AUTC's 8th Annual Academic Conference

Argosy University's Twin Cities campus presented it's 8th annual academic conference this past thursday. This year's theme was titled The Learnins Environment and included a number of fascinating speakers. This year the keynote speaker was Sarah Dennison who spoke on the importance of assisting students to "learn and prepare to grow a career" and gave the AU faculty a few pointers on how to facilitate and support them. The afternoon was comprised of two breakout sessions.

Don St. Dennis lead one session entitled "The Multiccultural Classroom." Mr. St. Dennis' program focused on interpersonal communication issues in a multicultural environment. He touched on a range of topics that included stereotyping, intercultureal competence, cultural values, and verbal & non-verbal communication.

I had the unique opportunity to lead the other breakout session which focused on Web 2.0 tools for educators. We discussed blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmaring, microblogging, and photosharing. The Student Centered Cutlure Task Force also presented a panel which included a number of representatives from all areas of the campus.

Optimists and Pessimists...

I was recently going through some of my old PowerPoint presentations and came across a great story I'd like to share. It's a little fable imparted to me by one of my classmates in the Argosy University Doctorate of Education program...I think it's entitled the Horse or something; either way, it is a great illustration of the difference between optomists and pessimists...

There once was a father who had twin sons. One son was an optimist, the other a pessimist. On the twins’ birthday, while the boys were at school, the father loaded the pessimist’s room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist’s room he loaded with horse manure.

That night the father passed by the pessimist’s room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly. “Why are you crying?” the father asked. “Because my friends will be jealous, and I’ll have to read the instructions, and I’ll constantly need batteries and my toys will get broken," answered the pessimist.

Passing the optimist’s room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. “What are you so happy about?” asked the father. To which the optimist replied, “There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”

I think this speaks to the fact that life is what you make of it. If you look for the good, guess what you find: good things.

If you choose to look for the bad, guess what you find: the bad.

Sometimes, however, you have to look reeeeeaaaallly hard to see those good things. Even through all of the "stuff" life has to throw at you.