The Center has a range of core programs focusing on specific issues in pedagogy and practice. In addition, we work with a large number of affiliated programs and partners, encouraging interaction, exchange, and a re-examination of the teaching and learning process.

Designed for Learning (DFL)
Contact: Priscilla Stadler, pstadler@lagcc.cuny.edu
Faculty participants in DFL explore the potential of new media and instructional technology to enrich student learning. Taking part in an intensive year-long professional development process, DFL faculty attend a series of seminars and four-day institutes and become part of a supportive community that engages in dialogue, reflection, training, and classroom experimentation. Carrying new ideas and techniques back to their departments, they become professional development leaders, transforming pedagogical practice throughout the institution.

ePortfolio in the Professions
Contact: Ros Orgel, roslyno@lagcc.cuny.edu
The ePortfolio in the Professions seminar reflects the convergence of two key trends. First, more and more students are being introduced to ePortfolio early in their studies at LaGuardia. Second, there is growing interest nationwide in the use of ePortfolio in professional learning, certification, and career advancement. In the ePortfolio in the Professions seminar, faculty who teach required and key courses in professional majors will work together to learn about these trends and test strategies for advanced use of ePortfolio by LaGuardia students.

ePortfolio Scholars Colloquium
Contact: Ros Orgel, roslyno@lagcc.cuny.edu
In the ePortfolio Scholars Colloquium, experienced ePortfolio faculty will advance their understandings and contribute to the growing educational dialogue about ePortfolio pedagogy by preparing scholarly articles and presentations. Identifying their own inquiries, faculty will document their own practice and investigate the effect of ePortfolio on their teaching and student learning. They will also have access to the rich data generated by ePortfolio at LaGuardia. Readings will include existing scholarship on ePortfolio and examples of classroom research methods developed by the national Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) movement. Seminars will help participants prepare articles and/or professional presentations relevant to classroom and professional uses of ePortfolio.

ePortfolio Leadership Network
Contact: Ros Orgel, roslyno@lagcc.cuny.edu
Scores of faculty collegewide have taken part in ePortfolio seminars and are implementing ePortfolio in their classes.  In 2007-8, some will continue in ePortfolio-intensive seminars, while others will take on responsibilities in other areas.  Recognizing an important need expressed by many faculty, the Center will host a series of four gatherings during the year, helping all of us to stay in touch, hear about what each other is doing, and learn about relevant developments at the College and in the field. 

Focus on the Learning Community
LaGuardia faculty have a long tradition of excellence in building effective learning communities.  This seminar builds upon that tradition, offering faculty who are teaching in a range of learning community structures (First Year Academies, ESL Pairs and Clusters, Liberal Arts Clusters) the chance to meet together with partners, learn new approaches to interdisciplinary teaching, and plan their shared courses.  To be eligible, faculty must be teaching in one of these learning communities: ASAP Learning Communities, Liberal Arts Clusters, First Year Academy Clusters, ESL Pairs and ESL Clusters are eligible.  At least 2 members of each team should apply to participate (full teams can also apply.)

The Carnegie Seminar on Scholarship, Teaching & Integration
Contact: Michele Piso, mpiso@lagcc.cuny.edu
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has sparked a national conversation in higher education about ways to apply the tools of scholarship to the study of teaching and learning. The year-long Carnegie Seminar on Scholarship, Teaching & Integration offers LaGuardia faculty an introduction to the scholarship of teaching and learning and an opportunity to engage in self-directed inquiry into the nature of teaching and student learning in their own classrooms. Building upon participants’ prior pedagogical inquiries (nurtured particularly in programs such as Designed for Learning, Writing in the Disciplines and Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum, or in work with learning communities and First Year Academies) the seminar provides faculty with opportunities to deepen their understandings and prepare to go public with their insights, using vehicles ranging from course portfolios and conference presentations to scholarly articles.

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum (CTAC)
Contact: John Chaffee, jcthink@aol.com
The Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum program at LaGuardia is based on the assumption that thinking is a process that can be understood and improved through proper study and practice. Participating faculty explore the cognitive process and develop new classroom activities and assignments that help students develop higher order thinking, problem-solving and reasoning abilities. Faculty revise curriculum to integrate critical thinking skill-building activities into targeted courses, encourage students to deposit critical thinking assignments in their ePortfolios, and share and reflect on their experiences teaching these revised courses.

