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analysis tools such as Tagxedo. But, beyond that, the students messed around with data

all semester. They learned by doing. I was, to the best of my ability, the anti-teacher.

ADMS 707 The Politics of Education (Spring 2011)

With the nature of knowledge changing from individually to socially constructed, andwith the emergence of social media technologies, a new theory of learning must be

enacted. Siemens (2005) offers connectivism as a learning theory that moves away

from objective-based learning and that accounts for the networked learning

opportunities afforded by the digital age. Undergirding connectivism is a view of

learning as a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core

elementsnot entirely under the control of the individual. Cormier (2008) takes

connectivism a step further in the form of rhizomatic education. The rhizome is offered

as a metaphor for knowledge.

therhizomatic plant has no center and no defined boundary; rather, it is madeup of a number of semi-independent nodes, each of which is capable of growing

and spreading on its own, bounded only by the limits of its habitat. In the

rhizomatic view, knowledge can only be negotiated, and the contextual,

collaborative learning experience shared by constructivist and connectivist

pedagogies is a social as well as a personal knowledge-creation process with

mutable goals and constantly negotiated premises (Cormier, 2008, para. 3).

What if, as professors of education, we embraced networking technologies and

considered our students as semi-independent nodes? This was the very question that

guided my teaching experiment this spring.

I took the course I previously taught as a face-to-face course and transformed it into a

fully online courseframed within a connectivist paradigm. The course was launched as a

massively open online course (MOOC); everything we did in the course was out in the

open and learners within my personal learning networkwere invited to participate in

the course for credit or not.

Students in the course were equipped with atoolbelt for learningin a connectivist way.

Students were also largely empowered to select their own readings, which they shared

throughsocial bookmarkingand through an onlinearticle summary form. Students

reflected on their readings throughour course multi-authored blog; they were alsoencouraged to comment on each others reflections. Most of the course was

asynchronous, but I held occasionalwebinars through Wimba Live Classroomwhere we

got to interact with experts and guest speakers onthe topics we were exploring in a

given week.

As a final project, students will be creating digital stories about the politics of education.
https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQchttp://edinsanity.com/2011/01/10/learn-with-us/http://edinsanity.com/2011/01/10/learn-with-us/http://edinsanity.com/2011/01/10/learn-with-us/http://edinsanity.com/2011/01/10/learn-with-us/https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/toolbelthttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/toolbelthttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/toolbelthttp://groups.diigo.com/group/adms707http://groups.diigo.com/group/adms707http://groups.diigo.com/group/adms707https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/article-summary-form/article-summarieshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/article-summary-form/article-summarieshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/article-summary-form/article-summarieshttp://edpolitics.posterous.com/http://edpolitics.posterous.com/http://edpolitics.posterous.com/https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/webinarshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/webinarshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/webinarshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/weekly-sessionshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/weekly-sessionshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/weekly-sessionshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/weekly-sessionshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/weekly-sessionshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/weekly-sessionshttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/webinarshttp://edpolitics.posterous.com/https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/article-summary-form/article-summarieshttp://groups.diigo.com/group/adms707https://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/toolbelthttp://edinsanity.com/2011/01/10/learn-with-us/http://edinsanity.com/2011/01/10/learn-with-us/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQchttps://sites.google.com/site/edpolitics/


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Dissertation Advisement

Currently chairing (or chaired) 14 dissertations

o Ann Nash defended prospectus, Fall 2010 (EDUS 899)

o Michae Jamison completed EDUS 890, Fall 2010 (currently inactive)

o Sheron Carter-Gunter currently taking EDUS 890 (inactive)

o Emily Snead - defended prospectus, Fall 2010 (EDUS 899)

o John Andrews - completed EDUS 890, Fall 2010 (currently inactive)

o Lee Naughton - completed EDUS 890, Fall 2010 (currently inactive)

o Jan Parrish - working on prospectus (EDUS 899) (currently inactive)

