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STC 145

Keynote Address 

9:15a-10:00a "Philly's Place in Computer History"

This year's conference keynote will feature our first ever "Inside the Actor's Studio" interview keynote by Jim Scherrer, founding Director of the Philly-based Compuseum, and Bill Mauchly, the son of one of the inventor's of Philly's own first computer, the ENIAC.
 

Long before Silicon Valley, Philly was the hub of vacuum tube electronics and the birthplace of the first general-purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC. That giant machine was the big bang that started the information age and the digital revolution. The ENIAC’s inventors, Eckert and Mauchly, also launched the first computer startup and bootstrapped software as a business, right here in PHILLY!.

Jim Scherrer will interview Bill Mauchly to bring a personal perspective to Philly’s little known computer history, a fascinating story of inspiration, innovation, and a little intrigue. In a far-ranging conversation, they will revisit some of trials and tribulations surrounding the computer itself and an interesting childhood in perhaps the first family of computing, the Mauchly's.

Bill Mauchly has been in the “family business” of computer systems design for over 30 years, where his specialty is audio and video processing.   His career has taken him from an recording engineer to designing digital sampling keyboards to creating high-end Telepresence video conferencing systems for Cisco Systems.  He is currently CTO at BrickVR.  As a close relative of ENIAC, he is involved in promoting Philly’s computer history and frequently speaks on the subject.

Jim Scherrer is a serial innovator and business executive with over 30 years experience in information technology, applied science and business development initiatives. He is the founding director of Compuseum, a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting computer history and founding a permanent museum in the Philadelphia area.   He runs a computer software firm specializing is Customer Management Tools. 

10:15a-11:00a "A Short History of Philadelphia Computer History" Why You Should Care "Moore"

The Philadelphia area—particularly the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School Building--is critical for computing history. For example, Philly is the center of vacuum tube electronics and the evolution of the first general-purpose electronic computer: the ENIAC. In my presentation, the actions surrounding ENIAC is just as important in understanding the making and remaking of the modern computer. As such, this is not simply a history per se but the circumstances, personalities, and ways in which this early machine was used or acted upon that are featured. To understand this fresh historical approach it is necessary to grasp that this presentation is a nod to Bruno Latour's Science in Action, a foundational work of science studies. Artifacts, such as ENIAC and its components, interact in conjunction with human endeavor. The physical ENIAC then is shown to carry out computations but the machine is also examined from the initial sketches and the subsequent action of ENIAC to feature the participation of women in computing. Since ENIAC, Philadelphia is home to a stimulating array of technology and computing.

For over 18 years, G. Mick Smith, PhD has been Provost at Smith Consulting where as chief academic officer he assists small to mid-sized organizations with supervision and oversight of curricular, instructional, and research issues. Prior to his consulting career at an Internet start-up, at universities, in several corporations, and a non-profit, he was a Campus Dean at Strayer University and Professor of Humanities at Hahnemann University where he developed on online History of World Medicine course in 1994; and, in 1997, he earned a Distance Learning Administrator Certificate from Texas A&M University and the Center for Distance Learning Research. He recently completed a Certificate in SEO and Social Media from the University of Western Australia, two certificates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their edX component, Design and Development of Educational Technology (2014) and Design and Development of Games for Learning (2015). Also, Smith was named a Featured Reviewer in Computing Reviews. In addition to his technology background, as an administrator, he earned two more certificates from the Jack Welch Management Institute: Creating a Winning Strategy (2015) and Becoming a Leader (2014). Smith has published widely in gaming, educational technology, and in the history of computing for Computing Reviews, as well as in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, the Bryn Mawr Classical Journal, and the Medieval Review.

11:15a-Noon "Building Community in Virtual & Traditional Organizations: How Do You Keep Workers Connected When They Are Apart?”

