Tag: education

U.S. Department of State Press Release: Prof. Jasmin (Bey) Cowin, Ed.D. Selected for Prestigious English Language Specialist Project

I am humbled and excited to serve the U.S. Department of State in the capacity of English Language Specialist.

The English Language Specialist Program is the premier opportunity for leaders in the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) to enact meaningful and sustainable changes in the way that English is taught abroad. Through projects developed by U.S. Embassies in more than 80 countries, English Language Specialists work directly with local teacher trainers, educational leaders, and ministry of education officials to exchange knowledge, build capacity, and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities in the United States and overseas. Since 1991, the English Language Specialist Program has supported in-country, virtual, and mixed projects in which hundreds of TESOL scholars and educators promote English language learning, enhance English teaching capacity, and foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries through cultural exchange. During their projects, English Language Specialists may conduct intensive teacher training, advise ministries of education or participate in high-level educational consultations, and offer plenary presentations at regional, national, or international TESOL conferences. These projects are challenging and those selected represent the best of the U.S. TESOL community. In return, the program provides professional development opportunities to help participants experience different cultures and build skills that can greatly enhance their TESOL careers at home. English Language Specialists are counted among the more than 50,000 individuals participating in U.S. Department of State exchange programs each year. The Specialist Program is administered by the Center for Intercultural Education and Development at Georgetown University.

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Touro Shines: Call for Proposals for the 1st AnnualTouro University Graduate School of Education Conference

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As a member of the conference committee Touro Shines, it is my pleasure to share our Call for Proposals for the 1st Annual Touro University Graduate School of Education Conference 2024.

Dr. Jasmin Cowin, Associate Professor, Touro University

When: Tuesday, June 18, 2024 9-3

Where: Touro University Cross River Campus, 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036

Who: GSE faculty, candidates, alumni; Touro University faculty, candidates and alumni; school partners

Our theme this year is “GSE Shines! Excellence and Equity, combined with Innovation and implemented by You leads to Transformation.”
We, as educators, need to take a fresh look at how we diversify our teaching methods to suit the needs of various populations, as well as uplift the voices of those educators and scholars not often heard as leaders in their fields. This is an interactive learning conference for Touro University faculty, degree candidates, alumni, school partners, and community stakeholders. Interactive and poster sessions will explore transformative practices, technologies, and mindsets that make space for proactive agility in meeting the challenges of an ever-changing world. We envision a space for networking and the free and respectful exchange of ideas.


By creating a lived space where all voices are valued, the GSE Shines Conference embodies GSE’s mission to prepare a diverse cadre of highly qualified teachers, leaders, knowledge developers, and disseminators, in keeping with the Judaic commitment to social justice, intellectual pursuit, and service to humanity.
The Details:
Call for Proposals for the 1st Annual
Touro University Graduate School of
Education Conference
Submit by March 5th, 2024
Access the proposal form:

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Touro University TESOL Candidate Jasmeet Kaur on Review & Assessment

As a Professor for TESOL, I am immensely proud to feature outstanding student work from our MS in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Program. New York’s linguistic diversity demands teachers who can find common ground and effectively communicate with students from different language backgrounds. Academically rigorous and practice-intensive, the 33-credit program prepares candidates to be eligible for recommendation for ESL certification.

Jasmeet Kaur, Touro University TESOL candidate, a graduate of York College in Childhood Education (Grades 1-6) with Summa Cum Laude honors in 2022, is currently employed as a Substitute Teacher. Concurrently, she is pursuing a Master’s degree in TESOL at Touro College. Her professional objective is to support bilingual and multilingual students, aiming to instill confidence in their abilities and guide them towards academic and personal success.

“In my journey towards becoming a TESOL professional, Touro College has not only deepened my understanding of teaching pedagogy but has also introduced me to the latest educational technologies, which I believe will significantly enhance my future effectiveness in the field.”

Jasmeet Kaur, Touro University TESOL candidate
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Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Digital Technologies, and Blockchain: Musings on Education and Language Acquisition in the Digital Age by Dr. Jasmin Bey Cowin

Gen Z and Gen Alpha continue to drive the expansion of augmented reality digital technologies (ARDTs) into all industries from corporate environments and marketing to health care, from gaming to language acquisition. Location-independent virtual environments hold the promise of exponential expansion beyond the brick-and-mortar presence of schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning, such as virtual schools and universities.

