Educational Technology Commons^™

The Self-Aware Room: A Framework For Operational Self-Awareness In Evolvable Blended Environments, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

The Self-Aware Room (SAR) is a room-scale research environment developed within the larger Balanced Blended Space and Blended Reality Performance System research trajectory. Rather than treating the room as a conventional “smart” environment composed of fixed automation technologies, SAR approaches it as an evolvable blended environment made from physical, virtual, conceptual, sensory, computational, and performative relationships. Its defining feature is not any particular sensor, model, or output device, but the set of transformations through which physical activity becomes structured observation, bounded representation, interpreted state, governed decision, and mediated response.

This paper develops the conceptual and methodological foundations of SAR as …

Chi Meta-Project Ecosystem Overview - Spring 2026, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This paper offers a high-level account of the Center for Holistic Integration’s (CHI) meta-project ecosystem as visualized in the included system map. CHI provides an organizational structure framed around persistent meta-projects that support and extend individual initiatives across curriculum, scholarly and applied research, infrastructure, artistic production, AI development, cultural inquiry, and external partnerships. Rather than presenting the map as a static inventory of projects, the paper examines how its core domains function as living systems through which knowledge, tools, documentation, participants, and collaborations can accumulate over time. It also considers how CHI-mediated connectivity, institutional integration, and external funding allow the …

Making A Makerspace: The Innervate Lab As A Reimagined Technology Education Space, Raaghav Pandya, Euisuk Sung, Caroline Darin

Publications and Research

With the growing emphasis on creativity, collaboration, and reflective thinking in technology and design education, technology labs are expected to shift from technical priorities to open, collaborative spaces. Designed within an existing technology education facility, the paper explored what it means to “technology lab” that merges the technical with the reflective, the cultural with the material, and the innovative with the contemplative. This paper presents the intellectual and aesthetic journey of creating an innovative makerspace within a technology education context and explains how this work embodies a sustainable model for training future technology educators. Our approach was informed by the …

Software Engineering: Ai-Enhanced Full Stack Development, Huixin Wu, Haiying Xiao

Open Educational Resources

This course provides instruction in full‑stack web application development using modern JavaScript technologies. Students design, implement, and deploy web‑based solutions while applying AI‑assisted development tools in an ethical and effective manner. The curriculum emphasizes problem‑solving, system design, teamwork, and industry‑standard best practices, with dedicated focus on cloud‑native development—including containerization, distributed services, and modern deployment pipelines—as well as API‑first architecture, enabling students to build scalable, maintainable, and interoperable applications aligned with current industry expectations.

Cuny Oer Initiative Catalog (Ay 2024-2025), Jahanara Alamgir, Yujin Lee-Hwang, Rachael Nevins, Elliot Galvis, Rebecca Morofsky, Andrew Mckinney, Jojo Karlin

Open Educational Resources

This circulating catalog inventories the reusable teaching objects produced by CUNY campuses in AY 2024-2025! You’ll find textbooks, assignments, syllabi, videos, and more, organized by discipline and with brief descriptions of the resource. This publication (which links to all the resources) is supplemented by a by our online, filterable CUNY OER Initiative Catalog.

The CUNY OLS Research and Publishing Strategy team gathered, described and indexed the work of the campuses. OLS Fellow Hwang-Lee Yujin designed the publication.

The Illusion Of Causality In Llms: A Developmentally Grounded Analysis Of Semantic Scaffolding And Benchmark–Capability Mismatches, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Recent benchmarks increasingly report that large language models (LLMs) exhibit human-like causal reasoning abilities, including counterfactual inference and intervention planning. However, many such evaluations rely on domains that are heavily represented in training data and embed strong semantic cues, raising the possibility that apparent causal competence may reflect semantic pattern recombination rather than structure-sensitive causal reasoning. Drawing on human developmental theories of causal induction, this perspective argues that genuine causal understanding requires robustness to novelty and reliance on conditional structure rather than semantic familiarity. To illustrate the testability of this claim, the paper includes a pilot demonstration using synthetic causal …

Tutoring Online During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Use Of Critical Incidents To Improve Practice, A.E. Dreyfuss, Jose Armando Sanchez Diaz, Barakat Adigun, Helen Baraki, Thalyia Thompson

Publications and Research

Developing expertise in the practice of online tutoring is presented by peer tutors who provided support to students with synchronous sessions with the onset of COVID-19. The experiences and learning of peer tutors were probed through the use of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954), and how weekly training meetings provided support to them, creating a collaboration among the tutors and the training manager.