Will half of employees be working remotely by 2020?  This is the direction the future of work seems to be moving.  Organizations now more than ever need to focus on building community beyond the physical walls of their business.  This session will focus on a model of community and the experience of the presenters’ that can be applied to both virtual and traditional work environments.  Interactive technology will be demonstrated, including remote participants, that can be used to help remote workers fully engage in their organization and traditional workers engage with remote employees. Following this presentation:

• Participants will understand how to create connections between remote and traditional employees to foster teambuilding, promote collaboration and shared experiences.
• Participants will walk away from this session with ideas of how to incorporate virtual teambuilding activities into their own organizations.
• Participants will participate in a live demonstration of current technology used to build community for remote workers

Dr. Lawrence Cozzens is a Senior Learning and Organization Development professional with expertise in e-Learning. He served in a variety of roles and companies throughout his career, including McKesson, SAP, SmithKline Beecham (GSK), Zenger-Miller (Achieve Global), and CIGNA. He holds a MS in Human Resources Development from Villanova University. His Ph.D. in Human and Organization Development was earned at the Fielding Graduate University, via distance learning. His dissertation was about a learning community in a for-profit organization.

Bethany Adams has a background in both online education and human resources. She has served as a General Manager & Corporate Trainer for Starbucks Coffee Company, the HR Director for Blue Baker Restaurants, and a teacher and administrator at Villanova University, Delaware County Community College, and Blinn College in Bryan, TX. She has taught classes in both a traditional and online environment. Bethany received her BS degree in Psychology from Texas A&M University and Master’s Degree in the field of Organizational Management from Dallas Baptist University.

Dr. Cozzens and Bethany Adams both currently serve as the Assistant Directors in the Graduate HRD Program at Villanova University.  This program has over 400 campus and online students and is currently the largest online program at Villanova.

1:45p-2:30p "Exploring the Flipped Classroom with Pre-Service Teachers"

Offering online courses with field experience components for pre-service teachers can prove challenging for universities.  Providing high quality field experiences is essential to the future success of pre-service teachers. How do colleges and universities provide the content, pedagogy and supervision necessary for success in the classroom in an online environment? This session will discuss the results of a study on one university’s flipped, hybrid field experience class. This mixed methods study compared the online student experiences to the experience of students taking the same course face to face. Self -efficacy scales and the Teacher Knowledge Assessment for the Structure of Language were used to examine similarities and differences in course outcomes for online and face to face courses.

Lori Severino, Ed. is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Special Education at Drexel University. She has created multiple online courses in the field of special education and teaches mainly in an online environment. Her research interests include literacy, dyslexia, creativity, reading comprehension and pre-service teacher preparation. Prior to Drexel, she was a special education teacher for 26 years.

Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo, EdD is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Literacy Studies at Drexel University. Dr. DeCarlo designs and teaches courses in the Teacher Education Program and the Special Education Program. She earned her EdD in Reading, Writing, and Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania.   During her 25 years in education, Dr. DeCarlo has been a classroom teacher, a curriculum leader, and a college professor.  At Drexel she does research in the areas of reading comprehension, learning differences, and information and digital literacies. 

2:45p-3:30p "From Dreams to Reality (Augmented and Virtual)"

With over 2 decades of e-learning experience, Dr. Levy will present innovations from the past, present, and into the future. He will highlight some of his medical education inventions and advances including some of the first laser discs, CD-ROMs, online case-based education, 3-D anatomical and procedural animations, and virtual reality surgical simulation. He will describe the online education work he is doing with IBM Watson and future work he is considering in augmented reality with the Microsoft’s HoloLens. It is true that what were once dreams are now reality, but there are certainly more dreams to come.                   

Dr. Jeffrey Levy is a physician, educator, entrepreneur and an internationally recognized expert in e-Learning. He is the Founder and CEO of CaseNetwork, a medical education company that provides the highest quality case-based medical education coupled with social media and delivered conveniently on mobile devices. He is also a co-founder and Interim Executive Director for the Institute for Surgical Excellence, a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to improving surgical care and patient outcomes. Prior to this, Dr. Levy was co-founder, CEO, and Chief Educational Officer of MedCases, an online medical education company providing continuing medical education to physicians across the world. Dr. Levy has been in the forefront of medical education innovations for over 2 decades. Through his award winning programs, Dr. Levy has educated over 400,000 physicians globally.

