April is National Poetry Month, so in its honor, we shine the spotlight on City Tech Writer (CTW), City Tech’s interdisciplinary journal of student writing.
Writing About Anti-AAPI Discrimination (700-800 words max)
Flash fiction (100 words max)
Drama
Personal Essay
You can view CTW‘s slideshow to learn more about the writing contest as well. To get into the mood, check out this video of a round table discussion featuring several of the writers from the 2023 issue, discussing the process of revising and reworking their pieces:
Also notice the Writing About Anti-AAPI Discriminiationcategory. This category is directly tied to May’s AAPI Heritage month–that’s when this category’s winners and all other winning pieces will be published in CTW. The contest is part of an anti-hate initiative.For the category Writing About AAPI Discrimination, contest judges are looking for short reflections from AAPI students responding to the essay and accompanying documentary “Many Years After,” found in the 2022 volume of City Tech writer.
Happy writing–and reading, viewing, and thinking–and good luck!
Plan week is here! That means that from March 19 through March 26th, you can take part in Plan Week activities to prepare for advisement and registration for next semester, to ensure you are taking the right courses and asking the right questions to stay on the path to graduation and achieving your future goals.
The Plan Week website has all the information you need to take part and take advantage of all that the week has to offer. There’s also information about how students can enter to win prizes!
On the Plan Week website, you’ll find information about each day in the week, its events, and what to focus on information to help students plan for their next steps at City Tech. Here is the abbreviated list of day-by-day goals–be sure to check out the website for more details:
Tuesday, March 19: Check Your Holds — make sure you are able to register
Thursday, March 21: Fill in Your Academic Career Planner — plan your semester-by-semester path to graduation and explore your general education options
Friday, March 22: Prepare to Meet with Your Advisor — prepare questions about ways to get involved, to prepare for your career, or address any challenges
As you develop your PLAN, remember that you can use the OpenLab to get a preview of the courses you’re interested in registering for, and to develop a better sense of what students are doing as they progress in your major and move toward graduation and their careers. You can use the filters to find courses in particular departments, look at portfolios made by students in your major, see projects related to your studies, and join a club connected to your interests.
Take full advantage of in these events and resources, and happy Planning!
The weather is getting better, but there’s always more work to do! Let’s get together TODAY to work and check things off the to-do lists we all have–or take some time to make to-do lists!
The OpenLab Team is hosting a co-working session today, Friday, March 15th, 10:00-11:00AM. Join us to cowork in what we hope is a welcoming space that helps as you focus on accomplishing what you need to finish. Bring whatever you want to work on, OpenLab related or not. We’ll bring bring work, too, plus some good energy for checking things off to-do lists.
You can work silently in the main Zoom room or move into a breakout room to talk with a collaborator or with an OpenLab team member if you have specific questions we can help you with.
Please share this opportunity with colleagues and students–all are welcome. We hope this co-working session is useful for you–and let us know how else we can help!
Stay up-to-date on OpenLab news and make use of our many opportunities for support right here on The Open Road!
Give your site a facelift and test drive our new theme, Typology. This text-based theme looks great with or without images and allows for a lot of customization. Learn more in this recent Spotlight post about themes, and about the Typology theme in February’s This Month in the OpenLab. Let us know if you’re using it and we may feature your site in the future!
Sign up for Open Hours, designed to give one-on-one support to students, faculty, and staff with questions.
Attend one of our workshops sponsored by City Tech’s Undergraduate Research program: Presenting Yourself Online on 3/5 and Using OpenLab for Your Research Project on 3/19.
Themes are what determine your site’s appearance and presentation and what tools and features it has.
Changing your site’s theme is a great way to give your site a new look and feel. If you’ve created a new site recently, it uses a newer theme that will allow your site to have a contemporary style, layout, and range of tools. Once you’ve created your site, you can choose a new theme if you want a different set of customizations or different appearance for your work.
If you’ve been cloning a course for a long time, or if you’ve been adding content to a site you created a log time ago, it might be time for a new theme!
Choosing a new theme can be as simple as previewing and clicking a button to make the change. From your site’s Dashboard, choose Appearance and then Themes to see what’s available, preview your site with the new theme, and activate that new theme. You can follow along with OpenLab Help on changing your site’s appearance with themes.
A sample of theme options on the OpenLab
As new themes are available for WordPress (that’s the software that OpenLab uses), the OpenLab team researches which to add based on whether they are accessible and what they offer in terms of design and functionality.
One new theme we’ve just added is Typology. This text-based theme looks great with or without images and allows for a lot of customization. Learn more in February’s This Month in the OpenLab. Help documentation for the theme is coming soon, but there’s also good documentation from the theme authors. Let us know if you’re using it and we may feature your site in the future!
In celebration of Black History Month, we’ve been shining the spotlight on Prof. George Larkins’s BIPOC IN DESIGN site honoring BIPOC creators in the fields of art and design.
In addition to the artists and designers highlighted on BIPOC IN DESIGN’s home page, there are additional resources featuring artists and designers from different backgrounds in the BIPOC Designers section of the site.
Visitors can also learn more by browsing through Events and Stories to find links to websites listing recent and upcoming events, useful resources, and more. The sites linked to for their events are themselves useful resources worth browsing.
How has your department or program celebrated Black History Month this year?
Image credit: Avatar from the OpenLab profile of BIPOC IN DESIGN, called BIPOC Resource Site.