Teaching And Technology: "You Can't Just Do The Same Thing Online", Sakina Laksimi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how faculty at the City University of New York navigated the abrupt transition to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing how pedagogy is shaped by technological, institutional, and social conditions. Drawing on twenty-two interviews with twelve faculty across eight disciplines, I use a grounded theory approach to analyze how instructors adapted courses, reimagined assessment, and sustained connection with students amid crisis. Three overlapping pedagogical orientations emerged: improvisational, relational, and design-based teaching. These approaches highlight how faculty balanced responsiveness, care, and intentional course design in environments mediated by digital platforms and marked by inequity. The study situates …

Using Machine Learning Methods To Evaluate Undergraduates’ Executive Function In The Context Of Game-Based Measurement, Ming Chen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional performance-based measurements have faced criticism due to their potential to induce test fatigue and their limited ecological validity. In contrast, game-based assessments have demonstrated the capacity to engage participants effectively in tests and enhance ecological validity by replicating real-world scenarios. Nevertheless, conventional statistical approaches may prove insufficient in capturing the intricate, non-linear associations between participants' gaming performance and their cognitive capabilities. Leveraging the potential of machine learning (ML) techniques, which can model complex problems, offers a promising avenue for estimating students' performance in video games. This dissertation aims to explore various ML methods for the validation of three game-based …

"Chatgpt Told Me To Say It": Ai Chatbots And Class Participation Apprehension In University Students, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

The growing prevalence of AI chatbots in everyday life has prompted educators to explore their potential applications in promoting student success, including support for classroom engagement and communication. This exploratory study emerged from semester-long observations of class participation apprehensions in an introductory educational psychology course, examining how chatbots might scaffold students toward active and independent classroom contribution. Four students experiencing situational participation anxiety voluntarily participated in a pilot intervention using AI chatbots as virtual peer partners. Following comprehensive training in AI use and prompt design given to the entire class, participants employed systematic consultation frameworks for managing classroom discourse trepidations. …

Kingsborough Community College Education Program Cite Playbook, Laura Scheiber, Joanna Maulbeck, Denise Farrelly

Publications and Research

As equity is a core value of our program, we believe that it is important to not just offer exposure to computing and digital literacy activities to preservice teachers, but that our teacher education program intentionally incorporates design principles that support student agency, foster co-learning, highlight creativity and joy, understand how computing can be used for social action, and critically assess tech tools and cultures(CUNY Computing-Integrated Teacher Education, 2025). In sum, we want to make sure technology is integrated with thoughtful scaffolding that fosters more critical thinking and digital citizenship. As List et. al (2020) point out, “If pre-service teachers …

Growth Mindset And Generative Ai, J. Elizabeth Clark, Casandra Silva Sibilin

Open Educational Resources

This module expands the CUNY Learning Mindsets framework—originally developed with the University of Virginia’s Motivate Lab to support student motivation through growth, purpose and relevance, and sense of belonging (GPS)—by introducing a fourth module focused on generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). Designed in spring 2025 by CUNY Learning Mindset Ambassadors Casandra Silva Sibilin and J. Elizabeth Clark, the module integrates growth mindset principles with emerging research on Gen AI to help educators and students engage with these tools as opportunities for learning and development rather than shortcuts or sources of academic misconduct.

The module provides an introduction to …

Extended Abstract—Using Augmented Reality To Teach The History Of Classical Athens: A Presentation Of The Methodology And Preliminary Findings, Christopher Tripoulas, George Koutromanos

Publications and Research

In this extended abstract, the methodology for a study in progress regarding the design, development and evaluation of an Augmented Reality application for the teaching of the History of Classical Athens to students of Greek descent living abroad is presented. Following a review of the reasons necessitating the adoption of this technology for the teaching of History – and specifically relating to fifth-century B.C. Athens – the preliminary findings including a review of the literature and results of interviews with teachers, students, and parents are also shared. The detailed methodological framework of Design-Based Research guiding this study is detailed, as …

An Interactive Walkthrough Of Richard Kostelanetz’S Library, Martin Glick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My project utilizes the visual novel game engine Ren’Py to create an embodied virtual walkthrough of Richard Kostelanetz’s personal library. Kostelanetz is a pioneering avante-garde artist, critic, and anthologist whose work spans multiple decades and artistic practices. This interactive experience introduces users to the astounding collection of 25,000 books that Kostelanetz has amassed in Ridgewood, Queens over his decades of publishing avant-garde literature. While scholars might be familiar with his anthologies such as Scenarios: Scripts to Perform (1980) and Texts-Sound Texts (1980), my project allows users to browse through sample pages of his original “Book Art”.

