What is your role on the OpenLab team?
I am a member of the OpenLab Community Team; my official role is as a Digital Pedagogy Fellow.
Describe your experience using the OpenLab to support your pedagogy.
For the past year, I have been writing our weekly “In the Spotlight” blog posts, which highlight innovative OpenLab sites and discuss some of the cutting-edge work happening on the platform. This has been such a rewarding blog to write because I get to explore the really creative and original projects that faculty, staff, and students are undertaking on the OpenLab. I often find inspiration from their work. This goes for things big and small. For instance, I spotlighted an OpenLab course that cleverly engaged students in writing the course policies. I promptly adopted the same practice in the courses I teach. I also continually find inspiration from the amazing digital assignments that faculty are proposing in their OpenLab courses.
Can you describe the ways you have integrated the OpenLab into your pedagogical practices here at City Tech or elsewhere?
Even though I teach at Hunter and use the CUNY Academic Commons, I always refer my students to the many resources that exist on the OpenLab. I especially encourage them to look through the Spotlight for student ePortfolios and think about how students on the OpenLab are presenting themselves online, how they make use of learning blogs, etc.
How have the OpenLab and other open digital pedagogy tools transformed or expanded your pedagogy, and the pedagogical values you’re able to realize in your courses and educational practice?
The OpenLab has really converted me to open pedagogy in general. There is so much value in keeping course sites and assignments open, thus providing students with a space to engage with each other informally online and helping build community. Having students blog for their assignments has been a wonderful way to train students in more-formal, but still accessible public writing. And, the OpenLab has made sharing teaching strategies and educational materials so much easier: I feel like I’m part of a community of educators who care deeply about things like the public university and inclusive pedagogy.
Aside from courses, how does the OpenLab support your pedagogical practices and ambitions? (Note: Think broadly about public education initiatives, course coordination, non-academic student support, clubs, and projects, etc.)
There are so many incredible pedagogical resources that live on the OpenLab on sites like L4, The Open Road, Open Pedagogy, and the many library OERs. I’ve benefited so much from the work everyone else has done to bring these materials together. I look forward to contributing to these kinds of projects throughout my career and sharing resources that can support my colleagues and students in teaching and learning.
