Tag Archives: academics

Spartans at Work: At SolutionSet, “I’m Learning All the Steps From Conception to Final Product”

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

Where will an SJSU degree take you? This summer, we hit the road to find out, visiting summer interns and recent grads on the job in the Bay Area and beyond. Our Spartans at Work series continues with Miguel Martinez, ’13 Advertising. He’s a summer account management intern at the San Francisco office of SolutionSet, the second largest independent marketing services company in the United States. For Martinez, the experience has been a dream come true. “Since I was in high school, I’ve wanted to be in advertising,” he said. “Besides the hands on experience I’m getting, I’m also learning all the steps from the conception of an idea or a project all the way to the final product.” Though he is far from campus, Martinez says his San Francisco internship is an important educational experience. “I know that I have a lot to learn,” he said. “The people that I work with, they can sense that, that you’re eager to learn and they’ll teach you, they’ll take you through the steps.” And if you’re a San Jose State student, he added, you learn quickly.

SJSU Remembers Phyllis Simpkins: “She was There Every Step of the Way”

SJSU Remembers Phyllis Simpkins

Phyllis Simpkins

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

San Jose State University extends its condolences to the family and friends of Phyllis Simpkins,’46 Home Economics and Marketing, who died July 7 at 87. Phyllis and her late husband Alan Simpkins, ‘48 Physics, were lifelong supporters and donors to SJSU. Their son Bob Simpkins and many extended family members are also San Jose State alumni. View a photo gallery of the Simpkins’ through the years.

In 2003, while reflecting on their philanthropy, Phyllis Simpkins told Washington Square, the SJSU alumni magazine, “Alan and I received very good educations at San Jose State. I could try to be very philosophical about ‘giving back,’ but it’s not that complicated — we knew there were financial needs on the campus, and we knew we wanted to help.”

Phyllis and Alan Simpkins gave in excess of $10.8 million for the following:

  • Phyllis Forward Simpkins International Center (the SJSU International House)
  • Alan B. Simpkins Intercollegiate Athletics Administration Building
  • Simpkins Stadium Center
  • SJSU Marching Band
  • Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
  • Department of Nutrition and Food Science
  • Department of Kinesiology
  • School of Music and Dance

“Phyllis and Alan Simpkins understood that everyone should receive the very best opportunities San Jose State could provide, whether it was on the playing field, in the classroom or in their interactions with other students from across the country and around the world,” said President Mohammad Qayoumi. “As recently as this spring, when we joined the Mountain West, Phyllis was a steady presence at many campus events. Her leadership inspired countless others to support SJSU.

“Hundreds, maybe thousands, of students have benefitted from the generosity of Phyllis and Alan Simpkins. Their support of our athletics, band, marine science, nutrition, kinesiology, music and dance, and international programs have touched the lives not only of those who study and work here, but everyone who our alumni have gone on to work with throughout their lives.”

As important as the high-profile gifts were the more modest ones. The Simpkins’ almost single-handedly saved the SJSU Marching Band after its several years of absence in the 1970s. They were among the founders of the SJSU Alumni Association Santa Cruz Chapter. In addition to football and athletics in general, Phyllis and Alan Simpkins generosity extended to the softball, tennis, cross country and water polo teams.

“Phyllis Simpkins clearly saw and understood the value of an NCAA Division I-A intercollegiate athletics program to San Jose State University,” said Senior Associate Athletic Director John Poch. “When the program needed to take the next step, she was there every step of the way with our student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators. Her devotion to the Spartans was unparalleled. Her leadership inspired many to help make San Jose State athletics what it is today — a comprehensive sports program that thrives in competition and in the classroom and gives tomorrow’s leaders a solid foundation for future success.”

San Jose State and the California State University have honored Phyllis and Alan Simpkins many times over the years. In 1979, Phyllis Simpkins received the Tower Award, SJSU’s highest honor for philanthropy and service. Phyllis and Alan Simpkins were named CSU Philanthropists of the Year in 1989. Both Phyllis and Alan Simpkins also received honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters at the SJSU commencement in 1996.

