MPS in Interactive Telecommunications
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New York University, Interactive Telecommunications Program New York, NY
Professor and Chair New York, NY
I am a teacher, department chair, front-end web developer and UX designer with over 20 years of experience teaching and creating interactive multimedia experiences.
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New York University, Interactive Telecommunications Program New York, NY
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Yale University New Haven, CT
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Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Certificate Program The Graduate Center, CUNY
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Borough of Manhattan Community College CUNY
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Borough of Manhattan Community College CUNY
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Borough of Manhattan Community College CUNY
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Borough of Manhattan Community College CUNY
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Walla Walla Community College
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The Graduate Center, CUNY
Taught the Core II class in the Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Certificate Program which leads graduate students through the process of conceiving and developing an interactive educational technology project for use in teaching.
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BMCC
As an adjunct and then full-time faculty member in the Computer Information Systems Department (Fall 2002–Spring 2008) taught multimedia programming, multimedia networking, multimedia project development, the Internet, database applications, and computer applications. After becoming one of the initial members of the newly formed Media Arts & Technology Department (Fall 2009¬–present) continued to teach multimedia courses including developing new courses in web development and multimedia programming.
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Walla Walla Commmunity College
Taught two levels of intensive algebra to under-performing students (SEED Program participants).
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Awarded to George Otte, Matthew Gold, Boone Gorges, Michael Smith, Christopher Stein 5th Annual International Symposium for Emerging Technologies for Online Learning
Click here to view the post about the award on the Online Learning Consortium web site.
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The grant was designed to improve the number of Hispanic Students who graduate from BMCC in a STEM program and transfer to a senior college in a STEM program. A wide array of activities were conducted at BMCC, from hiring student support staff to curriculum development and from creating labs to conference and travel. In collaboration with two senior college partners, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and New York City College of Technology, articulation agreements and transfer programs and activities were developed. As Activity Directors, Professor Kok and I were responsible for overseeing all of the day-to-day activities of the project at BMCC, conducting some of the activities, as well as coordinating with the senior college partners.
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#CUNYCodes is an experiential learning program run through CUNY Continuing Education and Workforce Programs (CEWP). The program provides students the opportunity to grow their applied software development skills. Under the guidance of an experienced industry mentor, students spend 12 weeks working in teams to design and develop their own deployable applications, while learning to incorporating industry concepts and practices such as project management, user case analysis, SCRUM, and agile in development into their workflow. BMCC was the first community college partner in the program. Both senior college and BMCC students participated in the program at BMCC in spring 2017. I worked with CEWP staff, BMCC Office of Internships and Experiential Learning and faculty from the Media Arts and Technology Department and the Computer Information Systems Department to help organize the space, program, OTPS materials and recruit students and a faculty coordinator.
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Physical experiments with GFP and E. coli were conducted by Dr. Van Loon. Dr. Kok and I then analyzed these data to try to make a virtual model of their growing conditions and fluorescence results. We also worked to visualize the data. Other responsibilities included administrative tasks related to purchasing equipment for the grant.
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This project adapted and implemented exemplary materials and strategies from the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at SUNY Buffalo (developing case studies for real-world multimedia projects), St. Joseph’s University (PA) (adapting the Alice programming system for multimedia topics), Wake Forest University (for networked multimedia studies), and Lehman College (CUNY) (as a source for upper-division studies) to develop three gateway courses in the BMCC Multimedia Program. The project was aimed to ensure that the graduates from this program are prepared for their studies when they transfer to four-year colleges. The project is also established a Multimedia Student Access Computer Lab that will serves no fewer than 290 Multimedia Programming majors annually. A comprehensive faculty development program was implemented to ensure integration of the proposed courseware in the curriculum.
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As career fields become increasingly interdisciplinary business students need to have a deep understanding of technology and students of technology need to understand business-speak. In this scenario, the need for college instruction that can go through the tight silos of a Business curriculum or a Multimedia curriculum becomes imperative. With the hope of addressing this need this grant was used to develop a course curriculum that fostered collaboration between Business students and Multimedia students and used a project-based approach that provided opportunities for active learning. The curriculum spanned two courses, one Business and one Multimedia and was designed so that students collaborated in groups in their own class and with groups in the other class on a single ‘real world’ project. The curriculum innovation called for collaboration at two levels – a within group collaboration and a between group collaboration. Students in both the Business class and the Multimedia class were divided into groups with the Business students creating the ideas and content and acting as the clients to the Multimedia students who created Web sites for the content.
Ten years ago, faculty members and technologists at New York City College of Technology (City Tech), part of the 25-campus City University of New York (CUNY) system, created the OpenLab at City Tech (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/), an open platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration that everyone at the college can use (Edwards et al.). The OpenLab is a vital hub of activity for the City Tech community, serving more than 39,000 members to date – students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Recently we partnered with The Graduate Center, CUNY’s Commons In A Box project (CBOX, https://commonsinabox.org/) to build Commons In A Box OpenLab (https://cboxopenlab.org/), free and open source software that enables anyone to launch a commons for open learning. Since then, several institutions have launched their own OpenLabs, including Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), (https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/), also at CUNY.
CBOX OpenLab’s mission is to create powerful and flexible open infrastructure that provides an alternative to “black-boxed technologies that amass and commercialize data on students, often without their knowledge” (Noble and Roberts 2017). In contrast with closed, proprietary systems designed by external vendors and driven by market concerns, CBOX OpenLab is built by and with the communities it serves, and in alignment with the needs and values of open education. It provides an open online space where community members work together beyond the classroom and across institutional boundaries, sharing ideas with one another and the world. Combining the open source publishing platform WordPress with BuddyPress for social networking, it is specifically designed to support open pedagogies and open educational resources, fostering interdisciplinary approaches and sharing of best practices. Communities can make their work more visible and accessible, and students can create and customize their own learning spaces, actively participating in the construction of their knowledge (Rosen and Smale 2015).
Our presentation introduces the platform, sharing example uses from the City Tech and BMCC OpenLabs, including some of the creative ways members have used key features in response to the pandemic. We recognize that, while platforms shape behavior, in Stommel’s words, they can’t “magically change our teaching practices” and we “must continually poke and prod at their intentions, the assumptions we’ve baked into them” (2017). So we will also reflect on both the benefits and challenges of using, building, and supporting open infrastructure for open learning. Finally, we will discuss lessons learned, share recommendations for those who are interested in adopting the platform or pursuing similar initiatives, and connect participants with a growing community of practitioners.
Edwards et al. (May 27, 2014). “Building a Place for Community: City Tech’s OpenLab.” Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy. Available at: https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/building-a-place-for-community/ (Accessed: 15 March 2022)
Noble, S. and Roberts, S. (March 13, 2017). “Out of the Black Box.” EDUCAUSE Review. Available at: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/3/out-of-the-black-box (Accessed: 15 March 2022)
Rosen, Jody R., and Maura A. Smale. (January 6, 2015). “Open Digital Pedagogy = Critical Pedagogy.” Hybrid Pedagogy. Available at: https://hybridpedagogy.org/open-digital-pedagogy-critical-pedagogy/ (Accessed: 15 March 2022)
Stommel, Jesse. (June 5, 2017). “If bell hooks Made an LMS: Grades, Radical Openness, and Domain of One’s Own.” Available at: https://www.jessestommel.com/if-bell-hooks-made-an-lms-grades-radical-openness-and-domain-of-ones-own/ (Accessed: 15 March 2022)
Commons In A Box OpenLab (https://cboxopenlab.org/) is free, open source software that enables anyone to create a commons space specifically designed for open learning, where students, faculty, and staff can collaborate across disciplinary boundaries and share their work openly with one another and the world.
The project brings together Commons In A Box, the software that powers NYCDH (CBOX, https://commonsinabox.org/), and City Tech’s OpenLab platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/). The result is a teaching-focused version of CBOX that provides a powerful and flexible alternative to closed, proprietary systems, and is already being adopted at CUNY and beyond.
We will showcase CBOX OpenLab’s features and functionality, using examples from City Tech’s OpenLab and BMCC’s installation of the software (https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu/), then discuss how CBOX OpenLab can support open learning in your community.
I have presented at a number of CUNY IT Conferences. Presentations are listed below (mostly complete).
