Technology & Learning Advisory Board

Randy Allen

Randy Allen is a native of West Virginia but a true Ohio Buckeye at heart. He has both B.S. and M.A. degrees in education from The Ohio State University. Randy is starting his 24th year as an educator. He taught high school chemistry and middle school science for six years before moving into the area of high school computer science. Randy has been nominated twice for Ohio Teacher of the Year, and in 1988 he was selected as Technology & Learning's first Teacher of the Year national winner. For the past 13 years, he has served as the director of technology for the Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools. During his tenure, he has been instrumental in helping the district obtain over $3,000,000 in technology-related grants. Randy also served for four years as a commissioner for Ohio SchoolNet, an agency created by the Ohio State legislature to oversee the implementation of technology in Ohio's classrooms. To see his latest technology endeavors, visit www.gahanna.k12.oh.us.

Rita Beard

With 22 years of teaching experience, Rita K. Beard is currently a business education teacher at Crestwood High School in Sumter, S.C. She also serves as the Chair for the Career & Technology Department and as the Technology Professional Development Coordinator for Sumter District 2, in which capacity she helps develop and teach technology courses/training for school district's teachers and staff members. Rita is past President, Vice President, and Secretary of the South Carolina Business Education Association and a current member of the National Business Education Association, South Carolina Business Education Association, Association for Career and Technical Education, and South Carolina Career and Technical Education Association.

Since teaching her first computer course in 1984-85, Rita has served on numerous writing committees to develop computer/technology-related scourses/curriculum for South Carolina, and her students have won many awards on the state and national levels in computer-related events sponsored by the Future Business Leaders of America (including web page events, desktop publishing, and computer applications).

Rita recently completed training to teach the CISCO Academy courses on the high school level. She is the recipient of teaching awards such as the Technology & Learning Teacher of the Year in 1989; Sumter District Teacher of the Year in 1989 and Hillcrest Teacher of the Year in 1989; Crestwood High School Teacher of the Year for 1999-2000.

Ana Bishop

Ana Bishop, formerly a manager at IBM and part ot the company's first efforts into consulting services for education, is well known in the bilingual and ESL educational technology field for her planning, staff development and knowledge of technology applications (software and internet). She is a former Title VII fellow of the US Dept. of Ed., former Chair of the National Association for Bilingual Education's (NABE) Instructional Technology Special Interest Group, and current co-editor of the Instructional Tech column for NABE News.ý She is a member of the Educational Technology Think Tank in Washington, DC. She also is an author of two chapters in the TESOL, Inc. texbook on CALL Environments (computer aided language learning), as well as having been on the advisory board of New York State's Education Department's Advisory Panel on Instructional Technology for LEP Students and one of the contributors to that state's recommendations for software criteria. Ms. Bishop is currently the Unit Manager for Instructional Technology at Region 9 of the New York City Department of Education, which includes 170 schools in lower Manhattan, the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and the South Bronx.

Winnifred Bolinsky

Winnifred Bolinsky has a M.Ed. in Computers in Education and is currently completing her administrative certification at Penn State University. She teaches fifth grade in the Parkland School District and has taught courses for DeSales University's M.Ed. program. Since receiving the 1995 Technology & Learning National Teacher of the Year award, she has received a 1996 Gustav Ohaus Award for Innovations in Elementary Science and the 1999 Sheldon Exemplary Equipment and Facilities Award from the National Science Teachers Association. She is a 1996 Milken National Educator Award recipient and a Toyota Tapestry grant recipient.

Holly Brady

Holly Brady is the director of Stanford Publishing Courses, a division of Stanford University that runs various courses for professionals, including the Stanford Professional Publishing Course and Publishing on the Web. She has also directed various University publishing projects, the latest of which is the recently published book Stanford: Portrait of a University, for which she served as executive editor. Prior to coming to Stanford, she spent 13 years in magazine publishing-editing educational and technology magazines. She has won numerous writing and editing awards, including top awards from both the Educational Press Association of America and Western Publications Association. Her freelance articles have appeared in magazines including Parenting, Mademoiselle, and Parents. She is an alumna of Stanford University with a B.A. in English; she also holds a master's degree in teaching.

