I have created courses in the hybrid or fully online mode since the College began its first initiative in instructional technology more than 15 years ago. I am a strong proponent of instructional technology because of its abundant benefits for student engagement and learning. But I have also found...
The Power of Story by Aaron Davis
Digital Storytelling works as an effective strategy for learning in the arts, sciences, humanities and social sciences. It adds a level of reflection that asks students to become aware of what they have learned, what they know, and what they think they know. Through effective digital storytelling projects, students...
Turnitin Building Block in Blackboard
It’s been many years since Hostos had a site license for Turnitin, the premiere online plagiarism-checking application, giving faculty free access to its services, and many faculty have been urgently waiting for it’s return. Instructors could always purchase their own account, at their own expense But at long last,...
Is it time to switch from Blackboard? Join the conversation! by George Rosa
Last semester’s Blackboard outtages has increased talk among Blackboard users, Bb campus administrators and even among senior administrators at CUNY CIS and CUNY educational technology leaders about the possibility of changing CUNY’s relationship with Blackboard as its main Learning Management System (LMS). CUNY’s Blackboard contract ends next year, and...
Survey of Bilinguals in NYC with Google Docs by Sue Dicker and Francisco Ordonez
Dr. Sue Dicker has been working on a project for three years; she is interested in documenting how New Yorkers who speak two languages—English and a native or heritage language—make use of these languages in their daily lives. Together with me (Francisco), she created an on-line survey. The first...
The “Are You Ready” online readiness assessment course by Aaron Davis
At Hostos Community College there has been an emergence of courses offered in both the hybrid (partially online) and asynchronous (fully online) modalities. Online learning offers students the flexibility of self-paced learning on their own time, in many instances from the comfort of their own home. Synchronous courses (face-to-face),...
The 2015 Teaching With Technology Survey by Kate Lyons
In December 2015 the Office of Educational Technology with the EdTech Leadership Council emailed all faculty a link to a survey about their experiences teaching with technology. 114 faculty members responded to the survey. The respondents’ represented the following departments: Language & Cognition (6 respondents- 5%) Library (6 respondents-...
Panopto at Hostos: lecture capture/videomaker/webcaster/media file storage for all by George Rosa
For years EdTech has provided support for faculty who use video recording of their lessons, specifically what is known as “lecture capture”, in their teaching. Two platforms have been used for this: Tegrity and Camtasia, each with its advantages and disadvantages. This year a new, powerful, easy-to-use and easily...