Author Archives: Giulia Guarnieri

First Workshop at BCC on Pedagogy and Podcasting

by Giulia Guarnieri Posted on February 13, 2011

Please come to the workshop on February 14, at Bronx Community College, 2155 University Avenue, Bronx 10453, in New Hall 23 from 4.00-5.50pm.

Title: The Pedagogy of Podcasting: Building Stronger Connections

Description:This workshop will provide insight into the pedagogy of podcasts, (audio/video/screencasts), and it will help you successfully plan for integration into your courses. You will also learn how podcasting is being used by other BCC colleagues. A portion of the workshop will be dedicated to discussion and questions about best pedagogical strategies. No prerequisites. No previous experience with podcasting required.

Instuctor: Giulia Guarnieri

Posted in Faculty Development, General, Pedagogy, Podcasting | Tagged , | 3 Comments

The New Blended Concept in the Language Class

by Giulia Guarnieri Posted on February 1, 2011

I am planning my Italian honors class this year by incorporating even more technology than before. First of all, this is the first time that an honors and online course is offered at Bronx Community College and instead of  having the usual “H” denomination, the title has a “K” next to the course number. I created, for example, a Blackboard assignment where students will be able to work collaboratively on a wiki (they will write a story using the past tense — passato prossimo–). In addition, students will be doing all of their homework on their electronic portfolios. I now have moved away from the book for homework, even though I use it in class the days we meet face-to- face. Most, if not all of the homework, is done on the EP. This is the EP page I created for my class. The third element I use in my class is podcasting. During this semester students have 5 assignments in which podcasts will be used, sometimes I will ask them to create their own podcasts (they are all handed mp3 players at the beginning of the semester), or complete listening comprehension tasks. All of these tools have proven very effective in learning a foreign language: students are more exposed to the target language; and they improve speaking by recoding their assignments. Students can also monitor and assess their progress in the TL.  In addition, videocasts and audio files support a multidimensional type of learning which allows students to be exposed to different learning styles and end up being more engaged in the learning process.

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Pedagogical Workshops

by Giulia Guarnieri Posted on January 31, 2011

I just finished putting together the web pages that provide information about the podcasting program ( step I) at BCC.  It’s still a work in progress and there is more material that needs to be added, but for now, I made it go live, so that the community can take a look of the kind of work we will be doing during the Spring Semester. There will be two distinct components to this project; one is to link the podcasting technical workshops lead by Albert Robinson to the newly created pedagogical podcasting workshops. The second project is in the development stage; so I will talk about it another time.

At this moment we are in the process of finalizing the schedule of our workshops that address the pedagogy of podcasting and we are certain that this is a great addition to the instructional side of technology. Once the schedule becomes official (very soon) I will be posting all these information.

I often thought about the meaning of the adjective “instructional” and realized that generally much of the focus in faculty development for online teaching is mainly on technology. I must also give credit to the work done by the OIT and the fact that the word pedagogy is always emphasized during the faculty development trainings. Faculty are constantly reminded that technology is a tool which serves the learning outcomes and is to be used to strengthen the learning of that particular subject. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why technology has the role it has, and why so much must time is spent on teaching the technical aspect. The main objective of the new pedagogical workshops is to make this feature even more evident, visible, and strong. By offering these types of workshops faculty will be able to have open and face-to-face discussions about teaching in the online environment. We hope to create a community for dedicated teachers who will find in the physical and virtual space (this site !) a comfortable environment where these issues can be addressed.

After all, we are mostly a teaching college, and more conversations on teaching and learning should be created.  These pedagogical workshops, I believe, will fill this gap.

Apart from the podcasting pedagogical workshops already planned for Spring 2010, we will offer other workshops that specifically address the academic side of the online environment. Topics will range from fostering interactivity, and to the pedagogy of web 2.0 and screencast. If these sound interesting, and you don’t want to miss out stay tuned!

Photo: Chart created by the University of Alberta, Canada

This image illustrates the relationship between content, technology and pedagogy

Posted in Faculty Development, Pedagogy, Podcasting | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Pedagogical Workshops

LegalPod

by Giulia Guarnieri Posted on January 31, 2011

  Copyright Resources

The following links provide comprehensive information regarding fair use of copyrighted materials.

The United States Copyright Office

CUNY Copyright regulations

CUNY Commons copyrights WIKI

The University of Minnesota’s Copyright Information and Education site, Copyright Decision Map

Bound By Law? (Tales from the Public Domain) The Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain explains the regulations involving fair use.

The Creative Commons is a nonprofit group which allows you to obtain licenses which protect your own original work.

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CommonCraft.com Tutorials

by Giulia Guarnieri Posted on January 9, 2011

I love the youtube videos created by CommonCraft.com. They make very simple but effective videos in which they explain all sorts of technological tools.

This video is an example of the kind of work they do. If you are interested, you can visit their website and check out all of their tutorials.  They now even make custom videos for anyone who is interested. If I I had the funds, I would hire this company to make all different kinds of tutorials for my students.

http://www.commoncraft.com/blog

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