June 2014
Albert Einstein warned humankind about the dangers of technology exceeding our humanity.
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Helping to fight against this dire prediction, Liz Foley, a specialist in the Educational Technology Unit (ETU) on the Grant campus, brings a compassionate presence to the complex world of SCCC’s computer networks.
Liz started working at SCCC in 1994 teaching computer classes through continuing education. She also was a part time PA in the Academic Computing Center at the Grant campus. Liz continued with both of these part-time positions until she was hired as a full-time PA in 1998.
Liz is very proud to say that she started at a community college in Nassau County and continued her education at St. John’s University, completing a computer science degree. She remembers the days where she used to run punched card program codes through huge mainframe computers and had to learn DOS and its basic commands. Her first career experience was programming for the Sperry Corporation, then she honed her personal computer skills while instructing at the Middle Country Public Library.
Since her start at SCCC, Liz has installed, fixed and trouble- shot both software and hardware in the computer labs. She feels that the challenge of technology is the speed with which the field changes from day to day and so attending SCCC training as well as technology conferences are absolute necessities for improving her skills, increasing her knowledge and enriching her whole SCCC experience.
With the constant innovation and new initiatives at SCCC (wireless, email and MySCCC), it is her pleasure to serve as someone who can bring that knowledge to the campus community, guiding us through the new processes and procedures while working alongside her colleagues.
Liz is not only an educational technology specialist but an instructor too. Teaching freshman seminar, Liz’s pedagogical goal is to give her students the opportunity to learn in a safe and friendly environment with the latest technical resources where they can ask any questions, technical and otherwise, that can assist them in using SCCC resources.
Her goal for freshman seminar is to change the perception from “I have to take this course” to “I want to take this course to be successful here at SCCC and in life.” Empowering students to be proactive for their education is something that she loves to instill in them, and a crucial aspect of student success is working with technology including MySCCC, Suffolk Online
and the Virtual Learning Commons. Liz’s mantra to students is “Find a job that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” and that applies to her as well. Every day is different, and the interaction with students, faculty, administrators and staff has enhanced Liz’s time here at Suffolk immeasurably. Liz has also worked on Computer Essentials, college-wide reference that has broadened her knowledge of how the other campuses handle technical issues. She is a member of the freshman seminar college-wide committee, which increases her understanding of students’ needs and how to address them in the classroom, and has been involved with the Title III project, promoting the use of the Virtual Learning Commons at Campus Activities days.