Category: Tech Job Scene

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LaGuardia Event: Ryan Charles speaks

Over the past few months I have been working with Janice Karlen, a colleague of mine from the LaGuardia Business and Technology Department, to arrange for a guest speaker to come in and speak to our students. Janice thought it would be a great idea to collaborate on a joint event since there is a natural synergy between the Business and Technology and the New Media Technology students. As a result of Janice’s connections we were lucky enough to secure Ryan Charles, the Co-Founder of Consmr.com and former head of mobile strategy at Zagat. Ryan was Continue reading “LaGuardia Event: Ryan Charles speaks”

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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.

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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.

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My new article on student motivation – HETS Online Journal

HETS Online JournalI 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.

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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”

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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.”

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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”

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Publication Seminar

Path 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.