Services will be held 2 p.m. July 19 at the Los Altos United Methodist Church, followed immediately by a reception on the church grounds.  The family is requesting that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the SJSU International House or the SJSU Marching Band. Gifts may be made online (http://www.sjsu.edu/giving/) or by sending a check to the SJSU Tower Foundation, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192 -0256.

Spartans at Work: At Nickelodeon, “I’m Learning How To Move Artwork Through The Pipeline”

Animation student wearing a pink jacket and black-and-white checkered shirt is standing in fron of the Nickelodeon sign in Burbank California

Hillary Bradfield, '13 Animation, has the opportunity to turn her love for cartoons into a summer internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank (Hillary Bradfield photo).

By Amanda Holst, Public Affairs Assistant

(This summer, SJSU Today hits the road, visiting students and recent grads on the job across the country and around the world. Our Spartans at Work series continues with the Class of 2013′s Hillary Bradfield.)

Hillary Bradfield, ’13 Animation/Illustration, has turned her love for cartoons into a summer internship at Nickelodeon Animation Studios.

“You are surrounded by all of this art; you learn just by being around it,” she said.

Bradfield is one of 30 intern production assistants this summer working on the “Spongebob Square Pants” cartoon. Nickelodeon is a children’s network known for popular TV shows such as “Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness,” “T.U.F.F. Puppy” and “The Legend of Korra.”

She has spent the last six weeks learning how to make cartoons from beginning to end, including putting together storyboards and preparing to send them out to studios that animate them.

Even though her internship is a non-art one, Bradfield has learned valuable behind-the-scenes skills in the industry.

“It’s more important to really prepare yourself for making your work good enough to pass off to the next person in the pipeline, and being a person who could be useful on a team,” she said.

Bradfield says the most rewarding aspect of her internship is that she’s been able to set up meetings with artists and other production assistants to get her artwork critiqued.

“Right now, I am working on a revision for artwork I showed a story artist,” Bradfield said. “It’s really great to get tips from them.”

SJSU Names 2012 Outstanding Graduating Seniors and Outstanding Thesis Award Recipient

Killol Acharya working with a fellow student on an engineering project.

Killol Acharya's love for robots inspired him to create the Robotics Club, and to serve as president of Project Enable, an organization that designs and modifies devices for the disabled (image provided by Achary).

By Amanda Holst, Public Affairs Assistant

President Mo Qayoumi will recognize three top graduates at Commencement, which begins at 9:30 a.m. May 26 in Spartan Stadium. Approximately 8,000 candidates who completed their studies in August 2011, December 2011 and May 2012 will be eligible to participate. Around 25,000 graduates, family and friends are expected to attend the ceremony.

Killol Acharya and Phillip Calabretta have been named SJSU’s 2012 Outstanding Graduating Seniors in recognition of their scholarship and contributions to the community, and John Tilney has received the 2012 Outstanding Thesis Award in recognition of the exceptional quality of his research.

Killol Acharya will graduate with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. This Robert and Ellen Baron Student Leadership Award recipient says that his professors have been the key to his success at San José State. He is graduating with a 3.87 GPA and has demonstrated contributions on and off campus. On campus, Acharya has served as peer advisor in the Engineering Student Success Center and has been a leader in the Engineering Ambassador outreach program. His love for robots inspired him to create the Robotics Club, and to serve as president of Project Enable, an organization that designs and modifies devices for the disabled. Acharya balanced academics with community service by serving as volunteer for the city of San José and Veggielution, a sustainable food farm. Continuing his experience at San José State, Acharya plans to pursue a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Phillip Calabretta will graduate with a bachelor’s in chemistry. He says that he was not the strongest student in high school, but he feels that he has turned things around at San José State. A Howard Hughes Medical Institute SCRIBE student fellow, Calabretta is graduating with a 3.88 GPA. With his eye on a teaching career, Calabretta got plenty of practice while at SJSU. He taught general chemistry labs, facilitated workshops for the Louis-Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, and trained students in RISE, a program that provides research opportunities for underrepresented biomedical students. Calabretta also participated in the student chemistry club and mentored young students as a camp counselor at Exploring New Horizons Outdoor School. Calabretta is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

