Co-working Tuesdays

“springtime” by willi_bremen via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The OpenLab team added a new option for support: co-working sessions each Tuesday through the end of the semester.

Today’s session, like those in the past, is open to anyone: students, staff, and faculty. Join the co-working session via Zoom anytime in the 1:30-3:30 co-working hours. We will work together silently, and can open breakout rooms for conversations or questions.

The remaining sessions after this week have a particular focus. Next week’s session, on Tuesday, May 16, 1:30-3:30, is focused on students, in anticipation of finals week beginning. Please spread the word!

In the final session, Tuesday, May 23, 1:30-3:30, faculty are invited to join for some time to work on responding to student work, grading, and finishing the work of the semester.

Like the idea of coworking and the related idea of body doubling but can’t make it on a Tuesday? Suggest a date and time for other sessions by adding a comment on this post or by reaching out via email to OpenLab@citytech.cuny.edu.

Annotation in Teaching and Learning

Cat laying on its back with its eyes open

I hope everyone is hanging in there as the semester wraps up!

We’re trying to understand more about how OpenLab members are using annotation, and what people’s needs might be.

If you’ve used an annotation tool in your teaching or other work, we would appreciate if you could take a moment to fill out a short survey about annotation. (Please note that if you’re not already logged into the OpenLab, you’ll be prompted to log in to fill out the survey.)

Many thanks!

In the Spotlight: Building an ePortfolio

Draft and Finished Postcards, by Adrika Hoque

As students get started showing their work–for further studies or when applying for jobs–an ePortfolio is a great way to get started demonstrating their experience!

This spotlight brings an example of a sophomore student portfolio to show how students can take advantage of class assignments to start building their own portfolios to highlight relevant job skills. Even classes and topics that are not the student’s main interest will give variety to one’s curriculum and contribute to show experience with different tools and approaches.

Adrika Hoque’s ePortfolio also gives some nice examples on how blog posts can be a great format for image analysis, as it lets the author pick their preferred balance between text and images. Even though social media platforms such as Instagram are great in their reach, posts on an ePortfolio allow for a better balance of image and text, allowing for a deeper examination and comparison. 

A good example of the potential is the Visual Quote Project post (created in her first year at City Tech) in which Adrika shows her work with different concept drafts and explains each of them. In the end, after the reader is acquainted with the logic behind each, she puts them all side-by-side so we can compare and better appreciate each of the images.

Students working on getting an ePortfolio started can browse through all the great ePortfolio examples from their classmates. As you find other ePortfolios you’d like us to spotlight,  let us know!

In the Spotlight: Literary Arts Festival

Poster with rainbow heart and LGBTQIA+ flag LAF City Tech's 42nd annual Literary Arts Festival Free & Open To The Public Featuring Akwaeke Emezi [includes photo] and City Tech Students For more info: Megan Behrent MBehrent@CItyTech.cuny.edu Thursday April 27 4pm-6pm The Theater at City Tech 285 Jay Street Sponsored by: Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE), New York City College of Technology This event is made possible through the generous support of LaGuardia Community College and the New York City Council LGBT and Queer Caucus
LAF 2023 poster

We’re shining the spotlight on this week’s Literary Arts Festival. This Thursday, April 27th, come listen to and celebrate City Tech students whose writing won awards in the LAF writing competition. And don’t miss this year’s featured speaker!

This year’s event features acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, writer, and a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree Akwaeke Emezi, author of Freshwater and the bestsellers You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty and The Death of Vivek Oji.

Not yet familiar with Emezi’s work? The Literary Arts Festival site on the OpenLab includes some great resources for getting to know Emezi and their work. Check out the LAF 2023 Featured Writer: Akwaeke Emezi page, and scroll through the posts highlighting their work. These posts include links to Emezi’s website and featured content, as well as embedded videos of interviews and readings with Emezi.

You can see in the featured post on the LAF site that there is a link to register for the event, along with all the information you need to attend the 2023 City Tech Literary Arts Festival: on Thursday, April 27, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the Academic Complex Theater, 285 Jay Street.

