I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dean Jorge Silva-Puras for an interview on my role as the Interim Academic Director of the Communication and Media program at the CUNY School of Professional Studies (SPS). During the session, we discussed what it is like to head up one of the only fully online four-year degrees within CUNY. The talk ventured into how the asynchronous nature of the program benefits students wanting to earn a degree, and what it takes to break into the field.
CUNY ASAP STEM Career Event
A few months ago a former student of mine, Caroline Mendez, reached out to me to see if I would be interested in participating in a LaGuardia virtual event to promote STEM professions to students of color. Caroline studied digital media with me back in the early 2000s shortly after I made the switch from corporate IT to academia. She is currently an Academic Advisor for the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and is tasked with helping students, particularly students of color, find their way by providing intensive academic advisement, career development, tuition scholarships, textbooks, and transportation assistance. Since I love reconnecting with former students, I eagerly agreed to join the panel discussion on STEM career opportunities.
Continue reading “CUNY ASAP STEM Career Event”Thanks, I needed that today.
Visiting Scholar at NYU
During my sabbatical year I was fortunate enough to secure an opportunity to serve as a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Interactive Telecomunications Program. It was somewhat of a homecoming for me since this was the program that I graduated from nearly two decades earlier.
Continue reading “Visiting Scholar at NYU”Online teaching? We should have been better prepared.
The video above is from a 2014 panel group discussion I participated in on the subject of evaluating online instruction. I went back to look at the video after all of this time because college administrators recently featured in the news have mentioned the difficultly schools are having in shifting to a distance learning modality. We are three weeks into this semester and the one thing that I have realized about how High Education has responded to the COVID-19 impact on face to face instruction, is that we should have been better prepared.
Continue reading “Online teaching? We should have been better prepared.”The Digital Divide and Open Source Software
At the beginning of every semester I help students prepare for their ongoing coursework by pointing them towards open source software and low cost equipment which they can use to build and create digital content.
Continue reading “The Digital Divide and Open Source Software”I don’t understand all the Zoom hate.
During this Corona inspired lockdown Saturday is turning into my dedicated Zoom day. In the afternoon I virtually connect with some of my Krav Maga friends for a weekly brunch get together. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. However today my cousins decided to do something similar for the family. We had a virtual Birthday party for our Cousin Brooke!
Since we are spread out all across different states it was fantastic to connect up even if it is only through Zoom. And while it is not the same as physically meeting up, the technology is truly the next best thing to being there. However next time we will make sure that we connect with the Zoom premium version so that we can talk longer than 40 minutes. And yeah, we can be a little cheap.
Saturday Zoom Brunch
Even people who know me would be surprised to find out that I have a serious love hate relationship with technology. The constant need to stay up to date created by new equipment apps and languages can be overwhelming and tiring. How it is the same constant process of development, and the ways in which these new tools impact our lives, that I also love.
It blows my mind how easy it is for 10 friends in different parts of the city, country, and globe to get together on a Saturday afternoon.
Podcast Relaunch Planning
With the increasing need for distance education and video conferencing, I decided to work on improving my home setup. I recorded a video test for a new podcast I am going to launch later this month. Lord knows I have the time now.
Continue reading “Podcast Relaunch Planning”