3:45p-4:30p "Need a Low-Cost ePortfolio Solution?"

Google sites offers a free solution for ePortfolios for students to organize materials by category, achievements, or projects sequences, and show their work to the world.  A project planning solution.  Google sites is the hub for your google Doc, web articles, blogs, Calendar, hangout session and even discussions; all of your project needs in one place neatly compiled by you and your team.  Site is a tool similar to a course site outside of a LMS that can be your ePortfolio tool or project organizer. 

Alvin Wong, Brightspace Administrator & Faculty Development. As the Brightspace Administrator at Eastern University, I love being able to work in education and technology. I enable faculty to implement online technologies through workshops that have featured a range of online tools: LMS , Web conferencing tool, Google APPs, and more.  By collaborating with instructors, I have also learned of new technologies that we can use at Eastern.  I am passionate about learning new technologies from others as well as demonstrating how to apply new technologies to different field of studies. I presented at a Northeast E-learning Consortium event at Wilmington University and the Technology and Learning Conference event at Montgomery community college.

STC 137

10:15a-11:00a "Persistence Secrets Shared: Reflections of Online Students and Faculty"

Do persistent students think differently than other students?  What do persistent students do that help them achieve success?  This presentation will provide the results of an in-depth case study of persistent online learners and faculty members and identify the personal traits of persistent learners; the interventions that instructors and designers can implement to foster persistence; and the strategies that online programs can utilize to help students persist to graduation.  Time permitting, a discussion will follow wherein attendees can share their most successful persistence interventions. 

Dr. Budash serves as an associate professor and a department chairperson overseeing two online programs at a small, private university in Pennsylvania.  She has worked in higher education for the last 13 years and almost exclusively in online learning for the last eight.  Her specific interests include online program administration, innovative pedagogies, and persistence with online learners.  The opportunities provided by the online learning environment propel her to do everything possible to help her learners achieve their goals.  She holds a PhD in Education from Northcentral University; a Master of Arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a BS in Occupational Therapy from the University of Pittsburgh.  She is a manuscript reviewer for the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and the Online Learning Journal.  She has presented at national and state venues and assists with thesis development for occupational therapy students. 

11:15a-Noon "Using Screen Recording Tools to Increase Instructor Presence in Online Courses"

Even with the volume of text-based communication that is common in online courses, students and instructors frequently report a feeling of isolation. This may be partly due to the lack of visual and audio cues that naturally occur in a traditional classroom. Screen recording technologies provide a way to increase presence as they can offer the opportunity to see and hear the instructor. Screen recording technologies are readily available, easy-to-use, web-based tools that can positively impact instructor-student connections, improve student satisfaction, and increase instructor presence. Instructor presence is indicated as a best practice for online teaching and learning. A six-semester study provides evidence of the effectiveness of using screen recordings to address these issues.

Alan Sebel, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor in the Touro College Graduate School of Education School Leadership Program. Prior to joining Touro he was an adjunct professor at St. John’s University, in New York. His professional background includes more than thirty years as an educator in New York City. He served in a variety of supervisory titles, ending his career with the New York City Department of Education as Deputy Assistant Superintendent in the Chancellor’s Office of Monitoring and School Improvement.

Laurie Bobley, Ed.D. is the Chairperson of the Touro College Graduate School of Education’s-Special Education, Generalist, Grade 7-12 program. Prior to her appointment she was the Director of GSE Online Education with expertise in instructional design and professional development. She began her career in education teaching biology, general science, and environmental science to high school and middle school students in general education and special education settings. At Touro College she has taught Science and Technology methods courses in the Graduate Education and Special Education program.

