Excellence in Teaching & Learning with Technology Award

Criteria for the Award

JMU Libraries wishes to recognize faculty members who have proved to be leaders in teaching with technologies in their respective institutions. We invite you to nominate faculty for an Excellence in Teaching & Learning with Technology Award; all part-time and full-time JMU faculty, faculty from other higher ed institutions, and K-12 faculty, are eligible to be nominated. Recipients of this award have:

  • Adapted familiar tools to create innovative learning experiences, and/or
  • Successfully experimented with and adapted new technologies in their classes.

Process

Nominations: Individuals submit one or multiple nominations using the “Excellence in Teaching & Learning with Technology Award” nomination form. Self-nominations are also encouraged.

Nominations close Friday, October 4, at 5pm

Nomination details include:

  • How the nominee’s work increased students’ creativity and/or motivation to learn through the use of technology.
  • How the effects of the nominee’s work resulted in positive improvements in learning/motivation/creativity beyond those of students in her/his own classes.
  • And, if available, how the instructor’s use of technology impacted the students’ overall.

Nominees who progress beyond the first stage of the process will be contacted directly by the panel of judges to submit further materials.

Award

Award winner(s) will receive:

  • A recognition trophy
  • A modest cash stipend

TLTaward

2018

Shannon Conley & Emily York
James Madison University
Shannon and Emily asked their ISAT 131 students to evoke a future in which an emerging technology of today is ordinary and ubiquitous. Students created media artifacts to facilitate conversations across the intersections of science, technology, and society, while applying an ethical reasoning framework to their considerations. Dr. York and Dr. Conley built on these classroom experiences to establish the STS Futures Lab, which focuses on “interdisciplinary collaboration to better understand and address the complexities that arise at the interface of science, technology, and society.” One colleague shares, “Emily and Shannon integrated ethical reasoning in action, science education, and design learning in their project. It was truly an innovation in pedagogy to motivate student deep thinking in a creative way.” 

Samy El-Tawab
James Madison University
Students in Samy El-Tawab’s Autonomous Vehicles Class successfully converted a traditional golf cart to a self-driving vehicle in 15 weeks, capable of navigating a course and sensing and avoiding objects in its path. The multidisciplinary project provided undergraduate students with hands-on experience working with technologies across design, engineering, systems and software, and project management. Dr. El-Tawab’s students are also active in the community, providing programming support for learning technology at the Explore More Discovery Museum in Harrisonburg. A colleague says, “Dr. El-Tawab has improved many projects and classes by using new technology tools and concepts.” 

Perry Shank
Harrisonburg High School (Harrisonburg Public Schools)
Perry Shank’s music students learned about music production, sound engineering, and making electronic music by using tools like digital sequencers, DJ mixdecks, and tablets to layer and mix sounds. Students further explored their creativity with technology in Dr. Shank’s DJ Club, a sandbox-style time outside of class when students could freely experiment with music-making technologies to create, share, and enjoy their productions. 

2017

Jennifer Babcock
Bridgewater College
Professor Babcock’s Intercultural Communication class uses digital story maps to explore immigrant experiences in the U.S. and transform traditional research papers into multimodal digital projects. She shares her experiences with other faculty on campus through the Bridgewater Digital Scholarship Working Group. One colleague shares, Babcock “leads by example, encouraging faculty to create digital projects and assignments that may be outside their comfort zone.”

Lori Beth De Hertogh
James Madison University
Dr. De Hertogh’s students transform research papers into multimodal projects, create complex diaries and storytelling projects, and use a variety of digital tools to explore topics in WRTC. In addition to inspiring her students to explore technology, Dr. De Hertogh shares her experiences with the scholarly community through her publications and conference presentations, and is a technology leader in her home department on campus. Her colleagues report, “she is a collaborative, collegial and generous colleague who works with others to encourage and support the use of technology in improving and innovating teaching at this institution.”