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It is my great pleasure to share  my newest publication “Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Digital Technologies, and Blockchain: Musings on Education and Language Acquisition in the Digital Age”, JAN 16, 2020by LONDON-TVin BUSINESS

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Digital Technologies, and Blockchain: Musings on Education and Language Acquisition in the Digital Age

Teaching as an Act of Love by Prof. Jasmin Bey Cowin, Ed.D.

Touro College, Graduate School of Education featured my philosophy on teaching via a video clip with the following observation: Touro’s Graduate School of Education Professor Jasmin Cowin’s Lessons Go Beyond the Classroom:

Jasmin Cowin, Ed.D., wants the students in her Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) program to know that language isn’t only grammar and vocabulary.

“My focus is not just on the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary, but also the understanding that language is a culture,” explained Dr. Cowin, an assistant professor at Touro’s Graduate School of Education (GSE). “You have to meet people where they are and help guide them so that they can fulfill their potential.”

“I’ve always thought of teaching as an act of love,” continued Dr. Cowin. “The students are coming here for something that is important to them, not only professionally, but also personally.”

Watch the video:

Teaching as an Act of Love

 

 

Proteus vs Papert – Musings by Dr. Jasmin B. Cowin

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What does the future of public, private and corporate education hold for us? I believe Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, natural language processing, neural nets and deep learning will be the catalysts for world-changing disruptions in fields such as medicine, education, and job creation. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, Ford, Tesla to name but a few are positioned to be leaders in this transformation. Questions on institutional pathways to success and viability need to be framed against the background of AI, super intelligent machines and the broader questions of humanity and human consciousness.

In The Gears of my Childhood, Seymour Papert states “What an individual can learn, and how he learns it, depends on what models he has available. These questions raise, recursively, the question of how he learned these models. Thus the “laws of learning” must be about how intellectual structures grow out of one another and about how, in the process, they acquire both logical and emotional form.” Papart sees the computer as the “proteus of machines,” the universal enabler, an instrument flexible enough so that “many children can create something” which assimilates new models of knowledge into their individual styles of learning. However, kindling the spark of “love” for learning and inquiry as the driving force in creating a “genesis of knowledge” is the dominant message of Papert’s essay and the universal message to and for educators.

For Ray Kurzweil “Technology goes beyond mere tool making; it is a process of creating ever more powerful technology using the tools from the previous round of innovation.” As a generation of students prepares for their future, they must be prepared for a fluid and lifetime assimilation of new technology and models of national and international coexistence.  However, Luke Rhinehart aka George Cockcroft, a psychiatrist, university professor, and writer of the cult novel The Dice Man wrote: “Man must become comfortable in flowing from one role to another, one set of values to another, one life to another. Men must be free from boundaries, patterns, and consistencies in order to be free to think, feel and create in new ways. Men have admired Prometheus and Mars too long; our God must become Proteus.”

Thinking about the future of education and humanity brought forth the questions: Is the quest for AI a quest to create God? If yes, in whose image? Alternatively, is this quest for the ultimate AI the ultimate archetypical story on the search for immortality? After all, humans have fantasized about the possibility of bringing a loved one back from the dead ever since that fateful, everlasting separation of Eurydice and her husband Orpheus on their wedding day through the venom of a viper. In this light, Rhinehart’s words that “men must be free from boundaries” seem prophetic.

Education, Virtual Reality and the 3D Campus

Virtual Worlds (VW’s) are bringing new challenges and a possible disruption of campus life as we know it to the forefront of higher education institutions via virtual campus creation. The quest for exceptional immersive learning spaces requires leaders in higher education and institutions to reflect on processes and practices into VW and 3D environments.

In their book E-Learning Ecologies: Principles for New Learning and Assessment, Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis explore the role of new technologies in communication with learners, changing knowledge representation and the role of new technologies in transforming educational institutions. E-learning has created robust learning societies outside academia. I predict that in the near future, educators, students, and VW participants will spend considerable time in VW’s interacting with each other.

Exploring new technological resources such as VW’s and their unique environments opens new dimensions of the formative teaching and learning process. The landscape of these”multimodal” workspaces has a global reach. Pierre Baldi and Crista Lopez discuss in their article The Universal Campus: An open virtual 3-D world infrastructure for research and education the “Universal Campus”, providing a campus 3-D virtual world with multiple buildings featuring fully furnished laboratories, classrooms, meeting rooms, auditoriums, concert spaces, libraries ,and lecture halls enabling virtual meetings and interactions for faculty, students, visitors, and administration. In my opinion, VW together with 3 D technology such as the Oculus will create innovative, global, transformative knowledge spaces.