Bill Burrall

Bill Burrall is coordinator of instructional technology programs for Marshall County Schools in Marshall County, W.V. Bill's 27 years of teaching experience, began at Wheeling Central Catholic High School in 1971. Since then, he has also presented at numerous state, national and international conferences and is a nationally recognized speaker on integrating technology and telecommunicationsinto the curriculum.

Bill is a member of the National Education Association and has served on the governor's Education First Panel and the West Virginia Technology Task Force, and he represented the nation's educational community when he testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on the telecommunications bill that evolved into what we know now as the E-rate. He was recognized as IBM's National Technology Teacher of the Year for 1993, an Ashland Oil Teacher Achievement Award Winner for 1994, a Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Winner for 1995, selected as a member of Classroom Connect's S.T.A.R. Society in 1996, and was named 1999 West Virginia Technology Coordinator of the year by WVTEAMS.

Jerry Crystal

Jerry Crystal is Director of Technology Integration for Hartford Magnet Middle School in Hartford, Connecticut. In his 20+ years in education he has worked with nearly every permutation of educational technology from the single computer classroom through to the wireless total laptop school. His practical, perceptive and humorous insights come from years of experience working with students, teachers and administrators at all levels of the educational spectrum. His workshops and professional development materials have been enthusiastically received by audiences regionally, nationally, and internationally. Mr. Crystal is a consultant to private and public organizations and author of numerous articles including, most recently, a preliminary perspective on the Maine Laptop Initiative featured in the September 2002 edition of Technology & Learning magazine. Besides chairing the Technology Committee of the New England League of Middle Schools he has served on numerous other committees that deal with pivotal issues such as the ethical use of technology. A proud US Navy veteran, he is also a loving husband to his wife Donna and an indulgent father to his four daughters. jcrystal@crec.org

Hall Davidson

Hall Davidson is a nationally known educator as a teacher, author, lecturer, and staff development leader. He has served on state and national advisory boards for telecommunications, technology management, technology integration, and instructional media. He co-authored the report of the Distance Learning Task Force in California, authored the media portion of the Technology Guide for the association of media and library teachers, co-authored the internationally marketed TECHWORKS school kits, and has published articles in national journals and magazines. His classroom experience, begun in middle-school in 1971, includes mathematics, language arts, and foreign language. He served as on-camera teacher in an Emmy-winning instructional series. He has since been Emmy-nominated as a producer. His productions include series for teachers on the use of the internet and information literacy. He has served on school site governance councils during school reform and currently sites on an elementary school advisory board and as a board member of Computer-Using Educators. He co-founded Video-Using Educators in Los Angeles in 1985 and for seven years has served as director of the California Student Media & Multimedia Festival, the nation's oldest such festival, now in its 36th year. For 15 years he has led trainings for teachers in video, multimedia, copyright, and technology integration affecting thousands of teachers. He currently serves as Director of Education at KOCE-TV, the PBS station in Orange County, California, and as Executive Director of Telecommunications of Orange County (TOC), a media consortium serving a dozen districts and over 200,000 K-12 students.

Al Doyle

Al Doyle has been teaching art, design, and-more recently-multimedia and web design for over 20 years in both public and private schools, with experiences ranging from a preschool migrant worker children's program to college-level courses for senior citizens. Al holds a M.A. '81 from N.Y.U., where he studied computer graphics and printmaking. As a technology coordinator for Poly Prep in Brooklyn, Al was recognized for innovative, student-centered projects in collaboration with PBS for the 1998 Olympic Cyberschool Web site. He was director for internet training at Thirteen/WNET's National Teacher Training Institute in 1999-2000, traveling nationwide in a "train the trainers" program for teaching with technology. Working with the Salvadori Foundation, Al produced the Art of Construction Web site to teach architecture and engineering to middle school students. Currently, he is the director of academic technology at the St. Bernard's School in New York City.

Marianne Handler

Marianne Handler is a professor in the Technology in Education Department at National-Louis University. Prior to coming to National-Louis 12 years ago she was a Library-Learning Center Director in a K-8 school district for 20 years. She is co-author of Hypermedia as a Student Tool: A Guide for Teachers (Libraries Unlimited) and co-editor of The Many Faces of School-University Collaboration (Libraries Unlimited), to be released in fall 2001. She consults in local school districts on technology integration and has presented at local, regional, national, and international conferences.