Amanda Siler
John C. Meyers Elementary School (Rockingham County Public Schools)
Ms. Siler’s Fourth Graders researched text structures and used Flip Grid to create video projects about their research, which they shared in their class to learn about each other’s research. Last year’s Teacher of the Year, Amanda is not afraid to take risks incorporating technology into her pedagogy and shares with her colleagues lessons learned. One way she does this is to create video tutorials for fellow staff wanting to try new technology. Her colleagues say, “Students in Amanda’s class are so much more engaged and excited about learning… The creativity of students is amazing.”

2016

Oris Griffin
Learning, Technology, and Leadership Education
Dr. Oris Griffin and her students studied users of the Explore More Discovery Museum in downtown Harrisonburg. They created a mobile app to support the cognitive development of young museum-goers, and showed that students better retained their museum experience when using the app. As a colleague stated, “Her idea can serve children in our community to learn more.”

Jamie Lee
School of Nursing
Professor Jamie Lee fully integrates technology into her NSG 353 course. She uses iPads, Apple TV, and embeds student interaction to create an interactive, team-based learning environment. Jamie has guided the School of Nursing in its use of ExamSoft online testing. She reviews and improves testing policies and teaches faculty how to use the program. Jamie also teaches online courses in the BSN and RN to BSN programs. In the words of a colleague, “I can’t think of anyone who deserves this award more than she does.” 

Siân White
Department of English
Dr. Siân White’s Woolf in Time and Space project uses innovative digital production techniques to teach students about author Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries. Students use interactive timelines, maps, multimedia blog posts, and other digital tools to analyze and interpret literary works. The dynamic project grows and adapts as students from successive semesters contribute to and learn from it. In the words of a colleague, “Dr. White is an extremely valuable ambassador of digital pedagogy here at JMU.” 

2015

Alison Bodkin
School of Communication Studies
Bodkin was nominated for the creation of the ShoutOut! JMU blog. ShoutOut! JMU is the only feminist blog on campus and it has been operating for 7 years. The goal of this blog is not to convert readers to feminism, but instead to raise consciousness of the diversity of perspectives toward understanding everyday inequities.

Science on a Sphere (Kristen St. John, Joy Ferrenbaugh, Jennifer Mangan and Christie-Joy Hartman) 
The Science on a Sphere team was nominated for their efforts to increase incorporation of Science on a Sphere (SOS) at JMU beyond their own courses and for their SOS analysis efforts. The sphere was developed as an educational tool to help show the Earth System to the general public.

2014

Seán McCarthy
Writing, Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Seán incorporated technology in the classroom in his development of “the magazine project” to help WRTC 103 students learn how to write for a real audience. He is an asset to our university community and an ambassador for how technology can be used to inspire educated, enlightened and engaged citizenship.

Evelyn Tickle
Art, Design & Art History
Evelyn introduced new software including Revit, Rhino, and SketchUp to CAD classes, pioneered studio projects using 3D printers, and more.

Carol Dudding
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Carol adapted tools to provide students with virtual life clinical simulations in Speech Language Pathology. Her use of technology has greatly improved the clinical training of students and provided them with an opportunity to experience a range of clinical experiences in a virtual environment.

2013 (Inaugural Year)

Corey Hickerson
School of Communication Studies
His influence on student learning is not bounded by a classroom. His mentoring to other faculty members has created impact on the JMU campus in many classes. His passion to coach students not only in knowledge acquisition but also in practical integration prepares students well for the 21st Century career.

Cynthia Martin
Writing, Rhetoric & Technical Communication
In her various roles on campus, Cynthia Martin inspires people in the campus community and beyond to embrace the many ways technology can help us discover, express, and advance new ideas, and help us grow as individuals, scholars, and citizens. Her knowledge, generosity, and enthusiasm for technology and learning are just a few of the qualities that make her deserving of this award.  Whether or not she receives this award, and whether or not she knows it, I am deeply grateful for her many contributions.

Donielle Janow
Psychology
She pays a great deal of attention to building a learning community when selecting technologies to teach. She uses both asynchronous and synchronous technologies when setting up a learning atmosphere, delivering content, and nurturing student-student and student-content interaction. Based on responses to an open-ended question for class evaluation, students overall seemed to feel that the use of technology to learn in Donielle’s class fit the class well and they felt like they were functioning like professionals.