Can you share your heart with a college campus? Sure you can. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with administrators, faculty, and staff at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico to learn about their mission, and and their tremendous passion for sharing knowledge!
Here are some highlights, and please know that I am only capturing a fraction of what I am experiencing.
Tec has 31 campuses across Mexico (including a few “university high schools”). The campuses serve nearly 99,000 students! “Monterrey Tec” is the largest, http://www.itesm.mx/wps/portal?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=
- Observatorio de Innovacion Educativa del Tecnológico de Monterrey (Observatory for Education Innovation), http://www.observatorioedu.com/. The work is described as “curated media synthesis,” and the group, described as the “competitive intelligence unit,” works together like “command central” for the university to collect information about teaching and innovation from all over the world! It was exciting to be in that space, and just being in the room makes you want to soak up as much knowledge as possible. You can read their content and products in Spanish or English: http://www.observatoryedu.com/
A portion of the “command central” Observatorio staff, led by Esteban Venegas Villanueva.
- El Centro para el Desarrollo Docente y la Innovación Educativa (CEDDIE) (Center for Faculty Development and Education Innovation), http://ceddie.rzo.itesm.mx/ceddie/.
Seated in the CEDDIE, in a space where leaders and coaches work with faculty to demonstrate innovative teaching methods. These chairs are called “node” chairs, and they facilitate interactive learning.
- Knowledge should be free! Coursera courses taught by Tec: https://www.coursera.org/tecdemonterrey. It was a pleasure to discuss teaching and learning with UNESCO Chair in Open Educational Resources, Dr. María Soledad Ramírez Montoya, Math Professor Dr. Patricia Salinas Martínez, and their colleagues. They teach 15,000-20,000 students in their Coursera MOOCs, and are contributing to knowledge access in Latin America in unprecedented ways.
With UNESCO Chair for Open Educational Resources, Dr. Maria Soledad Ramirez Montoya
- CETEC: Centro de Tecnología Avanzada para la Producción (CETEC). This is the college of engineering and technology, and they have some wonderful advanced projects, and are fully dedicated to design, real-world styled labs, innovative teaching approaches, and teacher-coaches.
Outside of the electrical engineering labs, with the CETEC in the background. The campus has several buildings, thousands of square feet dedicated to all kinds of engineering labs.
There were many other impressive initiatives, but above all, I really connected to their mission of “Human Sense,” making sure that all students develop a sense of community through dedicated service, understanding of cultures, and attention to integrity. I’ll write more about Tec in the future. Many thanks to my colleague and friend, Dr. Jaime Bonilla Rios, Dean of Engineering at Monterrey Tec for the invitation, and congratulations on all of the great advancements!
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Renetta Garrison Tull - Living Life Online 