Teaching with Technology Showcase: Excellence in Action

Register TODAY!

• Breakfast and Lunch Included!
• Cost: $50

Agenda & Breakout Sessions:

• 9:00 a.m. – Registration & Continental Breakfast (Student Center, Ballroom C )
• 9:15 a.m. – Welcome & William Paterson President’s Remarks (Student Center, Ballroom C )
• 9:50 a.m. – Breakout 1
  • Resiliency in Action: Incorporating Technology into Academic Success
    Lynne Orr, Assistant Director, William Paterson University
    Room: University Hall, Room 203

    Description

    A Blackboard organizational shell for first year students’ academic success will be presented, covering topics of: Resiliency, Time Management, Stress Management, Study Skills, and Test Taking Strategies.  A program evaluation was conducted in which the results will be shared. The College of Education Resiliency Project will be outlined and described to the workshop attendees.  The development and creation of the five modules will be explained. The project was accessed through Blackboard as an organizational shell.  The results from the program evaluation completed on the project will also be discussed.  The strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement will be examined.
  • Innovation & Design:  MakerSpace Implementations
    Dr. Rebecca W. Kreider, MakerSpace Teacher, Mount Olive School District
    Riad Twal, Senior Instructional Designer, Seton Hall University
    Room: University Hall Room 204

    Description

    This session will provide an overview of a K-12 and a collegiate level Maker Space.  The Mount Olive Middle School will provide details on flexible room design, descriptions of classes offered, tools and equipment review such as Rokenbok, TeacherGeek, and MakerBot Replicators, followed by lessons learned.  Topics include Innovation & Design, 3D Printing, Digital Storyboarding, Podcasting, Engineering Design Process/Design Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking combined with science concepts such as circuits, structures, and hydraulics. Seton Hall will follow with an overview of their updated MakerSpace and current offerings.  Within the framework of expanding both Technological Literacy and Creativity, Space 154 has offered multiple workshops each semester on topics including Rapid Prototyping and 3D Printing, exploring a variety of devices connected to The Internet of Things, Building a Home Theater PC from a Raspberry Pi, creating Holographic Selfies, and constructing a Retro Gaming Console based on a Raspberry Pi.  Links to resources will be provided.
• 10:35 a.m. – Breakout 2
  • Effective use of teaching technologies for academic success
    Maria Deptula: Library Director, Berkeley College
    Room: University Hall, Room 113

    Description

    Face-to-face and online learning environments are bound with many restrictions that need to be overcome by students as well as instructors. In this session, experienced teaching librarians will discussed how they design activities, and implement available features in several low cost technologies to increase student engagement and academic success. This session will introduce three educational products that can be applied to K-12 as well as to academic settings. The products incorporate interactive presentations, collaborative activities and formative assessment, which result in holding students’ attention while instructing them on academic research. These educational tools which can be accessed on desktops, tablets and mobile devices, enable faculty to monitor students’ activities, collect the data, and visualize the results instantly allowing instant feedback. The tools introduced – Nearpod, Padlet and Socrative – offer basic and Pro subscription options.
  • Robots-Inspiration, Innovation & Creativity In A “Future Driven” Classroom
    Carol Munn, Technology Teacher, Eisenhower School
    Room: University Hall, Room 203

    Description

    Spark student imagination. Discover the power of robots stirring up energy, imagination, and innovative thinking in the classroom. Not a coder? Not an engineer? No problem. Robots are fun, engaging and provide opportunities to develop innovative thinking and problem-solving skills! Experience hands-on activities which encourage and foster 21st-century skills in a future driven classroom. Robots provide exposure to STEM activities, computational fluency, problem-based learning and tap into student creativity. This framework is a unique and engaging methodology of expressing freshness and innovation by differentiating instruction with revolutionary learning experiences focusing on the implementation of a robotics education program that will not only be driven by hands-on activities but also instill the notion of imagination through innovative projects. Engineering and coding concepts with robots create an atmosphere in which students learn abstract mathematics and science concepts. By the end of this session, attendees will leave with proven classroom robotics lessons and feel more confident and excited to bring hands-on robotics along with coding and convert their classroom into a future-ready classroom.
  • Introduce faculty to converting courses to open educational resources
    Robert Harris, Asst. Dir., Center for Teaching with Technology, William Paterson University
    Room: University Hall, Room 204

    Description

    This session will start with a review of the need for open educational resources and continue on to an introduction to the process of course conversion. The first topic will comprise an introduction to Creative Commons licenses and a discussion of their importance to the practice of employing OER content. Next we’ll look at some of the repositories OER resources and will discuss the variety on materials, from textbooks to lesson plans, learning objects, multimedia and more. Finally we’ll practice adopting and adapting resources as one would in a course setting. In the end faculty will be able to defend the use of open educational resources, discuss the usefulness of the creative Commons licenses to the process, and employ an OER resource with confidence.
• 11:20 a.m. – Breakout 3
  • Designing a Guided Lesson for First Year Library InstructionReference & Instructional Design
    Cara Berg, Reference & Co-Coordinator of User Education, David & Lorrain Cheng Library, William Paterson University
    Anthony Joachim, Librarian, William Paterson University
    Room: University Hall, Room 203

    Description

    Information literacy (IL) is an essential component of student success and lifelong learning. At William Paterson University, most students in the mandatory first year introductory course, Pioneer Success Seminar receive library instruction as an introduction to this important skill.  In order to standardize content across numerous sections and to increase student engagement, we developed a set of web-based modules designed to provide opportunities for more dynamic classroom discussions.  Using the flipped classroom model and short instructional videos, students were introduced to lesson content before class.  During the session, a librarian portal guided the lesson, displaying pre-class responses and introducing in-class activities that allowed for real-time review of answers and encouraging student participation. This presentation will discuss the pedagogy, implementation, and technology used to successfully deliver the lesson.
  • Using Ally to Support a Vision-impaired Student
    Jae Kim, Senior Instructional Designer, William Paterson University
    Housen Maratouk, Instructional Technologist, William Paterson University
    Room: University Hall, Room 204

    Description

    Are you confident that you are prepared to support and accommodate students who have documented accessibility issues? So much of what happens in many online and traditional classes is designed to taken in visually. But what about students who are visually-impaired or who have other accessibility issues? What can the faculty and staff members at higher education institutions be doing to better assist and support all types of learners so that they can succeed with no (or at least fewer) barriers? In this session, the presenters will share the results of recent efforts that were made in supporting such students using several strategies: Identifying the student’s status, providing technology training sessions, and making all course materials into accessible format. In addition to these strategies, the presenters will stress the importance of instructor training as a long-term plan to provide better accessibility not only as an accommodation but as a requirement for how learning materials are delivered.
  • Breaking Out: Free Yourself from Ed. Tech. Stress “Escape Room”
    Nicole Pinto-Creazzo, Instructional Technology Specialist, Drew University
    Room: University Hall, Room 115

    Description

    If you are curious about free educational technology tool that you could incorporate into your curriculum, come join us in this fun (and challenging!) “escape room” (a.k.a. “Breakout) session. Not only will you be introduced to free digital tools, but you will also get a hang of the different types of strategies to conduct your own Breakout/Escape Room, as well as improve collaboration, communication, inferencing (and more!) skills. Breakout Scenario (may be subject to small changes): Your department is pushing for you to teach digital tools in your classroom, but is not willing to provide you with any funding, nor are you able to obtain a grant to fund it. Your department is in the middle of streamlining the curriculum so that students will be able to have a standard skill set for the next year. It is up to you and your fellow colleagues to decide on some free tools before submitting your proposal to the department chair. They told you this news on the last day before the semester ends, with only 30 minutes until the deadline of the proposal is due. You have 30 minutes to come up with tools or your department will not be able to meet the program’s objectives.
  • Future Ready Schools – New Jersey
    Jeremy Reich, Project Coordinator, Future Ready Schools – New Jersey
    Room: University Hall, Room 113

    Description

    FRS-NJ is a school certification program that guides and supports educators and leaders through a collaborative process of self-assessment with the goal of personalizing student learning to prepare students who are ready for their futures. A coalition of NJIT, NJDOE, and NJSBA, Future Ready Schools – NJ is aligned to the national Future Ready Schools framework. Learn how you can #GetInvolved and how your school can #GetCertified in this session with project coordinator Jeremy Reich!
• 12:30 p.m. – Lunch & Keynote
• 1:30 p.m. – Lightning Round Presentations
• 2:00 p.m. – Presentation by John Shannon and Susan O’Sullivan-Gavin: The Future Is Here: Digital Transformation

Additional sessions will be added as they are approved.