UN experience with Women Peace and Security assignment in Mali – SDG #5 Gender Equality – Marie-Therese Atsena-Abogo

Marie Therese Atsena Abogo, Ph.D. is an Anthropologist, Consultant, and Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences. In this presentation, Marie-Therese discusses her fieldwork experience with the UN Mission in Mali.

Video recording from the March 7, 2023 SDG Week Canada at Douglas College World Café presentation: http://api.ca.kaltura.com/tiny/i3ceq

PowerPoint presentation

BIBLIOGRAPHY- CONFERENCE ON UN EXPERIENCE IN IMPLEMENTATION OF WPS AGENDA/SDG-5 (MARIE-THERESE ABOGO)

1.Mali and the Djenne Mosque 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Mali

2.Mopti and its Arts Center or “village artisanal” 

https://minusma.unmissions.org/mopti-les-populations-et-la-minusma-poursuivent-leurs-%C3%A9changes

3. University of Timbuktu and Sankore Mosque

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/institutions-global-african-history/sankore-mosque-and-university-c-1100/#:~:text=Sankore%20Mosque%20and%20University%20is,region%20of%20modern%2Dday%20Mali.

4. Dogon knowledge of Sirius star in Nasa Astrophysics journal

https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1977Obs….97…26P

5.Sirius star in Modern Science

6. The Gender Unit in the UNPeacekeeping Mission in Mali

https://minusma.unmissions.org/en/mandate-gender-unit

7. UN Resolution 1325

https://peacemaker.un.org/node/105


8.  UN Resolutions 1325 and 1820: constructing gender in armed conflict and international humanitarian law

https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/irrc-877-barrow.pdf

9. Jennie Lorenzen. 2018. Women Inclusion in Peace processes (CSA) in Mali

https://www.thebrokeronline.eu/women-s-inclusion-in-the-peace-process-in-mali/

10.Women participation in Peace and Reconciliation processes in Mali (report of Peace research insitute of Oslo)

https://gps.prio.org/utility/DownloadFile.ashx?id=1166&type=publicationfile

11. Women situation rooms in Mali: An address and welcome of Ms Martha Pobee, UN Under Secretary General for Africa

https://peacekeeping.un.org/fr/le-vestibule-de-veille-pour-les-femmes-et-les-filles-accueille-la-sous-secretaire-generale-de-lonu

12. Women situations rooms in Mali: an opportunity for women participation in electoral processes

https://maliactu.net/projet-vestibule-de-veille-des-femmes-et-des-filles-une-aubaine-pour-assurer-la-participation-des-femmes-aux-processus-electoraux-au-mali/

13.Jennie Lorenzen, Nana Alassane Toure and Bassirou Gay (2019). “Women’s Participation in Peace and Reconciliation Processes in Mali : Perspectives from Segou, Mopti and Tombouctou”. Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO).

https://gps.prio.org/utility/DownloadFile.ashx?id=1166&type=publicationfile

Sustainable Development Goals Canada at Douglas College

Karen Atwal, Steven Bishop, Katharine Shipley, Colin Cheng, and Janice Sestan

A small group of organizers with a lot of supporters help the first UN SDG Week Canada event at Douglas College yesterday. The World Café featured short talks and dialogue from the following instructors who have incorporated UN SDGs into their curriculum:

Assembling with Purpose – Electronics and General Assembly program’s partnership with Purpose Society’s Digital Inclusion Hub. – Karen Atwal
Urban Orienteering
– Multiple SDGs – Jovian Radeshwar
Global Citizenship, COIL and SDGs– Janice Sestan
Indigenous Peoples and the Sustainable Development Goals – Dr. Carling Beninger
UN experience with Women Peace and Security assignment in Mal
i – SDG #5 Gender Equality – Marie-Therese Atsena-Abogo
Chemical Oceanography and Saving Howe Sound – SDG #7 – Brenda Addison-Jones

Introduction: http://api.ca.kaltura.com/tiny/tax8x

For the full week program, related Douglas College and SDG resources, upcoming events and more, see:

https://padlet.com/bishops21/sdg-week-canada-at-douglas-college-i8wyrbgi9wif5ceu

Better Together Dialogues – Episode Two with Dylan Le Roy

Dylan Le Roy is a Student Affairs and Services Counsellor at Douglas College, and provided a much-needed “Managing Uncertainty with Gratitude” session for the Better Together – Partners in Learning Conference May 2-6, 2022 at Douglas College. Dylan’ sessions was delivered in-person, and streamed to remote participants as well.

Dylan Le Roy, SAS Counsellor

Recorded dialogue with Dylan Le Roy and Steven Bishop

People and resources mentioned by Dylan

Mans’ search for meaning by Viktor Frankl (summary) https://blog.12min.com/mans-search-for-meaning-pdf-summary/#:~:text=Author%20Viktor%20Frankl%2C%20the%20founder,and%20find%20meaning%20in%20it.

Sharon Salzberg – book and podcast https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/real-change-podcast-series/

Employee connect with Employee and Family Assistance Program https://collegedouglas.sharepoint.com/sites/dcconnect/department_faculties/administrative/hr/benefits/Pages/efap.aspx

Greater Good Science Center –  University of California, Berkeley https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

Gratitude journal https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/gratitude_journal

Douglas College Counselling Services https://www.douglascollege.ca/student-services/student-support/counselling

NPR podcast: Chelsea Handler & Sharon Salzberg: Sharon Salzberg leads a guided meditation. Chelsea Handler talks about her special, ‘Evolution.‘​

Dr. Rick Hansen The Neuroscience of Lasting Happiness  What is living you? The Practice: Give over to good. Why? In every moment, you and I and everyone and everything else – from quantum foam to fleeting thoughts, intimate relationships, rainforest ecosystems, and the stars themselves – are each a kind of standing  wave, like the ever-changing though persistent pattern of water  rising above a boulder in a river.​

The Awkward Yeti: Heart and Brain Cartoons

Tree of Contemplative Practices – “….the roots symbolize the two  intentions that are the foundation of all contemplative practices:  cultivating awareness and developing a stronger connection to God,  the Divine, or inner wisdom.”​

Better Together Dialogues- Episode One with Jacob Goldowitz

Jacob Goldowitz is one of the Learning Designers at Douglas College, and was a big part of envisioning and organizing the Better Together – Partners in Learning Conference May 2-6, 2022 at Douglas College. The conference sessions were delivered in-person, and virtually. Stay tuned for more episodes

Recorded dialogue with Jacob Goldowitz and Steven Bishop

Fundamentals of Digital Teaching and Learning – March 2021

bbacademy.blackboard.com

I just completed my Blackboard Academy certificate on Fundamentals of Digital Teaching and Learning, and thought the course was well organized and an excellent and up-to-date review of the topics, which include:
> What we know about learning
> Introduction to digital teaching
> Digital teaching approaches and the LMS
> Designing e-learning courses
> Developing e-learning content
> Principles of learner assessment and feedback
The instructor, Cynthia Crenshaw, was super engaged and encouraged me to get the most out of the course.

I was asked to take the course to learn more about the Ultra Base Navigation which the College is in process of transitioning to; additionally, I was pleasantly surprised at how the course served as a review of ideas and practices that I am quite familiar with in my daily work. The timing was interesting too—to take a course during an avalanche of work associated with helping an institution transition from in-person to remote learning is a bit crazy! So I started looking at the course as a resource to help in the planning of workshops, in the curating of content to support new-to-online instructors, and in many other ways in my daily work. The discussion posts from other participants contained valuable insights, ideas, and links to resources. Taking the time to post my thoughts in the Discussion forums served as a welcome reflection time too. I used the assignments to review a course I am designing, and found the prompts useful in that process.

#LetsAdvanceLearning #BlackboardAcademy #DTLS

Digital Humanity Episode Nine: Professing in Novel Times

Tracy Ho
Organizer-Advocacy & DSU Ombudsperson

This month, Steven met up for a virtual hallway chat with Tracy Ho, the Organizer-Advocate and Ombudsperson for Douglas Students’ Union. Tracy shared her insights based on student experiences taking courses during the 2020 emergency education delivery. We discussed things we learned and hopeful indications for the future.

A few links to things mentioned in the recording:

Here2Talk

Douglas Students’ Union Services

Douglas Students’ Union Ombudsperson

SHIFT – Tracing the impacts of COVID-19 online conference, March 2 -4

Digital Humanity: Professing in Novel Times—Episode Eight

Joseph Thompson, PhD

Last month, Steven and I met up for a virtual hallway chat with Joseph Thompson, a Faculty Member in the Department of Psychology at Douglas College since 2019. Joe shared with us some of his experiences with online teaching this past Summer 2020, as well as some of his plans as he steps into the role of Facilitating Faculty Online (FFO) for HSS. Joe also discussed some of the ways his research can help us understand the process of building expertise, as it relates to the transition to being online instructors.  

Join the conversation by sharing your comments, observations, and suggestions with us!  

