Monday, December 18, 2006
Academic Theme 2006-2008
As far back as 2003 Buffalo State has incorporated a campus wide Academic Theme in order to broaden students minds, as well as connect and unify curriculum. Topics ranged from "Think Big: 20th-Century Americans Who Changed Our Minds and Our Lives" to the current academic theme that deals with "Great Minds That Shaped Our Intellectual World"
This idea of incorporating the humanities into a linear, technology field is an area of academic interest, especially in the area of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; This is a topic which I am currently presenting at conferences (click here fore more information).
Since 2004 ,CIS 101 students have been using these campus themes to think about how Microsoft Office applications work together to create professional work that looks at a single topic that is well-researched and makes connections. This project moves students to think beyond the immediate, to research and look at a topic, over 15 weeks, through a variety of applications, and present their infromation to the class at the end of the semester and to the world through a student created website in Microsoft Word.
The result of integrating the campus themes is that students seem to be able to better apply their technical knowledge and have more fun with research.
Examples of student work are list at the LEFT SIDE of this blog.
Buffalo State College is a 4 year college in the New York SUNY college system.
For more information on this project contact Ramona R. SantaMaria, MSEd, ABD.
For more information on this project contact Ramona R. SantaMaria, MSEd, ABD.