Building Information Literacy in the Disciplines (BILD)
Contact: Michele Piso, mpiso@lagcc.cuny.edu
As learners, citizens, and consumers, our students are confronted with an unprecedented array of information sources. New digital technology opens doorways to a wealth of information. The opportunities for learning are exciting. But the challenges are real. Building Information Literacyin the Disciplines offers LaGuardia faculty from across the college an opportunity to work together to develop and test a range of strategies, including the use of ePortfolio, to build students’ critical research and information literacy skills.

Oral Communication Across the Curriculum (OCxC)
Contact: Ros Orgel, roslyno@lagcc.cuny.edu
Aimed at cultivating student communication skills in courses across the curriculum, this seminar helps participating faculty develop strategies which help students improve communication skills and use these skills to demonstrate learning in courses across disciplines. Through active-learning “hands-on” activities, reflection and discussion, faculty will develop and test strategies to address students’ oral communication difficulties and advance their proficiency.  Faculty revise curriculum to integrate oral communication skill-building activities into targeted courses, and engage students in the use of ePortfolios to share and reflect on these activities and assignments.   

Project Quantum Leap
Contact: Bret Eynon, beynon@lagcc.cuny.edu
LaGuardia’s Project Quantum Leap brings faculty from mathematics and other disciplines together to adapt the nationally recognized Project SENCER approach of teaching science and higher-level mathematics in “compelling contexts” to a new setting and population:  LaGuardia’s high-risk urban community college students in basic skills mathematics classes.  Launched in January 2007, the first cohort of faculty are working together in a year long program that will conclude in December. Applications for the January - December 2008 seminar program will be available in Fall 2007.

Rethinking the Internship Seminar Experience
Contact: Diane Ducat, dducat@lagcc.cuny.edu
Experiential education is a powerful pedagogy, as national data and the LaGuardia experience confirm.  Internships can be rich learning experiences for students, particularly when they build upon and deepen substantial disciplinary learning.  In Rethinking the Internship Seminar Experience (RISE), discipline faculty and Co-op faculty will work toward reconceptualizing Co-op internship seminars, using an integrative learning model to align disciplinary program learning goals and Co-op seminar/ internship experiences.  Participants will also explore the pedagogy of online courses.  Each participant will then pilot and co-teach a newly designed Co-op internship seminar in the Fall II and Spring I semesters.

New Faculty Colloquium
Contact: Judit Törörk, jtorok@lagcc.cuny.edu
Faculty are provided with the support they need to become highly skilled, committed, and effective professionals. Through a series of seminars and workshops, participants connect with other newcomers and senior faculty, and become familiar with key facets of LaGuardia's uniquely diverse learning environment.

Visible Knowledge Project (VKP)
Contact: Gail Green-Anderson, greenga@lagcc.cuny.edu
LaGuardia is one of 13 core campuses participating in this five-year, four million dollar project aimed at improving the quality of college and university teaching. At the core of the Visible Knowledge Project is a commitment to the scholarship of teaching and learning, the systematic inquiry by faculty into their own teaching and student learning, with a particular focus on new media environments.

Student Technology Mentors (STMs)
Contact: Josephine Corso, jcorso@lagcc.cuny.edu
The STM program creates partnerships between students and faculty in exploring the use of digital media in the classroom. STMs receive intensive training and unique experiences that prepare them for success in education and career. They work closely with LaGuardia faculty, helping them design, create, utilize, and maintain technology-enriched teaching resources. Many STMs have gone on to pursue technology careers in four-year colleges, and several have remained on our staff as Instructional Design Assistants, mentoring new STMs and working on increasingly sophisticated projects.

Adjunct Training Program
Contact: Josephine Corso, jcorso@lagcc.cuny.edu
Adjunct professors can explore a variety of professional development opportunities, including technology skills training in BlackBoard and Microsoft Powerpoint. The goal is to create a supportive learning community and enhance the connection between full- and part-time teaching faculty.

New Vistas: Looking with MoMA and Other Arts Partnerships
Contact: Michele Piso, mpiso@lagcc.cuny.edu
Western Queens is exploding with opportunities for the College community to explore a variety of artistic media and expression. The Center’s partnerships with museums and art institutions provide LaGuardia faculty with a rich array of programs and resources tailored to the needs of our students. The Center helps faculty incorporate visits to P.S. 1, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Museum for African Art and the Noguchi Museum into curricula to invigorate and enliven LaGuardia courses. Although the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has moved back to Manhattan, we continue to strengthen and grow the valuable partnership that was created between our institutions during our years as neighbors. MoMA’s museum educators continue to give lectures in the Little Theatre and visit LaGuardia classrooms, and our students continue to participate in guided class visits to the museum, collaboratively planned by our faculty and MoMA education staff.