1:45p-2:30p "There’s Just No Time for Innovation and Collaboration!"

Innovation in all learning environments poses a significant challenge for faculty managing multiple responsibilities. Some faculty express a desire to innovate pedagogically or technologically but often do not know where or how to begin. The Center for Teaching and Learning at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) attempts to bridge pedagogy and technology by using programming that instructs faculty on how to use the newest technology tools while at the same time modeling best pedagogical practices. In part, these practices offer learners the option to use multiple devices when viewing or interacting with content. The Interactive Curricula Experience (iCE) is a locally-developed app and web platform created to promote learner-centered education and provide opportunities for members of the faculty to integrate innovative approaches to education, such as flipped classrooms. Faculty members from each of Jefferson’s colleges continue to build content in iCE and can use it to share course materials like lectures, presentations, interactive quizzes, videos and articles. In addition, it fosters cross-campus collaboration among faculty in Jefferson’s six colleges, which leverages the expertise of each faculty member and promotes efficiency. The platform, in part, creates a central repository where faculty can create or download resources, edit to fit the needs of their students and package into a custom course.

Mary Gozza-Cohen, Ph.D., is a Curriculum & Instruction Specialist in the Center for Teaching and Learning at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia serving faculty across campus. Mary has also served as a full time faculty member in various teacher education programs, Director of Technology Integration and Online Teaching and Learning in a prior institution, and has a passion for effective design and pedagogical practices in all learning environments with a special emphasis on online learning environments. She has conducted research, published and presented on related topics.

Julie D. Phillips, Ph.D., is the Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching & Learning at Thomas Jefferson University. Her primary goal is to assist faculty achieve and exceed teaching and learning goals. Julie helped lead a university-wide curriculum at Temple University that implemented a learner-centered core curriculum based on best practices from the scholarship of teaching and learning. She was involved in the development, evaluation, and assessment of more than 120 courses as well as establishing the competency-based framework, policies and training for the university community.

2:45p-3:30p "Creative Process Power -- How to Spark Ideas in the Learning Environment"

Come to challenge your thinking on how to positively disrupt your organization, and grow a creative culture ready to innovate.

Creativity is secret weapon of the heroes in the new economic.  Ironically, the creative process is as much of a discipline as the 3 R’s, but rarely taught in school or in the business environment.  Highly innovative organizations are setting themselves apart from their competition by learning and growing their creative capacity.  This session will explore the key rudiments of the creative process that you can implement right away to be more effective at solving problems, and help teams of people get better results.  Also, included will be a template for the perfect 1-hour virtual meeting brainstorming format.  Come to challenge your thinking on how to positively disrupt your organization, and grow a creative culture ready to innovate.

Steve Van Valin, CEO and founder of Culturology is an innovation expert and employee engagement strategist.  He works with leaders who believe a high performance culture is the key to unlocking a competitive advantage.  As the leader of QVC’s culture and brand development strategy for more than 13 years, Steve specialized in shaping a highly engaged workforce and innovation processes that propelled the company’s double-digit growth.  Steve has over 25 years of experience developing winning culture and innovation strategy.  He is a talented keynote speaker who sparks insights and inspires action.

3:45p-4:30p "Layers, Triggers, and States. OH MY!"

Calling all who use Power Point to develop training. Learn how you can use Articulate Storyline 2 and make that same training as interactive as you want regardless of delivery methods. No programing needed! Sound too good to be true? It’s true. Just come and find out how to get started. Some advanced ideas will be presented as well for all who currently use Articulate Storyline 2.