She served as president of the Teacher Education SIG of the International Society of Teacher Education (ISTE) and on the ISTE Board of Directors. She has been identified as an Apple Distinguished Educator and is currently enjoying her involvement in that role.

Sally Irons

After 17 years teaching full-time at the Niles (Mich.) Community Schools, Sally Irons will face new challenges this fall. She will teach computer programming and computer maintenance part-time and, on the days she is not teaching, take on the role of the district technology coordinator. Her focus will be threefold: to increase the technology skills of the teachers in her district, to offer suggestions to the teachers as to how technology can help improve classroom management, and to help the teachers integrate technology into their curricula.

In 1999, Sally was awarded a Michigan NextDay Grant to help students teach software programs to teachers . She and a team of teachers from her school were also chosen to participate in the first year of the Ameritech Training Academy in Michigan. In addition, Sally was named a regional winner of Technology & Learning's 2000 Teacher of the Year awards. Sally's strong commitment to teacher training is evident through the materials for workshops that she has developed and presented throughout the state for the last 10 years. She has also co-authored for Teacher Created Materials lesson plans and activity cards that integrate technology into the core areas. If you wish to find out more about Sally's workshops and other teacher training efforts, feel free to e-mail her at sirons@remc11.k12.mi.us.

Ian Jukes

Ian Jukes has been a teacher, an administrator, writer, consultant, university instructor and keynote speaker. As the Director of the InfoSavvy Group and the Committed Sardine Web site, he works extensively with school districts, businesses, community organizations and other institutions to help shape preferred futures.

Ian is the creator and co-developer of TechWorks, the successful K-8 technology framework; together with his wife Anita Dosaj, he has been the catalyst of the NetSavvy and InfoSavvy information literacy series; he has been a Contributing Editor for both the Audio Education Journal and Technology & Learning magazine; and is now the editor of The Committed Sardine E-Mailer, an electronic newsletter that goes out weekly to more than 8,000 subscribers. His two most recently published books are Net.Savvy: Building Information Literacy for the Classroom, co-authored with Anita Dosaj and Bruce Macdonald; and Windows on the Future, co-authored with Ted McCain. Corwin Press publishes both books.

Ian is an educator first and foremost. His focus has consistently been on the compelling need to restructure our institutions so that they become relevant to the current and future needs of children. His rambunctious, irreverent and highly charged presentations and articles emphasize many of the practical issues related to ensuring that change is meaningful. As a registered educational evangelist, his self-avowed mission in life is to ensure that children are properly prepared for the future rather than society's past. As a result, his material tends to focus on many of the pragmatic issues that provide the essential context for educational restructuring. Fasten your seat belts and strap on your cerebral flak jacket. Counseling can and will be provided.

Larry Leverett

Dr. Larry Leverett serves as superintendent of schools in Plainfield, New Jersey. Plainfield, a central Jersey urban school district, serves 7,000 students and is involved in a multi-year reform program.

Dr. Leverett regularly visits classrooms, talks with staff and children and is very active in the Plainfield community. He works diligently with the Plainfield educational community and interacts with parents to meet the challenge of higher levels of student performance for all children-no alibis, no excuses, no exceptions. Dr. Leverett has earned a reputation as a creative leader who encourages collaboration and acceptance of responsibility among stakeholders in the education community.

Under Dr. Leverett's leadership, the citizens of Plainfield approved a multi-million dollar referendum in 1996 that provided funds to build a new Washington Community School, as well as build additions to five other schools. State-of-the-art media centers, computers in every classroom and art rooms were all included in these projects.

Also under Dr. Leverett's "watch," the Plainfield school district has been reinstated as an "Abbott" district. This designation provides significant additional state aid to be used for education. In conjunction with its Abbot designation, Plainfield has recently received approval for a new $136 million construction program, which provides for seven new schools in the district.

Dr. Leverett has served at the state level as Assistant Commissioner for Urban Education and has held various leadership positions in K-12 education and community development. He has prior experience as a superintendent in the Englewood Public Schools and worked as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent in both urban and suburban settings. Additionally, Dr. Leverett has taught curriculum and instruction coursework at the post-secondary level. Dr. Leverett's background includes extensive experience in school reform and he has consulted with school districts across the country.

