Profesor Inspirador 2021

Background

So I applied years ago and decide that I would apply again. My students pushed me to do this, so thanks to them for the motivation.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have been inspired by my work. That way when I don’t win, I will still win by seeing your support. :)

A massive thank you to all the people who wrote letters and supported my application. Their letters are not included here, but if they choose to allow them to be public I could include them linked as well (redacted of course to remove private data).

The Letter

To the selection committee.

Many of the activities that I do is for the love and passion to contribute to the education of my students and colleagues.

Why select me as an inspiration professor of 2020? I have applied before (2014 version, I blogged about that at https://blog.kenbauer.me/2015/04/18/profesorinspirador/) and have been dedicating a good deal of time to sharing my knowledge in pedagogy for years here on campus and internationally. I would say with the shift to teaching online in 2020 I was extremely active in that role in my own classroom but also aiding educators in adapting to this new reality for their classrooms.

One additional point that I would point out that was unique for me in 2020 is that I taught national (FIT) courses in Winter and Summer 2020, as well as both regular semesters and trimester courses in the Cybersecurity Masters program, various instances of #Semana18 and a #SemanaTec class. My teaching of extra classes this year was due to requests to help in new programs and a need for more national online teachers. I was honoured and proud to help those efforts.

In essence, the strength of my application is based on the letters from students and colleagues and I invite you to review those. All submitted files are named by the person who wrote it or the institution giving a letter or award. I will highlight which document applies to each of the key achievements I list below by category. These are all visible at the folder at the URL: <redacted>

Teaching:

1. My practice of Open Educational Pedagogy, connectivism and blogging by students. I have practiced this for years but this took on an even more important role in 2020 and leads to deeper learning by my students. Please refer to the letters AlexGonzález.pdf and EdgarBriceño.pdf
2. Invited Speaker Series of experts into my classroom. This took an increased role in my courses in 2020. Again, refer to the letter AlexGonzález.pdf
3. Other teaching below in the MOOC but I put that in the service category. I won two major awards for teaching and gave course for the RNP, please see TecAwards.pdf, DesempeñoDocente2020.pdf, CursoRNP.pdf and this EXATEC Guadalajara post on Facebook recognizing me as #ProfesorDelRecuerdo at http://bit.ly/exatec2020Ken
4. (Note added here, not in the document). I also won another award: “Nuestros Héroes del Aula Virtual”

Intellectual Vitality:

1. I participated as a keynote speaker for various events and webinars online internationally. Please view the letters Observatorio.pdf, HannaOktaba.pdf, SandraGudiño.pdf, EIC_ContinuingEducation.pdf, LABSAG.pdf, UPANA.pdf, and UPN.pdf
2. I provided a valuable service to the Tec and international community through my #TechEduTips video series and other internal projects to increase our skills at online teaching. Please see letters RicardoSwain.pdf, FranciscoEnriquez.pdf, MiguelRodriguez.pdf, and the videos at https://bit.ly/techedutips
3. I published with colleagues from Alberta, Canada at SIGCSE 2020 “Internationalizing the Student Experience Through Computing for Social Good”, Aheer, Bauer and Macdonell. See details at including paper, video of presentation and slides at https://sigcse2020.sigcse.org/online/papers.html

Service and Leadership:

1. #Educoffee is a space I created to share and discuss openly between colleagues from multiple countries, institutions, and knowledge areas. It is a major part of my push for supporting mental health during this pandemic as it provides a space for interaction and mutual support between people in education. I presented many times about it inside and outside Tec, please see letters LawriePhipps.pdf, RicardoSwain.pdf, MiguelRodríguez.pdf and the page at https://bit.ly/educoffee
2. I continued my role (started in 2016) as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Flipped Learning Network and was key to organizing many events including a summer conference that impacted hundreds of educators world. Please see FLN_MatthewMoore.pdf
3. I designed and ran a MOOC (connectivist version) on Flipped Learning six times between 2014 and 2016 which was successful with Tec faculty and worldwide educators. During my various training sessions in the summer a request was made to offer another one. Over 200 professors around the world participated in the 7 week course. Details at https://theopenflip.com Also refer to the letter FLN_MatthewMoore.pdf as it was sponsored by the Flipped Learning Network.

Thank you all for your time in considering this application and all the considerable work required in evaluating all of the excellent candidates for this award.

Sincerely,

Ken Bauer,
Associate Professor of Computing,Tecnológico de Monterrey in Guadalajara

 

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