Jason Craig is a big man in a lot of ways. Not only is he 6’4″, but he has also spent half of his life as an educator on two continents. Jason trained as a Physiotherapist in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was the Physio to the Irish Women’s Field Hockey Association for a number of years before moving to the US and joining the faculty of Marymount University PT program. Jason’s passion for innovative teaching led him into podcasting and digital transmission of information long before it was popular. Jason has also been part of a dynamic duo of faculty who have led study abroad trips into Costa Rica and Nicaragua for 10 years with the MU PT students. This year, was a special one in that not only did Jason lead a team of students to serve in hospitals and clinics in Nicaragua, but he also built a house for a family of four who he sponsors through Compassion International. Now an Interim Associate Dean of Innovation and Lifetime Learning, Jason applies his skills to helping promote all the graduate programs at Marymount, even though his heart is in the DPT program.
Spring 2020 was a huge pivot from face to face learning to online learning. This was not planned for by the faculty or the students. A lot of people struggled with this. We can do better in the Fall and will do better in the Fall.
Students can prepare now for the Fall semester whether they are in class or online. Waiting until September is too late.
Faculty were forced into a difficult situation in March, but now we have time to plan and to prepare. The Fall may still be difficult, but the outcome should be better.
We can leverage what we have learned in the past three months about online learning that can create new conference opportunities for the future. Rather than trying to get 1000’s of people together in one place, we can use social media (FB live, Youtube live) to broadcast short interviews with national speakers and broadcast live sessions to a wider audience.
We mention the website Jason created Morphopedics: http://morphopedics.wikidot.com/