Do you work better when there’s someone else working nearby? Do you seek out spaces like libraries or coffee shops to get work done? You might be interested in coworking !
This idea of coworking and the related idea of body doubling, in which people find better focus or persistence when they have a friend or colleague working in the same in-person or online space, can be effective methods for productivity.
The Open Pedagogy on the OpenLab project is hosting a coworking session this week: Tuesday, April 18, from 1:30-3:30. This is a virtual coworking opportunity, hosted on Zoom. Join at any time from 1:30-3:30, with whatever work you want to accomplish. Check out the Coworking invitation post for more information.
Have other ideas for increased productivity, accountability, and getting through your to-do list? Share them here in the comments!
Let’s shine some light on PLAN week, which is now! From March 9 to March 15, students can take advantage of resources and meet with advisors and peer mentors to plan their next steps at City Tech. The PLAN Week page on the OpenLab 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 like gift cards and Beats headphones!
For more information on each day, there’s more information on both the OpenLab site as well as on the City Tech website–having this info in both places is a great way to find the information whether you’re on the OpenLab or the City Tech website!
Make sure to check out the site, and happy PLANning!
The Spotlight is on the Science Fiction at City Tech website leading up to the Seventh Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium on December 6th, from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. E.ST. The theme for this year is “Science Fiction and the Archive.” The discussions will be on various questions like What role do digital technologies and social networks play in creating the Science Fiction Archive? How can the SF Archive be inclusive and representative? For the second time, the winner of the Analog Award for Emerging Black Voices will be announced by Analog Science Fiction and Fact.
Co-organizers Jill Belli, Wanett Clyde, Jason W. Ellis, Kel Karpinski, and Lucas Kwong invite everyone to join for the day-long event or stopping by as schedules permit. The event will happen online, free and open to everyone, and will also be livestreamed on YouTube. Links for registration and the livestream on YouTube, along with the symposium program, are available on the Science Fiction at City Tech OpenLab site–that’s also where you can register, RSVP, and learn more about the program.
The event is sponsored by the School of Arts and Sciences at the New York City College of Technology, CUNY.
“Two blue birds” by Babak Fakhamzadeh via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0
The OpenLab Team has a number of requests for open hours and questions about how to access them, so here the open hours are in the Spotlight!
Open hours are an opportunity for any member of the City Tech community–students, faculty, staff–to meet one-on-one with a member of the OpenLab team to ask your OpenLab questions and accomplish your OpenLab goals. Each session is 30 minutes, so they’re like mini workshops on the exact topics you’re interested in.
Not sure what you want to ask about, but know you need help? That’s fine, too! You can use the time to learn about how to use your site to meet your learning or teaching goals, what tools can help you meet those goals and how to implement and use them, how to find Help materials, how to browse through the OpenLab to find excellent examples of City Tech community members working together, how to build something new like a club or an assignment–even how to get used to the block editor if you’re still using the classic editor. So many possibilities!
Check out the schedule, register for a 30-minute open hour session, and when it’s time, join via Zoom. See you there soon!
Let’s focus on PLAN week, which is now! From October 31 to November 4, students can meet with advisors to plan their next steps at City Tech. The PLAN Week page on the OpenLab has all the information you need to “Get with the PLAN!” so next semester you can have the schedule you want and courses you need to graduate.
The PLAN Week page includes the schedule for in-person advisement in the Atrium Learning Center and the Voorhees Computer Lab, as well as other Academic Advisement resources.
It also includes links to the Academic Advisement website and to Academic Advisement videos for anyone who wants asynchronous support–plus there’s info about how students can enter to win prizes for participating in PLAN Week!
Make sure to check the site out, and happy planning!
This week is National HSI Week(September 12-18), overlapping with Hispanic Heritage Month(September 15-October 15). The HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) Committee has invited everyone at the college to celebrate, get involved, and join the community.
The HSI Committee is using their OpenLab site to share information about all of the events happening on campus for HSI Week and Hispanic Heritage Month. That means that departments and initiatives are hosting events, and you can learn about them in one central place, their Upcoming Events page.
There are several events taking place this week, including the annual HSI Week Forum on September 15 from 12:45pm-2pm in the Faculty Lounge, L632 in the Library Building. The committee asks all planning to attend to Register Here so they can best plan for the event (and for refreshments, too).
The HSI Committee has invited all of City Tech to “come together to share ideas and next steps as we continue to work towards servingness as an HSI.”
If you haven’t already, check out the list of upcoming events and start participating!