Caroline McCullen

Caroline McCullen is an Instructional Technologist for SAS inSchool, the K-12 Education Division of SAS Institute, the world's largest privately held software corporation. In 1994, she established MidLink Magazine, an award-winning web site created by students all over the world. She has 22 years of teaching experience at the middle and high school level and in 1996, while teaching at Ligon Middle School in Raleigh, NC, she was selected National Technology Teacher of the Year by Technology & Learning.

She has a B.A. in English, M.S. in ESL, and has published numerous articles in Technology & Learning, Learning and Leading with Technology, ISTE's HyperNEXUS, Multimedia Schools, the Florida English Journal, Florida Technology Quarterly, and many other technology periodicals. Her "Electronic Thread" column is a regular feature in the National Middle School Association's Journal, Middle Ground.

McCullen recently served on the National Technology Expert Panel, an 18-member panel of educators and researchers from across the US, assembled by the Department of Education in Washington, DC. She is currently President of HyperSIG, Multimedia Special Interest Group of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). She continues to work with an international staff of talented teacher-editors to publish MidLink Magazine and often presents keynotes and workshops at national and state conferences on topics such as web publishing, digital copyright, technology integration, multimedia, and assessment.

Florence McGinn

Florence McGinn, GKE's Vice President of Research and board member of the GKE Foundation and Mediatech Foundation, is a former U.S. Commissioner with the Congressional Commission on Web-based Education, legislated to supply policy recommendations to the President and Congress; Mrs. McGinn served as K-12 Issues Chairperson.

Mrs. McGinn is the 1998 National Teacher of the Year in the Microsoft-sponsored Technology & Learning award, and she received the 1998 Princeton University Distinguished Secondary School Educator award. She has received New Jersey Teacher of the Year as well as U.S. Eastern Region Teacher of the Year awards. She is the recipient of New Jersey Best Practices and New Jersey Association of School Curriculum awards.

Mrs. McGinn is a published poet, and her book Blood Trail (ISBN 0-938631-34-9) is available in bookstores. Elements of Blood Trail are published on CD-ROM as a teaching tool by Centrix Technology and GKE in China.

Katherine Nell McNeil

Katherine McNeil has a M.Ed. in Multicultural Education and is currently completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership at Seattle University. She teaches seventh, eighth, and ninth grade special education at Northwood Junior High in the Kent School District. Since receiving the 2000 Technology & Learning National Teacher of the Year award, she was just named one of six Washington state educators who will receive the first LearningSpace Achievement Award for outstanding use of technology integration in the classroom. PBS invited her to be a member of their TeacherSource Advisory Board for the 2001-02 school year. She has been awarded over $6,000 in competative grants from Medtronics and The Foundation for Exceptional Children. These grants are being used to provide an exciting technology-based science curriculum to her students. Katherine also has had her first article published in the book, How to Use the Internet in Your Classroom,published by Teachers Network. In her spare time she is the Webmaster for her program's Web site and is active in the Seattle Native American community.

Betsy Norris

Betsy Norris is a native Tennessean. She has a B.S. in elementary education, a master's in Administration and Supervision, and an Ed.S. in Curriculum and Supervision, all from Middle Tennessee State University. Betsy is starting her 25th year as an educator. She currently teaches sixth-grade language arts, and she has at one time or another taught every grade, 1 thru 9. She teaches, and has taught for the past 10 years, night classes for adults doing either GED prep classes and/or technology classes. Although she teaches a full load, she also serves as the school and system technology liaison. Betsy has been named her school's Teacher of the Year, System Teacher of the Year twice, District Walmart Teacher of the Year, and Technology & Learning Southeast Teacher of the Year 2000. During her career, she has been instrumental in helping her school obtain over $83,000 in technology-related grant monies and to become a recipient of the annual 1999 National Business Week Award for Instructional Innovation. Betsy served this past year on the PBS TeacherSource Advisory Committee. To see her latest technology endeavors, visit her personal Web site.

Alan November

Alan November is an internationally known leader in educational technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been a director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and college lecturer. As practitioner, designer, and author, Alan has guided schools, government organizations and industry as they plan to improve quality with technology.

