CCR News (Spring 2024)

The Cochairs of the Committee on Computer Resources (CCR) met with Tadeusz (Ted) B. Dec, who is the Chief Information Officer at Queensborough Community College (QCC) on November 20, 2023. Ted was kind enough to meet with us to introduce himself and answer our questions about information technology at QCC.

Can you tell us a bit about your background before coming to QCC?

I attended  the Silesian University of Technology  in Poland before coming to the United States in 1988. After working for a while  in a number of labor related jobs, I eventually attended classes at the TCI College of Technology in New York City.  Later, I enrolled in programs at CUNY’s LaGuardia and Queens College –– eventually earning my BS and MA degrees. During that time, I managed a network system for an insurance firm before taking a position as a Director of Network Administration  and Assistant to the Vice President of Information Technology at LaGuardia Community College. Later, I moved on to become the Executive Director of Network Operations at  St. Joseph’s University, New York  where I worked  for over thirteen years.

When did you begin working at the college and what are your main responsibilities?

I joined Queensborough Community College as the Chief Information Officer in January 2023. My main responsibility is overseeing information technology at QCC. This concerns a number of management and support areas relating to  business management, classroom technology, computer systems, cybersecurity, data access, implementing new technologies, software installation, and telecommunication networks. I am also responsible for overseeing the College’s Help Desk. In my capacity as Chief Information Officer I also work closely with the Academic Computing Center, the Office of Educational Technology, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, and a number of other departments at the College.

Can you give us a brief description of the information technology services available to the campus community?

Well, the Office of Information Technology provides assistance and support in a number of areas relating to system networks, software applications, computer hardware, CUNYfirst access, and email support. Most of these services are accessible by contacting the main Help Desk which can be reached by phone at (718) 631-6348 or by emailing [email protected]. The Academic Computing Center, the Office of Educational Technology, and the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment also offer a variety of services for the campus community. Information concerning these resources can be found on their individual homepages via the QCC website. (see below)

We know you are new to QCC, but do you have a sense of how the recent COVID pandemic impacted the use of information technology at the college?

The immediate challenge was assisting faculty, staff, and students in the shift to working remotely from their existing in–person format and full time online education. Members of the campus community needed a great deal of support with accessing equipment, maintaining connectivity, and working online. The level of assistance that individuals required varied according to their technical skills and the resources at their disposal. Most everyone required help in some capacity.

It was also important to maintain the supply and upkeep of the existing systems, which could be difficult in the face  of component and equipment scarcities. Not only did the College need to ensure adequate access to technology for the campus community, but the overall system needed to be maintained properly. Often, there were long waits and other types of challenges in acquiring the needed materials.

What types of technology–related challenges do you see QCC facing currently or in the near future? Is  there anything members of the QCC community can do to better prepare?

One of the biggest challenges that comes to mind concerns cybersecurity.  This is of course an issue for society as a whole, but a number of college campuses have been hit by hackers recently. Baruch College for example, suffered a malware attack in late September which disrupted their system and forced them to rely on remote classes for several days.

Everyone, not just people working with technology, needs to be vigilant in safeguarding their passwords and personal information. Sometimes hacker attacks come in the form of an email or text asking you to click links or provide information concerning an account you may have.  These emails can appear to come from any number of agencies, businesses, financial institutions, utility services or any other organization (PayPal or Venmo for example). Whenever possible, contact the particular organization  directly or visit their secure website to update any information. It would also be a good idea for people to familiarize themselves with the sorts of threats out there.  The Office of Information Technology regularly circulates information concerning cybersecurity issues via email and workshops on internet security are available as well. (see link below)

Aside from issues relating to cybersecurity there are other information–technology challenges that have developed recently.  This includes Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has both its positive and negative elements. Artificial Intelligence is useful for many organizations as it can perform a number of tasks including the quick collection and organization of data. AI also presents new problems though. Certainly, it has been a challenge to teaching faculty in the form of chatbots like ChatGPT and similar applications which are often misused by students to generate assignments illegitimately. AI also presents challenges to programmers and others working with information technology as it can contribute to cybersecurity threats and cause other problems.

Other developments affecting the QCC community concern the adoption of new software applications and technology. For example, the College will be transitioning from the Blackboard learning management system to Brightspace. Similarly, the Starfish application will soon be replaced by EAB Navigate.  The campus community should participate in any training or information workshops concerning these applications provided by CUNY or QCC currently or in the near future.

As a follow-up to that last question, can you suggest any   resources that might be helpful for the Queensborough community in general?

QCC/CUNY Resources:

Academic Computing Center

Office of Educational Technology

Office of Information Technology (general)

Office of Information Technology (cybersecurity)

Office of Institutional Research and Assessment

Additional Resources:

Brightspace Resources (information from both QCC and outside resources)

https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/brightspace/  

https://www.cuny.edu/academics/brightspace-transition/

EAB Navigate (An outside site has information about the application replacing Starfish)

Have I Been Pwned (This site that detects if your email address was involved in a data breach)

Can you provide us with your office’s contact information?

Yes, I am located in the Administration building, room A-303  and my phone number is 718-631-6273.

I can be reached by email at: [email protected].          

Simulation Laboratory

The Simulation laboratory in Queensborough’s Nursing Resource Center provides nursing students an opportunity to practice acquired skills. Nurse educators utilize evidence-based scenarios which range from differences in acuity. This cutting- edge environment allows students to learn in a safe space to provide quality patient care. The simulated hospital allows students to practice team collaboration, critical thinking, psychomotor and assessment skills. In order to provide clinical excellence and promote cultural awareness, the simulation resources incorporate diverse patient simulators, multi-ethnicities and scenarios.

