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Volume V, Issue 3 November 2008 |
Quinsigamond
Community College |
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Staff Development Links
Staff
Development
Staff Development
Staff
Development
Erica Merrill
Staff Development
November's Events
Academic
Impressions Web Conference:
The Wellness
Media Open House
& Training Seminar
Adjuncts(') Matter(s)
Progressive
Business Publication Webinar:
Reading
Roundtable
In accordance with the college's strategic initiative to optimize the use of technology for improved and cost-effective communication, this newsletter is being distributed electronically as the best means for information-sharing with faculty and staff. |
Editor: Erica Merrill New England Transfer Association 37th Annual Conference by Dan de la Torre Digital Radiography for Educators by Linda LeFave, Colleen Kirley, and Margaret Gniadek
New England Transfer Association 37th Annual
Conference Have you ever gone to an event or visited a new place and instantly felt “at home”? Such was the case for me as I attended and presented at this annual professional development conference for transfer professionals. The New England Transfer Association – made up of academic/transfer counselors from two-year colleges, along with transfer admissions directors of four-year colleges and universities – has been around for close to 40 years, carrying out a simple purpose: “… to improve the transfer process for students and to provide professional development opportunities for its members” (NETA By-laws). This statement, while brief and complete, does not fully shed light on the complex and sophisticated work that goes into ensuring student academic success through the process of transfer. As perhaps some may well understand, transfer issues proceed well beyond simple course transferability. For transfer students, the overall notion of Baccalaureate attainment has academic, socio-cultural, career, financial, and psychological underpinnings. Transfer students not only need to demonstrate competent academic performance in order to transfer, they need to have a career plan, which is then related to appropriate and available program offerings and Baccalaureate institutions. Equally important, students need to develop the necessary expertise in navigating a myriad of policies, procedures and requirements. This may sound dubious; still, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend extended time discussing these issues with colleagues who deal with this on a daily basis! For three days, I joined with more than 200 conference attendees in Newport, RI, where we discussed regional and national issues related to college student enrollment, retention, and transfer. The conference included plenary sessions, keynote addresses, and individual workshop sessions, as well as the NETA Scholarship reception held at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy on the campus of Salve Regina University. I was especially pleased to be on-hand as one of Quinsigamond’s “best and brightest”, Anita Depatie (May 2008 graduate of Nurse Education program), was publicly recognized as one of four NETA scholarship recipients. Though this was only my second NETA conference, other members have been so encouraging that I felt comfortable in leading a workshop presentation on QCC ALANA transfer students. The workshop, entitled “Transfer Success for Students of Color: Using Profiles to Guide Practice”, highlighted the initial results of research (surveying the transfer experiences of minority graduates) that I conducted via participation in the Community College Leadership Academy during the 2006-2007 academic year. To be candid, I wasn’t sure whether this topic would be attractive for a practitioner-centered conference. To my surprise, not only was it well attended, it was “standing room only”! I am encouraged by the fact that so many colleagues expressed interest in this important topic. It has reinforced my desire to continue with this research in the future. Needless to remark, this report cannot capture the full experience of the conference. What follows are summary descriptions for some of the workshops I attended. “Rhode Island Dual Enrollment” This session dealt with a college-high school pilot partnership between Rhode Island College and Mt. Pleasant High School that resembles QCC’s 12th Year Program. This program uses a cohort structure, and follows a prescribed curriculum of college-level courses, including an “orientation to college” type of course, which stresses organizational and study skills. Like QCC’s 12th Year program, these students maintain active high school status and use college courses to meet high school graduation requirements. In addition, students who successfully complete the Dual Enrollment program are guaranteed admission into RIC. “The Transfer Web Site as an Advising Tool” Presented by colleagues at Bristol Community College, this session was perhaps the most personally valuable session at the conference. The Transfer Office at Bristol is staffed by 3 counselors, which has allowed them to develop a sophisticated website for student and advisor use. This session provided attendees with suggestions on organization of website content, as well as strategies for encouraging use by students, faculty and advisors. The presenters offered recommendations for dealing with inevitable challenges of keeping the site updated and getting constituents to use it. They also highlighted surprising benefits, such as using the website in classroom presentations, making information available to BCC’s satellite campuses, and marketing relationships (and scholarships!) with four-year college partners. Not only was it encouraging to see recommendations that mirror current QCC Transfer Office practices, I came away with a new batch of ideas to pursue! “Using Technology and Partnership to Bridge the Transfer Student Gap” This session served as the unveiling of a Title III grant awarded to UMass-Boston for pilot work in developing technological solutions to transfer admissions. A compelling rationale for addressing this issue comes from a UMass-Boston admission statistic: In fall 2007, 61% of new UMB students were transfers. UMass-Boston identified four main foci of the grant:
Conference practice for NETA is to convene in the same location for two successive years, which means that we will be back in beautiful Newport, RI again next spring. With effort and a little luck, I hope to return with an update on the research I have conducted. Knowing my colleagues’ commitment to transfer students, they’ll be asking … so I’d better be prepared!
Digital Radiography for Educators The faculty members of the Radiologic Technology program completed an intensive three and one-half day program, June 22-25, 2008, sponsored by their professional peers of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The goal of this seminar was to provide educators with a solid foundation of the principles, applications, and means for troubleshooting electronic imaging as it applies to medical imaging procedures. Furthermore, the presenters provided a comparison of the systems produced by the major vendors of medical imaging equipment and software; this aspect was especially significant in that there currently are no standards by which all vendors must comply with regard to terminology or operation of their systems. As a result, this proprietary information is difficult to acquire for teaching purposes; this is further compounded in that within the seven clinical affiliates of the program, students and faculty encounter eight different manufacturers of medical imaging equipment. The application of technology to medical imaging procedures has enabled healthcare providers to obtain detailed images of hidden and/or severely altered anatomy (through trauma or disease) from a variety of imaging sources, i.e. CT, MR, sonography and PET. These modalities were always reliant upon computers and associated software capabilities. Traditional radiography (x-ray imaging), however, was film-based from its inception in 1895; the introduction of electronic imaging began in the 1980s but was not widely available until the late 1990s. Locally, digital imaging for routine radiography procedures was first available with the opening of St. Vincent Hospital at the Worcester Medical Center in 2000. This was the only film-less radiology department for several years. Milford Regional Medical Center became film-less in 2004, while the remaining clinical affiliates implemented some digital imaging alongside the film-based method. Finally, between 2005 and 2007, the use of film was completely replaced in all the affiliates. In many cases, the clinical staff was using film on Friday and returned on Monday morning to face the new technology without the familiarity of film. The significance of this is that film images require the correct amount of exposures while digital methods incorporate processing techniques which automatically correct for exposure errors without providing the clinical staff with visual cues. All images looked essentially appropriate, but weren’t necessarily the best. The staff was provided some in-service training, but for many this was not sufficient, and it did not include the fundamental principles. Students have thus been provided with a mix of information and all are struggling to decipher the myths from the reality. As educators, we too have struggled to master the distinctiveness of the various systems and correlate the like concepts. We have questioned vendor application specialists, brainstormed with educators from other programs, researched the internet and acquired any textbook containing any information related to digital medical imaging. The success of the UNC seminar was in their thorough discussions of how the various systems are similar and/or different and the inclusion of lab activities to allow us opportunities to practice the concepts presented. The QCC faculty was especially grateful to have this opportunity as the system used at UNC is the same as that which was installed in our lab this past semester. This experience allowed us to become more familiar with the capabilities of this equipment and to outline a variety of lab activities to complement many of the RDT courses.
The
specific instructional sessions included:
The information acquired in this seminar will be directly applied to all the courses within the QCC Radiologic Technology program. Additionally, the faculty will share their knowledge with the clinical instructors in an effort to offer some standardization to the variety of equipment available in the clinical setting. Ultimately, we plan to develop continuing education programs for the local communities of Radiologic Technologists. Our objective will be to provide them with a better understanding of this imaging media from the “radiographer’s” perspective rather than the vendor’s “sales” perspective.
© Staff Development, Quinsigamond Community College 2008. |
