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SuccessNow Forum

Jefferson Community

                                                                  and

Technical College

Online Magazine of Ideas

Success in 1st 15 Credit Hours

SuccessNow: A Component of NEXUS

 

The purpose of the SuccessNow Forum, an online magazine of ideas about how we can help students be successful in their first 15 credit hours at Jefferson, exists to provide a forum for submitting, sharing, and learning about the courses, forms of deliver of instruction, student engaging pedagogies, student and academic support, policies, teaching/learning opportunities, and successful partnerships. It is also a forum for sharing what we would like to see or want to do to encourage student success at Jefferson.

 

The intent of the magazine is to create a Faculty/Staff Community* of Learners who are interested in the success of students within their first 15 credit hours.

 

The intent is also to create a means of communication for those who want a place to have a voice in suggesting ideas.**

 

* Community: “Shaffer and Anundsen define community as a dynamic whole that emerges when a group of people share common practices, are interdependent, make decisions jointly, identify themselves with something larger than the sum of their individual relationships, and make a long-term commitment to well-being (their own, one another's, and the group's).”

 

** Avoiding the Dialectic Dialogue of Dogmatic Diatribes

“WE HAVE LONG BEEN proponents of thoughtful dialogue on campuses about key technology and education trends. Especially when it comes to doing the hard work of targeting programs, practices and policies toward improving learning, leaders should not only allow, but also engage these conversations.

Left unchecked, these conversations are too often dominated by loud voices. One set: the "caustic cynics" -- fellow educators almost always against change, no matter the issue or innovation, often to the point of irrationality. You can probably trip the names of the caustic cynics off your tongue with little effort. Another set of equally loud voices: the "true believers." Zestfully supporting their cause, they'll scream from roof- tops to all who'll give them audience, but most over-promise and under- deliver, cutting the credibility of change initiatives.

To avoid this all-too-common dialectic dialogue of dogmatic diatribes, leaders should create meaningful conversation venues for the less-angry or innovation-enamored educators who are just as concerned about the institution's welfare. This develops a thoughtful and nimble college culture ready to take on key challenges and new trends.” - By Mark David Milliron and Dr. Steven Lee Johnson – June 2002

 

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