Rotary Log 09-22-20

 

President John rang the Rotary bell at 12:01 pm, calling to order meeting #5365 of the Rotary Club of Everett; meeting #12 of his presidency and virtual meeting #28.

 

The Pledge of Allegiance was delivered by Marybeth Dingledy. President John also is looking for additional readers of the pledge and you can bring in additional persons to help lead the Club in the pledge. 

 

The thought of the day was delivered by Brian Evans. As businesses are reinventing themselves during the pandemic, it is a great opportunity to shine in this new economy by pivoting to meet the needs of the marketplace. 

 

 

 

No Visiting Rotarians. Guests:  The club had one guest at the meeting. Walt Greenwood introduced Phil Mitchell who is a fellow member of a vintage motorcyclist club that Walt belongs to. They also share interest in music and are part of a band– Good Intentions group.  Phil was raised in Everett. 

 

 

Kari Petrasek reminded us all about the next Happy Hour function on October 1^st, 2020. This Happy Hour will focus on a Fall theme. Bring your favorite fall drink and share ideas or suggestions for other fall beverages.  

 

As part of our ongoing focus on using social media platforms, Tammy Dunn thanked all for the increased volume “likes” our Facebook page has been receiving. Tammy and Walt Greenwood are looking for members sharing their thoughts on why you are with Rotary and how Rotary opens our opportunities.

 

Greg Lineberry share that all club members can share photos for announcements, happy dollars, or birthday bucks that he will share during the club meeting. Please send him an email with your photo/fliers.

 

There was no raffle held at today’s meeting. Look forward to the next opportunity.  

 

Mark Valentine – $72 for upcoming birthday.

Kaye Phinney - 70 years old.  Thanks to all her fellow Rotarians for their support over the last year - $100

Amanda Overly - $20.  In celebration of the centennial of Everett High in their achievement of the 1920 National Championship Football team against East Technical from Ohio.

Cathy Woods in recognition of her birthday.

Theresa Frothingham gave her 1^st happy dollars in celebration of her son’s internship and baseball tourney in Oregon.

 

 

Professor David Wicks and his presentation on Digital Learning was introduced by Club member, Bill Finley. Bill provide the following background regarding Dr. Wicks. David is a spouse of educator. He has served for many years as an Associate Professor of Seattle Pacific University. His career focus has been on building curriculum and exploring digital learning. He is dedicated to helping teachers with this platform. 

 

Dr. Wicks commented that his father was long time Rotarian in Nebraska. A year ago, many didn’t know about Zoom, but now, online or remote learning are really big terms today. His focus with today’s presentation is highlighting on some challenges and opportunities with remote learning. 

 

Dr. Wick’s career background:  

 

1998 – started at Seattle Pacific University (SPU) and set up Masters online degree and first online course. At that time, you needed CD-ROMs and a56k modem. Educators and students were surprised by effectiveness, although no bandwidth for video.

 

2014:  Develop SPU leadership program – Digital Education Leader graduate program. 50 plus leaders that are digital education leaders across the country and focused on getting their schools online and productive. Grads were able to pivot much more quickly. 

 

2020:  22^nd year of teaching online and almost entirely online. Mostly students online. He usually visited students personally prior to Covid. 

 

Since 2014, he has been delivering courses through weekly meetings that are student concentric. 

 

Most of his online students often show for graduation or the school went to them. There is a real bond between students. This year, graduation ceremonies were held online.

 

Dr. Wicks went on to review the differences regarding Online vs Remote through a chart.   Today’s pandemic is forcing today’s teachers to react and pivot. They are not given significant amount to time to prepare and schools are changing their minds quickly. Lots of challenges with a large degree of lack of expertise, but they are doing best they can.

 

His teachings are based on a theory - Community of Inquiry Framework During the 1990’s, digital learning started to mature. To be successful, teachers need to plan, facilitate, and instruct. Social presence is how students make themselves known in the remote atmosphere and new tools are helping with this.

 

Dr. Wicks highlighted the key challenges for remote education. They include:

 

Lack of experience and expertise – many do not have the background and the understanding of the tools. 

Parents are needed to serve as educators in their homes and challenged by the technology and becoming digitally literate.

 

Isolation Challenge – with the issue that the learner is the only one that does not get it. This highlights the need to humanize the learning and building a relationship with the teacher. 

 

Dr. Wicks also focused on the many opportunities for digital learning. He highlighted:

 

Design opportunity for interactive learning with a focus on community engagement projects

 

Innovative practices that show how to engage remotely and getting students to work together. He has designed a new project for his own classes:  telepresence robots

 

Learning from Mistakes/Failing Forward such as ways to minimize Zoom fatigue and using technology when appropriate.  

 

Overall, all of us are learning as we go. We are developing teaching practices in a brave new world. We are showing that online learning should be different than face to face and more collaboration is needed

 

Our club members had several good questions for Dr. Wicks. Many of those were focused on the challenge of access online learning, home schooling and getting students to login and engage.

 

 

President John thanked our speaker and bellringers. President John highlighted next week’s program: Studio Glass w/John Kiley. Also, we had 62 Rotarians participating in today’s club meeting.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Photography submitted,

 

Next Program: