Fall 2015 OpenLab Office Hours & Workshops for Faculty and Staff

Want to get started on the OpenLab, create a dynamic syllabus, or learn how to blog more with your students?  Look at this Fall semester’s workshops for Faculty and Staff.  Workshops take place in G604, the Faculty Commons (N227), or the Library–please note the different times and locations of various workshops and office hours. Download a PDF of the Fall Schedule here

OpenLab Faculty-Staff Workshops Fall15

 

Spring 2015 OpenLab Workshop Schedule and Office Hours!

DOWNLOAD PDF of OpenLab Schedule HERE

OPENLAB FACULTY AND STAFF WORKSHOPS FALL ’15
INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT CITY TECH’S OPENLAB? JOIN US FOR A WORKSHOP!

This week:

GETTING STARTED ON THE OPENLAB
Find out how to collaborate with your students and colleagues on the OpenLab in these introductory sessions. You will need access to your City Tech email account.

Thursday, February 5, 2:30-4:30pm (G604)

Workshops are open to all City Tech faculty and staff. Part-time faculty are eligible to receive a stipend.

RSVP: http://bit.ly/1nwXRnL, or email us at OpenLab@citytech.cuny.edu. Please include workshop date(s) and time(s).

NEW:
OFFICE HOURS
Have questions that aren’t covered in our regular workshops? Want to follow up after attending a workshop? These office hours offer the opportunity to meet with a member of the OpenLab Community Team for face-to-face support. All office hours will be held in the conference room of the Faculty Commons, N227.
Mondays: 4:00-5:00pm
February 9, March2, March 30, May 4

Wednesdays: 2:00-3:00pm
February 11, March 11, April 15, May 13

Thursdays: 1:00-2:00pm
February 19, March 19, April 23, May 14

 

WORKSHOPS:

USING YOUR SITE AS A DYNAMIC SYLLABUS (OpenLab Account Required!)
Ready to learn more about setting up and designing a course on the OpenLab? Bring your questions to these mixed-level sessions, along with your syllabus and other materials.

Friday, February 13, 11:00am-1:00pm (G604)

BLOGGING WITH YOUR STUDENTS (OpenLab Account Required!)
Discuss and brainstorm assignment design for your OpenLab course, as well as course set-up and useful tools for blogging with your students.

Thursday, March 5, 2:00-4:00pm (G604)

REORGANIZING YOUR SITE (OpenLab Experience Required!)
Now that you’ve been working on the OpenLab, learn how to structure your site for improved interaction with your students or colleagues.

Wednesday, April 15, 12:00-2:00pm (G604)

OPENLAB OPEN HOUR (All Levels Experience Welcome!)
Ready to get hands-on experience on the OpenLab, with face-to-face help available for support? Bring your ideas and questions, and join the OpenLab Team for this Open Hour, a great opportunity to find out more about getting started with the OpenLab, but also a perfect time to ask your more advanced questions about using the OpenLab for your courses, clubs, projects, and portfolios.

Thursday, May 7, 2:30-3:30pm (A540)

Workshops are open to all City Tech faculty and staff. Part-time faculty are eligible to receive a stipend for workshop participation.

RSVP: http://bit.ly/152nATa or email us at OpenLab@citytech.cuny.edu. Please include workshop date(s) and time(s).

What’s Cooking at CityTech? Associate Fellows Present a Living Lab Smorgasbord

Associate Fellow Professor Lenore  Hildebrand, Human Services Dept, presents her Living Lab activity

Associate Fellow Professor Lenore Hildebrand, Human Services Dept, presents her Living Lab activity

Faculty from a wide range of disciplines gathered for the “Real World Problem Solving” meeting to hear final presentations by Associate Fellows and their Living Lab facilitators. After a series of workshops, the latest cohort of Associate Fellows presented creative examples of pedagogical activities to their peers, Living Lab facilitators, and the greater CityTech community.

The gathering began with reflections from Third Year Fellows Aida Egues, Jill Bouratoglou, and Robert Leston, who spoke of their Living Lab involvement and its impact on their teaching and professional development. The Associate Fellows showcased their works-in-progress by adapting an unusual structure for academic presentations. Taking a cue from speed dating, each Associate Fellow took 2 minute-turns to present an activity to small groups that rotated around the workspace from one presenter to the next. Faculty ranging from Construction Management and Civil Engineering to Dental Hygiene and Human Services presented and listened to mini presentations from their colleagues across the college. Gathering in small, intimate groups, each participant had ample opportunity to listen, learn, and ask questions of their peers.

Choosing Your Best Practices

Choosing Your Best Practices

All attendees were given the opportunity to vote for what they thought were the best engagements with issues of Assessment, Place-Based Learning, High Impact Educational Practices, and General Education but in reality all presenters were winners for every professor revealed their passion for teaching and strong commitment to student learning. The gathering culminated in a graffiti activity in which all attendees had a chance to visually express their interests, frustrations, and aspirations. Participants left with an arsenal of new ideas and new strategies to use in their own classes and much to reflect on.

Robert Leston: Channeling the Undead on the OpenLab

Zombies in Pop Culture: Monopoly’s Survival Edition The Walking Dead

Zombies in Pop Culture: Monopoly’s Survival Edition The Walking Dead

In Professor Robert Leston’s upper-level course ENG 3402 Topics in Literature on Vampires and Zombies in Popular Fiction and Film, students explored the popularity of the undead in popular literature, film, and TV. Using a hybrid course format, in which students met once per week face-to-face and numerous times online, Professor Leston depended on his OpenLab class website for discussion and the submission of reading responses for fellow students to read and comment on. The OpenLab became an online meeting space to explore the fascination with vampires, werewolves, zombies, and monsters in American popular culture.

From reading classics such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and contemporary academic critiques to watching excerpts of film and TV like Shaun of the Dead and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, students submitted reflections and critical responses to readings and viewings on the class website in order to create a virtual ‘reading journal.’ Open to all classmates and the larger CityTech community, the class website extended the learning experience beyond the walls of the classroom and invites outsiders to look in. Students used the OpenLab to access readings and media clips too as well as to stay on top of the work of fellow students in order to avoid overlap with other student projects as each took turns to lead group discussions as ‘expert readers.’ The OpenLab offered a vast range of interaction for professor and students in a hybrid class.

Take a peek at a student’s ‘reading journal’, another student’s response to a reading that contrasts Steve Jobs the vampire to Bill Gates the zombie, and a selection of class readings and media clips.

Spring 2014 OpenLab Workshop Schedule, Register Now!

OpenLab Workshops For Faculty and Staff:

Getting Started (Access to your City Tech Email Account Required!)

Find out how to collaborate with your students and colleagues on the OpenLab in these introductory sessions.
W 2/5 2:30-3:00pm
Th 2/13 2:00pm-2:30pm

Designing a Course, Project, Club (Access to your OpenLab Account Required!)

Ready to learn more about using the OpenLab? Bring your questions to these mixed-level sessions, along with your syllabus or other materials. You will need an account on the OpenLab – or come early and attend the Getting Started session first.

W 2/5 3:00-4:30pm
Th 2/13 2:30-4:00pm

Tools, Tips, and Tricks (Experience Required!)

Learn how to use widgets, plugins, and other tools to enhance your Course, Project, or Club on the OpenLab.

W 3/12 1:00-2:30pm
Th 4/3 3:30-5:00pm

Reorganizing Your OpenLab Site (Experience Required!)–NEW!

Now that you’ve worked on the OpenLab for a while, learn how to structure your site for improved interaction with your audience.

Th 5/1 3:30-5:00pm

* Faculty/Staff workshops require registration. All part-time faculty are eligible to receive a stipend for workshop participation.

Call for Fourth Year Fellows—Final Opportunity

A Living Laboratory: Revitalizing General Education for a 21st-Century College of Technology

GENERAL EDUCATION SEMINAR — Spring 2014

Call for Faculty Fellows                 Join us in the Living Lab

To apply, please complete the application form: http://tinyurl.com/genedseminar

Application Deadline: 1:00pm, Thursday, November 7, 2013

DOWNLOAD Information on the Living Lab Faculty Fellowship Application here

“A Living Laboratory: Revitalizing General Education for a 21st-Century College of Technology” is a five-year initiative (2010-2015) funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Strengthening Hispanic-Serving Institutions (Title V) program. Its mission is to re-envision General Education at City Tech as a “living laboratory,” using City Tech’s signature strengths: hands-on experiential models of learning and our vibrant Brooklyn Waterfront location.

We are seeking faculty members to join the General Education Seminar, one of the central activities of the Living Lab, in Spring 2014 and become part of a growing interdisciplinary community of Fellows who are enthusiastically engaged in this transformational effort.

The Gen Ed Seminar

Each year, 18 Faculty Fellows participate in an intensive seminar during the Spring semester, exploring innovative pedagogical approaches that they then incorporate into their courses in the Fall. In the second year of their participation, Fellows recruit and mentor colleagues, attend a series of workshop and events, and collaborate to produce a final report.

Three cohorts of Fellows have taken part in the Seminar to date – the first explored General Education concepts through the lens of the first-year student experience, the second examined collaborative field-based research and the third engaged in academic service learning.

The fourth, and final, cohort will address culminating experiences – capstone courses, internships, global learning (travel experiences), and other courses that focus on the last requirements for degree programs.

Among the questions seminar participants will consider are these:

– What changes can we make to culminating courses that will not just prepare our students to transfer their success at City Tech into careers and further studies but also support creative, original, and critical thinking through the use of high-impact educational practices?

– How can we use one of City Tech’s greatest assets — its location within the “living laboratory” of the downtown Brooklyn waterfront— to create hands-on, place-based learning opportunities with our students?

– How can we use the City Tech OpenLab, an open-source digital platform, to customize learning experiences for our students that will engage them in the intellectual fabric of our College and make their achievements visible to our own community and to the wider public?

The Living Lab Grant

“A Living Laboratory: Revitalizing General Education for a 21st-Century College of Technology” has four interrelated activities:

1) The General Education Seminar: brings together diverse groups of Faculty Fellows to revitalize General Education through place-based learning and high-impact educational practices;

2) The OpenLab (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu): creates an innovative digital platform to support open teaching and learning at City Tech, and enhance the intellectual and social fabric of the college community;

3) A Culture of Assessment: integrates comprehensive outcomes assessment into the Gen Ed curriculum;

4) The Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center: builds an endowment to support student and faculty research at this newly-created City Tech institution.

The Schedule

Spring 2014
Fellows will participate in weekly activities, attend public college-wide events, and plan capstone courses, internships or other culminating experiences of the associate or baccalaureate level programs they will teach in the Fall of 2014. Fellows will also commit to using the OpenLab actively for all seminar-related work and teaching. Participating faculty will receive a 3-credit course release during this semester.

Fall 2014
Fellows will implement what they have learned in their classrooms and on the OpenLab. Fellows will participate in four meetings or workshops.

Spring 2015
Fellows will mentor colleagues with the intent of applying seminar findings to additional courses and sections.

Fall 2015
After a thorough examination of both theory and implementation, the seminar cohort will write a final report with recommendations for specific courses and the broader vision of general education at City Tech.

Eligibility

To take part in the seminar, faculty must be:
– full time;
– able to make a two-year commitment (January 2014 through December 2015)
– available on Fridays in Spring 2014 to participate in grant activities; availability will also be required on several Fridays through Fall 2015;
– teaching a capstone course, internship or other culminating experience in Fall 2014; – willing to work in a highly collaborative environment;
– willing to use the OpenLab (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu) for all seminar-related activities and teaching (training and support will be provided);
– approved by their department chair.

Compensation

Faculty Fellows will receive 3-credits of release time during the Spring 2014 semester. Work done as part of this project is vital service to the College.

Application Process

Fellows will be chosen based on the strength of their statements of interest and their commitment to participate fully in all activities. We seek to convene a heterogeneous group of faculty members who bring intellectual vitality and a passion for teaching to City Tech.

To apply, please complete the application form: http://tinyurl.com/genedseminar

Application Deadline: 1:00pm, Thursday, November 7, 2013

Further Information
Please contact Karen Goodlad, Living Lab General Education Seminar Co-Director, at kgoodlad@citytech.cuny.edu or Alexander Aptekar, Living Lab General Education Seminar Co-Director at aaptekar@citytech.cuny.edu if you have questions or need additional information.

Viviana Vladutescu: Making Sense of Remote Sensing

Viviana Vladutescu and CityTech group at Brookhaven National Lab

Viviana Vladutescu and CityTech group at Brookhaven National Lab

For students in Professor Viviana Vladutescu’s EET 3132 Remote Sensing class, a visit to a “real” lab vividly brought together theory and practice.  In the classroom and university labs, students learned the principles of remote sensing techniques, acquired new software knowledge, and gathered and interpreted data as well.  As part of their coursework, Professor Vladutescu’s students participated in a departmental field trip to the impressive Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island.  With the objective of expanding awareness of the field and encouraging further study in the applied sciences, engineering, and physics, students had the opportunity to observe firsthand the work of technicians, engineers, and scientists.  One student noted how unexpected it was to hear a Brookhaven physicist cite the “right hand rule method” that was taught in class, a technique that the student thought was used to “dumb down” content in class when in reality it was a practical trick of the trade.

Students in Professor Vladutescu’s course are enrolled in the Associate or Bachelor degree programs in the Department of Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering Technology (ETET).  For many, meeting active professionals helped validate their own academic choices in the ETET programs.   Several students were inspired when they learned that some of the Brookhaven lab technicians graduated with associate degrees too, thus giving them a better sense of the end goals of graduating with a degree from City Tech.  To encourage students to be proactive in their academic and professional careers, Professor Vladutescu’s class website on the OpenLab included links to internships and job opportunities as well as newsfeeds to stay up-to-date on current technology.

Click here for reflections on one of Professor Vladutescu’s field trips.

The President’s Taste Test: Wine Making in Karen Goodlad’s Class

Guests are served student wine blends in the Janet Lefler Dining Room at City Tech

Guests are served student wine blends in the Janet Lefler Dining Room at City Tech

In honor of Presidents’ Day, it is fitting to showcase a class lesson conducted by Professor Karen Goodlad and Prof. Lynda Dias as guest lecturer’s in Prof. Roger Dagorn’s class, HGMT 4997 Wines of the New World, which ended in a wine presentation to City Tech President Russell Hotzler in the University’s Janet Lefler Dining Room.  Students worked in groups to produce new blends and evaluated and voted on which wines to serve in City Tech’s dining room, a veritable lab for students in the Hospitality program.  Student teams created blends called “Spicy Brooklyn” or “Charlie’s Angels” by striking a tasty balance of reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Syrah.  The teams blogged about their experience and various blend formulations on the class website.

This course examines the multi-faceted world of wine, from production to service to economic regulations of wine industries in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa.  Class trips included a memorable one to the local City Winery in Lower Manhattan.  In turn, experts from the industry visited the classroom on City Tech campus.

Click here for more photos of Professor Goodlad’s blending lesson.

Justin Davis: The Art of Public Speaking

Garry Winogrand, JFK at the Democratic National Convention, 1960

Garry Winogrand, JFK at the Democratic National Convention, 1960

Professor Justin Davis’ class SPE 1330 Effective Speaking makes use of videos for students to better “see” the performance of public speaking. Students are videotaped in class and asked to review and evaluate their own speeches outside of class. Recordings of student speeches are made available on the class website on the OpenLab, which is loaded with videos of sample speeches that help illustrate differences between persuasive and informative speaking. Alongside student examples of public speaking, Professor Davis also includes links to Presidential speeches. Students are even asked to judge a speech contest virtually by viewing videos of the contestants online and evaluating the speeches for an assignment.

Call for Third Year Fellows

A Living Laboratory: Revitalizing General Education for a 21st-Century College of Technology

GENERAL EDUCATION SEMINAR — Spring 2013

Join us in the Living Lab

DOWNLOAD the Living Lab Faculty Fellowship Application here

“A Living Laboratory: Revitalizing General Education for a 21st-Century College of Technology” is a five-year initiative (2010-2015) funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Strengthening Hispanic-Serving Institutions (Title V) program. Its mission is to re-envision General Education at City Tech as a “living laboratory,” using City Tech’s signature strengths: hands-on experiential models of learning and our vibrant Brooklyn Waterfront location.

The grant has four interrelated activities:

1) The General Education Seminar: brings together diverse groups of Faculty Fellows to revitalize General Education through place-based learning and high-impact educational practices;

2) The OpenLab (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu): creates an innovative digital platform to support open teaching and learning at City Tech, and enhance the intellectual and social fabric of the college community;

3) A Culture of Assessment: integrates comprehensive outcomes assessment into the Gen Ed curriculum;

4) The Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center: builds an endowment to support student and faculty research at this newly-created City Tech institution.

We are seeking faculty members to join the General Education Seminar in Spring 2013 and become part of a growing interdisciplinary community of Fellows who are enthusiastically engaged in this transformational effort.

The Gen Ed Seminar

Each year, 18 Faculty Fellows participate in an intensive seminar during the Spring semester, exploring innovative pedagogical approaches that they then incorporate into their courses in the Fall. In the second year of their participation, Fellows recruit and mentor colleagues through a series of public workshops, events, and reports, and reflect on what they have learned.

Two cohorts have taken part in the Seminar to date – the first explored General Education concepts through the lens of the first-year student experience, the second examined collaborative field-based research.

The third cohort will address the first and third years of the student experience at City Tech, focusing on real-world problem-solving and community-based learning.

Among the questions seminar participants will consider are these:

– What changes can we make to the first- and third-year experience that will not just prepare our students to succeed at City Tech, but also support creative, original, and critical thinking through the use of high-impact educational practices?

– How can we use one of City Tech’s greatest assets — its location within the “living laboratory” of the downtown Brooklyn waterfront — to create hands-on, place-based learning opportunities with our students?

– How can we use the City Tech OpenLab, an open-source digital platform, to customize learning experiences for our students that will engage them in the intellectual fabric of our College and make their achievements visible to our own community and to the wider public?

The Schedule

Spring 2013
Fellows will participate in weekly activities, attend public college-wide events, and plan the first or third-year courses they will teach in Fall 2013. Fellows will also commit to using the OpenLab actively for all seminar-related work and teaching. Participating faculty will receive a 3-credit course release during this semester.

Fall 2013
Fellows will implement what they have learned in their classrooms and on the OpenLab.

Spring 2014
Fellows will mentor colleagues in their departments to apply seminar findings to additional courses and sections.

Fall 2014
After a thorough examination of both theory and implementation, the seminar cohort will write a final report with recommendations for specific courses and the broader vision of general education at City Tech.

Eligibility
To take part in the seminar, faculty must be:
– full time;
– able to make a two-year commitment (January 2013 through December 2014);
– available on Fridays in Spring 2013 to participate in grant activities; availability will also be required on several Fridays through Fall 2014;
– teaching a first- or third-year course in Fall 2013;
– willing to work in a highly collaborative environment;
– willing to use the OpenLab (https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu) for seminar-related activities and teaching (training and support will be provided);
– approved by their department chair.

Compensation
Faculty Fellows will receive 3-credits of release time during the Spring 2013 semester.
Work done as part of this project is vital service to the College.

Application Process

Fellows will be chosen based on the strength of their statements of interest and their commitment to participate fully in all activities. We seek to convene a heterogeneous group of faculty members who bring intellectual vitality and a passion for teaching to this work.

To apply, please complete the application form: http://tinyurl.com/genedseminar

Application Deadline: 12pm, October 11, 2012

Further Information
Please contact Karen Goodlad, Living Lab General Education Seminar Co-Director, at kgoodlad@citytech.cuny.edu or x5638 if you have questions or need additional information.