This New Media Object …

Creative Coding Communities: Exploring The Relationship Between Scratch Use And Child Well-Being, Nikita Khalid

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This international study assessed the relationship between the use of Scratch, the world's largest coding community for children, and child well-being. Specifically, the study focused on the presence of well-being indicators in the RITEC-8 framework (RITEC, 2024) including creativity, relationships, competence, and autonomy within Scratch users’ behaviors. The participants (N = 17,315) included children aged between 8 and 16 who used Scratch in 2023 and came from 29 countries. The study examined trends in Scratchers’ behaviors including project creation, sharing, studio curation, and socialization based on their country of origin, gender and age. The data were used to construct user …

When Avatars Go To School: The Effect Of Virtual Reality On Learning And Error Correction, Lauren Barack

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The pandemic in 2020 led to an increasing dependency on technology particularly in learning environments. National educational assessments in the proceeding years have indicated steep, measurable learning loss. While a fully virtual learning environment is not the norm today, we chose to investigate how virtual reality (VR) environments influence learning in college students.

Our primary research goal was to look at how students learn and remember information gathered in virtual spaces. In particular, we examined whether sensory inputs in the VR environment, including spatial audio and haptic feedback, such as vibrations felt in a handheld controller, would help to better …

Constructing A Teaching Identity That Centers A Multilingual Stance Using Digital Literacies, Melissa Garcia, Nancy Dubetz, Jayra Sanchez

Publications and Research

Throughout their preparation programs, bilingual education teacher candidates (TCs) are asked to develop a “multilingual stance” (Garcia et al, 2017) which emphasizes valuing their own and their students’ multilingualism and linguistic diversity (Morea & Fisher, 2023; Duek & Nilsberth, 2022), as well as planning and implementing culturally and linguistically responsive lessons. Our study sought to understand whether and how taking part in computing and digital literacies (CDL) integrated teacher education activities could support TCs to develop this multilingual stance. Objectives and significance Authors of this poster teach three courses that span the course sequence of study in a Pre-K to …

Textual Transformations: An Introduction To Ai For Composition 101, J. Elizabeth Clark

Open Educational Resources

This curriculum unit is a critical literacy unit about AI designed for first-year writing. The introductory composition course prepares students for academic writing with a heavy emphasis on writing-as-process, critical reading, gathering information, inquiry-based writing, and taking research notes. This curriculum unit pairs the writing portion of the course with an AI critical literacy framework for students.

This is a 20-hour, 9 lesson unit designed for an introductory composition course:

• Prepwork: Preliminary Assessment and AI Policies

• Lesson 1: What is AI?

• Lesson 2: The History of AI

• Lesson 3: How Does AI Work?

• Lesson 4: AI in Action

• Lesson 5: …

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Oer Learning In Disguise Toolkit, Alessandra Early, Nicole Mckenna

Open Educational Resources

The OER Learning in Disguise Toolkit, created by Doctors Alessandra Early and Nicole McKenna, is a series of learning materials that ask students to apply key criminal justice concepts to arenas like social media or popular culture, emphasizing media literacy, active reading, and creative thinking. The toolkit includes an introduction; five assignment descriptions (each divided into an instructor-facing section with notes on how to explain the assignment, and a student-facing section with the sample assignment description); one in-class activity; and an appendix with additional readings and materials.

Synchronizing Work And Teaching Practices With The Spatial Dna Of Distributed Work And Learning, Manju Aishwarya Adikesavan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Phygitality, the seamless and synergistic integration of physical and digital realms, is an indispensable and irrevocable part of contemporary office-based work. Phygitality facilitates spatially and temporally distributed or multi-local working where employees work from diverse locations such as their home, office, and third places at any time of day or night. It also makes nonterritorial working at temporary workspaces accessed on a session-by-session basis possible.

