Partners and Presenters

The Partners

The State University of New York Faculty Access to Computing Technology (FACT) initiative has been established to give SUNY Faculty the access to computing needed for continued educational leadership in service to the citizens and institutions of the State of New York.

The overall objectives on which the SUNY FACT Advisory Council was founded include:

1. Provide all faculty and instructional support staff appropriate computing capability and/or network access in that person's own workspace.

2. Improve expertise of faculty and instructional support staff in instructional technology through development and training.

3. Integrate computing, networking, and other electronic technology into curricula.

4. Enhance the teaching and learning process through the use of technology.

5. Increase collegiality through network connectivity.

The Finger Lakes Distance Learning Partnership is a Western New York regional collaborative of public and private colleges and affiliated educational agencies involved in providing distance learning.  Current membership includes Finger Lakes Community College, Genesee Community College, Monroe Community College, SUNY Brockport, Rochester Institute of Technology, Roberts Wesleyan College, Finger Lakes Community College, and PBS affiliate station WXXI.  The Partnership’s purpose includes sharing information on the development and delivery of online courses, cooperative planning for faculty/staff training, resource sharing, promotion of best practices in distance learning, and cooperation in professional development activities.

The Wireless Education and Technology Research Center (WeTEC) -http://wetec.csumb.edu. ; WeTEC identified a national need to provide education and industry with reliable, unbiased information concerning technology deployment, applications, assessments and issues for teaching and learning in mobile environments. WeTEC supports K-12, higher and adult education mobile technology projects by: assisting educators to create innovative curricula that deploy wireless technology on campus and in the community; and by fostering partnerships with education, professional associations, industry vendors and municipal and non-profit agencies to deploy wireless technologies in community settings.

The A.M. Presenters

Arlene Krebs has been working in e-learning, telecommunications and the new media for over 30 years. She has been involved in numerous distance-learning projects including satellite, two-way interactive videoconferencing, and Internet-based applications working on projects with K-12 and higher education, non-profits, arts organizations, government agencies and industry. Her experience includes strategic planning, project evaluation, faculty training, curriculum development, funding and marketing strategies.

In acknowledgment of her leadership and dedication for integrating technology and education, Arlene received an In the Arena Award (2003) from the Center for Digital Education. She was also nominated by Cisco Systems (2004) to attend the Public Summit on Technology held in conjunction with Nobel Week. Arlene is the founding Director of the Wireless Education & Technology Center at California State University, Monterey Bay, where she is responsible for working with education and industry leaders to develop core technology-related projects. At CSUMB she oversees 28 faculty projects involving over 1400 students using mobile technology for teaching and learning.

Arlene is the author of the nationally acclaimed, Distance Learning Funding $ourcebook: A Guide to Foundation, Government, and Corporate Support for Telecommunications and the New Media (4th edition). Arlene served on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) and currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the National University Telecommunication Network (NUTN).

Michael Feldstein is Assistant Director, Blended Learning for the SUNY Learning Environments.  Michael has been designing and developing distance learning and knowledge management solutions for organizations ranging from universities to Global 2000 companies for more than a decade.  In 2000-2001 Michael acted as the interim Chief Learning Officer of the Otter Group, where he led course development projects for Harvard and MIT.  More recently he was co-founder and CEO of MindWires, an online learning consulting company that primarily served large financial services firms.  Michael is a member of e-Learn Magazine’s Editorial Board, the publisher of the e-Literate online learning weblog, and an active participant in Open Source online learning tool development communities.

Rick Costanza is SLN campus MID coordinator at Monroe Community College.  Rick received his master's degree in teaching and curriculum development from Harvard University, and holds a BA in English from SUNY Geneseo. He has worked for many years in secondary schools as an English teacher, during which time he also instructed faculty on the implementation of technology into the curriculum. In addition to his duties as MID coordinator, he teaches English at Monroe Community College in asynchronous and hybrid formats and the course “Best Practices in Online Learning” for the SUNY TLT Consortium.