The lab is comprised of:

• __6__ high-fidelity patient simulators: _1_ SimMan3G, _2_SimBaby, __1_SimNewB, __1_SimJr., and a birthing simulator – 1 SimMom_____

• __2__ Medium Fidelity patient simulators: __2___ multi-ethnic Nursing Annes,

• __2___Low-fidelity patient simulators

• Various task trainers such as: __1_Moma Birthie (half body), Trask trainers' IV arms

• Labor and delivery room

• Pediatric Ward

• Isolation room

The LUM NRC is located in the nursing department. It is a center that permits students to access web based programs to assist with test taking and offers a quiet area to study.  The administrative staff assists with the proctoring and the generation of reports for the HESI/Evolve online program. The students will conduct their testing utilizing the ExamSoft online testing program. The center has a main server which is  installed and maintains all of the software & hardware. The equipment utilized ensures an optimal workstation/server performance. All computers are updated in the resource Center with the latest ExamSoft updates. The administrative team frequently checks and updates the network infrastructure and peripherals accordingly i.e. printers and related hardware. The Resource Center is permitted for use by  Nursing Students who wish to study placidly. The Lum NRC center additionally has a  small room with a whiteboard. The  students are permitted to utilize the board and study in groups. In addition to the computer access the students additionally may borrow books and have access to an array of DVD’s centralized around their studies. 

March 1, 2024 Friday 9am to 3pm

Submitted by Jonggu Moon MD, Lecturer QCC HPED

There was a keynote speaker followed by a panel discussion, each for the morning and again for the afternoon.

MORNING KEYNOTE:

Dr. Dara Byrne, Assoc Provost Dean Undergraduate Studies Macaulay Honors College, gave the morning keynote. She shared her experience leading a project to use AI to identify students at risk of dropping out or "stepping out." Stepping out is when a student declines to register for the next semester but has the intention of returning later. Unfortunately, the project has discovered that most who “step out” end up not returning. Dr. Byrne cautioned against using AI like this because a former student of hers asked if this was like predictive policing. Users of AI must be mindful of biases in the base data (see database example). BIBO or "Bias In, Bias Out" is a paraphrase of the old computer term GIGO "Garbage In, Garbage Out."(See for additional information: “Bias in AI is coming: How search engines reinforce racism.”)

Dr. Byrne explained that software developers are mostly concerned with making the technology possible and leave it up to others to determine how it is used. We as educators then must take that responsibility to push for appropriate use of AI. She encourages us to be the "mosquito in the room", meaning that while we may not have as much power as big tech and the military that is driving AI development, educators can continuously annoy the big players to influence how they are used.

Our job is not to be technologists. It is to ask the hard questions. As Martin Luther King pointed out "The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.  But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. 

Faculty responsibilities include: Metrics of fairness, Transparency, GIGO training, Point out distinction between Code vs Policy choices, Identify best practices. Point out the expanding gap of haves vs have nots. How to make AI accessible to students? (For example see, N.A.I.R.R.  National Artificial Intelligence Research Resources Pilot)

MORNING PANEL :

Dr. Gouzhen An, QCC Engineering Tech Natural Language

Dr. Scott Litroff, QCC Music Faculty Governance

Dr. Sumaya Villanueva, John Jay, Academic Engagement

Dr. Esma Yildrim, QCC Computer Science Big Data

Moderator Dr. Forough Ghahramani, NJEdge Inc.

AI is taking over entry level jobs. How will new hires gain the experience to become supervisors? The next in-demand skills will be how to use AI. We must teach them or else they will not get hired.  Should we still teach how to do entry level work?

AI is great for brainstorming. This is a fantastic time to be a learner of any age.

AFTERNOON KEYNOTE:  

"Empowering Our Academic Community: Elevating AI Literacy and Integrating AI Policies into Our Syllabi" Dr. Shiang-Kwei Wang, VP Academic Affairs and Provost Hostos Community College, spoke of the concerns of AI: Privacy, Accuracy, Reliability, Ethics, Social Impact (fake news). Your input influences future output for all the users. (BIBO). A quick poll showed we attendees all agreed that we should embrace and enhance AI use in the classroom, not detect and discourage it. Dr. Wang showed examples using the applications  Curipod to generate interactive PowerPoints and Gamma for documents

She spoke of using the Persona Pattern as a technique used in prompt engineering to provide context and guidelines for the AI model when generating responses. It allows you to specify a fictional or role-based identity for the AI to adopt when responding to prompts. - LinkedIn.  Finally, the flipped interaction pattern is a potent tool that leverages generative AI's capabilities to ask the questions needed to guide problem-solving or information gathering. - LinkedIn

AFTERNOON PANEL:

Dr. Milena Cuellar LagCC Math Tech Divide

Dr. Yusuf Danisman, QCC Math

Dr. Rob McAlear, QCC English

Ms. Ruru Rusmin, CUNY SPS, Faculty Development

Moderator Ms. Florence D. Hudson, Columbia U., Big Data

Possible future job title is "Prompt Engineer". Knowing what questions to give to AI.

Other references:

Meeting manager (Slido)

Teach@cunyaitoolkit

ChatGPT 3.5 is free because it is outdated.

Microsoft BING Copilot is a site licensed to CUNY. But your campus IT may have blocked it.

My own thoughts: Can AI be trained to take multiple choice exams? 23&Me went bankrupt. Do  confidentiality contracts become void to whoever buys their genetic information?

The attendee panel closed.