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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
3/17/2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - Northwestern State University faculty from the College of Education and the Department of Journalism shared their expertise in information technology, and its use in training teachers, during the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) international conference. Presentations illustrated how technology is being used to help teachers with professional development, classroom instruction and meeting accreditation standards. The ways in which technology has transformed the classroom were also discussed.
"The conference provided opportunities to share ideas about using information technology in all disciplines in preservice, inservice and graduate teacher education, as well as faculty and staff development," said Dr. Dee Anna Willis, associate professor at NSU and a founder of SITE.
Dr. Robert Gillan co-authored and presented a paper that described the development of eight on-line courses that help teachers meet accreditation standards for computer science certification. Gillan, Dr. Karen McFerrin and Dr. Ron McBride discussed a partnership between NSU's College of Education, the NSU Space Science Group and the Louisiana Middle School Association that provides training in math and science that is delivered electronically to middle school teachers.
Dr. Paula Christensen discussed the development of an on-line graduate course that helps teachers encourage students' creative thinking and problem solving. Dr. Paula Furr, assistant professor of journalism; Dr. Steve Horton, journalism chair, and McFerrin presented research showing the positive and negative aspects of how technology has transformed teaching and learning.
During the conference, Willis led an editor's panel and presented a workshop on guidelines for publishing research. NSU faculty joined in SITE committee work, McBride as chair of Distance Education and Web Communities, McFerrin as vice chair of Graduate Education and Faculty Development, Willis as chair of Conference and Proceeding Committee, and Gillan as a committee member of Education Leadership.
In the last 16 years, SITE has grown from a small regional conference in North Carolina to an international gathering of educators from more than 50 countries. The organization fosters beginners in the field of education, encourages networking and promotes hands-on leadership. The 16th annual conference was held in Phoenix.