Mayor’s office: Futures in Film and New Media


Representatives from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting came to speak to the students at LaGuardia. The event was sponsored by the LaGuardia Media Studies and New Media Technology programs. The visitors from Mayor Bloomberg’s office talked about training programs, diversity initiatives, and other opportunities for CUNY students Continue reading “Mayor’s office: Futures in Film and New Media”

Old students return

Earlier today a former LaGuardia New Media student, Miki Masuda, came in to speak to some of my capstone students about her experiences working in digital design, and transferring from LaGuardia to a senior college. Now just to give you some background, new media capstone students at LaGuardia are generally my most advanced designers. The have taken many of the required courses and are usually just a semester or so away from graduating. The capstone class, HUW 269 – New Media Project Lab, that I am teaching is designed to assist students in developing a final professional portfolio to facilitate transfer to a senior college or gain employment as a New Media designer.

Miki is an amazing designer. When I was looking for a guest speaker Continue reading “Old students return”

Mr. Richardson, we’re ready for your closeup.

James Interview

One of the benefits of being a professor is that you get to see how your students grow and develop over time. You are able to watch them start off as raw and untrained media enthusiasts and hopefully evolve into polished digital artists. Today was one of those days for me. I was honored to be interviewed by students in the Media and Technology programs for the upcoming Web TV channel being created at LaGuardia Community College.

The interview focused Continue reading “Mr. Richardson, we’re ready for your closeup.”

Just look at what the CAT dragged in!

In the fall of 2008, Peter Katopes Vice President of Academic Affairs at LaGuardia Community College) appointed me to the CUNY wide Committee for Academic Technology (CAT). I was asked to act as LaGuardia’s representative on all issues pertaining to the use of advanced technology in support of pedagogy. This assignment required me to attend monthly meetings and frequent sub-committee sessions to vote on issues of how technology should be adopted throughout CUNY. In addition to helping to support CUNY’s overall vision, I acted as LaGuardia’s liaison  to the CAT committee to insure that LaGuardia interests were fully represented. My involvement as a member of the CAT group required me to serve as a member on the CAT sub-committees for Blackboard and ePortfolio. I would like to believe that my participation was extremely valuable on these sub-committees due to my experience as LaGuardia’s initial Director of ePortfolio and my work with vendors like Concord and Blackboard to link disparate systems to support ePortfolio.

Final Cut Pro Training – Basic edit reel

Final Cut class

This summer I am taking courses at a variety of design schools in the area. Here is my most recent video editing reel that I completed at the School of Visual Arts in their weekend Final Cut Pro class. While I am experienced with Final Cut (been using it since version 1.0), I figured it is a good idea to brush up on Final Cut since I have been focusing more on web design topics lately. Plus I plan on Continue reading “Final Cut Pro Training – Basic edit reel”

2009 – Summer of Code

Noble Desktop

It has been a long time since I have actually sat inside of a formal classroom as a student. I spend most of my time on the other side of the fence. However this summer has helped me better understand some of the challenges that my students must experience. Challenges with class availability. Challenges with scheduling conflicts. Challenges with learning a great deal of material in a finite amount of time. All of the things that I generally don’t have to Continue reading “2009 – Summer of Code”

Go Trek Yourself

This is either one of the funniest, or the creepiest, things I have seen on the web in awhile. You got a black vulcan spitting the lyrics of Rakim in an offbeat monotone fashion. Yes I realize that I am a major nerd but the use of flash in this application is pretty original. You can upload a picture of yourself, type in some text and boom. You have just Trek’ed yourself. Continue reading “Go Trek Yourself”

First week back on that old hustle!!

First day back in class
This is the first week back teaching after being out of the classroom since mid-December. Now granted, I have been doing alot of work around the college and redesigning the curriculum for the New Media Technology program. However, that is very different from teaching and being in the classroom in front of students. But I have to say that it is amazing how quickly I am able to get back into the flow now that I have been teaching for a couple of years. While I am far from a veteran, I no longer feel like a rookie either.

The NYC Comic Con 2009: Attack of the Nerds

Chewie and Me

This weekend I took the kids and the wifey to their first NYC Comiccon. I figured that it was time to help them cultivate their inner nerds. It was a big deal for me since I remember my own father taking me to Comic and Sci-Fi conventions like this when I was a little kid. Back then it was pretty much a bunch of kids dragging their parents around to see all of these cool sci-fi and comic items.  Fast forward nearly 30 years later and Continue reading “The NYC Comic Con 2009: Attack of the Nerds”