October 25, 2018
Keeping pace with technology’s rapid advancement has always been a priority for St. John’s University, having recently opened a number of state-of-the-art laboratories that give students the edge they need in a very competitive marketplace. Another institutional priority for the University has been recruiting faculty members who are on the cutting edge of these advancements, and whose work with emerging technologies has given St. John’s students a wealth of new interactive tools.
More than 20 St. John’s faculty members had the opportunity to showcase their research on topics at the annual Faculty Technology Forum, held October 15 in the D’Angelo Center on the Queens campus. Sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Information Technology, more than 80 members of the University community attended a poster presentation which was followed by a keynote address from John Fritz, Associate Vice President for Instructional Technology in the University of Maryland-Baltimore County's Division of Information Technology.
Some research topics about which St. John’s faculty presented included: virtual reality, 3D printing, 3D virtual media, and interactive tools such as VoiceThread.
Before Dr. Fritz’s presentation, University President Conrado “Bobby” Gempesaw, Ph.D., offered some welcoming remarks. “Technology is something I have been emphasizing since I came here as President,” Dr. Gempesaw said. He gave a brief history of how technology has been used in higher education, and substantial improvements that have been made just in the last generation.
Dr. Gempesaw said that whether these new technologies came about last year or hundreds of years ago, “It’s all about student engagement.” He added that most students from high schools where St. John’s recruits are learning with state-of-the-art technology, and they expect to see comparable technology in college.
Dr. Gempesaw thanked St. John’s faculty engaged in the use of technology, “which is near and dear to my heart, and I am thankful for your willingness to be the first adopters in its use.”
Dr. Fritz has more than a decade of experience with learning analytics, which involves the collection and analysis of usage data associated with student learning. Its purpose is to observe and understand learning behaviors in order to devise appropriate interventions.
During his presentation, Dr. Fritz discussed how learning analytics needs to move beyond perfecting predictions to improving interventions for student success. He observed, “Analytics without action is just analysis. It should be intervention and action-oriented.”
He encouraged the notion that in terms of technology adoption, the natural curiosity of faculty and a desire to connect with students is largely unleashed by example. “In doing so, they can influence each other.”
Iris Mohr, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Marketing, presented on creating short videos using a smart phone and then editing the stream in the classroom. “Technology is everywhere in students’ lives and the culture they live in,” she observed. “Given that technology is a growing requirement across every industry today, it is important for professors to familiarize themselves with ways that technology can enhance teaching, enrich the classroom experience, and facilitate research. This event accomplished those objectives and offered an excellent opportunity to network with other colleagues across the University.”
“The Faculty Technology Forum provides great opportunities for faculty to explore and share the ways we’re using technology in our teaching and research,” stressed Phyllis Conn, Associate Professor, Institute for Core Studies. “My own presentation discussed the application Audacity and how I use it in my courses for students to record and edit oral histories about immigration. Several participants at the Technology Forum discussed with me how they might use this application in their teaching and research.”