City College
Aileen Gum
Office: City College, C224B
Mentor Office Hours: TH 2:30-4:30 or by appointment
Phone: 619-388-3610
agum@sdccd.edu

Mentor Fall 2011

I previously served as the Online Mentor in 2004-05 and 2010 and am excited about returning to mentor for Fall 2011. I’ve been teaching English classes online for SDCCD since our campus started offering online courses in the early 2000s. In addition to experience with Blackboard 9.1 and Vista in the SDCCD Online system, I have a certificate for Online Learning with UCSD and have completed online pedagogy coursework with Cerro Coso College.  I love learning about the ways we can use technological innovations to enhance teachers’ and students’ experiences in the classroom and online. I also recently completed OnCourse I training, so it will be interesting to see how we can integrate more strategies to support students in becoming more active and responsible learners.  My main goals as this semester’s mentor will be to help faculty with the transition to Blackboard 9.1, discover and implement technology that best fits instructors’ instructional styles and students’ needs, and to share ideas within our community. I look forward to helping empower you with the many different tools and trainings that we have available.

City College
Gwyn Enright
Office: C-208
Mentor Office Hours: Contact Gwyn for Appt.
Phone: 619-388-3086
genright@sdccd.edu

Mentor Spring 2012

I have been teaching online since the San Diego Community College District Online program began, and I am currently teaching two online classes using Blackboard--English 101 and English 205 which I have developed myself.

I have been honored as a “Champion” twice at the SDCCD Online Learning Pathways Annual Breakfast of Champions: once for being a faculty pioneer and once for being among the first to complete training sessions and to implement the new Blackboard in my online classes. I am familiar with best practices for online learning and attempt to design my classes to conform with best practices.

I have attended several District workshops to learn accessibility and usability standards for all students, and I attempt to implement necessary accommodations, so that my classes conform. My English 205 class was highlighted in 2007 at the Online Teaching Excellence Symposium as an example of an excellent course.

I update my online teaching skills regularly. Most recently, I have completed workshops on Blackboard Learn 9.1, Camtasia, Podcasting, Rich Media and Live Classroom.

I serve as the City College Academic Senate representative to the Districtwide Distance Education Steering Committee.

I am looking forward to an opportunity to work with my colleagues on online learning and instruction. I’m especially interested in helping faculty design and implement quality courses for online students, while, at the same time, keeping a common-sense attitude about the instructional work load.

Mesa College
Joe Safdie
Office: LRC 462
Mentor Office Hours: Monday and Thursday afternoons
Phone: 619-388-2332
jsafdie@sdccd.edu

Mentor (half-time) Fall 2011 and Spring 2012

Joe Safdie has been teaching at Mesa College since the fall of 2005 and is now an Associate Professor of English. He's been teaching online, however, since 1997 in Washington State, where he was one of the founding members of "Washington Online" (WAOL), a consortium of online classes taught at different colleges around the state, which offers all the required classes for an AA; last spring, he was one of a small group of faculty who piloted Blackboard Learn 9.1 in their classes. He continues to be interested in the prospect of expanding educational access through new and existing online courses – for example, he used CCC Confer last semester to talk with one of his students who was stationed in Iraq, explaining some possible corrections on his essay through the shared desktop feature.  One of his central concerns is making the pedagogy of online classes both rigorous and welcoming to prospective students, and he’s enjoying taking the new online faculty training and certification class as a means to that end.

Office Hours: Monday and Thursday afternoons – LRC Room 462 (down the hall from Hank Beaver’s office)

Miramar College
Fred Omega Garces
Office: S5-210
Mentor Office Hours: F 12-2 p.m. or by Appt.
Phone: 619-388-7493
fgarces@sdccd.edu
http://faculty.sdmiramar.edu/fgarces

Mentor Fall 2011

I have been teaching online for over 10 years at Miramar College and was one of the pilot instructors for Blackboard Learn 9.1 (Spring 2011).  I have attended numerous seminars/conferences and gave presentations at the American Chemical Society, National Conference in 1999, 2003, 2006 and 2011 on developing online chemistry curriculum and teaching chemistry lecture and lab online.  In my presentations, I highlighted best practice techniques that I have integrated in my courses.  I have also attended the Online Teaching Conference at SD City College on June 2010.  These conferences allowed me to learn the techniques and tricks that enhance student learning that other professor's use at their institutions. I have reviewed and refereed papers in peer-review journals concerning online curriculum in chemistry and I stay current in this area by reading relevant articles in professional journals.

I have used e-packs from publishers as well as developed original material through Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iMovies, Podcast, PowerPoint and Acrobat Reader for my online courses.  One of my current projects is to transition away from PowerPoint and use Prezi (a work in progress).  I continue to develop audio and video material for my online courses and have worked with DSPS to have videos of my class lecture captioned so that my courses are in compliance with the Disability Act. Furthermore, I have attended training workshops in WebCT/Blackboard, MS Office, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, Flash, JING, Camtasia and other district- sponsored workshops.

Continuing Education
Jane Newcomb
Office: 1804 Aero Drive, San Diego, CA
Phone: (619) 388-1800
jnewcomb@sdccd.edu

Mentor Fall 2011

I’ve been an instructor with SD Continuing Ed at North City Center since 1998. The last 8 years I’ve been an Associate Professor of Business Information Technology.

I collaborated with BIT staff to develop the current Interactive Media Certificate Program (IMCP) curriculum which consists of 3 modules - Print, Multimedia and Web. During the last 3 years I’ve instructed online Blackboard/WebCT classes for Continuing Ed.
Presently I am serving as the Assistant Program Chair for BIT.

I’ve had a broad range of experience in the creative arts as a
graphic designer, photographer, web developer, and artist in
watercolor and pastel.

Before entering the Multimedia field, I taught fine arts to
adults and children for over 30 years.