Transforming Learning with New Technologies

Author BiosRobert W. Maloy is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he coordinates the history and political science teacher education programs and co-directs the TEAMS Tutoring Project, an outreach initiative in which University students provide academic tutoring to culturally and linguistically diverse students in public schools throughout theConnecticut River Valley region of western Massachusetts. His research focuses on technology and educational change, teacher education, and student writing and learning. He is co-author of five books, including Ways of Writing with Young Kids: Teaching Creativity and Conventions Unconventionally, Kids Have All the Write Stuff: Inspiring Your Child to Put Pencil to Paper, The Essential Career Guide to Becoming a Middle and High School Teacher,Schools for an Information Age, and Partnerships for Improving Schools. In 2004, Robert received the University of Massachusetts President's Award for Public Service. He was awarded the Chancellor's Certificate of Appreciation for Outstanding Community Service in 1998 and 1993. He has also received the School of Education's 2004 Outstanding Teacher Award. Ruth-Ellen Verock-O'Loughlin is a Lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She coordinates Bridges to the Future, a year long masters degree/elementary and secondary teacher license program serving rural school systems in Franklin County, Massachusetts. Prior to joining the School of Education, Ruth was an elementary school classroom and reading teacher in Virginia andMassachusetts. Her academic research focuses on new teacher education, technology in teaching, and community service learning in K-12 schools. She is co-author with Robert W. Maloy and Sharon A. Edwards of Ways of Writing with Young Kids: Teaching Creativity and Conventions Unconventionally, published in 2003 by Allyn & Bacon. She received the School of Education's Outstanding Teacher Award in 2007. She has also served as the coordinator of the 2003 University of Massachusetts/WGBY National Teacher Training Institute (NTTI) and has been an educationalresearcher for the 1999-2000 Harvard University Evidence Project. Sharon A. Edwards is a Clinical Faculty in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a recently retired teacher, having taught primary grades for 32 years at the Mark's Meadow Demonstration Laboratory School in Amherst, Massachusetts. In her work as a clinical faculty member she mentors undergraduate students and graduate student interns in the Early Childhood Teacher Education, Constructivist Teacher Education, and Secondary Teacher Education Programs. Her course and workshop presentations focus on children's writing, curriculum development, instructional methods, and diversity in education. She also co-directs the University's TEAMS Tutoring Project. In 1989, Sharon was the inaugural recipient of the national Good Neighbor Award for Innovation and Excellence in Education given by the State Farm Insurance Companies and the National Council of Teachers of English for her work with youngchildren's writing. She received her doctor of education degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1996. She is co-author with Robert W. Maloy and Ruth-Ellen Verock-O'Loughlin of Ways of Writing with Young Kids: Teaching Creativity and Conventions Unconventionally, published in 2003 by Allyn & Bacon, and Kids Have All the Write Stuff, published in 1998 by Penguin Books. Beverly Park Woolf is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds two doctoral degrees, one in computer science and one in education. Her research focuses on building intelligent tutoring systems to effectively train, explain and advise users. Extended multimedia capabilities are integrated with knowledge about the user,domain and dialogue to produce real-time performance support and on-demand advisory and tutoring systems. The tutoring systems use intelligent interfaces, inferencing mechanisms, cognitive models andmodifiable software to improve a computer's communicative abilities. She is the author of a 2008 book, Building Intelligent InteractiveTutors: Student-Centered Strategies for Revolutionizing e-Learning.