The Adventures of a Digital Sensei
It is a rare occurrence when I get an opportunity to stop and reflect on the path not taken. With that said, I want to thank Tom Seymour and De Loot for inviting me to be interviewed on the New York Cine Radio podcast. I had blast talking about pursuing a career in Hip Hop music when Continue reading “The life and times of a struggling MC”
Earlier this week we recorded a marketing video for the Communication and Media program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS). The purpose of the video was to give potential students an overview of the program and the admission requirements. The information in the video is very similar to the material that we present to attendees to our monthly open house sessions. I was excited to record this video because not everyone can make it to the in-person informational sessions that we hold during the semester.
For those of you that are unaware, the Communication and Media program at the SPS is a four year online degree program that offers an interdisciplinary focus on issues related to the convergence between new and traditional media. The goal of the program is to prepare Continue reading “CUNY SPS – Communication and Media degree”
It seems that even over the July 4th holiday I still can’t get away from CUNY. Well, I have to place a caveat on that statement because I wasn’t really doing anything CUNY related. In truth, I spent most of the weekend at Lehman College taking a basic rider class sponsored by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF).
Everyone close to me knows that I have been thinking about buying a motorcycle for a few years. I had a bike briefly during my freshman year at Colorado College and loved it. I rode it for a few months until common sense, and fear of pissing off my basketball coach, got the better of me. I stopped riding Continue reading “Not so Easy Rider – MSF Training Class”
The summers that I spent at Kutsher’s Sports Academy were some of my fondest memories growing up. I wanted my children to have the the same positive experience that I had, so my wife and I arranged for the kids to attend Frost Valley again. Since my wife is one of the camp nurses I feel comfortable that they are all safe and sound. She is able to quietly check on them and make sure they are fine and happy. I dropped them off on Sunday for two weeks of fun while I start working on some projects I have put off for far too long. But the house is now entirely Continue reading “Frost Valley 2014”
The summer is the time when I brush up on old skills or take the plunge and develop new ones. The plan for this summer was to initially focus all of my time on Objective C and iOS app development. That was until Apple announced that they were migrating to a new programing language called Swift. Since the info on Swift is still in the preliminary stages I will now either brush up on my mobile responsive design and JavaScript animation or try and tackle Ruby on Rails. I am leaning towards the responsive design and JavaScript because it would better prepare me to finally get started with PhoneGap and cross-platform application development. Continue reading “Tech Training – Summer 2014”
Last night was the end of the semester for the Spring 2014 LaGuardia New Media Technology capstone class. Over the course of the semester we covered a great deal of material and developed some interesting final portfolios. This semester we even had one student with limited mobility participate remotely in a mixed hybrid/traditional format. I am amazed when I realize that this would not have been possible a few years ago.
Today I had the honor of being on stage and congratulating the 2014 graduates of Communication and Media program. As an Academic Director at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS) I have many responsibilities. However none of those responsibilities are as fulfilling as helping the students in my program achieve their goals. Many of my students are working professionals with families and demanding job responsibilities of their own. So it is especially great to witness them overcome the challenge of working while going to school.
Another year has gone by and another group of New Media graduates are ready to move on to the next stage of their journey. After 13 years of teaching this never gets old. My students are the absolute best part of the job.
To all of the New Media Technology graduates, past and present, congratulations! Your old professor is proud of each of you. Be bold and do big things, because I still have my eyes on you!
President Gail Mellow holds a publishing reception every year to acknowledge faculty at LaGuardia Community College for their academic and creative accomplishments. Once again I was happy to be counted among the scholars from the Humanities Department. The main article that I was being recognized for writing this year was one that was especially dear to me.
The peer reviewed article was highlighted in the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy on the need for the academe to expand the definition of scholarship include the contributions of faculty engaged in digital media. I had invested a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears in researching this article and it was a great feeling to have it pay off.
I spent a wonderful weekend in Maine with my wife to support her Marathon fixation. She is trying to qualify for the Boston and New York Marathons again. She ran her second fastest marathon ever with a time of 3:23:05. She even won an award for finishing 1st in her division!
It was our first trip to Maine and our first weekend Continue reading “32nd Annual Sugarloaf Marathon”