The Adventures of a Digital Sensei
Yesterday I trekked up to John Jay College and took part in a panel discussion on the Virtual Classroom and assessing online instruction. The discussion was held at the CUNY – University Faculty Senate (UFS) Conference on Online Education.
There were breakout sessions on numerous topics dealing with the future direction of online education. The new Continue reading “UFS Conference on Assessing Online Instruction”
We received the announcement today that the School of Professional Studies (SPS) may become a self standing college within the City University of New York system. Some people, actually many people, are unaware that SPS is actually run under the auspices of the CUNY Graduate Center. The new announcement means that big changes are going to be on the way. The new Chancellor of CUNY is an advocate for online and instruction and technology. I am hoping that this means that as CUNY’s premiere online degree granting institution, these new developments will be extremely positive.
I traveled to the outskirts of Queens yesterday to present at the 2014 York College Technology Symposium on the topic of “Enhancing Student Engagement with Open Source Software”. It was a great event featuring digitally engaged faculty from throughout the CUNY system.
I was motivated to give this lecture because Continue reading “2014 York College Tech Symposium”
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”
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.
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 was recently part of a panel discussion at the 2013 CUNY Information Technology Conference on the academic uses of social media. The presentation included short introductions, followed by a roundtable discussion, in which the educators on the panel examined which social media practices they had employed over the years succeeded and failed.
A few months back I was questioned by a writer from the New York Observer on my role as the Academic Director of the Communication and Media program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS). The writer was interested in discussing the online nature of my program and what sets it apart from other traditional and internet based learning environments. Well, today I found out that I was prominently quoted in the Educated Observer, a special advertising supplement to the NY Observer, on the work we are doing over at SPS.
A digital copy of the article, and my statements on the programs at SPS, can be found here.
Today I attended a presentation by Professor Kathleen Fitzpatrick on the role that open access and new forms of peer review will play on the future of scholarly communication. Professor Fitzpatrick is Director of Scholarly Communication at the Modern Language Association (MLA) and Visiting Research Professor of English at New York University. She is the author of Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy. Her writings are among the most respected on the subject of scholarly transformation and were a great influence on my research into digital scholarship and the need to reform tenure and promotion standards for technology engaged faculty.