John Tilney will graduate with a master’s in library and information science. He didn’t realize how challenging writing a thesis could be, but his diligence to “dig deeper” has paid off. For his thesis, “Containing Obscenity: The Gathings Committee, Moral Crusades, and Paperback Books,” Tilney studied the attempt to censor paperback books in the mid-20th century. Tilney’s work is the first book-length research project to examine the actions of the “Gathings Committee,” appointed to investigate the threat of obscene literature at a national level. By researching archives at Arkansas State University and New York University, Tilney was able to explore the history of censorship in U.S. publishing, uncover firsthand popular response to paperback books, and expose the social challenges around a cultural medium. Tilney says his work has assisted with his academic discipline and his commitment to completing large-scale projects.

Professor Creates Engaging Online Learning Environment

Dr. Michael Stephens at his desk, with three monitors behind him.

Dr. Michael Stephens (SLIS image)

By Dr. Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science

(Editor’s note: The sage on the stage in giant lecture halls is giving way to a collaborative, hyperconnected world. SJSU’s School of Library and Information Science is at the forefront of online learning. We asked an instructor to share his experiences. You can also read more from a student’s perspective.)

I’ve been teaching online and hybrid courses for a few years, but joining SJSU’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) last summer led to full time, fully online teaching. Some dismiss online classes as ineffective, text-based “correspondence” style endeavors. I believe it all depends on the caliber of the online experience. Are the classes just ported over from face-to-face syllabi and entirely text-based? Or do they transform learning and inspire students?

I was drawn to online instruction because of the potential for using interactive technologies and social tools to extend my “classroom” beyond four walls and immerse my students in the environments they’ll encounter in future jobs.  I teach courses that explore new service models in libraries, as well as transformative learning, where I encourage my students to design instructional programs using emerging technologies.

Over the past few years, I’ve worked on creating a learning environment that fosters rich interaction between students and me, and gets students interacting with each other. I prefer not to keep our work and interactions inside the “walled garden” of a closed learning management system (LMS), but out on the open Web. Our students will surely be called upon to communicate online to some degree with the people they serve. Having an understanding of interaction outside the safe confines of an LMS is important.

Utilizing the open source content management system WordPress and a suite of plug ins called Buddypress, I create a “social network” for learning that features blogs for all students, a course activity feed, forums, work groups, and integration of other social tools. My class size is usually 25 or so students. Each student gets an account and blog within the site and can customize their environment with widgets, themes and add ons. Small images represent each student – some use a photo, others choose to use avatars.

Stephens Panopto screen

Panopto combines slides, text and video into a rich, media-based Web experience (SLIS image).

Transforming learning while inspiring students

SLIS provides access to some cutting edge tools to deliver class content. I use Panopto to record lectures. Panopto combines slides, text and video into a rich, media-based Web experience. (See screenshot to see it in action.) Feedback from students has been positive. I advocate for the use of video in online teaching as a means to share beyond just text. Teaching summer sessions at my previous position, I often recorded short video “shout outs” to my class from the hiking trail or beside a lake in northern Michigan. Letting them see a bit of my world, of my experience, reinforces the connection I believe is so important to establish. Last fall, I recorded a series of lectures with my trusty Labrador Cooper sleeping nearby within the frame. Other videos I record with my iPhone or Flip for upload to YouTube. These can be easily embedded into the course site and shared.

Other tools allow us to create a sense of connection and community. This is important to me as an online educator. We utilize Blackboard Collaborate to have weekly live video conference sessions. I’ve dubbed them the Commons, a place where each participant adds value to the experience.  One week we might have an open discussion or office hours style meet up, and other sessions might include a guest speaker. Recordings of these interactions are posted to my course sites as soon as we wrap up, for those who cannot attend the live session. It’s not out of the ordinary for a student to stop into the online room just to say hello and make a quick comment.

