Have you ever wanted to implement Digital Storytelling into your course?  Have your students ever been confused about how to make videos for a class assignment? Well fear not, Academic Technology is hosting a Digital Storytelling workshop later this year (December 1st at 12:30pm), and by attending, you will be given all of the necessary tools to incorporate Digital Storytelling into your classroom!  Both Windows Live Movie Maker and iMovie are free programs that students can utilize to bring audio, media, and images together to form one story.  Linda Anstendig, Heather Bryant, and Megan Burke will demonstrate techniques for incorporating Digital Storytelling to create dynamic assignments and projects in Writing and Literature Courses.  The tool can be applied in a variety of subjects, though we will focus primarily on its application for developing writing.

Academic Technology recently added a new Graduate Assistant, Lucio Forti, to the team, and we couldn’t be more pleased.  Lucio is a second-year graduate assistant in the Psychology program at Pace University and is currently interning at the United Nations for the International Council of Psychologists.  He is also a member of Dr. Richard Velayo’s research team, the ITop (Internationalizing the Teaching of Psychology).  He is very forward thinking and has already suggested many ideas to make the entire ePortfolio and Digital Measures experience smoother.  We all expect great things from him!

ePortfolio has not only undergone updates through Mahara but also within the Pace community. We have now incorporated default pages to make the transition into ePortfolio smoother for students and faculty. For example, University 101 and English courses (110,120,201) now use template pages for all classes and encourage students to post their work onto these pages. This prompts them to populate and eventually create a well-rounded portfolio.

The Setter’s Leadership Initiative is now incorporating ePortfolio into their programs by having the students upload reflections onto their portfolios. This process helps students learn about themselves and share their passions, experiences, accomplishments and goals with the Pace Community.

Take a look at a snippet from the Setter’s Leadership newsletter, including students’ reflections about ePortfolio as well as their highlights about using the software and its positive benefits.

The semester is half way done, but here at Academic Technology, we held onto summer for as long as we could. Recently, our eTerns shared their summer adventures at a showcase that brought together both the Pleasantville and New York City teams.
Meg’s summer was spent interning at KPMG, where she showed such potential that she landed a full time position. Uri spent his summer interning at Marvel, gaining an experience that will last a lifetime; not to mention an invitation to return next summer. Congratulations Meg and Uri!!!

Heidi spent the summer traveling, exploring the wonderful destinations of Athens, Cyprus, Turkey and the Vatican City. She documented her trips through her photos and personal writings. Lucio, our newest member to the team, spends his spare time traveling and performing music. During the showcase, he shared some ideas he had for future ePortfolio projects. Amanda showcased her travel page, with pictures highlighting her adventures as a cruiser.
Read more about the eTern Summer Showcase on our blog!

On Tuesday, November 4th, we hosted our quarterly Mahara User Group meeting.  In just one hour, we discussed the exciting new features that will become available to the Pace community this June, got a taste of the research that SUNY Purchase has put together on identity development through ePortfolio, and learned more about different ePortfolio assessment practices.

New features that you may be interested in include:

• Sending messages to multiple people
• Easily copy secret URLs with new “copy” button
• Dragging pages into a collection
• Easily linking modern social media accounts

SUNY Purchase implemented a five week intensive ePortfolio program and has found significant improvements in student’s identity development in that time period.  Factors measured included academic identity, future orientation, and scholarly community where the students make references to relationships in the context of learning.  They have submitted their work to be published in the International Journal of ePortfolio.

Beth and Linda shared our Pace Path and Writing Assessment Portfolio template pages which are meant to be the gateway steps into using ePortfolio robustly.

It is with heavy hearts that we say farewell to Sam Egan. Sam has moved to Kansas where she will be working in Publishing. Her last day was October 22nd, the same day as the eTern showcase. We organized a going away party on the Pleasantville campus—complete with cupcakes and a surprise spa gift for Sam. We will all miss Sam terribly, but we wish her the best of luck in all her future endeavors! Luckily for us Meg Burke has taken over the position in the interim, so if you need anything she is the go-to person! Meg has worked as an eTern with us for 3 years, and as she finishes her graduate work and studies for her CPA exam, Meg will be helping with the transition and growth of the office of Academic Technology. We’re so pleased to have Meg serve in this role for the next few months.  Please join us in congratulating Meg!

The latest winners of our ePortfolio of the Month contest are Rachel Douty and Alex Saitta.   Rachel is a freshman who was introduced to ePortfolio during the Pace Prep program last summer. Pace Prep is a five-week multidisciplinary online course for incoming first-year students. By taking Pace Prep Rachel was able to take multiple different courses and decide which ones she really liked. It helped her determine that finance is the field that she is most interested in. Rachel’s “favorite aspect of ePortfolio is the flexibility of the platform to accommodate all types of media and [the user's] ability to control the presentation of that media”. Rachel’s portfolio gives viewers a great idea of who she is and shows that even first year students can create outstanding ePortfolios!

Alex is a biology student who was once apprehensive to use ePortfolio. Alex was first introduced to ePortfolio during freshman orientation, but he didn’t start building his portfolio until his English professor required it. “[It was} confusing to say the least,” Alex recalled, “I had no idea what I was doing.” After playing with his ePortfolio, Alex got the hang of it and was even able to help his friends build their ePortfolios. Alex develops his  ePortfolio a little more every year. His favorite aspect is the Introduction page because “[t]his page allowed me to show a side of myself you wouldn’t know by just viewing my coursework.” Alex includes his ePortfolio on his resume so his graduate schools of choice can see how much time and effort went into his coursework.

We recently got in touch with former Graduate Assistant Adam Yogel, to see what he’s been doing since he left Academic Technology. After his time working with ePortfolio, Adam got an internship at CNN. The internship is now over, but Adam is still working with CNN as a Production Assistant. He plans to work his way up and hopefully become a producer someday. Adam says his job is a lot of fun, and he’s using a lot of the things he learned as a student at Pace.
For his job, Adam reports stories all day, and working with ePortfolio has helped him know how to tell stories better. “ePortfolio helps you tell your own story in a fun and exciting way,” Adam said. “This has helped with my job at CNN because I need to tell stories in an engaging way. I learned how to do this by working on my own ePortfolio and helping others with theirs.
Adam hasn’t been on ePortfolio recently, but he plans to update the content when he has more to add.
We’re glad to see how well Adam has been doing, and we wish him nothing but the best!

On November 6th, the Mobile Tech User Group met for a presentation by Devin Mclaughlin, Systems Engineer at Apple. Attendees got an inside look at new features and improvements in the latest versions of Apple’s operating systems – iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. Mclaughlin’s talk was also geared towards practical applications of Apple’s hardware in education settings including how to use Apple TV in the classroom to create an ad hoc network to AirPlay your iPad wirelessly on a projector or TV screen. Attendees also got a peek at iBeacon, Apple’s new proximity sensor, and the company’s future direction in location-aware apps.