Jeffrey Riley is currently an instructional designer with Sunoco University building blended learning approaches for retail training. Jeff has 25+ years of training/developing experience as a one person training team and as part of a learning team. He has used Adobe Captivate, Articulate and Articulate Storyline with the usual Microsoft tools, graphic tools, and various other screen capturing software. Jeff has been a public school teacher and developed learning in the insurance industry, banking, and at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

STC 237

10:15a-11:00a Echo360 “Harness the Need to Stay Connected”

What is one thing in common with today’s student?  Devices.  Whether that is their phone, tablet or laptop, students want to be connected. Why not harness that need into increased connectivity within the classroom.  See how University of Toledo, Indian River State College, Metropolitan Community College and others have combined that need to stay connected with today’s technology in the classroom.  See how these schools have increased classroom engagement with learning capture and analytical tools.

Presenter: Robin Smyers, Manager of Academic Partnerships, Echo360. We believe that improved outcomes start with great moments in the classroom. Developed by educators, Echo360 helps instructors capture and extend those moments to improve student engagement before, during and after class. Through our technology platform, students have 24/7 access to classroom discussion, presentation materials, and the lecture itself.  We generate data that helps instructors and institutions identify problems early and take action.

11:15a-Noon "Hybrid Course Design: Face to Face or Online

1:45p-2:30p "Assessing and Improving Your Online Teaching"

Currently, assessment of online teaching relies on students’ opinions as described in course evaluation forms. Students evaluate their teachers based on their expected grade in the course and their comfort with the teacher and not if the online instructor promoted learning. Since, faculty, like students, attend to what they are evaluated on, educators need a new model for assessing online teaching. Using data from different data sources yields a more accurate picture of the quality of teaching. Faculty can show evidence of critically reflecting on information from different types sources of information: themselves, their students, and literature on how to teach online. Faculty can consider the materials they and their students created for their course as indicators of opportunities to learn and markers of how well the students met the goals of the course. Participants will learn to use a hierarchical model and supporting rubrics for assessing online teaching that integrates best practices of teaching with good assessment principles. The model’s hierarchy identifies the lowest acceptable level as critical assessment of data from many sources, followed by using evidence-based literature to support online teaching practices, and the highest level as using rigorous data collection inform teaching.

Phyllis Blumberg is the Assistant Provost for faculty development and assessment at her university.  She is the author of the book (2014), " Assessing and Improving Your Teaching", published by Jossey-Bass which has rubrics for assessing teaching.  She is a frequent presenter at conferences and universities around the world.

2:45p-3:30p "Enabling Student Success for the Occupational Therapy Certification Examination: A Pilot Program"

3:45p-4:30p "Online Course development: Balancing Student Load and Regulatory Demands"

Meet in the Atrium for Tours

10:15a-11:00a “TECH-SPANSION: Showcasing the Evolution of Technology at USciences” (Tour #1)

The technology landscape has been evolving at University of the Sciences over the past couple of years and as a result, some exciting new learning spaces have been created.  Join us for a close up look at some of our latest success stories, as well as, a preview of what's to come.  Attendees can expect a walk and talk tour of the campus to see some of the spaces first hand. 

Rich Cosgriff is an academic technology professional with over 15 years of technology integration experience in higher education, Rich is passionate about learning space design and assisting end users of the technology in those spaces.  With a degree in Speech Communication/Broadcasting and advanced certifications in Information Technology and Instructional Design for eLearning, he understands the importance of delivering a message free of “noise” and the pedagogical implications of the technology used to do so in the classroom.

1:45p-2:30p "Graduate Physician Assistant Program and Use of Technology" (Tour #2)

Joan F. Ward, MS, PA-C- Chair, Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Program Director, Graduate Professional Physician Assistant Studies,Associate Professor of Physician Assistant Studies, brings 16 years of clinical experience in gastroenterology and emergency medicine. She has been a physician assistant educator for many years as a clinical coordinator (Philadelphia University). She is actively involved in the Physician Assistant Education Association as a clinical coordinator facilitator, new program director facilitator and writes for End of Rotation Exams. Ward received a bachelor of science in education from Cabrini College, a certificate of Physician Assistant Students from Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences and completed a master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies at Philadelphia University. She has been involved in community activities for many years at the local fire company.

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