Author: James

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Interns are a good thing!

The Interns

The Fall II semester is underway and I am already swamped. In addition to the two courses that I am teaching, and planning for the LaGuardia New Media conference in the spring, I also have to redesign the web sites for the New Media program and the CIS Department. Both sites need a serious update and there was no way that I could have completed the job by myself. Luckily I was able to get an intrepid band of interns to volunteer in assisting me to plan, design, and implement the new sites. Continue reading “Interns are a good thing!”

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ePortfolio Capstone Research team: 1st week

Today was the first meeting of the LaGuardia ePortfolio Capstone research team. The purpose of the research group is to help develop a list of best practices for capstone courses at LaGuardia. I am fairly comfortable working with ePortfolio because I was part of the original research team and helped to flesh out some of the technical solutions that were needed to move the project forward. I was honored to be asked to participate in this new research effort. While we will be looking at capstone courses from LaGuardia as a whole, I think that many of the issues that we will be investigating in this research will also directly help me improve some of the course work within the New Media program. Continue reading “ePortfolio Capstone Research team: 1st week”

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Upgrading to High Def: The Canon HV20 or HV30?

The Canon HV30

Last week Canon announced the Vixia HV30, the newest high def camcorder designed to replace older Canon HV20. I have been itching to make the jump to HD video for the past year. I held off largely because my standard definition Canon GL2 was still serving me well. In addition, the HD standards and industry trends were still in flux so I was kinda gun shy about making a major purchase during times of technological uncertainty. You have to understand that for me, nothing is as frustrating as having your new camcorder becoming obsolete the week after you purchase it. Continue reading “Upgrading to High Def: The Canon HV20 or HV30?”

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New Years Day: The Star Trek Experience

I went to Vegas and all I got was this nerdy picture

It is the first day of the New Year so so what could be better than a trip to the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton? Since I don’t gamble at all, and the Bunny Ranch would probably get me shot by my wife, I had to find something to do in Vegas. This was gonna be my third time at the exhibit. However it was my first time with the kids. Believe it or not, Ski and I came here a few years back as we were on a belated Honeymoon. She enjoyed it, which is odd because she usually hates anything having to do with Sci-fi.

Continue reading “New Years Day: The Star Trek Experience”

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New Media Capstone course

Since being appointed the Program Director for LaGuardia’s New Media Technology degree I have started to make revisions to the overall curriculum. One of my priorities is in establishing a more effective capstone course for LaGuardia’s New Media program. The final capstone course in the major, the New Media Project Lab, is being restructured to better prepare students for transfer to a four year university or for employment. During the past semester I have focused heavily on developing new Continue reading “New Media Capstone course”

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Thoughts on ePortfolios

My feelings on ePortfolio continue to evolve and adapt as new technologies and instructional schools of thought are developed. I am very lucky in the sense that Eportfolio is heavily tied into all of the courses in the New Media Technology Program. Within the New Media Program students are encouraged to develop digital expressions of their learning throughout their time at LaGuardia. Since professional portfolios are a mainstay in the New Media field, the development of a student centered ePortfolio is a natural and progressive step.

The development of a ePortfolio helps my students to think more intensely about their career goals and aspirations. Since the field of New Media Technology is rapidly expanding and morphing almost monthly, students are, Continue reading “Thoughts on ePortfolios”

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ePortfolio systems testing

Today the IT department piloted a new open source eportfolio system in one of my capstone classes. The team from LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning, who are main champions of the LaGuardia ePortfolio Initiative, were eager to test out the system in front of some real students. The proposed new system may someday replace the existing ePortfolio system in use today at LaGuardia. However prior to a switch being made, a new system will need to be throughly tested before it can be deployed in a production environment that must support up to 11,000 users. Since I had done much of the preliminary work in reviewing and selecting LaGuardia’s current eportfolio system, I was asked to review the new system which is being considered. Continue reading “ePortfolio systems testing”

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British TV ain’t half bad

Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor Who
I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have gotten hooked on British TV over the last few years. I always loved Ab Fab and Benny Hill, but then again who in their right minds doesn’t love Benny and Eddy. It is just that the rest of the TV shows from the UK seemed so….British. I just didn’t get the point. Even Monty Python, with the exception of a few skits, always left me cold. That kind of changed for me about 3 years back when the BBC relaunched the new Doctor Who.

Continue reading “British TV ain’t half bad”

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Bit Torrent…is kinda like crack.

DemonoidA couple of my friends are going through withdrawal because their favorite torrent site, Demonoid, shut down last week as a result of pressure from Canadian version of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). This also comes on the heels of their other favorite torrents sites, Isohunt and Torrentspy, shutting down access to people in the US. The issues with Isohunt and Torrentspy’s new policies were minimal since many people can still access the sites via a foreign proxy. However things are different with Demonoid since they may now be down for good. That really Continue reading “Bit Torrent…is kinda like crack.”

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Run….run like the wind!

Run girl run

I am so proud of my wife. She completed the NYC Marathon last Sunday in a little over 3 and a half hours. I have to give her a hand because she trained hard all summer to get into shape. Personally I don’t know how she did it. Running 26 miles at that pace would probably force me to sleep for a couple of weeks. However my girl ran the race and still got up the next morning and went off to work with a spring in her step. It was her second time running in the NYC marathon. The last time that she did it was 11 years and two kids ago. The amazing thing is that she ran a faster pace this time than she did 11 years earlier.