NJEDge.net Faculty Showcase

PCCC faculty and staff are presenting at the NJEDge.net Best Practices Faculty Showcase on March 16, 2012, held at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.

The Best Practices Faculty Showcase is a place for NJ faculty and academics to share innovative teaching methods that involve technology. Each year, over 20 sessions are presented at this one-day event.

PCCC will have the following presenters this year.

Kenneth Ronkowitz, "Unintended Consequences: Measuring Faculty Buy-in to Instructional Technology"

"Besides redesigning 25 GenEd courses across disciplines to include more writing, an initiative at PCCC has been to introduce instructional technology into those same courses. Now in its fifth year, we have found varied success with the six technology components. This presentation looks at the assessment of "faculty buy-in" (or lack thereof) for e-portfolios, video lecture capture, supplementary websites, streaming media, reusable learning objects and online gaming. Through surveys of faculty and students and focus groups, we have tried to determine the best practices that led to faculty using technology in the intended and some unintended ways. Through data from institutional research, we have determined what impact the initiative has had on overall student success. Our efforts have been the 2012 National Council of the Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Two-Year Colleges in fostering student success."

Elizabeth Nesius, "Creating a Helpdesk Where None Exists"

"As the use of technology in education continues to increase, so does the need to train people to use it effectively. When an institution cannot provide a 24/7 helpdesk to assist students, faculty are often level one support for students, although the faculty themselves may not know how to help with technological issues students have. At PCCC, one way we have found to address the growing need for technology training is through the use of "lecture capture" software like ECHO 360 or Camtasia Relay to create short training videos on specific topics. Not only have training videos reduced the amount of technology training faculty need, but they also have had the unintended consequence of reaching a broader audience than a help desk or in-person training session, which has allowed for broader adoption of new technology. It can also reduce costs, as it provides an alternative to a help desk when dealing with common problems. In the future, we intend to develop short videos not only for technology training, but also for concepts that apply across disciplines so that some content can be offloaded from the classroom, giving faculty more time to spend on course content."

Richard Lauria, "Wiki-fy Your Class"

"A wiki is web page that you create and use to help you teach your classes. It's more than a blog and less than a LMS (Learning Management System). At a minimum, wikis can be used for organizing your class: an electronic bulletin board with your syllabus, course schedule and contact information posted. Another possibility is to use it as a resource: a repository of links, articles and videos to supplement what gets taught in the classroom. To truly wiki-fy your class, you let the students build it. You start with an address and a skeleton structure, but you give students access and let them populate the pages of the wiki. Regardless how you decide to use it, a wiki can be a very powerful tool. I will demonstrate how to create your very own wiki and start using it in your class today."


NJEDge.net is a consortium of academic and research institutions in NJ. Their main focus is innovative uses of education technology and the development of new technologies.

For more information on NJEDge.net, go to http://njedge.net/. For more information about the Best Practices Faculty Showcase, go to http://njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2012/index.php.

2012 Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Programs in English Award

Passaic County Community College's Title V Writing Initiative is the winner of the 2012 Diana Hacker TYCA Award for Outstanding Program in English for Two-Year Colleges and Teachers!

PCCC's “Increasing Achievement and Program Completion through Curriculum Reform” program has been selected as the exemplary program in the category of Fostering Student Success.

As stated on NCTE's website, "The Diana Hacker TYCA Outstanding Programs in English Awards for Two-Year Colleges and Teachers is given annually and honors two-year teachers and their colleges for exemplary programs that enhance students’ language learning, helping them to achieve their college, career, and personal goals."

The awards focuses on programs—broad initiatives—rather than single classes or classroom strategies. Programs may be exclusive to the discipline of English or work in combination with other disciplines, college services, or community and workplace groups." Each year submissions are evaluated and up to four awards are given.

The Writing Initiative at PCCC program is being honored "for the creative response to the challenges of educating two-year college students and for demonstrating professionalism in the commitment to educating diverse student populations."

 Winners are deemed to have the following:

• thoughtful responses to the educational needs of diverse students
• creative and innovative strategies that solve problems and provide solutions which go beyond the usual borders and cross traditional lines
• success in meeting goals documented by both evaluative qualitative and quantitative research
• exemplary programs that can be shared so that other teachers and colleges can benefit by adopting or adapting them
• collegiality and collaboration among those who participate in or are affected by the programs
• sensitive to the educational, cultural, ethnic and business community
• pedagogy informed by sound language theory and practices. 

The Title V Writing Initiative team includes Greg Fallon, Associate Dean for Learning Resources and Project Director Title V, Ken Ronkowitz, Director of the Writing Initiative, Elizabeth Nesius, Writing Center Coordinator, Martha Brozyna, Writing Center Educational Specialist and Ken Karol, Technology Resource Specialist.

Fallon, Ronkowitz and Nesius will receive the award at the 2012 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) on March 24th in St. Louis. In addition, the winners will be published in the journal, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and regional TYCA and NCTE newsletters.

For additional information on the PCCC Writing Initiative   www.pccc.edu/initiative