The above video is from a brief overview that I gave to some of my colleagues at LaGuardia Community College. I was asked to talk about some of the work that I am doing in converting my lectures from a traditional classroom environment to an Online/hybrid setting. This Online/hybrid seminar is a year long group discussion sponsored by LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning to assist faculty into making the transition to online instruction.
Presentation: Creating a CUNY-wide approach towards Digital Media Programs
The above video was from a presentation and panel discussion held at John Jay College’s 10th Annual City University of New York (CUNY) IT Conference. The emerging nature of Digital Media has challenged the ability of universities to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. Due to the evolution of these new disciplines, and the speed in which cross-disciplinary technical innovations are implemented in programs with a digital media focus, very few universal standards are in place for instruction and assessment.
In order to set the stage for the panel discussion, my presentation focused on what I believe are some of the major issues facing digital media programs within CUNY. The panel group, assembled from my colleagues from various CUNY institutions, discussed specific strategies that the university could implement to prepare our digital media programs for the future.
Panel participants included:
Continue reading “Presentation: Creating a CUNY-wide approach towards Digital Media Programs”
Presentation: Motivating Students to Succeed
LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning is currently sponsoring a New Faculty Colloquium. The New Faculty Colloquium is a year-long seminar designed to acclimate new faculty to the institution and to acquaint them with various pedagogical approaches to teaching. I was asked to present some of my recently published findings on motivating Black and Hispanic students to a new cohort of LaGuardia faculty. While the research for my presentation Continue reading “Presentation: Motivating Students to Succeed”
Adobe eMagazine and Digital Publishing Training
In one of my earlier posts from a few months back I discussed how I took a group of my students to Noble Desktop to view a presentation on digital books and ePublishing. What I didn’t mention was that the following day I signed myself up for two of the courses the Noble Desktop offers on creating eBooks and digital magazines with the new tools available from Adobe. Well, I recently completed both classes and was highly impressed with the tools currently available. Adobe has made some interesting strides in creating software that will enable designers and writers to easily publish contents in numerous formats on multiple platforms.
AAUP Conference: Presentation Day
The three and a half hour long train excursion down to Washington, DC did nothing to lessen my exhaustion of the last few days. Even though, I have to admit the the seating room on the Amtrak trains allowed me to sleep quite easily. Those big reclining chairs are way more comfortable than the JetBlue airline seats that I almost purchased. The good thing is that despite the bleary eyes, my afternoon presentation on “Redefining Tenure and Promotion Standards for Multimedia and Digital Arts Faculty” was fairly well received at the annual AAUP national conference on the State of Higher Education. The only major problem with
AAUP Conference: Preparation
Tomorrow I am traveling to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Annual State of Higher Education Conference in Washington, DC to present some of my research on “Redefining Tenure and Promotion Standards for Multimedia and Digital Arts Faculty”.The presentation is based off of an article that I will be submitting for publication. This is a topic of importance many of the current new media professors teaching within higher education, And in the spirit of full disclosure, it is a topic of great importance to me as an non tenured college professor. I will post the video from the conference when I return. I am taking two of the Kodak Zi8 mini HD cameras to the conference to film the event. This is the little camera that I have fallen in love with recently. But again I digress. The full session description for the presentation
Class Trip: Seminar on digital books and ePublishing
Today I took my HUW161 Web and Multimedia Design class to a talk on digital books and ePublishing held at Noble Desktop. The seminar was hosted by Dan Rodney, lead instructor and co-owner of Noble Desktop. Digital publishing has been attracting a great deal of attention as a result of all of the new ereaders and tablet devises that have been hitting the market. Amazon reported earlier this year that eBooks on the Kindle began outselling print books in 2010. In addition to books, magazines are moving to the iPad and other tablet as well. Adobe has just released a new digital publishing suite that companies such as Wired, Martha Stewart are using to create digital magazines for devices. Even more shocking is the fact that relatively unknown authors like Amanda Hocking, as well as more established writers like Barry Eisler are profiting from these new digital formats. It is going to be interesting to see how these new developments will impact upon traditional print media outlets. Digital publishing is hot and designers should be learning about it now. I think my students enjoyed the talk.
The 2011 LaGuardia Publication Reception
This was a brief speech that I gave on the recent article that I authored addressing “Motivating at risk African American and Hispanic students through the study of New Media Technology“. I mentioned this article in one of my earlier posts. The reception was held at LaGuardia Community College. Special thanks to Michael Philogene of LaGuardia’s Business and Technology Department for the impromptu camera work.
The program for the event can be found here: PresidentReception11.pdf
My new article on student motivation – HETS Online Journal
I wanted to share with you a recently published article on the topic of the student motivation that I authored. The title of the piece is “Motivating at Risk African Americans and Hispanics Through the Study of New Media Technology“. The peer-reviewed article was based on many of the interactions that I have had over the years with my amazing students. The primary focus of the research was on how to inspire African American and Hispanic students by using digital media. However, the principles and techniques described can be applied to students of all races and cultures. The article was published in the second edition of the Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS) Online Journal. The digital copy of the journal can be found here in pdf format.
Publication Seminar
Today I attended a workshop at LaGuardia designed to help junior faculty, like myself, identify greater opportunities to publish. The workshop was led by Dr. Jane Johansen of the University of Southern Indiana. Dr. Johansen is a very dynamic speaker and covered a impressive amount of material during the day long session.
The seminar today was the first of a series of workshops being held over the course of the semester. This first workshop was extremely helpful because I was made aware of a few new journals that apply to my field. The other benefit was that I came away with some great concepts for the new articles that I am planning to write.