Welcome to a new year and the Spring 2024 semester! City Tech is welcoming even more new students and faculty members–so welcome to everyone new, and welcome back to everyone returning!
The OpenLab team is excited to work with you this semester as you do great things on the OpenLab–and to help you learn more about using the OpenLab and working in an open community.
This Winter Break, there were some exciting new features added to the OpenLab, and some updates in response to members’ needs. You can read about them in the January 2024 edition of This Month on the OpenLab. We’re especially excited about this new option to change the visibility of posts made on open sites–now in addition to posts being as open as the course is or private between author and site admin, authors have the option to share their work with only members of the group or only members of the OpenLab.
As the Spring 2024 semester begins, check out the OpenLab’s synchronous support:
Open Hours: students, faculty, and staff can sign up for open hours, one-on-one appointments to ask specific questions or ask to learn more about topics ranging from getting started to using a tool to implementing pedagogical approach.
Workshops: All are welcome for our calendar of workshops, plus any group can request a workshop on a topic or technique! The next workshops are on Thursday, 2/1:
Co-working sessions: for quiet working time with others, with the option to move to a breakout room for conversation or questions. The next co-working session is on 2/16:
One super useful bit of help for the start of the semester: step-by-step instructions for how to add students in bulk to your course by using a list of student emails. Being able to add students to courses this way is so convenient, we even spotlighted it!
Everyone can get inspired by what this community has done on the OpenLab by looking through our past In the Spotlight posts or by navigating directly to what interests you through this helpful index of spotlights.
It may be cold and snowy outside, but preparing for the upcoming semester is heating up. The OpenLab team is here to support your course building efforts!
Join a Workshop
Click here to view the full schedule and register to receive the Zoom link for the workshops.
Monday, 1/22/24
Getting Started on the OpenLab: 10:00-10:30am
Creating a Course Site: 10:30-11:30am (30 min break following this workshop)
Fostering an Interactive Course Site: 12:00-1:00pm
Last year, the OpenLab team piloted co-working session for quiet working time with others, with the option to move to a breakout room for conversation or questions. You’ll notice there are some co-working sessions listed above–and one just for First Year Writing (your group can request a co-working session, too). Whether you’ve come to the workshops or not, join OpenLab team to work on your course site, build out your portfolio, sort through your email, anything OpenLab or not OpenLab, or just to be a positive force for anyone else joining who needs that energy!
Help is here
Use Help materials and screencasts to guide your work. Search for your specific topic in the OpenLab’s Help section or navigate through the different sections. You can also reach out for email support by sending a message to us at OpenLab@CityTech.cuny.edu or via our contact form.
The semester is nearly over, but there’s so much left to do! Let’s work together to finish something and get closer to being done!
The OpenLab Team is hosting a co-working session today, Friday, December 15th, 1:00-2:00PM. Join us in what we hope is a welcoming space that helps as you focus on accomplishing everything you need to finish. Bring whatever you want to work on, whether it be OpenLab related or not. We’ll bring bring work, too, plus some good energy for checking things off your to-do list.
You can work silently in the main Zoom room or move into a breakout room to talk with a collaborator or with one of our team members if you have specific questions we can help you with.
Please share this opportunity with colleagues and students–all are welcome!
Photo credit: “Not a yellowjacket” by cotinis via Flickr is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed
The faculty and staff working on City Tech’s current Title V grant, the STEM Success Collaborative, have developed student surveys and are asking for faculty members to share one or both with students. Here’s a message from them:
We would like to ask you to participate in the Title V STEM Success Collaborative Grant through having your students take a survey designed to help improve life at the college. The survey takes 10-15 minutes and should be given during the class to help ensure that students complete it. We would ask that you reach out to Anne Leonhardt (aleonhardt@citytech.cuny.edu) to confirm your participation. Students can participate in the surveys through December 21st, 2023.
The Student Surveys
These are the two surveys currently underway, so consider which is most appropriate for the students in your courses as you choose which to invite students to participate in:
The purpose of this survey is to identify the flow of information from the college and amongst students. We will ask you questions about how you find out about City Tech resources. Your participation in this research project is completely voluntary. You have the right to say no. Your continuing to the next page will indicate your consent to participate in this research. The data for this project is being collected anonymously, so your answers are completely confidential. Your willingness to participate in this survey and your responses will not affect your grades or academic standing with CUNY. Please answer the questions as honestly as possible. Thank you for your thought given to responding to these questions.
If you have any questions about how information from this survey will be used or other questions about this survey, please contact Anne Leonhardt at aleonhardt@citytech.cuny.edu.
The purpose of this survey is to understand your sense of belongingness and community within different peer groups, your major/department, and City Tech at large. Your participation in this research project is completely voluntary. You have the right to say no. Your continuing to the next page will indicate your consent to participate in this research. The data for this project is being collected anonymously, so your answers are completely confidential. Your willingness to participate in this survey and your responses will not affect your grades or academic standing with CUNY. Please answer the questions as honestly as possible. Thank you for your input in responding to these questions. Information from this survey will be used to help us understand how students like yourself perceive City Tech and make changes to ensure that all students feel more welcomed and supported here.
If you have any questions about how information from this survey will be used or other questions about this survey, please contact Anne Leonhardt at aleonhardt@citytech.cuny.edu.
