2020-12-15 – Newsroom

#DawsonProud, Communications Office, Homepage news, In the news/in social media, Sustainability, Well-being for all

Dawson gets GOLD for leadership in sustainability

It's official! AASHE announced Dawson College's GOLD rating for leadership in sustainability on their website. Congratulations Dawson community!

We have been collecting reactions by video and text to the news in preparation for this week's announcement. We will be proudly sharing these thoughts from Dawson employees, government leaders and people active in environmental issues with the media this week.

In the New Year, we will be celebrating this as best we can during the pandemic and we will certainly share the videos and reactions with our community at that time. Today, you, the members of our Dawson community, get to know the good news first!

We will be sharing our GOLD news with the media and on social media later this week. You can help us amplify the news by sharing the Dawson College posts (scheduled for Dec. 16) on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN and Twitter.

Click Read More to go to the homepage news story.

#DawsonProud, From the Director General, Homepage news, Milestones

Richard Filion’s farewell video

Our Director General Richard Filion will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2020 after 40 years of work in the CEGEP network!

Click Read More for a news brief and a link to Richard's Farewell Video addressed to Dawson colleagues.

#DawsonProud, Communications Office, Dawson Grads, Homepage news, In the news/in social media

Dawson students and graduates speak about attachment to Quebec

Journalists and politicians in Quebec have said a lot of things about Dawson College recently. We thought it would be interesting for you to hear what some current Dawson students and some recent graduates think about their attachment to the French language and québécois culture.

Click Read More for our homepage news story.

#DawsonProud, Dawson Talent, Events

Photography exhibit can be viewed from outside

Take a stroll along de Maisonneuve Blvd. along the walls of Dawson and you can see the third-year photography students' exhibit, Interrupted, until Jan. 15.

Click Read More to go to the homepage news story, see some of the students' photos and get more information.

#DawsonProud, Awards Office, Communications Office, Dawson Foundation, Homepage news

Fall Awards celebrate our students’ perseverance in tough times

We are so proud to present this year’s outstanding cohort of recipients of the Fall Awards of Dawson College with a special web feature.

Congratulations to all our Fall 2020 Award recipients! And a BIG thank you to our dedicated teachers and to all who support our students, including the donors and friends of the Dawson College Foundation who make many of the awards possible.

Visit the Fall Awards Celebratory Web Feature and meet our recipients of the Fall 2020 Awards:

Campus Life, Events, Student Services

Montreal UN Conference hosted by Dawson drew 500 participants

Dawson College hosted the 7th Edition of the Montreal United Nations Conference on Nov. 20-22. This is an important Model United Nations event that welcomes delegates from both the Greater Montreal Area and abroad.

Click Read More for the homepage news story.

Human Resources, Policy on Sexual Violence

Deadline extended to Jan. 31 for Sexual Violence Prevention Training

All employees must complete a mandatory 40-minute training on Sexual Violence Prevention as part of the College's Policy on Sexual Violence.

The deadline has now been extended until Jan. 31. You can do the training in modules or all at once. You can also take breaks. This is something you are expected to do as part of your job during working hours.

For more information and how to take your training, please click on Read More.

Book/article/video recommendation, DawsonAI

AI Book recommendation

Last month, Vanessa Gordon (Faculty, Political Science) had the pleasure of attending FWD50, an annual gathering of some of the world's leading public sector innovators. Spanning five days and featuring well over 200 speakers, this year's theme addressed how to use technology to bring people together. Vanessa sent this note to D News:

As a Dawson Artifical Intelligence (AI) fellow, I was there to learn about how to teach AI at school: it didn't disappoint! Dr. Paris Buttfield-Addison was one of the stand-outs. He gave a compelling talk about AI in Australian school education. He also recommended the book "Future Frontiers: Education for an AI world", available here: https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/education-for-a-changing-world/media/documents/Future_Frontiers-Text.pdf.

