Making Connections
A National Resource Center
on Inquiry, Reflection & Integrative Education
LaGuardia Community College and its Center for Teaching and Learning are delighted to announce the launch of a new effort to support innovation on campuses nationwide. Building upon its award-winning programs and responding to persistent requests for information and guidance, LaGuardia has created a new venture, Making Connections: A National Resource Center on Inquiry, Reflection and Integrative Education.
The Making Connections National Resource Center will collaborate with educators nationwide, offering a range of programs, events, and services. Matching expertise and resources with key needs around pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and emergent institutional change, it will create opportunities for deepening insight, developing strategies, and capacity building. Programs offered by the new Center will include:
- Workshops, Seminars and Retreats on key issues in pedagogy and practice;
- Webinars and Blended Discussions, facilitating local and international exchange;
- Visits to LaGuardia, to meet with faculty, students and staff; and,
- Consultations and Site Visits from LaGuardia leaders, helping partners advance to their own strategies and progress from classroom to institutional change.
While the Making Connections Center is still new, it has already launched two major programs:
FIPSE-Funded Mini-Grant Program: In October 2007, LaGuardia was awarded a three-year, $620,000 FIPSE grant for the Making Connections ePortfolio Mini-Grant and Seminar Program, allowing LaGuardia to assist colleges in the NYC area to advance their use of ePortfolio for learning, assessment, accreditation, and transfer.
In each year, this program offers partner colleges $5,000 mini-grants, guided seminars, and an intensive summer institute. Each year highlights a thematic focus. Launched in early 2008, with 10 partner colleges, Year I spotlights general education and pre-service teacher education. Future years will highlight science and allied health, business, and fine arts education. The next Call for Proposals will be issued in Fall 2008. For more details, come to the session entitled “A Sustained Dialogue: The Making Connections Mini-Grant and Faculty Seminar Program” on Saturday, April 12 at 10:30 am.
The Making Connections Conference: The April 2008 conference “Making Connections: ePortfolio, Integrative Learning, and Assessment,” showcases work from LaGuardia and other campuses, exploring the promise of ePortfolio in higher education. Coming from coast to coast and every corner of the country, participating educators make this a landmark event in higher education and provides an exciting occasion for the launch of the Making Connections Center.
Building on these two successful programs, we look forward to developing partnerships that serve key needs and advance the work of higher education.
For more information see http://www.laguardia.edu/connections.
or contact Susan Lambert, Making Connections Coordinator
718-482-5404 or slambert@lagcc.cuny.edu.