In the Spotlight: Coworking

“Pollination Hypnosis” by Wayne S. Grazio via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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!

This Month on the OpenLab: April 2023 Release

Cat looking sleepy with peach blossoms behind it.
Sakura cat by tanakawho is licensed under CC BY-NC.

On April 12 we released version 1.7.68 of the OpenLab. It included a new plugin, support for embedding Yuja videos, and number of bug fixes.

New features

Yuja videos can now be embedded on OpenLab sites. City Tech has its own Yuja site, so members of the City Tech community can upload videos to embed on their OpenLab sites. To embed a video, simply paste the URL as you would for YouTube or Vimeo.

TablePress Automatic URL Conversion is an add-on to the TablePress plugin that will automatically convert URLs in a table to links, avoiding what can be a tedious process of creating links in a large table.

Bug fixes

Invitations to join the OpenLab were not being sent out. This has now been fixed. We also fixed two bugs in My OpenLab. One was causing friend lists to not display all members that had been added as friends. The second caused the information for Major, Department, or Office to be removed from a member’s profile after the profile was edited.

As always, please contact us with any questions!

In the Spotlight: Recommend a Spotlight

“In the spotlight” Michalis T. by via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0

The OpenLab Team loves spotlighting all the great work happening on the OpenLab–and you can, too!

If there’s something that stands out to you while you’re working on the OpenLab and you want others to see it, too, you can recommend a site by sharing that info with the OpenLab Team. That way, the spotlight can shine a little wider on more of the things you’re doing, using, building, reading, etc.

When you follow that link, you’ll fill out a form for “People’s Choice”–you’ll share the link and a short explanation of what you’re recommending.

Another good way to show how much you shine!

In the Spotlight: PLAN Week 2023

phases of a solar eclipse over a beach
“Sunset Beach Eclipse May 20th 2012” by jimnista via Flickr CC BY 2.0

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!

In the Spotlight: Undergraduate Research

“Sparks” by tom_bullock via Flickr CC BY 2.0

This week, student researchers will begin participating in a series of 14 workshops that will last throughout the semester. These workshops, developed and led by members of City Tech’s Undergraduate Research Committee (plus a few other helpful members of the City Tech community), run each semester for students participating in the Emerging Scholars program or the CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP), and are open to any students interested in the subjects covered.

Not only are the workshops listed on the Undergraduate Research site on City Tech’s website, but they are also shared on the Undergraduate Research site on the OpenLab. In addition to the post announcing the full slate of workshops for the semester, there is also a list of the workshops with dates and times that you can see no matter where you are on the site (in the right sidebar on a computer, or at the bottom of the page if you’re looking on a mobile device). You can add a widget to your site if you want to do something similar on your site, too.

If you join the project, you’ll get reminders for each of the 14 workshops this semester. You’ll also get notifications for other information that gets posted on the site–including internship opportunities, news, and events that are relevant for student researchers and their faculty mentors.

This Month on the OpenLab: February 2023 Release

Kitten smelling a bouquet of red flowers.

On February 15 we released version 1.7.67 of the OpenLab. It included a few new themes and some bug fixes.

New features

We added two new themes: Neve and Miniva. Miniva is a simple minimalist theme, good for beginners or someone who doesn’t want to do a lot of theme customization. Neve is a more complex theme, which requires some setup, but it can look great even with just a small amount of customization.

We changed the sender name for site-related emails from WordPress to City Tech OpenLab, making it easier to understand where emails are coming from.

Bug fixes

There were a few bugs caused by the improvements to email notifications made in the January release:

  • Line breaks were missing for a number of different site-related emails.
  • The OpenLab footer that appears in some email notifications was not displaying correctly in certain email clients. 

We also fixed an issue causing incorrect characters (e.g. ’) to appear on certain posts and pages when the OpenLab Attribution plugin was activated.

As always, please contact us with any questions!

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

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