Special Teaching Leaves

2009-2010

Dr. Mauro Caputi
Associate Professor of Engineering
COMBINING CLASSIC STORYTELLING AND DIGITAL MULTIMEDIA IN A FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING DESIGN COURSE
Dr. Caputi's Special Teaching Leave project focused on the development of a story line for use in his First-Year Connections engineering design course, ENGG 15, "Designing the Human-Made World." The class is run as if it's a live TV show, using video clips, Flash animations, music, voice-overs, graphic images, and live speaking. The student "audience" sees only a coordinated sequence of media on the screen, allowing them to be absorbed in the illusion of participating in a live TV show broadcast over fictitious TV station WDSN 15 (World of DeSigN). The story line examines a group of 52 high-powered high school seniors coming to experience their freshman year at Hofstra, getting blindsided by the reality of college life, and reacting with sad disappointment and longing for their past successful high school days. Then, ENGG 15 comes to the "rescue" to identify the necessary transition process from high school to college, with special features to help the students begin their journey to reach a new successful college life.

Dr. Daniel Sciarra
Professor of Counselor Education
PREDICTIVE FACTORS IN THE NUMBER OF MATH COURSES STUDENTS TAKE IN HIGH SCHOOL
Dr. Sciarra will describe his investigation of factors that distinguish high school students who completed at least one course beyond Algebra 2 from those who completed Algebra 2 or less. The sample included a cohort of 11,909 high school seniors who participated in the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) (2002-2004). Data were analyzed using a multinomial logistic regression and results indicated that the most significant predictors were student expectations, parent aspirations, race, and SES. Dr. Sciarra will discuss the study's implications for instructing school counselors.

Dr. Deb Sledgianowski
Assistant Professor of Information Technology
USING DISCUSSION BOARD GROUPS TO FACILITATE STUDENT COMMUNICATION & INTERACTION
Dr. Sledgianowski will explain her research on student use of discussion boards in groups in a classroom setting. Her study examined the effects of students sense of community, learning orientation, personality type, and team collectivist orientation on their satisfaction with the group process. She will discuss practical lessons learned about using discussion boards.