Macaulay Connections

Eportfolio usage continues to grow, with 1,036 eportfolios and 1,353 users as of March 4. More importantly, the diversity of uses is increasing, with classes, individual students, student groups, advisors, faculty and ITFs making use of the system for a diverse range of purposes.  Encouragingly, many students who began eportfolios as freshmen and then left them relatively untouched are now beginning to return to those eportfolios to document their progress and achievements in their sophomore year.  One example is "Artur Dabrowski, Architect". Artur ’12 (City) began his eportfolio with the other freshmen in the fall of 2008, with little more than the aspirational title.

However, as he is now a sophomore with more to document, he has added photos of his work, creating the beginning of an online "Studio Work Exhibition."  Because the system is accessible and has a degree of permanence, it provides students the opportunity for longitudinal exploration, reflection, and documentation.  Additionally, because the eportfolios are (at students' discretion) public, another student, Tyler Alterman ’12 (Hunter), has been approached by a French publisher seeking to use some of his design work (discovered by an author who was browsing Tyler's eportfolio) in a textbook.

The spring Tech Fair for freshmen, which concluded on March 3, provided an opportunity for independent hands-on training and experimentation, with the students researching and exploring the 67th Street neighborhood and using web apps to develop and post interactive presentations of various types.  They mastered tools with which they were already minimally familiar (iMovie), and in many cases learned new tools (Dipity, VoiceThread, Zillow) or new applications of familiar tools (Google Maps).  The projects are assembled (with some brief reflections and explanations by the students) at The 67th Street Project.

For the first time this semester, Macaulay is offering two fully online courses. One of the courses "To Be or Not to Be: the Study of Ethical Leadership" is a one-credit course taught by Marlene Springer, the former president of the College of Staten Island, with support from Macaulay Central ITF John Sorrentino.  The other, "Alternate Worlds: Imagining the Future of Education" (click here to view this site) is a three-credit course, counting as a full interdisciplinary elective, taught by me. Both courses are open to Macaulay students from all campuses.  In both courses, there were difficulties of cross-campus registration and transfer of credits to be overcome, but both courses are now in progress, serving as examples of how these cross-campus and cross-disciplinary initiatives can be implemented.  "Alternate Worlds," in particular, is attracting national and international attention as a model of how a fully online class can be designed and run with open source tools and a granular and intentional approach to privacy and sharing.

Joseph Ugoretz
Director of Technology and Learning