Students and faculty attended a lecture by Kelly Millenbah, director of academic programs in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, on Wednesday afternoon at the Veterinary Medical Center. The Lecture was part of CVM Education Day 2010.
Students and faculty gathered Wednesday for the first College of Veterinary Medicine Education Day to discuss current and future learning processes in the college.
The day-long event featured breakout sessions ranging from the use of technology in learning and collaboration, the use of the Internet in education and discussions on teaching methods.
Rebecca Henry, a professor in the College of Human Medicine’s Office of Medical Education Research and Development who helped facilitate the event, said the program’s organizers wanted to create a time not just for faculty to discuss such aspects of learning, but students as well.
“It’s a day about acknowledging and sharing innovation, what’s being learned about education both here in the college and to have an opportunity for students to see how faculty are thinking about their curriculum,” Henry said.
It was for this reason Angela Infante, a first year veterinary medicine student, said she attended Wednesday’s event.
“I think it was a really good opportunity to get a student perspective or to get an idea of what they are trying to do for us,” Infante said after attending a breakout session focusing on technology usage. “This is the future, and it’s all about technology and how they can improve our learning.”
Robert Malinowski, an associate professor of small animal clinical practices and acting director of the veterinary college’s Information Technology Center, said a similar attempt at organizing such an event failed last year. He said he was glad Wednesday’s event attracted a wide variety of students and faculty.
About 30 people attended the breakout session, where Malinowski was one of three professors who discussed the role technology and programming have in learning processes.
“We definitely had a lot of active participation,” Malinowski said. “Technology is helping to make things more available to students and really give them the extra tools they need to succeed.”
Henry said the event also was a chance for students and faculty to discuss what teaching methods work, as well as which do not.
“One of the things I think we’re committed to is how can we do this better,” Henry said. “It costs a lot of money for students to come here. We really want to examine what are those processes, what works, what doesn’t work, and we really wanted the students to participate in this conversation.”
The event also showed how the veterinary college is beginning to evolve and adapt to future changes, Infante said.
One of the most recent changes was announced March 5, when the veterinary college said it will transition from using live animals to animal cadavers and other models to teach surgical practices to students.
“There’s a lot of changes going on in the vet med building,” Infante said. “Some people have the perception that it’s negative, but I think it will be pretty good.”
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