Alan is well known for applying his humor and wit to inspire people to think about applying technology to improve learning for children and adults. His expertise includes: information and communication technology planning across the curriculum, staff development, long-range planning, and community coalition building and leadership workshops. As a consultant for industry, his work includes: market analysis, video production, and school-business partnerships. He has delivered keynote presentations and workshops in 49 states, every province in Canada, across Europe and Asia.

He was named one of the nation's 15 most influential thinkers of the decade in K-12 technology by Classroom Computer Learning Magazine. His writings include the best selling textbook, Computer Literacy Through Applications, his new book Empowering Students With Technology, and dozens of articles. Alan was co-founder of the Stanford Institute for Educational Leadership Through Technology. He is most proud of being named one of the original five national Christa McAuliffe Educators.

Jason Ohler

Dr. Jason Ohler has been writing, speaking, and teaching about educational technology since the first desktop computers showed up in classrooms. He created the Educational Technology Program at the University of Alaska in 1984 and continues to serve as its director today. The Program offers an online master's degree, a graduate endorsement, and professional development opportunities that emphasize teacher empowerment through the "effective, creative, and wise use of technology in education." Jason is author of numerous articles, as well as three books: Taming the Beast: Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle; Future Courses: A Compendium of Thought about the Future of Technology and Learning; Then What? A Funquiry into the Nature of Technology, Human Transformation, and Marshall McLuhan. He is noted for his support of the recognition of art as a staple literacy in the multimedia age ("the 4th R"), innovation in distance learning, and using technology to bridge classroom, work, and community. He is also noted for providing keynotes and workshops about living and learning in the Digital Age with a sense of fun, purpose, and adventure.

Kathy Schrock

Kathy Schrock is currently the administrator for technology for the Nauset Public Schools on Cape Cod, Mass. A large part of her job is involved with integrating technology into the curriculum in all areas and at all grade levels. Previously a library media specialist, she is very interested in search strategies, evaluation of Internet information, copyright issues, and use of the computer as a tool to support instruction; and presents workshops and talks on these topics around the country.

Kathy has been an avid user of the Internet since November of 1993, and she is well-known as the creator of Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators. She continues to investigate the Net daily and add links to new sources which will be helpful for educators. She has authored four books about the Internet : Evaluating Internet Web Sites : An Educator's Guide, A Beginner's Handbook to Developing Web Pages, TeacherQuests for Today's Teachers, Writing and Researching Using the Computer, and one book entitled Microsoft Publisher for Every Day of the School Year. She also recently compiled a book entitled The Technology Connection: Building a Successful Library Media Program.

Alesia B. Slocumb-Bradford

Alesia B. Slocumb-Bradford has a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics, an M.A. in Business Education, and an M.S. in Management Information Systems. She is a doctoral candidate in the field of Mathematics Education at Morgan State University. She continues to work on her dissertation in the area of student achievement. She has taught Algebra 1 and Geometry for the past 12 years at Jefferson Junior High School. Since she became the 2000 National Technology and Learning Teacher of the Year, Alesia has received the Washington Post's Agnes Meyers Outstanding Teacher Award, the 2001 Christa McAuliffe Fellowship, and a nomination for the Disney Outstanding Teacher Award.

Alesia has spent this summer involved in writing curriculum at the secondary level for the District of Columbia Public Schools. She also spent an intensive week of training sponsored by the College Boards in Fort Worth, Texas, at the American Airlines Training Center. The training focused on implementation of a new curriculum : Pacesetters (Math II) Geometry. Alesia plans to implement the advanced math course this school year, 2001-02.

David Warlick

David Warlick has been involved in the educational use of computers since 1981. A former history teacher, district level administrator, and IT specialist with the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction, he is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in innovative applications of technology, especially the Internet.

David has spoken at conferences, and facilitated seminars and workshops in most states and many other countries including the Netherlands, Spain, and Hong Kong. He has written numerous articles on the implications of technology in our classrooms and is the author of the book Raw Materials for the Mind. Mr. Warlick has been associated with many educational technology organizations and initiatives and served on the board of directors and as vice president for the Global SchoolNet Foundation. He is currently the Director of The Landmark Project, which provides consulting, staff development, and Web applications for educational institutions. The Landmark Project is also the home of Landmarks for Schools, a Web site for teachers.