As a companion to the online meeting space, we use Blackboard Instant Messaging (IM), an application that allows faculty, staff and students to log in and interact in similar fashion to other chat programs. While working each day, I log in and set my status to available. Students and my colleagues at SLIS can send a brief question or comment via IM and I can do the same. The application seamlessly integrates with Collaborate and allows groups to break out into rooms for further collaboration. Each semester, the application automatically populates with my class lists. For students, it’s comforting to know that a professor is just a few keyboard taps away in the online environment.

I also use the micro-blogging site Twitter for sharing with my students and promoting conversation. We utilize Twitter hashtags to associate and share our tweets, and library practitioners can share and participate as well. Students use devices other than a personal computer to interact via Twitter, and on the course site. On the go and from anywhere, my students can share or participate via their smartphone or tablet. Posting a picture, a link or just a brief thought about class content can happen anywhere.

screenshot from a course

In Transformative Learning and New Literacies, students create web-based, self-directed learning programs for library staff (SLIS image).

Interactive learning environments encourage experimentation

The world is changing faster than ever, and the skillsets needed by SJSU students in the School of Library and Information Science are rapidly evolving.  Students need to learn how to incorporate emerging technology into their future roles in libraries and information centers.  As I teach courses in the School’s fully online graduate program, I’m well aware of the need to create an engaging, interactive learning environment for my students that prepares them for tomorrow challenges.

I believe a focus on play and experimentation is needed for 21st century learning success. These newer forms of learning – play and experimentation – can prepare students for the world they will work in after they graduate, and for years to come.

I emphasize this focus on experimentation via the assignments in my online courses. In my class called The Hyperlinked Library and Emerging Technologies, students create media-based reports on recent books related to society and culture. Any media platform or 2.0 tool that can be shared across the web is fair game for play and experimenting for this assignment.

In Transformative Learning and New Literacies, my students create web-based, self-directed learning programs for library staff, replicating a similar environment to our course community. Experience with content management systems and various tools for creating online learning modules put them in the thick of what it will be like to do the same in their future work. Later, they each design an online component to their own personal learning networks and articulate the steps they took to build it, as well as what potential problems or issues it may help them solve as new information professionals.

Communication is key in online teaching

I have a plaque in my home office that quotes Michaelangelo, “I am still learning.” I keep that in mind as I reflect on my own teaching and use of technology. It’s an ongoing process to continue to improve. I learn from my students, my colleagues and from the networks I participate in online. It’s fine to say “I don’t know” about the next new thing and explore it with previous learning in mind. I want this for my students as well. Skills they develop now – exploring a new tool, creating new knowledge, making connections with others – will serve them well in their careers.

I’ve also learned not to get hung up on perfection. A mistake or two in a lecture or stumbling over words in a video does not negate the experience for students. In fact, it helps counteract the “culture of perfect” that sometimes permeates libraries and other environments. “Everything is beta” is a popular way to describe this approach.

Communication is key to successful online teaching as well. Being present on the course site and answering questions directed to me are a given, but I also work at consistent updating. If I’m traveling to speak at a library or conference, I let my students know. If I’m at a conference, I’ll share links and insights. My students have done the same, using Twitter or their class blogs to share their own opinions and takeaways from attending professional conferences. The sharing and communication can be informal, and it strengthens the feeling of community.

The best teachers understand that technology use in coursework is not just for the sake of technology but to extend and enhance the learning process. Recently, Michael Wesch from the University of Kansas responded to an article about his advocacy for participatory technologies in coursework. His eloquent statement resonates with me: “My main point is that participatory teaching methods simply will not work if they do not begin with a deep bond between teacher and student.  Importantly, this bond must be built through mutual respect, care, and an ongoing effort to know and understand one another.”

The sage on the stage in giant lecture halls is giving way to a collaborative, hyperconnected world of newer methods and channels of learning, but the human connection can and should remain. Bring yourself to your online teaching – share, be authentic and connect with students via the heart and the keyboard.