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”

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.

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”

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.

I need a stress reliever so…..

You gotta love torrents. I downloaded the latest episode of Doctor Who from the ‘net. The 4th season of the new Doctor Who series is currently airing on the BBC but it won’t be available in the US for awhile. However, I seriously needed a break after the LaGuardia ePortfolio conference, the kids, and my 25th high school reunion (I’ll talk about that later). Plus I just heard that my department is rumored to be undergoing a massive reorganization shortly. That type of change can always raise your stress levels. I’ll find out on Monday. Until then, I am gonna zone out for an hour or so and watch the good Doctor.

*Note to self….. I should really think about shooting a Doctor Who fan film after I finish “Dark Vengeance“*

ePortfolio Conference: Day Two

The second day of the ePortfolio conference was pretty much the same, just shorter. I had only one breakout session to cover, and it was a repeat of one of the sessions that I gave yesterday on the topic of ePortfolio system selection. This was a good thing because presentation partner, Susan Lambert, and I had a chance to work out the timing and presentation flow during our first run. As a result the second time through was a little easier. I was pleased that the turnout for the session, an early Saturday morning session, was so strong. We had a full room and the participants were very interactive. This is always a good sign because it means that they are at least interested in what you have to say. Nothing is worse than a quiet and unresponsive room. Luckily this wasn’t the case. The only negative was that I couldn’t stop thinking about my 25th high school reunion that was scheduled to take place later in the day.

The  presentations slides from my breakout sessions at the Making Connections Conference on ePortfolios (4/10/2008) can be found below:

ePortfolio Conference: Day One

ePortfolio Systems Presentation

The first day of the LaGuardia ePortfolio conference went off without a hitch. I was amazed at the turnout and how smoothly things progressed. I have been to many conferences but I’d have to say that this was one of the best organized events I have seen. Bret Eynon and his team from the Center for Teaching and Learning put together an impressive lineup of sessions throughout the day. We had conference speakers and attendees from as far away as England and Nova Scotia. The breakout sessions covered a wide range of topics central to the subject of electronic portfolios.
Continue reading “ePortfolio Conference: Day One”