o Candace Barkley - currently taking EDUS 890 (individually with me)

o Greg Smith defends prospectus April 14, 2011

o Anton Brinkwirth - working on prospectus (EDUS 899)

o Tracie Omohundro - currently taking EDUS 890 (course)

o Beth Sepelyak - currently taking EDUS 890 (inactive)

o Mary Eckert defended dissertation; graduated Dec. 2010

o Naeemah Rodriguez defended dissertation; graduated Dec. 2010

Currently serving (or served) on 10 dissertation committees

o Eric Armbruster defended dissertation March 2011; needs significant

revisions

o Jeffrey Duncan defended prospectus, Spring 2011

o David Rankin working on prospectus

o Rodney Berry - defended prospectus, Spring 2011

o

CarolAnn Ziolkowski working on prospectuso Christy Brown defending dissertation, April 14, 2011

o Judith McKinney defending dissertation, May 2, 2011

o Eric Jones - defended prospectus, Spring 2011

o Evelina Davis working on prospectus

o Mary Howlett-Brandon working on prospectus

Dissertation advisement takes up a LOT of my time these days. Not all of my

advisees and not all of the students whose committees Im on are actively working on

their dissertations. However, many are.

It is also noteworthy that I took on two new advissees this year who are not in

the Educational Leadership track of the Ph.D. program. Anton Brinkwirth is in the

Instructional Leadership track and Greg Smith is in the Center for the Study of Sport

Leadership. Both are proposing to study something technology-related and were sent to

me as someone who could help them. I am chairing both of their dissertations and they

were two of my more active advisees this year.


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Finally, I should note that for at least three of the students for whom I am the

methodologist, I have essentially taken on the role of the dissertation chair. Eric

Armbruster, Christy Brown-Hammond and Judith McKinney are all doing dissertations

that are heavily driven by quantitative data. Because their chairs are not comfortable

with guiding them in their analyses of their data, I have had to meet with these students

regularly over the course of this year. All three will be defending their dissertations in

the last month of the Spring 2011 semester.


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Research and Scholarly Activity

Publications

I feel good about my work in the realm oftraditional scholarly activity in academic

year 2010-11. Two articles are or will be published in peer-reviewed journals. The first,a book review, was published at in Education, an open access refereed journal edited at

the University of Regina (Canada). The second article was a collaboration with my VCU

colleagues and it describes the simulation being developed and implemented as part of

the Project ALL grant. That article will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal

of Research on Leadership Education (JRLE).

Articles

Published or In Press

Author(s) Year Title of Article Publication/Journal

Vol Pages Refereed

Becker,

J.D.,

Stewart, M.

& Green, J.

-2010 Here, there & everywhere: A

Review of DIYU

in Education 16(1) http://w

ww.ined

ucation.

ca/articl

e/here-

there-

everyw

here-

review-

diy-u

Refereed

Mann, D.,

Reardon,

R.M.,

Becker,

J.D., &

Shakeshaft,

C.

-2011 Immersive, Interactive, Web-

Enabled Computer

Simulation as a Trigger for

Learning: The Next

Generation of Problem-based

Learning in Educational

Leadership

Journal of Research on

Leadership Educatoin

Refereed

I also have two manuscripts that were just submitted for potential publication. Both are

based on dissertations completed by dissertation advisees of mine from Hofstra. Both

were submitted to open access, peer-reviewed journals.

In Review

Author(s) Year Title of Article Publication/Journal

Vol Pages Refereed

Wolosoff,

R. &

Becker, J.D.

2011 Leadership 2.0: Multiple

Case Studies of Leaders of

Technologically Innovative

International

Journal of

Educational

Refereed


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Schools Policy &

Leadership

Eagen, T. &

Becker, J.D.

2011 Parent and adolescent

internet use, perception, and

regulation: A Dyadic

analysis

Research in

Middle Level

Education

Online.

