October 16, 2008
Author to lecture on distance learning in K-12 schools on Oct. 31
A visiting expert on virtual schooling will deliver a lecture on distance learning and the changing landscape of K-12 education on the morning of October 31. M.D. Roblyer, author of the most widely adopted text for college-level instructional technology courses, will talk about Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other immersion experiences that children encounter in today's media-permeated culture and how those events are shifting the way that teachers teach.
The lecture is set for 8:30-9:30 a.m. on October 31, in room 3140 of the Agronomy Building on the Iowa State University campus in Ames.
"If [teachers] aren't changing, they are becoming irrelevant," said Roblyer.
Roblyer has published extensively in the field of instructional technology. She has served as contributing editor for publications including the Online Journal of Distance Learning and the The International Principal. She is past chair of the publications committee of the International Society for Technology in Education and president-elect of Education and the Internet, a special interest group of the American Educational Research Association. She studies design of computer-based and distance learning materials for K-12 and higher education.
Her research focuses on identifying factors that contribute to student success in virtual schools and exploring ways to increase interactive qualities in distance courses.
She has served on the educational technology faculty at several universities since 1982, and is currently a professor in graduate studeis at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Roblyer will visit Iowa State as part of the Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling project, which is supported by a $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
Related link:
Teacher Education Goes into Virtual Schooling project
Contacts:
Niki Davis, Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching, 515 294-5596.
Mi Ok Cho, Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching, 515 294-3471.
Mike Ferlazzo, News Service, 515 294-8986.
Cathy Curtis, College of Human Sciences C