This dissertation examines how phygital, multi-local, and nonterritorial working reshape individual and group work behaviors, organizational spatial practices, work-centric settings, non-work-centric settings, neighborhoods, cities, and regions. The Spatial DNA of Distributed Work encapsulates a conceptual …

The Cuny Community Colleges Consortium: Workforce Development Transformation Through Systems Change, Daniel Matishek, Lori Conkling

Open Educational Resources

In 2021, Queensborough Community College (QCC) was awarded a $5 million Strengthening Community Colleges (SCC) Training Grant from the United States Department of Labor to develop and oversee a Consortium of six community colleges – named the CUNY Community Colleges Consortium (CUNYCCC) - within the City University of New York (CUNY), with the goal of transforming the University’s workforce development programs and addressing the needs of unemployed New York City (NYC) residents impacted by Covid-19. CUNYCCC offered participants workforce pathways in the labor sectors of education, technology, and health. Each college enhanced their workforce training programs through a variety of …

Chatbot Assessment: Best Practices For Artificial Intelligence In The Library, Michelle Ehrenpreis, John P. Delooper

Publications and Research

In November 2019, the Leonard Lief Library implemented Ivy.ai, a proprietary chatbot on its website. This implementation was the first academic library installation of a vendor-supplied chatbot to be discussed in the professional literature. This chatbot functioned as a new tool that assisted users seeking information from the library website. User questions provided insight to the authors about the kinds of topics students searched for via the library website. In April 2023, the chatbot’s vendor began using OpenAI’s ChatGPT Application Programming Interface (API) to improve the chatbot’s functionality. This change, from a rules-based chatbot system to a transformer model, enhanced …

Observation Report On Learners’ Use Of Digital Tools And Computational Thinking, Michelle C. Fraboni

Open Educational Resources

This classroom field observation assignment asks student teachers to observe learners' use of digital tools and computational thinking to support learning. The assignment aims to engage student teachers in focusing on classroom practice around computational thinking and using digital tools for learning. In particular, it requires student teachers to think critically about how technology is currently used in classrooms and draws on Fantozzi's (2022) ideas about creating, communicating, and collaborating with digital tools.

Oer Faculty Fellowship, Leila Walker

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Using Computational Thinking To Explore And Support Equity And Social Justice, Leslie Keiler, Sherone Smith-Sanchez, Zena Cooper, Natasha Cox-Magno, Lisa Dunn-Lockhart, Kara Hudon, Clare Pawson, Xin Bai

Publications and Research

Brief summary of presentation, suitable for inclusion in our conference program.

We explore the experience of teacher candidates who went to schools much like where they are preparing to teach. We investigate the implementation of Computational thinking-based (CT) learning experiences and examine the social justice implications. We investigate the impacts on their thinking about social justice and the faculty’s reflections on CT integration.

Experiment With The Scratch Application, Orit D. Gruber, Daniel Agman

Open Educational Resources

SCRATCH is a free and fun online application for exploring and creating animated programs, games, interactive stories, and projects.

Refer to the following link for an overview of Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/

You will be working with four(4) different starter programs; each starter program should be selected from a different category.

Reflecting On Preservice Teacher Technology Literacies: Survey Data And Student Artifacts To Influence Program Designs, Xin Bai

Publications and Research

This research investigates how Teacher Education faculty incorporate the needs, self-efficacy, and experiences of teacher candidates (TCs) into curriculum and program designs. The quality of computing education is partly dependent on a teacher’s technological efficacy as there is a positive correlation between technology-related access, technological efficacy, and academic outcomes(Bower et al., 2015). A low self-efficacy may be due to a lack of access to resources and equitable learning opportunities. To address such a social justice issue, a student-centered game-based learning approach was designed in a course toward “an intentional, equity-focused vision to improve access, engagement, and achievement” for all students …

Leveraging The Dual Role Of The Oer Practitioner/Administrator: 'Making It Count' At An Individual And Institutional Level, Cailean Cooney

Publications and Research

This case shares activities the author has engaged in through their dual role as faculty member and administrator of the college’s OER initiative. Topics will include how the author has leveraged their OER work to amplify the documents and activities required in their own tenure and promotion process and how they have approached this subject in faculty development programming. Practical models will be offered for faculty, librarians, and OER coordinators to adapt to their own contexts.

Herding Cats: The Benefits And Challenges Of A Large Research And Development Team, Xin Bai, Leslie Keiler

Publications and Research

We explore the journey of a nine-member-and-growing research team that is collaborating to develop, implement, and study a Computer Integrated Teacher Education (CITE) program at an urban commuter college. Team members have a range of subject area expertise and research training, as well as full-time jobs in the education field. The multi-member team has learned from each other and enriched the final products while facing challenges resulting from the composition of the team.

Digital Makerspace: Advancing Digital And Computing Literacies For Pre-Service And In-Service Teachers, Xin Bai

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.