Refereed

Finally, I am working on a couple of manuscripts that will be sent for review during theSummer of 2011.

Author(s) Year Title of Article Publication/

Journal

Vol Pages Refereed

Becker, J.D.

& Barkley,

C.

2011 Superintendents Use of

Social Media (working title)

Book Chapter

I was asked and agreed to write a chapter for an upcoming book to be published

by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The book chapter was

submitted at the end of June 2010. My co-author and I are still waiting on comments

from the editors before making any revisions. The Table of Contents of the book is

below.

What Administrators Need To Know About Technology Leadership

1. Foreword Don Knezek, ISTE

2. Technology leadership (incl. policy history and standards alignment) Jason Hancock

and Kenneth Lane, Southeastern Louisiana University3. Technology planning and funding Larry Anderson, National Center for Technology

Planning

4. Technology evaluation John Nash, Iowa State University

5. Technology and staff development Susan BrooksYoung, S. J. BrooksYoung

Consulting

6. Technology and datadriven decisionmaking David Quinn, University of Florida, and

Scott McLeod, Iowa State University

7. Technology legal and ethical issues (incl. safety/security) Justin Bathon, University of

Kentucky, and Jon Becker, Virginia Commonwealth University

8. Technology management and operations (using technology to run the organization) John Alawneh, Plano (TX) Independent School District

9. Classroom technology integration Joan Hughes, University of TexasAustin

10. Online learning Susan Patrick, iNACOL

11. Using technology for effective internal and external communication Nora Carr,

Guilford (NC) County Schools

12. Afterword Keith Krueger, CoSN


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White Paper

I was commissioned by theGeneration YEScorporation to produce a white paper on

assessing technology literacy. I worked with two doctoral students, Cherise Hodge and

Beth Sepelyak, on this white paper through an independent study. The result is a

document that has received a lot of attentionand that has been distributed freely and

widely at educational technology conferences around the world.

Funded Grants

The second major focus of my scholar activities for academic year 2009-10 was

working on two grant projects. I am a co-investigator with Dr. Yael Wyner at CUNY and

educators from the American Museum of Natural History on a grant funded by the NSF

and I am the evaluator for the Project ALL grant at VCU.

Ecology Disrupted: Using real scientific data about daily life to link environmental

issues to ecological processes in secondary school science classrooms

This NSF grant involves the development and testing of unique curricular units

to help kids understand ecological principles, the human impact on the environment

and the nature of science. My role in the project is to lead the pilot and field testing of

the curriculum units. We proposed a quasi-experimental study to test the efficacy of

the units and I am leading that effort along with Dr. Yael Wyner at CUNY and a research

assistant based at CUNY.

Last year, the units were pilot tested with 6 New York City teachers this spring.We spent much of the summer and fall of 2010 analyzing data from the pilot test so

that the larger field test could be carried out most effectively and efficiently. As a result

of the pilot test, significant revisions were made to data collection instruments

including student and teacher surveys, observation protocols, etc.

Sixty teachers have been recruited to be a part of the field test. These teachers

taught the ecology section of the Living Environment in the Spring of 2010 as they have

been under normal circumstances. Their students will take the student assessment

before and after that section of the curriculum; they are effectively the control group.

These same teachers were then given extensive professional development in January

2011 on the Ecology Disrupted curriculum before implementing it in the Spring of 2011.

The students in their classes this Spring will be the treatment group.Fifteen of the field test teachers will be observed this Spring when they are

teaching the Ecology Disrupted curriculum units. I will be observing a handful of those

teachers in May 2011.

Also, 15 teachers will be part of post-hoc focus groups to be conducted mid-to-

late May 2011. I will be co-facilitating those focus groups.
http://genyes.org/http://genyes.org/http://genyes.org/http://www.genyes.org/media/freeresources/assessing_tech_literacy_whitepaper.pdfhttp://www.genyes.org/media/freeresources/assessing_tech_literacy_whitepaper.pdfhttp://www.genyes.org/media/freeresources/assessing_tech_literacy_whitepaper.pdfhttp://genyes.org/


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Summer 2011 will be dedicated to data analysis and reporting. There will be

LOTS of data to analyze.

