are from Alberta. On April 16, those nominees were recognized in the Alberta legislature, where each was presented with a nomination certificate from their local MLA.
"There's very, very deep competition and it's an honour to be nominated and qualify as a nominee," Dewling said.
Winners will be announced in September in Ottawa, he continued.
Olds College's Connect Your Passion initiative started with a bandwidth upgrade, made possible by O-NET, Dewling said. One aspect of the project consists of outfitting faculty and staff with iPads, making the school the first educational institution to do so, he continued.
The use of tablets in the classroom has allowed students to do more learning themselves, relying less on the teacher.
"It's probably reduced the pressure for the instructor to be the expert and it's more about analyzing the information that's out there," Dewling said. "So they're more of a facilitator because any student can Google a topic any second of the day while they're in class so it's about assessing that and critically thinking."
Teaching course content through a game loaded onto each iPad is another part of Connect Your Passion. Robots and Pencils, a Calgary-based mobile app developer, was responsible for what the school calls its "gameified" curriculum.
Finishing the game is a requirement for Olds College programs longer than one semester.
So far, feedback from students has been mixed. Some students like it but others don't like being obligated to play it, Dewling said.
The point of teaching through this method was to reach a generation of students that has been accustomed to digital devices their whole lives. For that demographic, playing games is a big part of their lives, Dewling said.
"We believe this was an innovative, forward-thinking way of engaging that generation and you couldn't advance in the game unless you spent time in the curriculum," he said. "And you couldn't advance in the curriculum unless you spent some time in the game applying some of the principles to the curriculum."
Some might wonder what studying and playing have to do with each other. However, learning through play is nothing new, Dewling said.
"Utilizing games for pedagogy is not a new idea. Instructors have been trying to make learning fun for generations," he said. "Whether our generation did games like Jeopardy or Family Feud or we got our students to create a group exercise, humans enjoy play.
"In fact, some of the most sound, early childhood educational principles talk about learning through play and so we're just saying that the new generation are gaming in ways that the previous generation didn't. For the most part, it's in the palm of their hand."
[email protected]
CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK!
