Recently in Conferences Category

The NJEDge 10th Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase 2009 was held on Friday, March 13 at the College of Saint Elizabeth. SHU faculty and TLTC staff conducted two presentations at the annual conference:

Journeying through Digital Storytelling - Dr. Mary Balkun, Dr. Marian Glenn, Heidi Trotta and Mary Zedeck

A New Tool in the Shed: Google SketchUp - Dr. Matt Hale and Heidi Trotta

Find information about the keynote speakers at the conference, here.

Find information about additional faculty presentations, here.

Last semester the TLT Center embarked on a new pilot program integrating the Amazon Kindle at Seton Hall University. The pilot focused on two courses, Ideas and Trends and The Journey of Transformation. The former is an independent study course taught by Prof. Jack Shannon and the later a required course for all Freshman taught by Prof. Kelly Shea. Students were given Amazon Kindles (electronic ebook readers) to use during the Fall 2008 semester. The Instructional Design Team downloaded the required course readings on to the Kindles, provided a brief overview to students and had them sign a contract promising to return the devices at the culmination of the pilot. The students were given two assessments. A mid-semester survey was given to gauge their thoughts on the Kindle and to uncover any technical problems they may have been experiencing. A survey on Reading Attitudes and Habits was given at the end of the semester. The results of the survey showed that there were some limitations to the function of the Kindle. This included not having page numbers (the text size can be increased and decreased on the Kindle screen), not being able to highlight text across pages, slow navigation from one page to the next, and slow connection to the Internet. The Reading Attitudes and Habits survey showed that students prefer to jump ahead and skim text and chapter topics prior to reading as well as go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas. The Kindle 2 was released last month and will likely resolve many of the technical issues that our students encountered. By far, the majority of students said that they would use the Kindle again if given the opportunity and overwhelmingly thought that the best feature was the ability to purchase books at a lower cost and have multiple text books on one mobile electronic reader.

Riad Twal and Melissa McDowell recently presented at NERCOMP (North East Regional Computing Conference) in Providence, RI on the Kindle Pilot. Click HERE to view the presentaton.

The TLT Center and several faculty members presented at two annual conferences during the month of November, 2008. The first conference, NEConnect, was held at the Montclair State University Conference Center.

Seton Hall conducted four sessions at the NEConnect conference. Click on the titles to see the presentations:

• A New Tool for the Shed: Google SketchUp, presented by Matt Hale and Heidi Trotta


• Imagine the Possibilities: Online Tech Tools for 21st Century Teaching and Learning, presented by Mary Zedeck


• The ePirate: Using Web 2.0 Tools to Capture Faculty Interest, presented by Melissa McDowell and Danielle Mirliss


• Learning in a Virtual Environment: Managing Emergency Preparedness and Health Security Using Second Life as a Teaching Tool, presented by Anne Hewitt, Susan Spencer and Riad Twal

• ePirate: Using Web2.0 Tools to Capture Faculty Interest, presented by Melissa McDowell and Danielle Mirliss


• The Implementation of New Technology to Complement the Paperless Delivery of the MBA course Corporate Social Responsibility, presented by Jack Shannon, Sue O'Sullivan and Riad Twal


• Assessment: How Surveys and ePortfolios Make a Difference in University Settings, presented by Martin Sandler, Mary Zedeck and Paul Fisher


• Template Creation Forging Learning Management System (Bb), PPT, Quality Matters Rubric, and Discussion on its Successes and Challenges, presented by Renee Cicchino


• Second Life - Seton Hall University's Initiative to Implement the Online Virtual Environment, presented by Mary Balkun and Mary Zedeck


• Implementing Multimedia Resources: The Creation of Digital Stories in the Anthropology/Sociology Department at Seton Hall, presented by Shayle Abelkop and Mary Zedeck

Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, held November 4 - 6, was the twelfth in a series of Virtual Symposiums sponsored by the New Media Consortium. This conference, delivered via the virtual world of Second Life, examined unconventional, yet highly effective methods of teaching and learning either in the form of new tools, open educational systems, activist learning, or next killer applications.

Conference 2008: Leading and Inspiring Change for Successful Learning!

When: Friday, November 14
Where: Montclair State University Conference Center

Early bird registration ends October 20, 2008

Why attend:
1. Keynote Speaker Curt Garbett Vice President from Spencer Johnson Partners,
Using principles and ideas from the bestselling book Who Moved My Cheese? offering a unique approach for individuals
and businesses facing changing times
2. Dynamic Presentations from faculty and colleagues on a) Technology Literacy, b) Social Networking and collaborative tools, c) Assessment and Digital Competencies, and d) Second Life
3. Networking opportunities
4. "Birds of Feather" round table discussions
5. Vendor displays
6. After party

For additional information, click here

LaGuardia Community College, located in Long Island City NY, hosted an ePortfolio conference this past Friday. Seton Hall presented two presentations, one was a hands-on session that replicated the Covey 7 Habits of Effective Students ePortfolio assignment adopted by Freshman Studies. Hezal Patel, Mary Zedeck and Danielle Mirliss facilitated the session. Participants expressed a lot of interest in the Freshman Studies program and how the ePortfolio is integrated into the curriculum. The last part of the presentation allowed participants to use Google Page Creator to create the start of their own ePortfolio. To find out more about the conference visit: http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/conference/

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Seton Hall University is part of Cohort III of the I/NCEPR whose mission is to investigate innovative methods as well as learning outcomes for eportfolio experiences. In addition to SHU, Cohort III includes members from California State University, Florida State University, Framingham State University, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, Penn State University, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Waterloo and University of Wolverhampton amongst others.

On Monday, January 28th a team from Seton Hall University presented at the Educause Learning Initiative's Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Tracy Gottlieb, Paul Fisher and Danielle Mirliss presented on the use of electronic portfolios in the Freshman Studies program.
Session abstract:

Seton Hall University utilizes eportfolios to support the development of first year students. By providing an interactive window of exchange, eportfolios provide greater access and the capacity to explore issues of student adjustment, person-environment fit solutions, student self-expression, and identity development backed by an evidence-based repository of artifacts for analysis.

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Last week, an Educause event, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference 2008 was held in Baltimore, Maryland. Two members from the TLTC, Mary Zedeck and Heidi Trotta presented with Dr. Mary Balkun, Chair of the English Department. The presentation was entitled "Exploring Literary Texts Through Virtual Worlds." There was a lot of interest from other universities expressed during and after the presentation pointing especially toward the student use of Second Life as "co-creators" of Seton Hall's virtual island.

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The TLTC has been busy! Conferences are a wonderful opportunity for faculty and the TLTC to meet individuals from other Universities as well as to learn about how others manage issues and foster initiatives. We have presented at several conferences during the Fall 2007 Semester and we will also be presenting during the Spring 2008 semester.