Workshops

“How do we prepare undergraduate students for an increasingly competitive, rapidly-evolving, highly-interdisciplinary workplace and give them the tools to stay current or ahead of the curve once they graduate?”

For several years I have proposed using Skills Workshops to teach evolving consumer technologies, such as digital imaging applications. I believe that developing a self-learning, workshop-based environment for certain computer skills and equipment better serves the needs and challenges of our students in the long term.

Skills Workshops encourage independent learning, allow more class time to be devoted to collaborative, principle-based, learning objectives in the primary courses, and give students faculty-supported lab hours.

While developing two new interdisciplinary programs in the School of Technology and Design; an Interactive Media Technology Certificate and a full BTECH Degree in Emerging Media Technologies, I created a course called Media Skills Lab as a way of testing this workshop model. The first Media Skills Lab is being taught in the Spring 2010 semester and will offer application training organized in three-week workshops for emerging media technologies.

I have also created Workshops in Web Standards and Development for faculty and students. One such workshop was held in January 2006 for students in the Educational Technology Department. A similar workshop was presented to CUNY faculty and staff at the 4th Annual Technology Conference and is available to all faculty and students on the University Faculty Senate Committee on Disabilities Issues research site.

Workshop Model Examples