Project ALL

I am the evaluator on VCUs Project ALL grant. In this role, I have been working

with the project team to complete annual reports and to design a formal evaluation of

the leadership development program being designed through the grant. This year, I

undertook the following activities:

Completed the IRB application.

Will have attended the annual meeting of grantees and evaluators in

Washington, D.C.

Administered the NASSP Leadership Skills Assessment as a baseline data

collection technique to all Project ALL participants and a control group of

students in the traditional postmasters certificate program.

This summer I will be looking into the feasibility of using data from the Web-based

simulation to understand the leadership development of the Project ALL participants. I

will also conduct a descriptive analysis of the baseline data.

Pending Grants

In addition to working on two funded grants, I was part of three grant

submissions during the AY 2010-11, all with colleagues at the University of Virginia. Oneproposal, The Engineering Genome Project, was submitted twice; once to FIPSE (which

was rejected) and once to NSF. On both grant proposals, Im written in as a

subcontractor to either direct field testing or to conduct an evaluation.

**********************************************************************

Project/Proposal Title: Exploration of a Mathematics-Specific Technology

Professional Development Model for Urban and Rural High School Mathematics

Teachers

Funding Source: National Science Foundation

Total Award Amount: $ 364,502

Total Award Period Covered: 07/01/11 -06/30/13

Location of Project: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Goals and Purposes: This DR K-12 Exploratory Project proposal seeks funding for the


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exploration of underlying conditions and processes of an innovative technology-

enhanced professional development model intended to improve high school

mathematics teachers technology pedagogical content knowledge and practices, and

through this, provide high quality STEM education to advance their students learning

and achievement in mathematics. The proposed research is intended to inform a

subsequent full research and development project. We have developed and

implemented a successful pilot model to prepare preservice teacher education studentsto integrate technology into their mathematics instruction. We seek funding to perform

a small-scale pilot test to

translate this innovative model into a successful in-service professional development

program, provide proof of concept, and investigate preliminary impact.

************************************************************************

Project/Proposal Title: Exploration of a Mathematics-Specific Technology

Professional Development Model for Urban and Rural High School Mathematics

Teachers

Funding Source: National Science Foundation

Total Award Amount: $ 364,502

Total Award Period Covered: 07/01/11 -06/30/13

Location of Project: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Goals and Purposes: The Engineering Genome Project is a unique, innovative, scalable

initiative which will develop a taxonomy of engineering knowledge, and make that

knowledge available to students via a web interface. Leveraging prior work of this

investigative team (the HigherEd 2.0 project), the Engineering Genome will consist of: (i)

a detailed taxonomy of engineering knowledge, (ii) a set of multimedia educational

assets (authored as part of the HigherEd 2.0 project)--tagged with metadata according

to the taxonomy, (iii) a database architecture to store the digital assets, (iv) a web-based

user interface to search, manage, and share the digital assets, and (v) an evaluation plan

to assess the impact of the Engineering Genome on student learning outcomes in

specific undergraduate courses. Unlike many other online information portals, the

Genome is explicitly designed for direct use by the learner. We will construct the

Genome such that it is scalable in both the number of assets it contains, and the number

of users it can support--the Genome is therefore replicable by simply inviting more

users. We are immediately partnering with a UVa library metadata specialist to ensurethat our taxonomy and metadata practices conform to prevailing international

standards--the Genome is therefore sustainable. We will engage students in several

core undergraduate courses in our learning outcomes study, which will probe the key

question: does access to the Engineering Genome have an impact on student

achievement? We expect to find that the Genome--which clearly conveys to students

the richness of the underlying relationships between pieces of engineering knowledge--


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positively impacts student achievement, and we will invite students at many institutions

to use the Genome during and after grant period.

