St. John's News

Since laptop usage rates by St. John’s faculty continue to grow in concert with the uptick in student use, the University held its second annual Queens Campus Faculty Technology Days on September 19 and 20. In addition, the Staten Island campus launched its first Faculty Technology Day on October 4. In response to the increasing importance of technology, St. John’s is one of the few institutions of higher learning to provide laptops for full-time faculty as well as for its students.

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Both events offered interested faculty the chance to get an overview of existing and newly added PC tools and applications. Follow-up hands-on instruction was available from on-site by IT personnel and departmental subject matter experts. The latter included Senior Associate Registrar Joanne Llerandi and Assistant Registrar Joel Abend who demonstrated how advisors can use Student Advisement Reports to help students track their progress in meeting course requirements.

IT Project Manager Jim Swike explained that his department presented this information in open house format to accommodate busy faculty schedules. Simultaneous demonstrations of the ten pc tools were given at 15-minute intervals throughout the day. Faculty could learn about an array of PC tools for use in teaching, communications and record keeping tools. These included:

• St. John’s Central
• Electronic Grade Book
• Software Titles
• Wireless Router
• Library Resources
• E-Mail Retention
• Recording and Sharing Audio Files
• Advisement Reports
• Web CT
• CTL (Center for Teaching and Learning)/ Title III Program

Reference Works, a new Library Resource feature that formats research source databases for use in scholarly publications, won plaudits from many professors. E-mail management was another popular draw. Associate Professor of Humanities May Webber who visited the Queens open house noted. “It’s extremely important as a teacher to keep up with the latest PC resources to be able to integrate them into our teaching. I am particularly interested in getting familiar with the tools to use for putting a course online.” She adds: “It staff are very helpful and patient. I encourage all faculty members to take advantage of this service.”

St. John’s College Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Speech Kelly Rocca observed, “I use many of these tools both in my capacity as an administrator and as a teacher. They help me maintain good and continual student communication.”
 
Provost Julia Upton, RSM, Ph.D who spearheaded the University’s Academic Computing Initiative (ACI) was also on hand (as she was last year). “Technology is a way to bring the world into the classroom,” she said. “Making technology available to our students helps eliminate the divide between the haves and the have-nots, which levels the playing field and gives everyone a chance to learn.” 

Staten Island Faculty Welcome Technology Day
With some 200 faculty members on the Staten Island Campus, Sr. Edna Clark, S.C., Manager of the University-wide Center for Technology Education notes, “Faculty Technology Day is a great opportunity for our faculty to learn first-hand about teaching with technology tools and to learn where to get help.” Staten Island Vice Provost Sharon Norton expanded: “The timing coincides with other initiatives we recently launched to familiarize our growing number of faculty members, as well as our student body, with the breadth of resources available to them here in Staten Island.” She added: “By doing it in the format of an open house, faculty are able to drop in at their convenience. We are finding that this is a very effective and efficient way to introduce them to the variety of technology tools available to them here to enhance their pedagogy. It is also a good way   to inspire them to seek further information and instruction.”

Nicole Lacarrubba, who works for IT in Staten Island, demonstrated and provided follow-up instruction in how to use St. John’s Central. “I was impressed,” she said, “by how many technology options the faculty is offered to enrich the classroom experience. They just have to take the time to learn how to use them.”