Ten years ago, a team of faculty and technologists at New York City College of Technology, part of the 25-campus City University of New York (CUNY) system, created the OpenLab at City Tech, a WordPress and BuddyPress-based open platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration that everyone at the college can use. Since then, the OpenLab has become a vital hub of activity for the City Tech community, serving more than 36,000 members to date. We recently partnered with The Graduate Center, CUNY, to build Commons In A Box OpenLab, free and open source software that anyone can use to launch a commons for open learning. Unlike closed, proprietary systems, Commons In A Box OpenLab is designed to help students, faculty, and staff work together beyond the classroom and across institutional boundaries, sharing ideas with one another and the world.
In our presentation, we will introduce the platform, sharing example uses from City Tech’s OpenLab and the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s installation of the software, including some of the creative ways members used its features in response to the pandemic. We will also discuss the benefits and challenges of using, building, and supporting an open platform for open learning, and the lessons we have learned along the way.
Commons In A Box OpenLab is free, open source software that enables anyone to launch a commons for open learning. It was created here at CUNY through a partnership between two successful projects: the Graduate Center’s Commons In A Box (CBOX) community-building software , and City Tech’s OpenLab, an open platform for teaching, learning, and collaboration that has served more than 36,000 members to date. The result is a teaching-focused version of CBOX modeled on the OpenLab’s features and functionality that is being adopted at CUNY and beyond. BMCC is one of the first institutions to implement CBOX OpenLab, with a fully-functional site at https://openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu. Unlike closed, proprietary systems, CBOX OpenLab is designed to help students, faculty, and staff work together beyond the classroom and across institutional boundaries, sharing ideas with one another and the world. Built on the widely-used open source software WordPress and BuddyPress, it places a rich set of flexible tools for publishing and collaboration in the hands of everyone at the college, enabling members to shape their own learning environments using proven and sustainable technologies. Our session will showcase CBOX OpenLab, with examples from the City Tech and BMCC OpenLabs that demonstrate how it can be used for asynchronous community-building and learning activities, and how these improve the student experience in what has become a new normal, with asynchronous digital communication pervasive even in courses with set meeting times. We will highlight innovative features funded by the CUNY OER program that promote wide sharing of best practices and open educational resources. We will also address the people, processes, and technology infrastructure needed to power an OpenLab installation, including lessons learned from BMCC’s experiences of working with the platform. Throughout, we will engage participants in active discussion of the benefits and challenges of learning in the open.
This session discusses how New York City College of Technology (City Tech) and the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) use customized WordPress Multisite/BuddyPress application known as Commons-in-a-Box OpenLab (https://commonsinabox.org/) to build out a localized, institution-focused social learning network for its students and faculty. Jody Rosen (City Tech), Chris Stein (BMCC), and Charlotte Edwards (City Tech) not only share the history and impressive uptake of this truly unique open source software project, but also share examples at their respective schools that point to a broader moral imperative around providing a technical framework for connecting that is not predatory when it comes to faculty and student data.
It’s open source. It was dreamed up over a decade ago at CUNY and continues to be maintained there. What’s more, it’s freely available to anyone else who wants to implement it. It’s just another brick in the open educational infrastructure Wall brought to you by the largest, most diverse urban college system in the USA!
The City University of New York (CUNY), the world’s largest urban public university, serves over half a million students (272,000 degree students and 280,000 continuing ed/certificate students) at twenty-three colleges spread throughout the five boroughs of New York. The CUNY Academic Commons was created to respond to challenges posed by rapid enrollment growth and faculty turnover, but also to promote cohesion and collaboration around academic uses of technology. Released only a little over two years ago but already with several thousand members, the Commons has created a collaborative environment for interaction and mutual support around online and blended learning, open access publication, digital scholarship, and technology-enhanced instruction. Built on open-source software and overseen by a dedicated team of developers and facilitators, it evolves in response to its users and their interests, while helping them discover the extent to which those interests are shared, productive, and worth developing further. Its developers are now, with the support of a Sloan grant, working on the Commons In A Box – a means of replicating the project elsewhere, with maximum ease and minimum expense.
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Media Arts and Technology Department
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Borough of Manhattan Community College
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City University of New York
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Service to the Field
CTE Media Technology & Design Commission, member, Fall 2020-present
Commons In A Box, UX Lead, 2012-present
Southeast Digital Animation Festival, Juror
AMATYC Beyond Crossroads: Implementing Mathematics Standards in the First Two Years of College, Technology Consultant for Electronic Resources , 2005
Related and non-related interests