News from Instructional Technology Education
This post goes out to all of our 2015 graduates in Mathematics Education, Instructional Technology, and Science Education, as well as the many students in the College of Education whose lives we have touched through our numerous service courses. We are so proud of your accomplishments. Congratulations and best wishes in all of your future endeavors.
Congratulations to Dr. Bill Sugar, a double award winner! The Chancellor and Provost of the university present Dr. Sugar with his awards on the big stage during the Founder’s Day Award Celebration on April 29th, 2015. He was the winner of the 2015 Max Ray Joyner Award for Outstanding Teaching in Distance Education! Additionally, Dr. Sugar was presented with the College of Education’s Scholar-Teacher award.
Dr. Patricia Slagter van Tryon, was also recognized as a nominee for both the UNC Board of Governors Distinguished Professor of Teaching Award and the Max Ray Joyner Award for Outstanding Teaching in Distance Education.
Congratulations to Dr. William Sugar for being selected as the College of Education’s Scholar-Teacher Award winner. This university award recognizes faculty members who effectively integrate research and creative activity into their teaching. Dr. Sugar has demonstrated excellence in his teaching, has an outstanding record of scholarly work including publications and presentations, and has been able to meld these two accomplishments into his teaching and mentoring at the university. He will be honored on Thurs, March 26th at approximately 2:50 p.m. in the Mendenhall Great Rooms where he will give a short presentation of his work entitled, Studies of Instructional Design Practices: Recent Research and Takeaways.
At Friday’s graduation, Dec. 19, 2014, Dr. Abbie Brown will deliver the commencement address. In his address, Dr. Brown observes that earning a university degree is an exhilarating and satisfying personal investment, and that education helps one see, “the big picture” and more details within that picture. More information can be found in the article by Jeannine Manning Hutson http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/abrown14.cfm
Using a SMARTboard to create lessons and interactive activities is just one way that pre-service teachers show their competence working with technology. The focus of the required, EDTC 4001, is for students to gain competence with both existing and emerging technologies to be able to teach the 21st century learner with high levels of thinking and engagement. Students enjoy their hands-on experiences with SMARTboards:
“Making a Smartboard lesson was one of my favorite assignments I had to complete. I love creating visuals and engagement tools for my students.” Casey Worrell
“One of the greatest tools that I have ever used so far as a student and an intern is the tool called a SmartBoard. I love this tool so much. It is so much better than any paper copy or chalkboard activity. A SmartBoard is an interactive electronic white board that a teacher can use with their students. This board has the ability to allow people to use their fingers and hands to operate it.” Chris Edwards
Additionally, many, many ECU students have contributed their work to the online SMART Exchange, a collaborative network for teachers to share lesson ideas and SMART activities. Way to go!
The ECU Instructional Technology program was well represented at this year’s AECT (Association for Educational Communication and Technology) International Convention held in Jacksonville, FL, November 4-8. Members of the ECU faculty and masters program alumni shared their current research and participated in a variety of AECT organizational activities.
Professor Abbie Brown expressed great pride in ECU’s representation at the event, “It was deeply gratifying, and just plain fun, to see our alums engaging with the international community of instructional design/technology.”
Highlights of the convention included a prominent display of Dr. Sugar’s most recent book, Studies of ID Practices: A Review and Synthesis of the Research on ID Current Practices (published by Springer); Dr. Abbie Brown’s receipt of an Immersive Learning Award for the podcast series, Trends & Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology, & Learning Sciences; Dr. Slagter Van Tryon’s management in organizing the PacifiCorp instructional design competition; Dr. Strycker’s leadership in the Teacher Education Division; and Dr. Luterbach’s research presentations, one of which was a collaborative endeavor with alumnus Ken Hubbell.
Abbie Brown, a Professor in the College of Education’s Instructional Technology program, is a recipient of an Immersive Learning Award for his podcast series, Trends & Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology,& Learning Sciences. The award is sponsored by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), and recognizes media production projects that contribute to the field of instructional technology and demonstrate significant increase in learning. The podcast is co-produced by Professor Brown and Professor Tim Green of California State University, Fullerton.
Using the app Flipboard to collect articles related to instructional technology from a wide variety of education, science, and design sources, Brown and Green publish, Trends & Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology, & Learning Science
( http://flip.it/Iy0rD ). To synthesize the instructional technology trends and major issues reflected by the articles presented in their Flipboard magazine, Brown and Green produce a bi-weekly podcast, Trends & Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology, & Learning Sciences, available through iTunes, the audio-content site, Stitcher (http://www.stitcher.com ), and their own podcast website, http://trendsandissues.com .
Brown says, “I’m gratified that the podcast series is popular. My colleague, Tim and I are a bit in awe of its reach. The Flipboard magazine has over 12,500 readers, and the podcasts have been downloaded to every continent except Antarctica.”
Shane Carden, a MS Instructional Technology student, was named the AAC player of the week for his performance on the football field this week. According to the news release from ECU, Carden completed 30 of 48 passes for 438 yards and four touchdowns while adding a pair of ground scores, which accounted for six of the Pirates’ 10 scores. Carden is not new to winning awards. Other recent awards include:
Soon he will have an MS degree in Instructional Technology to add to his list of achievements.
Congratulations, Shane.
Congratulations to Suzanne Keil! Suzanne, an Instructional Technology student, for her publication in the current issue of the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. Her article, “Distance Education Policy Standards: A Review of Current Regional and National Accrediting Organizations in the United States” is an interesting compilation of the current movement in distance education in our country and how accreditation processes affect both policy and process. Suzanne was assisted by her mentor and professor, Dr. Abbie Brown.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of cutting edge research studies on contemporary instructional design practices. Written for instructional designers, instructional technologists and researchers in the field, it provides state of the art, practically focused information and guidelines for designing curriculum and professional ID practice. The overall purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive review of 102 studies of instructional design (ID) practices. Studies of ID practices are research on instructional designers’ current practices and activities. For over thirty years, individual researchers have evaluated the practices of ID professionals and instructional designers and ID students (e.g., Kerr, 1983; Zemke, 1985). This summary and analysis of existing research in these studies of ID practices directly impact the Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) discipline. Congratulations, Dr. Sugar!