Until next time, 

Lisa and Steven 

Digital Humanity is recorded on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples of the QayQayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations. 

References

Joe studies experimental psychology and is not a clinical psychologist. For a explanation of the difference, see: 

American Psychological Association (2020). Understanding Experimental Psychology. Retrieved Dec 11, 2020 from https://www.apa.org/action/science/experimental.

Joe does not want to give the impression that intelligence tests have always been used ethically or that scientists are incapable of bias. For a brief discussion of the history of racism in intelligence testing see

Benjamin, L. T. Jr. (2007). A Brief History of Modern Psychology. Blackwell. 

For more information on the ethics behind the use of assessment tools, see

American Psychological Association (2017). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. American Psychological Association. Retrieved Dec 11, 2020 from apa.org/ethics/code.

For background on Transfer, see

Kimball, D. R., & Holyoak, K. J. (2000). Transfer and expertise. The Oxford handbook of memory, 109-122.

For the study behind Joe’s reference to basketball, see 

Keetch, K. M., Lee, T. D., & Schmidt, R. A. (2008). Especial skills: Specificity embedded within generality. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 30(6), 723-736.

For the notion that chess could serve as a model organism for cognitive science see

Simon, H. and Chase, W. (1973). Skill in chess. American Scientist, 61. 393–403.

We have only glossed over the messy process by which psychologists use science to improve their psychological tests. For further reading on the history and philosophy behind this process, see 

Slaney, K. (2017). Validating Psychological Constructs: Historical, Philosophical, and Practical dimensions. Palgrave Macmillan

For background on Joe’s research methodology, see

Thompson, J.J., Blair M.R., Chen L., Henrey A.J. (2013) Video Game Telemetry as a Critical Tool in the Study of Complex Skill Learning. PLoS ONE 8(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075129

Responding to calls for change: an interview with Florence Daddy

I’ve enjoyed working with and conversing with Florence Daddy a few times, and was pleased when we had this chance to record an interview.

Current Teaching
Florence Daddey, currently teaching in the Faculty of Commerce, Business and Administration in the Business Management Department

Background
I am grateful for the opportunity to have lived in 3 continents. I was born in Ghana- West Africa, lived in England where I did most of my post secondary education and then moved to Canada in 2003. After University, I trained with Price Waterhouse in London to be a Chartered Accountant. I quickly realized that I did not enjoy auditing and through many volunteering opportunities with youth in inner city London, I discovered my passionate and love of teaching. Therefore, I decide to choose education and teaching as a career. In the last 17 years, I have had the opportunity to work as an instructional designer-supporting faculty in developing curriculum for different programs and supporting faculty in adopting appropriate teaching and learning pedagogy for their context in which learning takes place.
In addition, to that I support faculty in using technology to support teaching and learning and I think we met each other attend various Educational Technology User Group – (ETUG) workshops.
Given my personal experiences, I’m passionate about accessibility, inclusion and diversity issues. I’m certainly aware of the numerous barriers that can prevent certain groups of students in accessing post secondary education. Growing up in Ghana I quickly became away of my status and privileges. I witnessed true poverty where my family provided for many children. However, in Western nations we are given the impression that there is no poor person and the social security system is a buffer.
As I engage with students I quickly realized that is not the case so I develop a passion for open education practices and advocates how the use of open textbooks and resources can benefit both faculty in terms of having control over your teaching resources and materials and helping reduce the educational cost for students.

How can we respond, in our roles, to the increasing calls for change? Especially in regards to post-secondary education?”
It is important to decide what is important to you about teaching and your pedagogical belief and identity.
I want my students to have a positive learning experience and especially in the current environment where a lot is changing around us and the change is happening so quickly. I have to take a step back and reassess my purpose and my role as an instructor.
By doing that, I’m able to figure out how best to use all the tools and resources available to meet my needs and to adopt an appropriate pedagogy for the student to learn given the context and learning environment.
In my practice, I get students to think about the learning environment as a community and the importance of building relationships. I like referring to the image on the text book “Pulling Together: A guide for Indigenization of post-secondary institutions. A professional learning series”.


Different cultures emphasize the importance of family and community and I try to use that belief to our classroom and learning experience.
I emphasis the strengths within a learning community and I promote learning through collaboration and get students to appreciate the contributes of everyone to our learning.
So, as I think about my discipline in the light of all the calls for actions I’ve certainly considered the changes that I can make, for example, by bringing indigenous perspectives and knowledge to our conversations as we discuss leadership.


