Each calendar year, the xREAL Lab works with faculty fellows, undergraduate and graduate students, affiliates across disciplines, community partners and other academic institutions to provide a vision for the future of teaching and learning, meaningful mentorship and hands-on experience for the students, and sustainable innovation for the larger campus community.
Jordi Solsona-Puig (education) discussed the benefit of CSUSB receiving a $3.3 million federal grant that it will use to increase teacher diversity in the Inland Empire, and Yolonda Youngs (geology and environmental sciences) was a guest on the “Nature Revisited” podcast on which the topic focused on the iconic Grand Canyon.
“Being bilingual has opened up many doors in both professional and personal settings,” said Rosaura Valenzuela. “It not only has provided me with opportunities to grow as a person, but it also has allowed me to connect with my community on a more personal level and better adapt to their needs.”
Jordi Solsona-Puig, CSUSB assistant professor of education, advocated for dual language immersion programs during his keynote presentation when the Riverside County Office of Education hosted its Dual Language Consortium. Also, CSUSB is also hosting its second Dual Immersion Symposium, “Equity in Translanguaging,” on Friday and Saturday, March 8-9.
The James R. Watson and Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education at Cal State San Bernardino, in partnership with San Bernardino Valley College, applied – and received – $500,000 funding for the Integrated Bilingual Authorization Program grant from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
Interest in Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs has been growing in the last two decades as a high-quality bilingual education response for all students, but especially for English learners.
The main goal of the collaboration between assistant professor Jordi Solsona-Puig’s class and the xREAL Lab was to integrate technology in the lesson planning, specifically the resources found through 3D and augmented reality (AR) from an equitable approach to designing learning experiences.