The Old Professor

This summer I will turn sixty.  How odd that my professional career would have taken such twists and turns at a time of life when most of the folks at my last high school reunion had either talking about retirement or had already done so.

Two years ago I became an administrator at Mercy, and now I've decided to do a little moonlighting.  On Friday, I signed a contract as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Teacher Education Department at Madonna University.  I'll be instructor for a small section of Masters Degree students in Leadership in Technology.

"Classical Scholar" CC photo by lisby1

I'm very excited to teach the course, and I feel like I do have some experiences to share in this area.  Nevertheless, it has been about thirty years since I attended a university class.  And though I logged lots of college classroom time as a student, those traditional academic qualifications have little to do with my new role.

I think that it is very telling that I find myself in this position due to factors like this blog, being an Apple Distinguished Educator, and my professional learning network.  

Ironically, many moons ago I entered (but eventually abandoned) a doctoral program in Instructional Technology-- a field so new at the time that my advisor pretty much had to create my program as we went along. I do not regret some of that coursework but of course it has little bearing on the course I will be taking.  What I view as my strong areas for Leadership in Technology have largely come through collaborations with folks like Lucy Gray, Katie Morrow, Tom James, Susan Smith, and so many others.

Well, this will be another fun challenge and I expect that I will learn more than I teach.

A Look into Design Foundations

I have blogged previously about our Design Foundations course.  As part of Mercy 2.0, our Art Department chairperson, Susan Smith, has designed a marvelous course that we now require of all students.  It introduces each student to multimedia and technology from the artist's perspective.  Students create pieces with traditional materials but also work with animation, audio files, and video editing (using professional grade software).  The students also design web portfolios.

On April 10, Susan made a presentation to our Board of Trustees.  I asked if I might share her slides with you.  We have removed the videos, but we will publishing some fresh ones at a later date.

Susan's Presentation Slides for Design Foundations

As you can see, we have provided the students with a rich visual and technical experience.  Also a foundation has been built for advanced curriculum which builds upon these skills.  I expect to be posting about our new digital courses in September!

From Susan Smith's slide deck (photo from Sarah, class of 2013)

MACUL 2012 Conference

Today,  we are making a presentation at the MACUL state conference in Grand Rapids, MI.  I will be joined by two of Mercy High School's department chairpersons, Ann Lusch (Religious Studies) and Susan Smith (Art).  Our topic will be  "Free Multimedia Activities for Secondary Students That Don't Gobble Time!"

We hope to fly through as many tech tools and lessons as our time constraints allow. By taking a multi-disciplinary approach, we hope to inspire rather than instruct.  In other words, rather than laboriously showing our lessons, we hope to give a taste of several easy recipes, hoping that each person in attendance will find one or two things for his or her students. 

Here are the slides that we will use at our presentation:

 "Free Multimedia Activities for Secondary Students That Don't Gobble Time!"