Presentations

I spent much less time in academic year 2010-11 presenting at conferences as I did inthe prior year. I did three presentations at two conferences attended primarily by K-12

practitioners. Increasingly, I find it important and meaningful to step away from purely

academic conferences. The presentations I conducted or lead are listed and discussed

below.

Presenter(s) (Year, Month) Title of Presentation Conference

/Meeting

City, State,

Country

Becker, J.D.,

Fallon, J.,

Higgins, C. &

Levin, D.

(2011, January) I'm From the Education Department

and Am Here to Help and other

bedtime stories: A conversation

about how to make and influencepolicy with some who do.

Educon 2.3 Philadelphia,

PA (USA)

Becker, J.D. (2011, January) On warrants and knowledge claims:

Everything you ever wanted to know

about educational research but were

afraid to ask

Educon 2.3 Philadelphia,

PA (USA)

Becker, J.D.,

Brueck, J, &

Craft, C.

(2011, June) #teach w/ #tweet ISTE 2011 Philadelphia,

PA (USA)

On warrants and knowledge claims: Everything you ever wanted to know abouteducational research but were afraid to ask

Educon 2.3

Philadelphia, PA

January 29, 2011

In January of 1891, the inaugural issue of Educational Review was published and its first article,

by Harvard philosopher Josiah Royce, was entitled Is There a Science of Education? That same

question re-surfaced over a century later, in 2000, when the U.S. Department of Educations

National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board (NERPPB) commissioned the National

Research Council (NRC) to convene a committee on scientific principles for education researchto review and synthesize recent literature on the science and practice of scientific educational

research

The result of that commission was a book called Scientific Research in Education. In that book,

Shavelson and Towne claim that [t]he scientific enterprise depends on a healthy community of

researchers and is guided by a set of fundamental principles...These principles are not a set of


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rigid standards for conducting and evaluating individual studies, but rather are a set of norms

enforced by the community of researchers that shape scientific understanding.

This conversation is an opportunity for reform-minded educators to interrogate those principles

and to gain a deeper understanding of the enterprise of educational research and the politics

around it. Using the language of Deweys Logic: The Theory of Inquiry (1938), this conversation

revolves around the question: What counts as a warranted knowledge claim in education?

"I'm From the Education Department and Am Here to Help" and other bedtime stories:

A conversation about how to make and influence policy with some who do.

Educon 2.3

Philadelphia, PA

January 29, 2011

Education policy doesn't happen overnight or in a vacuum. Many people and things (e.g. time,

money, social trends) influence what form policies take and how they are made. Because policydevelopment is often neither fun or sexy, folks forget that everyone has a stake in the process.

But at the end of the day, policy can have a huge impact on what we do everyday in our

classrooms and workplaces. And the kicker? It's not always good policy. That said, how do we

become better educational advocates and help policy makers make less bad policy? How do you

decide what hill are you going to die on and what you willing to compromise to move an agenda

or message forward?

Jon,Julia,CathyandDougare very familiar with the education policy development process and

all the layers involved (sometimes against their better judgement). Jon and Doug will introduce

a "case" (i.e., technology literacy for 8th grade students) and give it some policy context. Julia

and Cathy will trace the path the policy took when it was implemented at the state level in bothWashington and New Hampshire. We'll play some games so folks can try on different policy

maker hats and brainstorm ideas to encourage educational activism (e.g., creating networks of

people and organizations) at the local, regional, state and federal levels.