This is a work where sci-fi and education meets. For example, I learned that by the time my kids are my age, AI is forecast to outperform humans in all tasks. What does this mean for my kids?

As the Aussies say: "This is a lot to do. A lot." This book courageously attempts to elucidate the new skills and values that today's kids will need to live good lives in this world of exponentially evolving AI technologies.

This Christmas, I plan to keep reading this book, along with William Gibson's Neuromancer. Here's to time well spent!

Faculty Hub

Over at the Faculty Hub

Mark your Calendars!
From Jan. 7-26, a variety of pedagogical development webinars will be offered to faculty. Visit the Faculty Hub website in January for a complete list of events.

Intercollegiate Ped Days
Organized in collaboration with other English colleges: Jan. 7-15

Faculty Hub Pedagogical Webinars
Featuring a variety of presenters from the Dawson community: Jan. 18-26

Registration open for CTD courses- free for employees

Registration is open for the winter session of non-credit courses at Dawson's Centre for Training & Development.

Choose from a wide variety of language, technology or personal development courses - all online.

Courses are reasonably priced for the general population and *free* for all Dawson employees (conditions apply).

Academic News, Well-being for all

Still a few days to participate in Amnesty International’s write-a-thon

On Thursday, Dec. 10, 10 Dawson students and faculty marked the International Day of Human Rights with Amnesty International's write-a-thon (https://writeathon.ca/), which aims to bring attention to 10 cases of injustice around the world.

Since 2000, 75% of the 169 people who have been targeted for this campaign have been freed! In one hour, we were able to complete letters for approximately 5 out of the 10 cases highlighted, which will amount to over 50 letters, and will contribute to the thousands that were written from people all over the world.

If you were unable to attend, but would still like to participate, here is a link to the recording of the session: https://youtu.be/tUI1NuJ-D2s .If you have completed or will complete letters, please let Daniel Goldsmith know (via MIO) how many by next Friday, Dec. 18 so he can send numbers to Amnesty to include in their count.

Human Resources, Professional Development

Colleagues shared knowledge at Support Staff Training Day

Support Staff Training Day was held Dec. 3. The program included training on Teams, Planner, Sustainable Happiness, diversity and anti-bias. Sessions drew 30 to 75 participants, and there were prizes drawn for participants in each of the four sessions. The presenters were Jonathan Perlman, Jennifer de Vera and Debra Gill, colleagues who shared their knowledge and best practices. Virginia Law, Mona Leroux, Santa Di Stefano and Stela Blazic won prizes.

Senate

Senate documents for Dec. 15 meeting

To access the documents, employees must log onto SharePoint through the My Dawson Portal (Omnivox) and then select Governance, Dawson Senate. Under “Meeting Documents,” select the current year to view the list of meetings and their associated documents.

Readers must bear in mind that most of the documents that are considered by the Senate are in draft form. Program revision and development documents as well as institutional policies such as ISEP and IPEP are not final until they have been approved by the Board of Governors.

Dawson Gives

Dawson employees bring holiday joy to kids in care

This year once again, Dawson employees mobilized to provide toys and gifts specially requested by children in care of Batshaw Youth and Family Centres. In total, about 25 employees sponsored gifts for 49 children. The photo is of gifts received by Dawson's Coordinator of Secret Santa's, Janice Harvey (Faculty, History), before delivery to Batshaw.

Book/article/video recommendation

Global Teacher Prize winner shares his winnings with other teachers

Dipti Gupta (Faculty, Cinema | Communications) offers this good news article about a generous teacher in India who shared his Global Teacher Award with other educators who were finalists for the $1 Million U.S. prize.

Click Read More to go to the article.

DawsonITE

DawsonITE Newsletter # 495

DawsonITE is your weekly curated news related to IT and Education prepared by Dawson's Rafael Scapin. In this issue:

• Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Experience Teaching with Microsoft Teams

• The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2020

• How to Create the Best Assessments

Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020