I use examples of indigenous entrepreneurs and highlight their stories, how Indigenous businesses are set up… to give back to their communities. Even if it’s for profit, it’s not always individual profit but share. Let these be reflected in the textbooks and materials that students are reading, along with other ways to use stories from minorities and ethnicities.
Faculty can create their own materials and resources reflecting inclusivity and diversity by engaging in open education.
We can help change the narrative, and consider the impact on students who may have financially challenging situations by creating and adopting more open educational resources and strategies.

Interview with Florence Daddey, July 16, 2020

When things go sour

Like many in quarantine, I decided to try making sourdough bread. I pulled the neglected jar of starter out of the fridge and read the instructions from the friend who had given it to me months earlier. I realized the starter did not look too good, texted my friend for further directions, and accepted the response that I had been a “bad bad boy”.  

Neglected starter

After resuscitating the starter, and following the recipe, I succeeded in baking a passable bread. My subsequent attempts were disappointing. One time I had to bake the dough because it was so sticky, I otherwise could not figure out how to dispose of it.

way too sticky

I do not like failure; so, I kept trying. Other people’s recipes and suggestions, internet searches, the Tartine Bread book, live chat with an experienced baker. I was still making less than hoped for loaves….

One over-tasking, multi-pressured morning, I lost it. I blamed the crummy scale that kept turning off midway through refreshing the starter. I blamed the recipes, the flour, the water, the process itself, the absurdity of life. I felt discouraged and angry at the whole endeavor. As my fit subsided, I did a bit of self-reflection (and apologizing). That is when the thought came to me, maybe many of the instructors I had been trying to support over the last many weeks in the sudden transition to remote teaching were experiencing analogous frustrations with Blackboard, online anything/everything, and technology in general. Maybe my frustration had some parallel to what instructors feel when they are trying to learn unfamiliar tools and strategies—following the various “recipes” provided.

The little leaven of fellow-feeling activated something in me. Learning a new skill is hard work. Learning under pressure, in new environments, and in isolation is even harder. The loaves are getting more consistent, the process more familiar, the bread delicious and well-raised.

Baking bread is nothing like remotely instructing dozens of young people, and ensuring they have the best possible educational experience. Producing an instructional environment is necessary. Not the only, but a very important, aspect of instruction. Each iteration shows development and improvement. Maybe analogous to bulk fermentation. Rest and “folding in” are critical elements as well… the analogies keep coming – (“faculty mentors are like sourdough starter” “too much incorporated fermentation is like an over-bloated course”) – I think you get the idea.

I am a beginner, learning to value processes. My own, and those I am attempting to support, and feel humbled and encouraged to keep going. I have a growing appreciation for the opportunity to work with so many fine educators.

when things go sour, add some flour

We would like to acknowledge that we live, learn, work, and play on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples of the QayQayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations.

From in-person to online course delivery within a short timeline

Technology interconnects us, as this snapshot of world-wide internet activity shows.
Image from The Opte Project
 (CC BY-NC 4.0)

“What would you do if you suddenly had to deliver your face-to-face class online, and with minimal preparation time?”
This was the question Michelle Jickling, Instructional Designer and E-Learning Developer for Douglas College’s Training Group, and Steven Bishop, Douglas College Learning Designer, discussed in the first of a series of episodes exploring digital literacies.

We used Blackboard Collaborate online meeting software to model the solutions we were proposing, since we were both at different locations. Here are the topics, images, and links discussed during the session:
Top Five Essentials for going from face-to-face course delivery to online delivery:

  1. Organize and collate the (existing) essential deliverables into a logical pattern (e.g., navigation information, weekly content folders, and assessment descriptions).
  2. Decide what kinds of communication are most practical (e.g., course messages, email, synchronous online meetings, and asynchronous discussion forums).
  3. Work backwards from the (existing) means of assessment to develop the assessment tools, Grade Center, and communication of grades and feedback to students.
  4. Set up the course for basic delivery (e.g., create content areas, folders, items; upload files).
  5. Deploy Blackboard tools as appropriate for all of the above.

Additional Considerations:

  • Student communications: synchronous meetings may be limited due to bandwidth, or access to reliable online services.
  • Means of assessment: other than proctored examination, Blackboard assessments would primarily be useful as open-book quizzes and formative assessments.
  • Instructional presence: an essential consideration not addressed in the list above.

SAMR = Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition

How Technology Can Improve Learner-Centred Teaching

Douglas College Blackboard Faculty Resources

DEN (Douglas Educators Network) Blackboard Organization

Blackboard Collaborate online meeting software—Help for Moderators

We would like to acknowledge that we live, learn, work, and play on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples of the QayQayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations.