Q4 2019 CW Review

Q4: JULY  SEPTEMBER, 2019 ISSUE #153

CW’S MISSION The College of Westchester graduates individuals who have completed transformative and purposeful educational experiences that provide the foundation for successful, relevant professional careers. As an academically student-centered, culturally diverse college, CW is committed to providing the highest quality of education for all career and entrepreneurial-minded students through the delivery of a carefully constructed and focused curriculum, informed by regional employers. The College supports and encourages academic excellence, career advancement, professional integrity, financial responsibility, and good citizenship through a distinctive and highly personal campus environment.

Inside President’s Corner: “The Importance of the Human Connection” Page 1

The Best Uses of EdTech: Providing Students CHOICE Page 2

It’s Open Enrollment Time Again for Employee Benefits!

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The Bachelor of Science in Information Technology Page 9

President’s Corner: “The Importance of the Human Connection” Mary Beth Del Balzo Thank you all for making our biggest start a big success. We implemented a lot of changes this time around, some of which included: • Two orientation sessions • Major-specific lanyards for all new students • Family orientation same day as students The goal with implementing these changes was to excite and engage our students, and I hope we succeeded.

While there were surely some hiccups, this is to be expected with any new practice, but should you have any suggestions on how we can further improve things in the future, I’d love to hear them.

Now the real work begins, and that is to keep our students engaged and in school through graduation. Remember the 27/10/10 Retention Strategy? While we have moved away from using that phrase to describe retention and are in the process of revising our Retention Strategies, there is one constant, and that constant is that statistics still prove that if students persist past the first 27 credits, 1 | Q4 REVIEW

they are very likely to graduate. It starts with keeping them engaged in the classroom. Additionally, we must remain very hands on with our students and recognize and intervene when a student is struggling. We’ve always been commended for our stellar customer service and this must never falter. A positive college experience is more than the education, it’s about the human connection. Take the time to engage the student whenever you are presented with the opportunity. You’d be surprised how far a “hello” or “how are you?” can go.

Students need to know we care and are here to help them. I know we have a team that cares like no other, but we could all use reminders from time to time, including me.

What we do would not be so rewarding or successful if we did not all truly understand, embrace, and fulfill our mission daily. So, thank you for carrying on our mission and our students’ dreams.

I sincerely appreciate and respect the hard work and dedication of each and every faculty, staff and administrator.

Here’s to a fantastic fall semester!

The Best Uses of EdTech: Providing Students CHOICE K. Walsh, CIO, Assistant Prof.

The Engaging Power of Choice…

Lately, I've been focusing on the relationship between education technology and student success.

Just last week, this article in Campus Technology magazine stated that, based on a recent survey, “more than half of faculty believe classroom tech increases student engagement”. I guess that's a good thing, but frankly I find that statement a bit disturbing. It is fine to assume that some kids will enjoy using technology in the educational setting, but it is highly misleading to infer that technology alone will equate to engagement.

This is one of the reasons we read about huge tech failures in schools.

There needs to be an informed approach to the use of technology for teaching and learning, not just an assumption that a device and software will magically lead to improvements.

There is no shortage of research that can help us understand how students learn best, and we need to incorporate that sort of learning science into how we choose to leverage technology. For example, we recently considered how technology can be used to support practicing spaced repetition for improved memory. We also explored some Do's and Don'ts for more effective digital content creation and delivery, based on what learning science tells us.

The relationship between CHOICE and student engagement In this post, I want to examine and share the relationship between CHOICE and effective student engagement and learning. There is a lot of research on this and we as educators would do well to keep this in mind and look for

opportunities to incorporate student choice in our teaching practices. There are also many ways to leverage technology as a part of giving students choices.

The article “To engage students, give them meaningful choices in the classroom” in the journal Phi Delta Kappan, explains that autonomy, competence, and relatedness are what makes choice engaging for students. “When students associate feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness with choice, then choice is most likely to result in beneficial outcomes, such as student engagement.”

Autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. In other words, choices need to be real. If you give students two or three terrible choices, that's not going to work. Students need

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choices that they feel are meaningful.

Students need to feel competent that they can be successful with one or more of the choices they are offered. A choice of options that one cannot succeed with is really no choice at all.

As for relatedness, students (as do all of us) do better when they can relate ideas they are learning about to their own world. This reminds me of the interview I did with chemistry teacher and flipped learning early adopter Mark Seigel, in which he explained that he would ask students to look for examples of chemical reactions in the kitchen over Thanksgiving.

Sometimes it will be easy to relate learning to our students' worlds and sometimes it may be a stretch, but is always worth it. Hint: if you are really at a loss, consider engaging with students and working together to figure out how something relates to their lives.

Exploring the connection of choice and learning further, A.J. Juliani reminds us that research shows that choice enhances ownership, which leads to empowerment and ultimately to deeper learning.

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In writing about his book, Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn, Mike Anderson reminds us that choice can also help us address the challenge of differentiation. For example, if students are given a choice of books to read, they are likely to self-differentiate and select a book appropriate to their reading level, which will help to ensure a more engaging reading experience.

In that same article, Anderson also writes about the relationship between choice and the “The Zone of Proximal Development and Engagement” (where students are appropriately challenged).

So how/where can we provide opportunities for students to choose?

Here are some examples of how we can give choice, and how technology can play a role in providing students opportunities to choose.

Choices in Learning Content and Pathways We are reminded above of the simple idea of offering different books to read. Similarly, when any assignment is being given, consider how you can provide choices.

Students can select their own projects (from a long list, or suggest one themselves). Give students choices of learning materials (“everyone must read Chapter 6, and then pick 2 videos or articles from this list and share something you learned from each”).

In many courses, you can give students choices in how they move through the topics that need to be learned. My Flipped Learning Network colleague Matthew T. Moore is a big fan of “non-linear” approaches to learning, as explained in this piece, Breaking Through The Lines: Non-linear Planning Provides Choice. Moore offers suggestions for Making Lessons Non-Linear In 5 Minutes-ish.

Choices in Assessment If I recall correctly, Mark Seigel (noted above, with link to interview) told me that he routinely had four quizzes available for each topic. Students could choose to improve their grade on a quiz for a given topic by taking another one if they wished. They could also take multiple quizzes to reinforce learning. Some students were “one

and done” and some took all four every time. It was their choice.

Returning to the Phi Delta Kappan article we have this example: “Every day, Ms. H prepared two warm-up problems, each with the same mathematical content but situated in different contexts — for example, one problem might have to do with hiking and the other with flying. The two contexts were always on the board, and during the first minute of class, students were allowed to vote for the one that interested them. In order to make sure that they could vote, some students began to arrive to class early, and overall, the number of students who were late went down. The motivation to select a context carried over into actually doing the warm-up problem.

According to Ms. H, all students began to actively engage in doing the warm-up, which had not occurred before she began offering students the choice of contexts.”

Look at the benefits that offering choice resulted in in this example – students were engaged to the point of showing up for class earlier!

We can leverage technology as a part of making choices and how we assess by letting students choose how to demonstrate their learning.

They can choose to write a paper, create a slide deck or other type of presentation (Infographic, Prezi presentation), or create a video to demonstrate their understanding of a topic.

Technology and Choice In addition to the example just provided, there are lots of other ways that digital technology can be a part of the equation of choice in the classroom.

Research: The world wide web offers seemingly endless resources for learning. Students can select from formal documents (research papers, news articles, etc.) or less formal sources (blogs). They can tap into experts and resources via social media (Twitter is a great place to search out experts or focus on a topic by searching for relevant hashtags). They can look for videos on their chosen subjects. Of course, using these sources also requires them to work to differentiate between legitimate, authoritative sources and unsupported, uninformed sources, which is a vital skill to develop.

Collaboration: If students wish to collaborate on a project or assignment, they can choose from many different platforms for doing so. There are video chat tools like

Skype or Hangouts (which is going through some changes), collaborative editing platforms like Google Docs, team tools like Slack for collecting resources and communicating, and so on.

Creation: For courses that allow for creativity, like writing, art, music, photography, and so on, there are often many tools and techniques students can choose from to let them practice and demonstrate their learning. Mindmapping tools and spelling and grammar checkers for writing, painting and digital drawing and design tools for art classes, music practice apps and backing tracks to practice over – the list goes on and on.

Study/Review: In my recent piece on the effectiveness of Spaced Repetition for memory and recall, I wrote about how students can build their own spaced repetition “technology” by combining digital tools.

The article, What Giving Students Choice Looks Like in the Classroom, on the KQED news “Mindshift” site provides more examples of providing opportunities for choice.

So how do YOU provide choices in your classrooms or courses?

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WELCOME TO EVERYWHERE

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Whether you have a question, want to learn about events on campus, or need to reach out to someone, you can connect with your campus community.

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Campus services, course information, and more are just a tap away.

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Customize your app to the way you want it.

With favorites and your personalized schedule, this app will be unique to you.

SEARCH FOR COLLEGE OF WESTCHESTER & DOWNLOAD! Q4 REVIEW | 5

It’s Open Enrollment Time Again for Employee Benefits!

By Anna Bravo, Human Resources Manager s many of you know, this is the time of year when our employee benefit plans renew and we offer open enrollment to all eligible employees. During the months of November and December informational open enrollment meetings will be held to cover all of the benefits available to you, your plan options and any important changes that you need to be aware of.

Please be sure to read all of the announcements that will be coming out soon via email and please take the time to come to one of the open enrollment meetings. Please also pay close attention to the enrollment deadlines!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at ext. 353.

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Amazon is Amazing: Help Support the College of Westchester Charitable Foundation Do you like to shop online? If so, chances are you’ve done shopping on www.amazon.com once or twice, or a hundred. Amazon really is amazing. Not only can you find virtually anything you are looking for on this site, but if you’re a Prime Member, you can also have your stuff on your doorstep in two days. Can’t beat it!

Another amazing thing about Amazon is that through their AmazonSmile program, they will donate .05% of your purchase to the charity of your choice. This is a great way to donate to our very own College of Westchester Charitable Foundation. It’s very easy to do. To register your charity, go to www.smile.amazon.com, and you will be prompted to select the charitable organization from almost one million eligible organizations, and College of Westchester Charitable Foundation is one of those organizations. From then on, for all eligible purchases, AmazonSmile will donate .05% to the charity.

AmazonSmile is a website operated

by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices, and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com.

Thanks in advance for your support of the CWCF Foundation!

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by The CW Way Commitee t’s that time of year again! We will soon be sending out our annual email asking for Employee of the Year and Faculty of the Year nominations, so it’s time to start thinking about which of your colleagues are deserving of this prestigious award!

This is a peer-nominated award and a special honor for any CW employee to receive. So, your input is critical to this process!

The Employee of the Year and Faculty of the Year Awards are presented each year to one staff member and one faculty member who have truly demonstrated The CW Way by their outstanding dedication to CW and through significant contributions to the well-being of CW students, prospective students, graduates, employers and fellow employees. They are CW employees who truly exemplify all of the facets of The CW Way philosophy, as outlined in the four CW Way statements.

We look forward to receiving your nominations!

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The Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (IT) written by Dr. Grace Bonanno, Chairperson of the School of Information Technology The Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (IT) degree program is now 1.5 years old and our first graduating class (six students) was this past graduation, May 2019. As with the Associate program, the classes in the Bachelor program are designed to offer students the opportunity to not only learn specific IT skills (programming, database, network administration, and network security) but also offers the resources and content to help prepare students for industry certification exams. One of the specific classes students take is NET410 Cyber Counterintelligence which teaches the CCNA Cybersecurity Operations curriculum. This curriculum provides an introduction to the knowledge and skills needed for a Security Analyst working with a Security Operations Center team. It teaches core security skills needed for monitoring, detecting, investigating, analyzing and responding to security events, thus protecting systems and organizations from cybersecurity risks, threats and vulnerabilities. As part of the curriculum, students participate in a Cyber-ops Fast Track Security Challenge. Twenty-five state governors and the SANS Institute launched Cyber FastTrack on April 5 as the first step in a national initiative to close the US cybersecurity skills gap. Cyber FastTrack gives

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every college student in each of the governors' states a way to "play a game" to discover their aptitude to excel in the field. More than 13,000 students played and, on May 20, 2,400 of them had reached the quarterfinal round where they are playing for $2.5 million in scholarships, and direct introductions to employers for internships and employment. During the Winter 2019 semester, Dr. Nwosisi’s Cyber Counterintelligence class participated and completed PART I of the Cyber-ops Fast Track Security Challenge and three of them went on to Part II. Because of the aptitude of our IT students, CW was ranked number two (#2) of all New York state colleges that participated in the competition.

See the results here: https://www.sans.org/cyber-fast-track/state-ranking

In addition and similar to the other CW Bachelor programs, students are required to take an Internship class before they graduate. Out of the six students graduating this year, three students, who worked full-time, used their current employment positions to complete an IT-related project for their current employers.

The additional three students were placed at companies/organizations that have partnered with CW and Career Services.

The companies/organizations (WJCS, Compufit, and Acorda Therapeutics) that hosted our three interns were so impressed with our students, that each student was hired full-time by the companies/organizations that hosted them for their internship.

Although this program is still young in its existence, it is evident so far, that the BS in IT is a great choice for those who are seeking a career in Information Technology.

Halloween

Drawing is Here Basket Drawing, sponsored by CW, benefiting: St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Visit the Admissions Office lobby and Student Services to see the two baskets on display.

Six tickets for $5.00 or $1.00 each Return the tickets and money to: Admissions, Career Services, Student Services, or the Bookstore Please make checks payable to: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Winners will be announced at the Halloween Party in the Student Center Thursday, October 31st at 2:30 PM No need to be present to win.

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Q4 Highlights 1

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Students vs.

Faculty/Staff Softball Game & BBQ

Day Orientation

Allied Health Career Cafe

Club Day

JDC Passing the torch Q4 REVIEW | 11