#teach w/ #tweet

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

Philadelphia, PA

June 27, 2011

21st Century educators should exemplify how an individual uses digital tools and resources to

become a skilled communicator, collaborator, and devoted lifelong learner. As a follow up to the

immensely popular ISTE 2010 BYOL session, #tweet. #learn. #lead., Becker, Brueck and Craft

return with a Model Lesson that will provide educators with sound pedagogical approaches to

integrating Twitter into the classroom learning space. Participants in this session will learn how

educators can use Twitter to support student learning goals while effectively modeling the path

of 21st Century skills.
http://www.twitter.com/jonbeckerhttp://www.twitter.com/jonbeckerhttp://www.twitter.com/juliafallonhttp://www.twitter.com/juliafallonhttp://www.twitter.com/juliafallonhttp://www.twitter.com/thinkicthttp://www.twitter.com/thinkicthttp://www.twitter.com/thinkicthttp://www.twitter.com/douglevinhttp://www.twitter.com/douglevinhttp://www.twitter.com/douglevinhttp://www.twitter.com/douglevinhttp://www.twitter.com/thinkicthttp://www.twitter.com/juliafallonhttp://www.twitter.com/jonbecker


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The presenters will demonstrate ways classroom teachers can provide differentiated learning

opportunities through the social microblogging platform Twitter. Participants will learn

interactively during a focused and intense hands-on lesson that will leave them with an

understanding of: How to use Twitter in the classroom for networked learning; How to use

Twitter search, hashtags, groups and other 3rd party services to facilitate a classroom activity;

Sound pedagogical approaches for integrating Twitter into the learning environment. After the

session, participants will be prepared to create a personalized learning network in a virtualclassroom space and lead students into a new era of networked learning.

The presenters will establish a friendly, open atmosphere that shows the participants they will

be constructing knowledge through: Audience driven Q & A; Real-Time data collection and

audience feedback with Twitter; Ustream.tv backchannel; Cooperative and networked learning

using Twitter, hashtags, TweetGrid and TwitterFall. Through these hands-on activities the

presenter will call upon and integrate the participant's rich work and life experiences into the

learning environment to create authentic learning opportunities.

An online companion course, similar to those found at http://brueckei.org/moodle, will be

created to serve as a resource after participants leave the conference. Participants in this Model

Lesson event should have prior experience using basic Web 2.0 tools and web-basedapplications. Participants should also have their own Twitter account and experience using the

microblogging platform.

MERC

I am co-leading a study on online learning across school divisions in the Commonwealth

of Virginia. This year, that involved attending MERC planning meetings, organizing the

study team, developing the questionnaire to be used and submitting the study design to

IRB. The study is currently in IRB review. As soon as it is cleared, data collection will

begin. Data analysis and reporting will continue through the Spring and Summer 2011.

Digital Scholarship

I continue to engage in multiple forms of digital scholarship. In addition to

publishing to my blog Educational Insanity (http://edinsanity.com), I spent MUCH less

time publishing to my blog this year as opposed to last year. Instead, I engage much

more frequently in scholarly communications through Twitter, a micro-blogging service.

I also participate in a semi-regular podcasting series with academic colleagues from

around the country.
http://edinsanity.com/http://edinsanity.com/http://edinsanity.com/http://edinsanity.com/


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Service

I spent a huge amount of my time in the 2010-11 academic year providing

service to the Educational Leadership Department, Virginia Commonwealth University

and the community at large.

Ph.D. Program Educational Leadership Track Coordinator

My work as the educational leadership track coordinator for the Ph.D. program

occupied a lot of my time this academic year. I attended monthly Ph.D. advisory board

meetings, and served on the appeals subcommittee of that advisory board. Additionally,

I was one of only three faculty members regularly tasked with grading the new

qualifying exams and the research portions of the comprehensive exams. Finally, I

facilitated department-level discussions about curriculum changes and exam formats.