At the beginning of the each semester, City Tech welcomes new students, and part of that welcome is Connect Day New Student Welcome. This semester, Connect Day takes place on Thursday, September 1st during Club Hours, 12:45-2:00pm. All new students should plan to attend!
New students attending Connect Day will join faculty, student leaders and peers in every academic department for an information session about their major! Students will have the opportunity to learn more about the courses they will take, where to go to receive academic advisement, discover important information critical to success, and learn more about being a member of the City Tech community.
A really exciting development this semester is that students who don’t have a major yet–undeclared students–have a Connect Day, too! Lauri Aguirre, Director of First Year Programs, will be hosting that session for anyone who has yet to declare their major.
Prof. Sue Brandt (from Entertainment Technology in the School of Technology and Design) built the useful Connect Day site as a project on the OpenLab; it includes information for students to find their department’s Connect Day event, including the location on campus or via Zoom. Additionally, the site uses the three schools at City Tech–Arts and Sciences, Professional Studies, and Technology and Design–to organize the list of departments and information about who will be leading each department’s event and a link to the department’s website. Not sure which department is in which of the three schools at City Tech? You can browse through each list to learn more. There is information about the Connect Day session for Undeclared majors in the list for each of the three schools.
The site also includes other information to help orient students to City Tech and college work.
We hope new students find their way to their department for Thursday’s Connect Day, and that faculty and staff members and returning students share this information to help new students find their way to the right place for Connect Day.
In conjunction with our first Open Pedagogy Event of the semester, this week and the next we’re spotlighting our in-house site, Open Pedagogy on the OpenLab. This site operates as a forum where OpenLab community members can ask questions and stimulate discussion related to teaching and learning on the OpenLab and in open digital environments more generally. This site is a good place to find ideas for digital pedagogy assignments, access information on best practices and tips for open digital pedagogy, and engage other faculty about how teaching on the OpenLab changes their curriculum and classroom environments and relations.
In conjunction with this site, our OpenLab team hosts Open Pedagogy Events, organized around particular themes and concerns related to teaching in open digital environments and more specifically with teaching on the OpenLab. This Thursday (3/31) we’re hosting our first Open Pedagogy event of the semester, on Ungrading. Ungrading and its accompanying strategies offer one way to mitigate the harm and exhaustion of the pandemc. Ungrading is essentially student-centered and student-led, demanding that we engage critically with the power dynamics of the classroom. We began our discuss on its potential and its application to digital pedagogy last semester and will be continuing this spring. We will be joined by some wonderful guest speakers.
An annual event for 41 years, the Lit Fest features a contemporary writer performing their work and holding a Q&A portion. City Tech students also perform their work after submitting and going through a selection process.
Join City Tech student writers and the poet Layli Long Soldier to share ideas and creative work.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
LAYLI LONG SOLDIER
Photo credit: Layli Long Soldier
Biography
Layli Long Soldier is an Oglala Lakota poet, writer, feminist and activist. She is the author of the chapbook Chromosomory (2010) and the full-length collection Whereas (2017), winner of the National Books Critics Circle award and a finalist for the National Book Award. She has also won the National Artist Fellowship from the Arts and Cultures Foundation, the Whiting Writer’s Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. In 2012, her participatory installation, Whereas We Respond, was featured on the Pine Ridge Reservation. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
This event is sponsored by: Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE), City Tech Student Government Association, and the New York City College of Technology.
This week, we spotlight the OpenLab “request a workshop” feature! Each semester, the OpenLab team offers workshops on topics that members often ask about. But there are always other topics, other interest, and other scheduling needs. The OpenLab team welcomes requests for focused workshops for the faculty, staff, or students in your departments, offices, and other stakeholder groups at City Tech. These targeted workshops can meet the needs of your group .
Not sure what might be of interest and/or use to your faculty? Here are some suggestions:
Using WordPress’s Block Editor
Collaborative Digital Annotation on the OpenLab
Using OERs and other open resources on the OpenLab
Sharing & Remixing Pedagogy: Rethinking Copyright and Attribution on the OpenLab
Supporting Multimedia Pedagogy with the OpenLab
Fostering Community through OpenLab interactions
If you are interested in having the OpenLab lead workshops for your department, office, club, initiative,or group, fill out our “Request a Workshop” form. Your responses will give us a better idea of your group’s size, schedule, and needs. Once we receive your request we’ll evaluate it and work with you to develop a workshop plan.
Please note that these workshops are accepted on a rolling basis, so get your requests in early if you want to have the workshop this semester.
