A weekly newsletter to build community through updates, opportunities, and celebrations | | April 10, 2025 | Volume 11 | Issue 29 | | Spotlight on Jenny Ferguson | | |
By Jenny Ferguson, Coordinator, Work Based Learning
- Born and raised in Thomasville, never left
- Graduate from Davidson-Davie in 2004, then went to Greensboro College and graduated in 2007.
- Started working part time at the college in 2001 when I graduated high school. Taught in the basic skills department and then took a full time position in 2010.
- Met my husband, Jeremy Ferguson, at DDCC in 2010. I kept unplugging my network cable to get to know him better. LOL. We married in 2012 and have 3 children- Caroline (12), Isaiah (10), Josiah (8). We have 2 dogs, Penny (golden doodle) and Leia (pug), 2 cats, Girlfriend and Rosie (that’s actually a male cat but we didn’t know at the time 🤪) and 2 leopard geckos, Sunny and Blaze.
- I love shopping and decorating for different holidays. My kids are my main hobby so going to their basketball, football, baseball games, and band concerts keep me pretty busy. But my most treasured hobby is spending time with and taking care of my best friend, my 94 yr old grandmother.
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Travel: The beach is our second home but we love day trips to the mountains. I would love to go to Alaska sometime!
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Podcasts & Music: Not a podcast girl 🤦🏽♀️ but I love worship music!
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Food: Mexican food is my favorite and there’s nothing like a warm soft chocolate chip cookie. Side note, I don’t like ice cream! Carrots with guacamole is my favorite snack, you should try it.
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Movies & Shows: I’m a chick flick girl to the core! The Proposal is my favorite. TV shows: Bluey and Big City Greens, thanks to my children- adult tv shows- American Housewife, American Idol, Schitts Creek, Andy Griffith
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What feels like home? Being with my family. Family is the most important thing to me, next to my relationship with Jesus. They are my safe place and my soft landing.
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Favorite thing about yourself? This is an interesting one to answer and not sound prideful but I love my smile and I love the connections I make with people. I’m a social butterfly and love meeting new people. When Jeremy and I go on a date he always says he’s dating the whole restaurant because I’m either listening to conversations and everything going on around me or I’m becoming best friends with the waitress.
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Professional Learning Events
| | | | AI or Not? The Results Might Surprise You! | | |
By Gretchen Benton
Thank you to everyone who participated in our AI or Not quiz over the last week! You can still participate if you did not have a chance. We had 13 respondents to the quiz. So far, participants averaged a score of 5.8pts out of 10pts, Meaning that respondents correctly identified AI generated pictures and text only about 58% of the time.
While this was a short quiz, the results replicated what we already know from other studies. Both novice and experienced instructors have difficulty identifying AI written text in student submissions, according to a study published in June 2024. The study also shows that instructors were overconfident in their ability to recognize AI written text. This is a clear call to action for teachers and schools to rethink how we assess learning and student writing.
I look forward to hearing the insights and possible solutions that come out of this year’s summer institute, as Davidson-Davie faculty take a deeper look at how we use AI and adjust to student use of AI in education.
| | New Moodle Gradebook Features | | |
By Christina Kirwan
Moodle has gone through a few updates recently--and the Gradebook is no exception. There are few new features from the gradebook setup page to make creating your gradebook easier (and maybe even faster!) with the help of a cleaner look thanks to collapsible category sections. Explore all of the most recent gradebook setup updates, including how to create and move individually graded items in and out of categories, with the Gradebook Setup Page Updates Article.
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Dear Widgy,
What is an accessibility report?
Green, yellow, red, or purple--click on the icons!
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I know I’ve mentioned accessibility scores and reports a handful of times already, but what is it, really? You can access your accessibility report by clicking on the different icons I shared a few weeks ago. The accessibility report includes your accessibility score and the reasoning behind the score. Your score is dependent on the number of minor, major, and severe issues found in your document. Major issues are weighted twice as much as minor issues while severe issues are weighted twice as much as major issues.
These issues are based on WCAG AA guidelines and standards. With your report, you are able to quickly locate the issues and how to fix them. We’ll cover what Panorama will and will not fix next week, but for now, if you’d like to know what constitutes a minor, major, and severe issue, read how your score is calculated with the Panorama Accessibility Reports article.
Your accessibility score may vary based on your document type (PDF, PPT, Docx, or HTML content). This is because of which accessibility issues Panorama is able to flag based on the document file. Even if your reports are green--still click on that smiley face!
Like I stated during the first week of our series, a green smiley face is just the first step in ensuring your content is digitally accessible. Here are some major accessibility aspects you will want to keep a close eye on when you are creating and reviewing your digital content:
- Font size (greater than 9, but 12 is better)
- Descriptive URLs
- Properly nested heading structure
- Alternative text
- Sufficient color contrast
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International Intrigue
Light in the Darkness
In Davidson County, and much of the United States, we have been in what Noah Kahan characterizes as “stick season.” Stick season is exactly what it sounds like. The trees have been barren and brittle for months. The weather often teases us a bit in spring. There are the mornings of extreme cold topped off with afternoons that are bright and sunny–enough so that we regret our morning clothing choices and are dazed by the sunny facade. We begin to think maybe the seasons are changing, times are changing, light and warmth lull us into a dream of longer days and new beginnings.
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| |  | This winter, as I waited for the next big thing to arrive (a new season literally or a new season of projects), I found hope in an unlikely place–a tree that I had never seen, or at least I had never noticed it before. I have become convinced that this tree only grows on the route to the college and at the college, which I am certain is untrue, but I am convinced just the same. In my forty plus years, I have never noticed leaves remaining on a tree throughout winter, but not only did I notice the leaves of the American Beech tree this year, I became obsessed with their permanence and almost defiant posture on the trees. And those leaves–sometimes tan–and sometimes white–they were a light in an unlit world. As many people do, I put on a brave face in the winter, but I feel much like a person in hibernation–I binge watch shows, read, and need naps in the winter. However, no matter how dreary, cloudy, cold, or muted the day was, those beautiful white leaves were beacons on my way to campus and navigating toward a new season.
I do not think it is a coincidence that I noticed these trees this year for the first time. I needed their light to keep pushing forward. Things are uncertain on a national level in International Education and that is not a new phenomenon. Some days it has been hard to push ahead through unknowns, but those beautiful leaves have helped. There are some theories about why those leaves remain, and I am sure a member of the science faculty could explain it well, but I prefer one particular theory. The leaves remain as protection for the buds that are growing beneath them, and when the time is right, those leaves eventually fall to the ground and the new growth emerges strong enough for spring’s often trickster ways. The light leaves of the American Beech have mostly fallen to the ground, and coincidentally, their slow fade was completed when we welcomed the farming students from Denmark. In that moment, we saw a dream become a reality–welcoming students to an academic and cultural short-term study abroad experience on our campus, and we emerged in spring with an additional way to remain relevant.
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Of course, outbound study abroad is important for us, and that will not change, but we can also offer a specialized and special program for those from abroad. When we face challenges, just as the leaves of the American Beech protect its future growth, we will work to find ways to survive and grow. Our week with the students from Denmark’s Green Academy was a special week for the students themselves, our students they interacted with, and for me personally. Stay tuned for a comprehensive article about our week together in the near future.
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