Most time-consuming of all was the work I continue to do to communicate with and

advise continuing and new doctoral students.Additionally, as track coordinator, I:

Manage the online community space for our doctoral community, Leadership

Commons

Recruit new doctoral students

Advise the Educational Leadership Doctoral Students Association (ELDSA)

Help students locate and develop externship proposals

I am also the advisor to all 24 students in the 48-credit Ph.D. program

Search Committees

I spent a great deal of time this year serving on two different search committees.First, I served on the search committee for the Director of Technology. That extensive

search yielded Monty Jones; an outcome that we should all be really proud of based on

my knowledge of Montys capabilities. Next, I served on the Department of Educational

Leadership faculty search committee. We conducted an exhaustive search that brought

in well over 100 applications. We did interviews by videoconference and hosted 4 on-

campus, full-day interviews. This search yielded Katherine Mansfield and Genevieve

Siegel-Hawley, both of whom I really look forward to working with in the near and long-

term future. I think both searches worked wonderfully and yielded fantastic results, but

search committee work is VERY time-consuming.

Instructional Technology Advisory Group (ITAG)

The VCU Instructional Technology Advisory Group (ITAG) is a University

committee tasked with addressing issues related to faculty use of instructional

technology, and providing related recommendations to the Vice Provost for Instruction,

Dr. Joe Marolla. I am one of only four tenure-eligible faculty on this committee.This

working group met monthly during academic year 2010-11.


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UCEA SIG

I continue to serve as the co-chair of the Technology and Leadership special

interest group (SIG) of the University Council on Educational Administration (UCEA). For

the last two years, this SIG has held a business meeting at the annual meeting of UCEA.

Attendance has been terribly low, partly due to the 7:00 a.m. time slot reserved for

UCEA SIG business meetings. However, the lack of attendance is mostly due to the fact

that, as far as my colleagues and I can tell, there are literally a handful of professors of

educational leadership in UCEA institutions (and probably elsewhere) who are

concerned with technology leadership. Thus, the major goal of the SIG is to increase

awareness among educational leadership faculty of the importance of leadership for

21st

Century, technology-infused schooling. To that end, my co-chair (Dr. David Quinn,

U. of Florida) and I have created an online network through NING.(see

http://edtechleader.ning.com). This space will be used as a storehouse of technology-

related resources for school leaders and will host several electronic forums and

conversations. Those are the initial goals for the networking site, but, truthfully, the

limits are seemingly boundless for what we can do with the Ning space.

New University committee on research computing

In the middle of the Spring 2010 semester, I agreed to serve on a VCU

committee, The Research Computing Work Group. According to Dr. Frank Macrina, this

group is charged with:

assessing technology needs of faculty researchers

identifying common requirements that could be shared across individual

researchers, departments, schools, or the University

evaluating where and how well these services are currently being provided

recommending opportunities for improvement

This group evaluated general technology needs including but not limited to consulting

on technical components of grants and research projects, server acquisition and

support, database development and support, application development and support,

software needs and consulting (such as survey or statistical software), and high

performance or high bandwidth networking. The Research Computing Work Group was

advisory to the Vice President for Research. We reported our findings and

recommendations to him on September 10, 2010.

VPELI was nominated and elected to the position of secretary for the Virginia Professors of

Educational Leadership (VPEL). This required taking notes at both meetings during the

2010-11 year and maintaining the organizations listserv.
http://edtechleader.ning.com/http://edtechleader.ning.com/http://edtechleader.ning.com/


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Professional Development

The Center for Teaching Excellence Online Course Development Initiative (OCDI)

I was selected as one of the first participants in a cohort of VCU faculty members for the

OCDI. We attended a week long institute in Summer 2010, took an online course in

Summer 2010, met monthly throughout the academic year, and then taught at least one

fully online course during the year.

I was a very active participant in this cohort. In fact, as a result of my participation, a

colleague who is an associate dean in the School of Engineering asked me to speak to

her faculty about my work with open teaching and learning.

Also, I have been selected as one of only two faculty mentors for the next cohort of VCUfaculty who will be participating in the institute during AY 2011-12. Planning for that

mentorship experience began this Spring. I will be attending the Institute this summer in

my role as a mentor and will be mentoring other faculty members throughout the 2011-

12 academic year.

becker_final activity report narrative 2010 2011_041111

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